Irish all what?
If you read, or just saw this piece of Irish news in the Kansas City Star today, you might be inclined to think that all Irish hail former Taoiseach, the recently deceased Charlie Haughey, if only because the headline says Irish All Hail Haughey.
They don’t. At the height of his powers they didn’t. At the Arms Trial they didn’t. At tribunals to establish the extent of his corruption they didn’t. And at his funeral they didn’t.
When Haughey was Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), he never managed enough support to form a majority government. At his most popular he formed minority governments. When people suspected and believed he was corrupt, but did not know or have the proof, the party he lead, Fianna Fail, never got close to 50% of first preference votes. In other words both Al Gore and George W Bush have been more popular than Haughey - but would you translate that into ‘Americans All Hail Gore/Bush’?
I could be here forever writing about Charles Haughey and god love you I probably will one day, but for now this article in the Star is terribly simplistic and misleading. Haughey did do many good things; perhaps it’s hard not to when you wield ultimate power in a nation.
Some of the good he did was token, some of it more substantial. Some of it was inspired; much of it was when he was a minister, before he was Taoiseach. And much of his corruption was symptomatic of how Ireland and the Irish lived rather than something he brought to us.
But by no stretch was Haughey the ‘father of the Celtic economic miracle’. In fact even referring to Ireland’s economic success as a miracle is quite offensive. It may have been comparable to the Tiger economies of Asia, but the economics were hardly miraculous.
If the docklands of Dublin is now a showpiece for Ireland’s success, we should remember that the Tiger came first. Yes the Irish Financial Services Centre was in existence back then, but it wasn’t like Haughey built the IFSC and the IFSC created the Tiger. The Dublin docklands of today are a long way from what they were when Haughey led governments in the 1980s. Artists and the Elderly, fine, that was Haughey, but Celtic miracles of the economy, no.
Haughey was given a State Funeral. Large screens were erected as 25,000 ‘ordinary’ people were expected to attend the service. Less than 1,000 did. This is comparable to the paltry crowds that turned up for US President Reagan when he visited Ireland, as television cameras then tried to not show how small the crowds were.
Recent polls have shown that most Irish people felt he should not have been given a State Funeral. Why? Probably because of how he is remembered:
• 55% - for accepting money from business people
• 21% - for tax evasion
• 11% - for inspiring the Celtic Tiger
• 6% - for the Arms Trial
• 5% - for starting the peace process
• 2% - for his patronage of the arts
And of course, when his funeral was on, so was the World Cup
See Also:
• Irish Lose: O Dear, O-dear O-dear O-dear
• Oh Baby Let The Free Bird Fly
• The World Cup in Kanas City
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
I met Haughey in ‘68. He was a mean, nasty little bastard then and lived and died that way. He was consistant, however.