A lifelong obsession with the pursuit of political power

A Political Life 1979-1987: Charles Haughey spent much energy fending off leadership challenges, chasing an elusive Dáil majority and dealing with GUBU-like events, writes Geraldine Kennedy.

Charles Haughey became leader of Fianna Fáil on December 7th, 1979, 13 years after his first attempt and nine years after his predecessor, Mr Jack Lynch, had dismissed him from the Cabinet in the most traumatic action of the Arms Crisis.

He beat his old rival, the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Mr George Colley, by 44 votes to 38 in the leadership contest.

The beginning of the end for Mr Lynch came in June, 1979, when Fianna Fáil fared badly in the local and European elections.

Mr Haughey did not participate actively in the behind-the-scenes moves by dissident backbenchers to depose Mr Lynch. Both he, and most of the parliamentary party, were taken by surprise when Mr Lynch announced his decision to resign as Taoiseach.

At the press conference after his election as leader, Mr Haughey said that Northern Ireland would be his main political priority. He referred back to the 1975 ardfheis resolution calling on Britain to declare an ordered withdrawal from the North. He also stated that his defeated rival, Mr Colley, had pledged his full support to the new leader.

Mr Haughey achieved his life's ambition on December 11th, 1979, when he was elected Taoiseach by 82 votes to 62 in the Dáil. Mr Neil Blaney voted with Fianna Fáil. The preceding debate, however, was one of the most bitter witnessed over the nomination of a new Taoiseach.

The leader of Fine Gael, Dr Garret FitzGerald, launched into a stinging personal attack on Mr Haughey which set the tone for relations between the two men for the remainder of their careers. "He comes with a flawed pedigree," said Dr FitzGerald. "His motives can ultimately only be judged by God but we cannot ignore the fact that he differs from his predecessors in that these motives have been widely impugned, most notably by those in his own party who have observed him over many years . . .

They, and others, attribute to him an overweening ambition that they do not see as a simple emanation of a desire to serve, but rather as a wish to dominate, indeed to own, the State."

The divisive manner in which he came to power curtailed Mr Haughey's freedom of action. He dropped four of his opponents from his new Cabinet - Mr Jim Gibbons, Mr Bobby Molloy, Mr Denis Gallagher and Dr Martin O'Donoghue - but he was forced to retain Mr Colley as Tánaiste and Minister for Energy and give him a veto on nominations for the posts of Justice and Defence.

The policy priorities of the new Taoiseach on the economy and the North emerged early in the New Year. In a television address on January 9th, 1980, Mr Haughey made a declaration that was to haunt him in later life: "As a community we are living way beyond our means . . . we have been living at a rate which is simply not justified by the amount of goods and services we are producing."

Mr Haughey told the Fianna Fáil ardfheis on February 16th, 1980, in his first major speech on the North since the Arms Trial 10 years previously, that "Northern Ireland, as a political entity, has failed" and that a new beginning was needed.

His early resolution to cut public spending and reduce the current budget deficit gradually wilted under the demands of political expediency as he faced a critical by-election in Donegal. It was Fianna Fáil's first electoral test under Mr Haughey's leadership in October, 1980, and, given to the internal opposition to him within the party, he could ill-afford to lose it. New projects, including the building of an airport in Donegal, ensured that Fianna Fáil increased its first preference vote by 1,300 while the overall turnout fell. A personal triumph for Mr Haughey, he was forced to abandon his austerity programme to justify the by-election promises.

It appeared he had, by this stage, made considerable progress with the British Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, in two summit meetings during the year.

Significant progress was made at the second Anglo-Irish summit in December, 1980. The decision to commission joint studies covering a range of issues, including possible new institutional structures, citizenship rights, security matters, economic co-operation and measures to encourage mutual understanding, was announced in the famous communique outlining "the totality of relationships within these islands".

Mrs Thatcher said afterwards that she was committed to seeing if the "unique relationship" between Britain and Ireland could be given "institutional expression".

The Taoiseach's attempts to hype the achievements of the summit backfired when, in a short five-minute meeting on the margins of the EC summit in Maastricht in March, 1981, Mrs Thatcher berated him for statements made by Mr Lenihan, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, talking-up the summit. The trust between the two leaders was damaged irrevocably at this meeting.

Two developments marred the early months of 1981 for the Taoiseach and forced him to abandon plans for a general election. The opening of the Fianna Fáil ardfheis coincided with the Stardust tragedy, in which 50 young people died and over 100 were seriously injured in a fire at a St Valentine's eve disco in Mr Haughey's constituency. A visibly shaken Mr Haughey adjourned the ardfheis as a mark of respect to the victims.

