Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Science and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to mark the passing of Charles James Haughey—Cathal O hEochaidh—the sixth Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland. Haughey served three terms as Taoiseach between 1979 and1992. He was the fourth leader of the Fianna Fail Party established by De Valera. Charles Haughey was first elected to the Dail Eireann as a TD for Dublin in 1957, and was re-elected at each election until 1992. The former Taoiseach died peacefully at home in Abbeville House, Kinsealy, last Tuesday, aged 80, following a long battle with cancer.

Mr Haughey was known to be a complex and contradictory character. Although he dominated his country’s political life for more than three decades, he was unable to shake off the taint of scandal and corruption. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, announcing his death, said:

History will have to weigh up the credit and the debit side of his life more dispassionately than may be possible today but I have no doubt its ultimate judgement on Mr Haughey will be a positive one.

Dignitaries attending his requiem in the Church of Our Lady of Consolation in Donnycarney included President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, former President Dr Patrick Hillery, former Taoisigh Liam Cosgrave, Garrett FitzGerald and John Bruton. They joined political leaders from both sides of the Irish border, including Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein; members of the judiciary and the defence forces; business representatives; and James Kenny, the American Ambassador to Ireland.

The requiem mass was celebrated by Mr Haughey’s brother Eoghan, assisted by the Archbishop of Dublin, Reverend Diarmuid Martin, and Monsignor Joseph Quinn, the parish priest of Knock. It was broadcast live on national television, and caused Dublin’s famous Bloomsday events to be cancelled as a mark of respect for his death. Archbishop Martin spoke briefly in opening the mass, reflecting on the different relationships with Mr Haughey that had brought the congregation together to mourn him, and about his achievements.

Father Eoghan Haughey delivered a short homily, describing his brother as:

Small in stature, massive in achievement and larger than life.

He noted:

The lives of great men are like the high mountains. They always attract the storms.

He said that although his brother always lived in the public eye he ‘never lost the common touch’ and that he had ‘worked on a large canvas in broad imaginative strokes’, while always showing concern for the poor and less fortunate. He also noted that, despite all the hostility shown to him, his brother ‘came through it all without bitterness or rancour’.

Haughey’s son Sean, himself a Fianna Fail TD in his father’s former constituency, told 2,000 mourners at the funeral that historians cast his father in a much more positive light than had the press. Sean said:

In recent years his critics in the media have dominated the debate about my father.

He challenged this point of view by quoting his mother as saying:

It seems that everyone hates Charles Haughey except the people.

Charles Haughey was a colourful and controversial figure in Irish politics. He was charismatic, a skilled orator and a visionary who changed the face of Ireland during his time in parliament. He was referred to as Charlie with affection within his electorate and his party, and with derision by his detractors. He and his wife, Maureen, visited Australia in 1988 and were welcomed by the then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, who admired Haughey’s determination, incisive mind and dynamism.

Haughey’s spectacular fall from grace after losing the election in 1992, the revelation of his extravagant lifestyle and his subsequent investigation for corruption was summed up by renowned Irish journalist Cormac McConnell:

The man was larger than life, both in his gifts and his sinnings. He will surely never be forgotten.

And, explaining the relationship that Haughey had with the Irish people, McConnell wrote:

There is a cell or two in every Irish person which somehow allows for more roguery and rascality—at the very least—in our politicians than in any other profession or trade … We expect and even appreciate what we call ‘strokes’ by our politicians at every level. Beyond all doubt the ‘strokes’ of Charlie Haughey were on a grander scale than anything we have ever seen before or hopefully will ever see again.

And, in testament to his colourful character, he wrote:

They loved him in Kerry especially around Dingle where he fired the shotgun for years for the start of the regatta. They even put up his statue there, lifesize, looking like a saint, long after he was seen as a disgrace elsewhere. Depending on the political necessities, Charlie was a Derryman, or a Mayoman or a Dubliner. Not many could carry that one off with the style he did. Certainly they broke the mould after using it for Charlie Haughey.

