An Irishman's Diary

Could it be, as the song said, that it was all so simple then? A decade ago - in the heady summer of 1990 - Charles J. Haughey appeared not to have a care in the world.

He was basking in the afterglow of Ireland's EU Presidency, which he had led, as Taoiseach, with considerable success. His island home off the Kerry coast beckoned for the summer break - although he did leave its tranquility for an important public function.

He went to Tralee to officially open Radio Kerry, the county's new local radio station. And whatever the reason - perhaps his closeness to the literary legacy of the Blasket Islands - the Muse had gripped him. There was no routine speech, drafted by a civil servant, but a poem composed by the man himself, although he did apologise to the "two real poets" in the audience, Brendan Kennelly and the late Bryan McMahon.

Haughey's poem

Radio Kerry has delved through its archives to mark its 10 years on the air. In a recent programme, listeners again heard Mr Haughey's poem of a decade ago, entitled Over the Waves:

A joyous message I bring this morning

To lift your hearts and banish care;

This is a moment of celebration

Good people of Kerry, you're on the air !

Over the waves I have come to see you,

Waves of the sea, that are wild and strong;

On the airwaves now, rich voices of Kerry

Express the Kingdom in story and song.

Expression is freedom: long may you enjoy

Those Kerry sounds that are pure and grand;

To make hearts and minds more bright and lively,

Express the essence of this ancient land.

And what did the "real poets" think at the time ? Brendan Kennelly said: "Yes, I like it, it had a good buoyant rhythm and he read it very well." Bryan McMahon declared: "It's worthy of a Nobel prize." Mr Haughey had no more to say, except to urge the station's then general manager, Dan Collins, formerly of RTE, not to forget the national heritage.

Ten years on, it was Kerry's senior politician, the Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, who was invited by the current general manager, Paul Sheehan, and the board chairman, Joe McGarry, to be the keynote speaker at the anniversary celebrations. Mr O'Donoghue who, by the way, was given his first ministerial promotion by Mr Haughey, did not resort to verse, but had some interesting stories to tell from the "OK Corral", better known, perhaps, as Leinster House.

One centred on the delivery of a Budget many years ago. All the good news was given by the Minister of the day in the first 20 pages or so, with taxation and other such unpalatable measures reserved for the latter part of the speech. Delighted government backbenchers chanted "Hear, hear" as the Minister made his upbeat way to page 20.

And then, as the bad news began to emerge, the supportive chants from the backbenches started to fade. "That," remarked an Opposition deputy, "is the last `hear, hear' you will hear, hear, from here, here on."

Bishop Casey

Radio Kerry's head of news and current affairs, Fiona Stack, and presenter Sinead Spain have found other interesting material in the archives which made national - indeed international - as well as local news.

Perhaps the most sensational concerned the revelation in 1992 of Bishop Eamonn Casey's affair with Annie Murphy, and the birth of their son when Dr Casey was Bishop of Kerry. The consensus which emerged in a programme marking the revelation and its fall-out was that if Dr Casey had remained in Ireland and explained himself, public interest would have waned very rapidly. Then there was local Labour TD Dick Spring's second term as Tanaiste, the fall of his coalition government with Fianna Fail, and the formation of the Rainbow Coalition. Mr Spring remarked in an interview that, irrespective of what happened in his career, he would never forget coming within four votes of losing his Kerry North seat in 1987.

And there was the euphoric welcome home for the victorious All-Ireland champions in 1997, an all too rare occurrence in the Kingdom these days.

Helicopter pad

As the decade began with Mr Haughey, so it ended with him. Radio Kerry, like the rest of the media, has spent some time reporting and analysing his evidence to the Moriarty Tribunal. This time there was no poetry, with the high of the summer of 1990 a distant memory. It is, perhaps, little wonder that Mr Haughey was moved to verse a decade ago. That summer work was being completed on the refurbished Government Buildings, with The Irish Times reporting that a 40-foot truck had pulled up outside Mr Haughey's office with a most unusual delivery - a helicopter pad. An OPW source observed at the time that the new offices were "lavish and Napoleonic in scale, as befits Charles J. Haughey".

Mr Haughey, currently holidaying on his island, no doubt understands - perhaps more so than ever - what a consolation an island retreat was to the same Napoleon.