The situation in Northern Ireland continued to deteriorate because of the hunger-strikes. Mr Haughey became vulnerable to criticism from the republican flank of the party. He did attempt, unsuccessfully, to soften Mrs Thatcher's approach to the crisis. Mr Haughey gave a guarded response in April, 1981, when Bobby Sands, the H-Blocks candidate, won the Fermanagh/South Tyrone by-election. It was wrong to view the result as a vote for political violence, he said, but it did show support for the demands of the hunger-strikers.

Mr Haughey's relations with Irish-America were also characterised by ambiguity. He was thwarted in his plan to remove the Irish Ambassador to Washington, Mr Seán Donlon, who had been exceptionally active in countering Provisional IRA propaganda in the US.

1981 election

Having inherited an historic 20-seat majority from Mr Lynch in 1979, Mr Haughey failed, for the first time, to win an overall majority for Fianna Fáil. The result of the election was: Fianna Fáil, 78 seats; Fine Gael, 65 seats; Labour, 15 seats; and Others, including the Workers Party and the Socialist Labour Party, 8 seats. The H-Blocks hunger-strike cost Fianna Fáil two seats in Border counties. In the first hung Dáil of the 1980s, Dr Garret FitzGerald became Taoiseach with the support of Independent TDs, and Mr Haughey, for the first time, became leader of the Opposition. He fitted uneasily into that role. He opposed the new Coalition's "monetarist" policies, adopted a more militant line on the North, supported the "five demands" of the hunger-strikers and attacked the "wishy-washy talk of appeasing the unionists".

Opposing for the sake of opposition became Mr Haughey's hallmark. He opposed Dr FitzGerald's constitutional crusade, seeing it as an assault on the 1937 Constitution drafted by the founder of Fianna

Fáil, Eamon de Valera.

Mr Haughey tried to persuade the Kildare TD to withdraw his remarks. When he refused to do so, however, he became the first opponent of Mr Haughey to have the party whip removed from him. Mr Haughey was spared any internal unrest by the sudden collapse of the Coalition's budget in the Dáil a week later, January 27th, 1982. The unexpected onset of the election found Mr Haughey far from secure. When he attempted to attack the Government's "monetarist policies", his leading opponents on the front bench gave him the ultimatum that they would not take any part in the campaign. Mr Haughey finally agreed to allow Mr Des O'Malley, Dr Martin O'Donoghue, and Mr Colley to draft the economic section of the party's election manifesto.

First 1982 election

Fianna Fáil returned to the second hung Dáil in a row with 81 seats on March 8th, 1982, just two short of an overall majority. Mr Haughey faced a new challenge to his leadership before the final result was known. His old antagonist in the arms trial, Mr Jim Gibbons, after a tough contest against a pro-Haughey candidate in Carlow-Kilkenny, said that it would be up to the first meeting of the new parliamentary party to decide who would be proposed as their nominee for Taoiseach in the Dáil.

Mr Des O'Malley, who had replaced Mr Colley as the leading anti-Haughey contender, declared that he would run for the leadership. When the parliamentary party finally met on February 25th, 1982, the challenge evaporated without a vote being taken. Mr Haughey remained in command. He was elected Taoiseach 12 days later by 86 votes to 79 with almost all of the Independents, and the three Workers Party TDs voting for him.

He made the famous "Gregory Deal" with the inner-city independent socialist TD, Mr Tony Gregory. The estimates of the cost of the deal ranged from £80 million to £150 million. It was signed by Mr Haughey and witnessed by Mr Michael Mullen, general secretary of the ITGWU, and read into the record of the Dáil amid stunned silence.

Mr Haughey's position, once installed back in office, was considerably strengthened by the collapse of the O'Malley challenge. He appointed a close supporter, Mr Ray MacSharry, as Tánaiste, and dropped Mr Colley from the Cabinet.

The succeeding nine months of Mr Haughey's second Government were the GUBU period, when a grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented series of misfortunes, scandals, internal divisions and crises dogged the minority administration.

Things began to go wrong almost immediately. Mr Haughey pulled off a fine stroke by appointing the Fine Gael TD for Dublin West, Mr Dick Burke, as European Commissioner, thereby reducing Fine Gael's Dáil seats. But he lost the subsequent by-election.

