Whitaker did not make claim about Haughey, publisher says

The publishers of a new book containing a claim that the late former taoiseach Charles Haughey was beaten with an iron bar have said the claim was incorrectly attributed to former secretary of the department of finance, TK Whitaker.

The story contained in a new book on Ireland’s best known former civil servant prompted a robust response from the Haughey family, who yesterday said they were “deeply disappointed and saddened that a highly respected civil servant like Dr Whitaker should make such claims”.

However, the publisher Transworld Ireland has issued a statement saying they regretted a quotation in the book had been reported in the media.

“The quotation taken from the text of the book, which was attributed to Dr Whitaker, was in fact a direct quotation from Jack Lynch: A Biography by Professor Dermot Keogh,” the statement said.

“The author and publishers wish to clarify that due to a reference error in the end notes the words were incorrectly attributed to Dr Whitaker. The reference will be amended accordingly in future editions of the book.”

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.

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.

The family of Mr Haughey yesterday dismissed as “patently untrue” the 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.

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 in the book 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 yesterday. “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.