View from the Green Room: Schadenfreude!
Dr Eugene Broderick's lunchtime talks take place at the Medieval Museum.
Well…be honest…g’wan now…don’t you just lovvve it when a conceited hero falls from grace. Especially one who practices nothing of what he preaches. It’s called “schadenfreude” – the joy you experience when someone gets his comeuppance.
Remember Charlie’s admonishments to his humble Seán & Síle Citizens?...”of living way beyond our means…tightening our belts…no one owes us a living…the IMF are coming to get us…” while at the same time buying Charvet shirts at €300 (€1,000 today), hosting dinner parties in Le Coq Hardi (aptly translates as “The Bold Rooster”) restaurant and buying Inishvickillane – a private island – along with the 14-bedroomed “Abbeville House” with its 250-acre estate at Kinsealy in north Co Dublin.
Charlie had failed in his obsession to achieve an overall majority at the ballot box. Mainly because people neither liked nor trusted him. The rumours surrounding the sources of Haughey’s wealth and “Golden Circles” fluttered in the ether like Siberian confetti. A TV enquiry into the beef industry and Larry Goodman suggested corruption. PD leader Des O’Malley insisted on a public inquiry that would have serious implications for both Haughey and Reynolds. A Ballsbridge site was sold for £4.5m and sold to Telecom a year later for double the sum and suggestions – unfounded as it turns out – widened the cast of the “Golden Circle”.
And now Haughey was proving to be a loser as well. All those enemies and sycophants he had made on the way up were waiting for him on the way down. He was blessed in neither.
Albert Reynolds let it be known that he had come to dislike Charlie’s dictatorial style and was also bad-mouthing the PDs – FF’s partners in government. A no-confidence motion, that was supported by his strongest allies, lost, but, ominously, numbered some twenty-two TDs. The sharks were circling.
When former Minister for Justice Seán Doherty appeared on a late night chat show, grenades exploded. Doherty confirmed that, despite Haughey’s denials, the then Taoiseach was fully informed on the bugging of two well-known Irish political journalists – Bruce Arnold (Irish Independent) and Geraldine Kennedy (Irish Times). Charlie’s goose was cooked. It was time to pay the piper and Charlie was forced to pack it in.
The Ben Dunne scandal sparked a domino-hit of more tribunals and the source of Haughey’s money moved centre-stage. Haughey denied and denied but Moriarity and McCracken tribunals exposed a man funded by donations from wealthy businessmen. Judge McCracken was scathing… “unacceptable… donations from wealthy businessmen… potential for corruption and bribery… unbelievable”. Haughey received £9m between 1977-1992 – valued at £45m in 2006. Worst of all, £190,000 donated to fund Brian Lenihan’s liver transplant remained unaccounted for (Haughey’s family always denied this). Events… dear boy… events.
When he finally exited the McCracken Tribunal, his reputation was in tatters and he was booed by the waiting crowd.
The real tragedy was that Haughey’s brilliant potential as a maker of modern Ireland was never realised.