He also had to suffer the indignity of his election agent, Mr Pat O'Connor, being prosecuted for claiming a second voting card in the general election. Mr O'Connor was acquitted at Swords District Court, but the case was referred to the High Court by the DPP and an internal Garda investigation was ordered into the handling of the affair.

The internal dissent resurfaced in the party in June when Mr George Colley made a speech which was interpreted as the beginnings of a new challenge to Mr Haughey's leadership. His theme was low standards in high places. The idea seemed to be spreading, Mr Colley said, that in politics "success is all-important no matter how achieved" and that any deal or stroke or promise was justified if it resulted in the achievement of the retention of power.

The Government was defeated in two Dáil votes shortly afterwards and faced a motion of no confidence from the opposition. Mr Haughey survived, once again, with the help of the Workers Party and Mr Gregory.

Mr Haughey's political credibility suffered a shattering blow in August through a cruel stroke of luck. Malcolm MacArthur, later to be convicted of the murder of Nurse Bridie Gargan, was arrested in the Dalkey apartment of the Attorney General, Mr Patrick Connolly. Neither Mr Haughey nor Mr Connolly were implicated but the handling of the affair further eroded the Taoiseach's image.

There were further controversies to come. September brought the embarrassment of a letter to the press from the former joint auditor of accounts in Mr Haughey's constituency, who complained that information on the funding of the last two general election campaigns in the constituency had been wrongly withheld.

Mr Charlie McCreevy tabled a motion of no confidence in Mr Haughey on October 1st, 1982. Within days, Mr Desmond O'Malley and Dr Martin O'Donoghue resigned from the Cabinet because they would not pledge their personal support for Mr Haughey. Senator Eoin Ryan, the Fianna Fáil leader in the Senate, said that Mr Haughey had become an electoral liability. But Mr Haughey survived his most serious challenge to date, by 58 votes to 22.

On November 4th, 1982, the Government fell on a motion of confidence proposed by Mr Haughey. Mr Tony Gregory abstained and the three Workers Party TDs - on whose support the Government had become wholly dependent since the death of Dr Bill Loughnane and the illness of Mr Jim Gibbons - voted with the Opposition.

Second 1982 election

The third general election in 18 months was held on November 24th, 1982, and for the third time in a row, Mr Haughey failed to secure an overall majority for Fianna Fáil. The result was Fianna Fáil, 75 seats; Fine Gael, 70; Labour, 16; and Others, 5 seats.

A Coalition Government, led by Dr Garret FitzGerald and comprising Fine Gael and Labour, was formed with a working majority of six seats.

Despite the defeat, the election temporarily appeared to strengthen Mr Haughey's hand within Fianna Fáil. A number of his internal opponents, most notably Mr Jim Gibbons and Dr Martin

O'Donoghue, lost their seats or had a struggle to retain them.

There had been a groundswell of rumour about the conduct of Mr Haughey's close ally, Mr Sean Doherty, as Minister for Justice. The subsequent confirmation by the new Coalition Government that he had supplied Garda equipment to a Cabinet colleague, Mr Ray MacSharry, to tape the political conversation of another Cabinet colleague, Dr Martin O'Donoghue, came after a year in which Mr Doherty was often accused of interfering in the work of the police.

In the "Dowra affair", the RUC arrested Mr James McGovern hours before he was to have given evidence in a court case against Mr Doherty's brother-in-law.

Garda Thomas Nangle, the brother of Mr Doherty's wife, Maura, appeared at Dowra District Court in Co Cavan on September 27th, 1982, charged with assaulting Mr McGovern and causing him actual bodily harm in a public house the previous December. The case was dismissed because of the absence of the principal witness, Mr McGovern. The solicitor representing Garda Nangle was Mr Kevin Doherty, the Minister's brother.

Though the telephone tapping, bugging and Dowra affairs were the most serious controversies surrounding Mr Doherty, the Minister for Justice's name was associated with a spate of new allegations almost on a weekly basis.

The official confirmation of the events surrounding the telephone tapping and bugging controversies on January 20th, 1983, precipitated the third leadership crisis for Mr Haughey in the 1980s which many thought would be final.

Mr Haughey initially denied speculation that his resignation must follow those of the former Minister for Justice, Mr Doherty, the former Minister for Finance, Mr MacSharry, the Garda Commissioner, Mr Patrick McLaughlin, and the Deputy Garda Commissioner, Mr Joe Ainsworth. As the pressure reached fever pitch, Mr Haughey told his parliamentary party a week later that "If I go, the decision to go will be taken in my own time".

