Life
1925- [occas. Cathal Ó hEochaidh]; b. Castlebar, 1 Sept.; son of
Sean Haughey and Sara (née Williams), from Swatragh; brought up
in Donnycarney, where his f. lived on army pension; ed. St. Joseph’s
CBS, Dublin; UCD; King’s Inns; m. Maureen Lemass, dg. of Sean Lemass;
Fianna Fáil TD, 1957; worked in firm of accountants; appt. Parl.
Secretary to Oscar Traynor, Minister of Justice, 1961; Minister of Justice,
1961; intro. martial courts for IRA offenders; Minister for Agriculture,
1964-66; Minister for Finance 1966-70; stood aside for Jack Lynch in competition
of Taoiseach [Prime-Minsiter], 1966; arrested on charges of conspiring to import arms,
May 1970, and acquited in ensuing Arms Trial; Minister of Health,
1977; elected Taoiseach, 1979; revelations that funds assigned for
civil aid in Northern Ireland had been applied to other purposes, supposedly
to the IRA (as alleged by Magill in 1980); Fianna Fáil departed
from Government, 1981; returned, 1982; lost power and returned again,
1982, to depart again, in Nov. 1987; lead opposition; Fianna Fáil
re-elected 1987; called snap election, 1989; entered coalition with Progressive
Democrats; resigned following disclosure of phone-tapping by Seán
Doherty, 1992; object of derogatory studies by Bruce Arnold and others;
embroiled in financial scandals arising from disclosures about personal
receipt of funds from Ben Dunne of Dunne’s Stores, leading to a series
of committees of inquiry into financial corruption in Irish political
life. FDA
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Works
‘Rural Sociology and Ireland’, in Éire-Ireland,
1, 4 (Winter 1966), pp. 63-68; The Spirit of the Nation, ed. Martin
Mansergh (Cork: Mercier Press 1986). Also, an entry on ‘Aosdána’
in W. J. McCormack , ed., The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture
(1999; 2001), p.21.
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Criticism
T. Ryle Dwyer, Charlie: The Political Biography of Charles J. Haughey
(Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1987), 249pp.
Bruce Arnold, Haughey: His Life and Unlucky Deeds (London: HarperCollins 1993), 320pp., 12 ills.
T. Ryle Dwyer, Fallen Idol: Haughey’s Controversial Career (Mercier 1997), 191pp.
Joe Joyce and Peter Murtagh, The Boss (Dublin: Poolbeg Press 1997), 400pp.
T. Ryle Dwyer, Short Fellow: A Biography of Charles J. Haughey (Dublin: Marino 1999), 477pp.
Colm Keena, Haughey’s Millions: Charlie’s Trail (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 2001), 300pp.
Justin O’Brien, The Modern Prince: Charles J. Haughey and the Quest for Power (London: Merlin 2002), 320pp.
T. Ryle Dwyer, 40 Years of Controversy (Cork: Mercier Press 2003), 224pp.
Brian Inglis, Downstarts (London: Chatto &
Windus 1990), p.276.
Fintan O’Toole [interview article], ‘Unfairly Neglected? Not Now’, The Irish Times (Thurs, 26 Nov. 2004.
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Notes
GUBU: ‘Grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented’
(GUBU), the terms employed by Haughey in response to the arrest of the
homocide MacArthur in the home of the Attorney-General in 1982, became
Conor Cruise O'Brien’s name for the Haughey ethos and the title of
a collection of satirical poems by W. J. McCormack.
Failed pol. entity: Charles Haughey coined the phrase ‘a failed political entity’ to describe Northern Ireland in his first speech as Fianna Fáil leader in 1979. (See Conor McCarthy, Modernisation: Crisis and Culture in Ireland 1969-1992, Four Courts Press 2000, p.11, quoting The Spirit of the Nation, ed. Martin Mansergh, Mercier Press 1986, pp.327, 335.)
Charles Haughey is the putative subject of a play by Sebastian Barry (Hinterland, 2002), which met with strong opposition from the critical establishment for its dramatic treatment of the politician's private life and for its supposed failure to engage with the moral seriousness of the issues raise. (See under Barry, infra.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)