THIS week the Haughey family hosted a coffee morning in Abbeville, their home in Kinsealy, to help launch Mary Rose Doorly's book on the splendid house. Opinions are divided as to the book's front cover - the picture shows C.J. on a horse (called Gatsby - for all you Trivial Pursuit types) outside, the front door. The word Napoleonic has been mentioned as a description of the former Taoiseach's pose, but then so has "horse Protestant" - it's easy to figure out which one the man himself would prefer.
Haughey bought the entire estate in 1969 for £120,000 and, as the book reveals, he sold off one of the fields some years later for more than the entire estate's purchase price so the house effectively cost him nothing. Nor has he spent a fortune on the house's upkeep because it was in good condition when he bought it from a German couple who had fused it as a holiday home.
Over coffee, Maureen Haughey revealed that the first she knew of her new home was when the deal, was signed and sealed. Since then she has made the rambling house into a family home and every surface seems to be covered with family photos, from official portraits of Sean Lomass and Charlie to countless family snaps.
Ask if he's ready to swap one des. res. on Dublin's northside for another and Haughey answers with a glint of his eye. He has said that a move to the Park would mean moving to a smaller house.