Charles Haughey

Charles Haughey (born Sept. 16, 1925, Castlebar, County Mayo, Ire.—died June 13, 2006, Dublin) was the taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland (1979–81; 1982; 1987–92).

Haughey, the son of an officer in the original Irish Republican Army (IRA), attended University College Dublin, studying law and accounting. While making a fortune—apparently in real estate—he married (1951) the daughter of Seán Lemass (later to be taoiseach) and after several attempts entered Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament) in 1957 as a member of the Fianna Fáil party for a constituency in Dublin. He became minister for justice in 1961 and later minister for agriculture and for finance.

In 1970 Haughey was twice tried for conspiracy to use government funds to procure arms for the outlawed IRA; the first trial was aborted, and he won acquittal in the second. Dismissed from the government, he remained in the Dáil and gained strong support among his party’s grass roots. When Fianna Fáil was returned to office in 1977, he was made minister for health and social welfare. On the resignation of party leader Jack Lynch in 1979, Haughey was elected party leader and became taoiseach. In June 1981 his government fell, but he returned to power briefly in 1982. He became taoiseach again after elections in February 1987, though his government lacked a majority in the Dáil. When Fianna Fáil formed a government with the Progressive Democrats in July 1989, thereby eschewing the party’s traditional rejection of coalition rule, Haughey was made taoiseach for a fourth time.

Haughey’s first two terms in office were marked by deteriorating relations with Great Britain, a declining economy, and deep divisions within Fianna Fáil. Despite the controversies that plagued his government, the charismatic Haughey remained party leader after losing office for a second time in late 1982. During his later terms, Haughey successfully mounted a fiscal austerity program to address Ireland’s financial crisis. In 1992 he resigned and retired after being implicated in a scandal involving the 1982 wiretapping of two journalists; he denied the allegations. He remained out of public life until 1997, when an official tribunal of inquiry determined that he had received large sums of money from a prominent businessman while taoiseach. The Dáil then established another tribunal to investigate his financial affairs, and many other irregularities were uncovered. Haughey eventually agreed to pay more than six million euros (about $7.7 million) in back taxes and penalties.