Charles James Haughey

Charles James Haughey (1925-2006), Irish businessman and politician, leader of Fianna Fáil Party (1979-1992), and prime minister of Ireland (1979-1981, 1982, and 1987-1992).

One of the most able and controversial politicians in the history of modern Ireland, Haughey was born in Castlebar, county Mayo, the son of an Irish Free State army officer. He took a business degree at University College, Dublin, and later went on to become a partner in the accountancy firm Haughey-Boland. While at college, he became associated with prominent Fianna Fáil students, some of whom were the children of government ministers. In 1951 he married Maureen Lemass, daughter of the Deputy Prime Minister Sean Lemass. Haughey made several unsuccessful attempts to get into parliament before finally being returned to the Dáil Éireann in 1957 as deputy for Dublin North Central.

While still a junior member of parliament, Haughey established a reputation for taking on some of the more formidable figures on the opposition benches. A meteoric rise soon followed, and Haughey was made parliamentary secretary in 1960, minister for justice in 1961, minister for agriculture in 1964, and minister for finance—the most senior portfolio—in 1966. He was one of the most efficient and creative Irish ministers of the decade, and by 1966 he was in a position to make a bid for the leadership of his party following Lemass’s resignation. He withdrew from the leadership contest, but established himself as the most powerful and influential minister in the first government (1966-1973) of Jack Lynch.

After 1968, Haughey’s health and political fortunes suffered. The most serious reversal to his career was his alleged involvement in the running of arms to the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland in 1970. Haughey was dismissed by Lynch, but was cleared in a subsequent trial of any misconduct while in office. However, his trial was deemed by many to be inconclusive, and evidence that later came to light ensured that the cloud the scandal left over Haughey would remain with him for the rest of his political career.

Haughey spent the subsequent years outside the government, traveling around the country and establishing a grassroots support base within Fianna Fáil. He was made minister for health and social welfare in 1977, and succeeded Lynch as prime minister in 1979, after orchestrating his downfall and fighting a bitterly divisive leadership campaign within the party.

Haughey inherited an unfavorable financial situation on becoming prime minister. Since the early 1970s, governments had been borrowing money to finance excessive expenditure. Haughey chose to maintain expenditure and raise taxes, and subsequently lost the 1981 general election. Back in power in March 1982, his government was plagued by a series of bizarre scandals that tarnished his and Fianna Fáil’s reputation. His government fell in December of that year, and he remained in opposition until 1987, when he formed a coalition government with the Progressive Democrats. Reelected in 1989, Haughey was forced to resign as prime minister in February 1992, following allegations that he had known about the tapping of phones by his minister for justice, Sean Doherty, in an earlier administration.