Elected to the Dail in 1957, Haughey was the rising star of Fianna Fail through the 1960s. He was the most ambitious and successful of that generation of young men—including Brian Lenihan, Donogh O’Malley, Patrick Hillery and George Colley—who gained a foothold at senior level in the party and the government at the time. He became Minister for Justice in 1961, excelled in this role and initiated a scale of legislative reform that was unparalleled, before or since. He introduced important new legislation, such as the Succession Act, which protected the inheritance rights of wives, and the Extradition Act. He also reactivated the Special Criminal Court and helped to defeat the Irish Republican Army’s border campaign. Haughey is universally regarded as the best Minister for Justice in Irish history.

In 1966, he became Minister for Finance. His accountancy background, his interest in economic affairs and his driving vision suited the job. Again, Haughey showed a radical, reforming streak. Small-scale initiatives caught the public imagination. He presided over an economic boom which saw him increase public spending in his four budgets. He introduced free travel on public transport for pensioners, subsidised electricity for old age pensioners and granted special tax concessions for the disabled and tax exemptions for artists. He then served as Minister for Health and Social Welfare from 1977 to 1979.

When Haughey became Taoiseach in 1979, Ireland had experienced a deep economic downturn. In a speech to the nation on 9 January 1980, he outlined the bleak economic picture in words even the least sophisticated of his people could understand:

I wish to talk to you this evening about the state of the nation’s affairs and the picture I have to paint is not, unfortunately, a very cheerful one. The figures which are just now becoming available to us show one thing very clearly. As a community we are living way beyond our means ... we have been living at a rate which is simply not justifiable by the amount of goods and services we are producing. To make up the difference we have been borrowing enormous amounts of money, borrowing at a rate which just cannot continue.

As Taoiseach he had three overarching priorities: lasting peace in Ireland, to make the country a respected and integral member of the European Union, and to end the economic instability and mass unemployment which had beset the country for centuries. His achievements in office are testament to his commitment to those objectives. He committed his government to active involvement in the EU and served as president in 1990. He convinced his government of the benefits of establishing the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin, attracting foreign companies to invest in Ireland. He is held largely responsible for the economic groundwork that has produced the thriving Irish economy described these days as the ‘Celtic tiger’.

Charles Haughey found ways to work with the Thatcher government that benefited the Irish nation. He criticised the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 and vowed to renegotiate it. In April 1990, he became the first Taoiseach since Lemass, his father-in-law, to visit Belfast, where he gave a speech to the Institute of Directors. He also played an important role in the early stages of dialogue between John Hume and Gerry Adams that ultimately led to the peace process and the republican movement’s turn towards politics and away from violence. Despite all his achievements, he did not blow his own trumpet. In his final address to the Dail he quoted William Butler Yeats and Othello saying, ‘I have done the state some service, and they know it, no more of that.’

Charlie Haughey is part of modern Irish folklore. In his homily, Father Haughey likened him to a huge wooden sculpture of Irish hero, Cuchulain, that stands on the front lawn of the former Taoiseach’s home, Abbeville. At his funeral Aine Ui Laoithe read Seamus Heaney’s poem The Given Note, implicitly comparing Haughey to a fiddler who produced beautiful, memorable music by being receptive to his particular locality, prepared to work hard and blessed with a unique gift. Renowned musicians Liam O’Flynn and Finbar Furey played traditional Irish laments, and tributes flowed from both sides of politics.

At his graveside, Taoiseach Ahern farewelled his mentor:

We know him as a human being with all that implies. We, each of us, also live every day, with all that he achieved for Ireland. His life was an extraordinary journey.

And as Haughey himself once said:

Ireland is where strange tales begin and happy endings are possible

He is survived by his wife, Maureen; his sons, Conor, Ciaran and Sean; and his daughter, Eimear. We send them our sincere sympathy. May he rest in peace.