To the consternation of his critics, Mr Haughey emerged, Houdini-like, from a seven-hour parliamentary party meeting on February 7th, 1983, having survived the challenge to his leadership by 40 votes to 33.

With the leadership decided, once and for all, Mr Haughey settled down to a four-year term as leader of the Opposition - a period marked by his duty, as he saw it, to oppose for opposition's sake. Against the background of grave budgetary difficulties, he accused Dr FitzGerald's Government, from the start, of devising a harsh monetarist straitjacket for the country.

The biggest policy debacle of 1983, however, centred on the referendum to write an anti-abortion clause into the Constitution. The early decision by the new Taoiseach, Dr FitzGerald, to change the original wording of the amendment proposed by Mr Haughey in government the previous November, led to differences between the two leaders and, consequently, in society as a whole.

Dr FitzGerald was eventually forced to put the Fianna Fáil wording, which he opposed, before the people in a referendum on September 7th. The amendment was carried by two-thirds of the electorate. The Report of the New Ireland Forum dominated the political landscape in the early months of 1984.

The Taoiseach, Dr FitzGerald, and Mr Haughey produced different interpretations of the status of the report's preference for a unitary state within an hour of signing it on May 2nd.

While Dr FitzGerald acknowledged that "the ideal" of the three published options would be a unitary state, Mr Haughey declared that it was "the wish" of the forum parties to have a unitary state. The other two options of a federation and joint sovereignty, he said, were just set out because they were put to the forum.

Mr Haughey's interpretation was disputed by the front bench spokesman, Mr Des O'Malley, and Senator Eoin Ryan within days, and precipitated a move by Mr Haughey to have himself endorsed as the sole spokesman on Northern Ireland within the parliamentary party on May 16th.

When Mr O'Malley disputed the version of events given to the media by the party chairman, Mr Jim Tunney, following that parliamentary party meeting, Mr Haughey proposed that his Energy spokesman should have the whip removed from him. As Mr P.J. Mara, Mr Haughey's press officer, explained to political correspondents at the time: "Uno Duce, una voce: in other words, we will have no more nibbling at my leader's bum".

The Fianna Fáil national executive expelled the former Minister and leadership challenger, Mr O'Malley, from the party some nine months later for his speech and abstention on the Family Planning (Amendment) Bill in the Dáil. The vote, on February 26th, 1985, was 73 votes to nine in favour of Mr Haughey's recommendation. Mr O'Malley was expelled for conduct unbecoming a member of the party. The Northern issue rose to the top of the political agenda in late 1984 when Mr Haughey accused the Taoiseach, Dr FitzGerald, of "abject capitulation to a new British intransigence and a craven desertion of the principles of the forum report" in the wake of Mrs Thatcher's famous "out, out, out" response to the report at the Anglo-Irish summit on November 5th.

A watershed in this opposition period came in November, 1985, when Mr Haughey trenchantly opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which gave the Irish Government a say, for the first time, in the internal affairs of Northern Ireland.

He rejected the agreement in strong and unequivocal terms on the day, November 15th, that it was signed by Dr FitzGerald and Mrs Thatcher in Hillsborough. Mr Haughey pledged that Fianna Fáil would repudiate it in its present form if returned to government. "I believe that the concept of Irish unity has been dealt a very major blow," he said, claiming that it was in total conflict with Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution.

The Dáil approved the Anglo-Irish Agreement by 88 votes to 75, with Fianna Fáil voting against it. The Fianna Fáil backbencher, Ms Mary Harney, announced that she would support the agreement, thereby initiating her expulsion from the party.

By the end of the year, the Progressive Democrats were formed by two expelled Fianna Fáil TDs, Mr Des O'Malley and Ms Harney. The early months of the New Year witnessed huge rallies around the country for the new party with the eventual defections of stalwart Fianna Fáil TDs, Mr Bobby Molloy and Mr Pearse Wyse, in January.

Mr Haughey received a boost in February, 1986, with Dr FitzGerald's botched Cabinet reshuffle. His call for an election was given a new urgency in June when the Government's divorce referendum was massively rejected by the electorate. Mr Haughey had expressed his "personal reservations against divorce" and committed the party to a so-called neutral stance during the campaign.

Mr Haughey entered his fourth general election on January 21st, 1987, after the four Labour Ministers resigned from the Coalition Cabinet over the proposed budget.