Family rejects claim Haughey ‘beaten with iron bar’

The family of the late former taoiseach Charles Haughey has dismissed as "patently untrue" a claim that he was beaten with an iron bar in a pub before he failed to deliver a budget speech in 1970 when he was minister for finance.

His failure to arrive in the Dáil had been attributed to a riding incident.

The story is contained in a new book on Ireland’s best known former civil servant, former secretary of the department of finance, TK Whitaker, which prompted a robust response from the Haughey family.

"We are deeply disappointed and saddened that a highly respected civil servant like Dr Whitaker should make such claims that have caused great distress to Maureen Haughey and her family," the statement said.

The just-published book, TK Whitaker: Portrait of a Patriot, by Anne Chambers, draws on in-depth interviews conducted with Dr Whitaker and his family, as well as scrutiny of his personal papers and correspondence.

“We wish to state categorically that Dr Whitaker’s claims are completely and utterly untrue,” the Haughey family said.

In 1970, when Mr Haughey was minister for finance, he was unable to deliver the budget speech. The book states that “the news that the minister had been seriously injured, in what was initially claimed to have been a riding incident” resulted in the budget being delivered by then taoiseach, Jack Lynch.

However, the book continues: “Haughey’s injuries turned out to have been the result of a severe beating inflicted by persons unknown in a public house on the morning of budget day.”

Dr Whitaker is quoted as saying: “His injuries were so severe - an iron bar having been used by his attacker or attackers - that he had been admitted as an emergency case to the Mater Hospital.”

The Haughey family contradicted this version of events in a strongly-worded statement released today. “On the morning in question Mr Haughey was returning to the stables in Abbeville on his horse,” the family said.

“ He grabbed an overhead drainpipe to dismount from the horse and it reared up and jumped forward when the pipe broke. Mr Haughey fell from the horse and became unconscious.”

The statement added: “It should also be pointed out that several members of the Haughey family attended to Mr Haughey in the immediate aftermath of the accident in question.”

The Haughey family said no further public statement would be made about the matter.

The incident referred to coincided with what became known as the Arms Crisis. Mr Lynch visited Mr Haughey in hospital to ask him about his alleged role in an attempt to import arms for the IRA.

In 1990, Mr Haughey underwent surgery on a broken thigh after falling from his horse on Portmarnock Strand. He died in 2006.

Dr Whitaker is credited with drafting the plan that turned Ireland’s economy around in the late 1950s, a time of widespread emigration and unemployment. His meteoric rise through the ranks of the civil service saw him, at 39 years of age, become the youngest secretary of the department of finance.

Now 97, he was voted Irishman of the Century in 2002.