I am taken aback by the cynicism concerning Charles Haughey's state of health and the obvious unwillingness to forgive him "just" because he might die soon. It's not that I truly believed we were "still" a Christian people, but rather that I am surprised at our willingness to hold out for so long before stopping in our tracks, turning around and neurotically charging in the opposite moral direction. So as to be of assistance to the national conscience, I would therefore like to offer the following dozen reasons why we should forgive Mr Haughey.
1. We created him. I don't mean we elected him, but that we imagined him into what he became. Everything he did was in his role as Fat Chieftain, a role imposed on him by us. Being poor and hungry, we desperately needed to believe that this man, with his aura of riches and mystery, could make us plump and happy. More than anything else, he did not want to disappoint us.
2. The main reason we are mad at him is that we have discovered there was no magic, that he accumulated riches not by wizardry but by supplicancy. This rendered us disappointed by him, but more fundamentally disappointed by the illusion he had helped us create concerning the possibility of material acquisition. This, however, was a necessary lesson, and in a sense Charles Haughey has spared us having to learn it in a more difficult way.
3. There is considerable circumstantial evidence that Mr Haughey delivered on the contract he made with us. When he walked into Government Buildings 13 years ago, this State was on the verge of bankruptcy. Today our economy is, as we keep being told, the envy of Europe. This turnaround in the national fortunes has much more in common with the manner of Charles Haughey's own enrichment than with the careful, muddling husbandry of his political rivals.
4. Most of the reasons we advance for seeking vengeance on Charles Haughey do not stand up. There is no evidence, for example, that any of his benefactors received anything tangible, or indeed that they sought favours from him. Like many of us, the merchant princes who supported him seem to have been simply infatuated by his aura of majesty and power.
5. More than any other leader or public figure since de Valera, Charles Haughey defined his time, his country and his people. This is not necessarily a compliment to Mr Haughey or his people, but it is true none the less. The imagination of a nation cannot survive without epic characters, and Charles Haughey was, for more than 30 years, the central character in the national drama. He was our Hamlet, our King Lear, our J.R. and our Mike Baldwin.
6. He was a star, and we have decided stars in other spheres of endeavour deserve to be paid vast sums. Pop singers, TV presenters, footballers and actors "earn" much more than Charlie managed to stroke over the years, and we do not think this odd. Haughey made them all look like extras, and yet we expected him to be star, chieftain, hero and villain, while surviving on a TD's salary. And he was running the country as well.
7. Although it is true that he did not serve his people as well as he might have - more in the sense of failing to do things which were necessary and possible than of stroking left, right and centre - Mr Haughey still did more good than most of his peers. It is remarkable that, in my lifetime, only Mr Haughey's great friend, Donogh O'Malley, and his arch-enemy Noel Browne, were comparable when it came to implementing changes in the public good.
8. Charles Haughey had occasional flashes of fierce principle, as in his response to the murderous sinking of the Belgrano in 1982.
9. He gave us lots of laughs. Any Taoiseach who presents a British prime minister with a teapot has got to be a national treasure.
10. Even at the worst construction, Charles Haughey was infinitely preferable to some of the loathsome creeps who have spent their lives attacking him. Consider the fact that several of those who have done little except snipe at the Fat Chieftain have themselves made strenuous efforts to avail of his provision of tax-free status for creative artists - not for books, plays, symphonies or paintings, but for the articles they wrote attacking Charles Haughey.
Get this: these beauties, who could see no good in Mr Haughey otherwise, were prepared to acknowledge that this provision was actually admirable, provided, of course, that they were given the benefit of it in a manner for which it had never been intended. I know of one journalist who approached leading artists requesting them to write references asserting that his venomous attacks on Mr Haughey were pure poetry. To their credit, most declined. And to the credit of the Revenue Commissioners, let it be noted that none of these applications was successful: these creeps people still pay tax.
11. Anyone who can face into the storm of hatred Charles Haughey has evoked and still walk like Napoleon has something we need to pause and look at. Mr Haughey, for all his faults, has grace and dignity, as he showed at Jack Lynch's funeral last year.
12. If he dies without forgiveness, our initial pangs of regret will rapidly turn to guilt, and ferment into a profound self-loathing. The emotions we have about "Charlie", unlike those we feel towards other public figures - with the possible exception of Gay Byrne - are comparable to the emotions existing in a family situation. Hate is fused with love, scorn with compassion, and frustration with admiration. The bitterness that is felt now will soon pass, to be replaced by nostalgia, sadness and regret.
Forgiveness would therefore also be a selfish act, albeit a graceful one. If we don't forgive Charlie, we can never forgive ourselves.
jwaters@irish-times.ie