Why All the Haughey bashing?

The media and Magill in particular have been perceived as being biased against the leader of the opposition. We therefore offered Fianna Fail the right of reply - and herewith its submission in its entirety. By Fianna Fail

Two weeks ago Gulliver, the acerbic columnist in The Sunday Press suggested that a "subversive element" was operating in RTE and the media to undermine the image of Charles Haughey and divide Fianna Fail. He bellieved that the ultimate gain was intended to go "neither to Fine Gael nor Labour but to subversive and semi-subversive bodies". The Sunday Press has connections with the Oppoosition Party, but The Cork Examiner is certainly not speccially sympathetic to Fianna Fail.

Yet on Wednesday their political correspondent found himself bound to agree with colleagues who said that "there was a virulent media campaign against the Opposition ... and there was a heavy bias shown against Fianna Fail and particularly Mr. Haughey by an influential section of the Dublin media." This correspondent went on to say "but the anti-Haughey mood surfaced most sharply at press conferences. An almost truculent attitude in their quesstioning of the Fianna Fail leader was displayed by a couple of journalists, one of whom was an active member of Fine Gael some years back and got a public pat on the head from Garret FitzGerald at an Ard Fheis two or three years ago. This attitude was in marked contrast to the kid glove handd'ling of the Taoiseach by the same journalist."

Why is all this hate generated against Charles Haughey?

Let's look at his record. As the youngest Finance Minister. in Europe he brought in compassionate and progressive legislation. His concept of'free public transport for old age pensioners was years in front of its time, a capitalist soluution to a socialist problem. By allowing pensioners to go from one end of the country to the other on train or bus without costing a penny he loosened at least some of the bonds that tether the old.

Before 1964 women in Ireland had feudal status as far as their husband's property was concerned. It was Charles

Haughey as Minister for Justice who brought in the Successsion Bill which provided that the wife got one third of her husband's property as an irreducible minimum amount on his death. This was the most progressive piece of feminist legislation since women got the vote in 1918. As Minister for Justice Haughey cured another running sore that proogressive barristers had been trying to alleviate for years. The Department of Justice, one of the least yielding in the State, would not provide separate prison accommodation for youthful criminals, who used to be incarcerated in Mountjoy along with adults. It was Charles Haughey who broke the red tape and got St. Patrick's Institution for Young Offenders established before he had left Justice.

Why the Haughey bashing? They say he's a fat cat with a house in Kinsealy. The answer to this is that if he has acquired money he has used his knowledge of finance to take on big industry on behalf of the people. What poliitician, for instance, would have come out in open combat against the cigarette companies as Haughey did as Minister for Health three years ago? He won, too, and imposed severe restrictions on tobacco sponsorship in sport simply because he believed cigarette smoking is a national evil and didn't want health-giving activities like sport contaminated by association with it. When his critics said that state revenue would fall if cigarette smoking was phased out, Haughey pointed out with great simplicity that it would be more than compensated for by the 'decline in hospital bills if people stopped smoking.

So why the Haughey bashing? He's mad for power, they'll tell you. Yet after being the youngest Finance Miniister in Europe and son-in-law of the Prime Minister, he suddenly found himself on the back benches in 1970. A lot of people with his wealth might have worked off their dissappointment in a yacht in the Mediterranean or just taken

the way out through the oldest of Irish escape hatches ¨John Barleycorn. But instead Charles Haughey gave up drinking and smoking altogether and settled down to the dull life of constituency work while he got himself into shape for things to come. It was a sign of the real man  the ability to wait until the proper time. and be in shape when the call comes. It was a hard station, because when you're down in this country, the begrudgers let you know. But by 1973 as a backbencher Charles Haughey had been appointed Chairman of the Joint Houses of the Oireachtas Committee on EEC Legislation and had been elected Vice-President of Fianna Fail.

So why the Haughey bashing? They'll tell you he has no spiritual dimension. But is this consistent with his legislaation for the arts? Tax exemptions for painters and artists, and most recently a subsidy through the establishment of Aosdana to keep them in some sort of nick while they get on with work which more than any other is unlikely to pay them for the effort involved.

So why the Haughey bashing? They'll tell you he's an extremist on the North. Certainly he feels deeply about the problems of Unionist and Nationalist in the separated part of the country. But it was Charles Haughey who first put the Northern problem into the context of a British and Irish solution when he initiated the Anglo-Irish talks with Mrs. Thatcher in 1981. He recognises that solutions to major political problems can only be worked out over an extended period and in conjunction with the two Foreign Offices. This is perhaps his strongest point - his ability to work with civil servants. In all the departments he has been in, he has been immensely popular. The bureaucrats know he doesn't believe in instant results and that he's prepared to work ferociously hard to get the ones he wants. This suits them and he is capable of inspiring great dedication in the bureaucrats who work under him, an essential quality in a leader in a democratic community .

Charles Haughey's father, Sean Haughey, was OC of the South Derry Batallion as well as being later an Officer in the Free State Army. But Garret FitzGerald's father and Liam Cosgrave's father were both out in 1916 and bore arms against English soldiers. But while Garret and Liam are nervous of accepting the implications of the 1916-'21 period Charles Haughey is not, though he adheres to the policy that a solution must come by peaceful means.

So why the Haughey bashing? It would be overstating it to say that a campaign would have been orchestrated from across the channel. Nevertheless, it is clear that the British think they can squeeze much more out of genial Garret than they can out of Charles Haughey, who possesses one quality essential in an Irish leader who deals with England, a healthy distrust of the Saxon.

Could the Haughey bashing be a reaction to the sheer ability of the man? Looking back in history since the State was founded it's not hard to see that a lot of people hated Michael Collins. Then, though de Valera evolved as one of the statesmen of Europe, it was only sufficient to menntion his name in certain company in Ireland for people to have near-apoplexy. It would be invidious to compare Haughey with either man. But the national tendency to knock ability is so inbred that there must be at least a susspicion that the pack, with infallible instinct, have scented quality and are howling for blood.

If Charles Haughey wins he will have what he wants xfour years to prove himself. He likes to build foundations. Then, he believes, it is easy to put the roof on.

(Submitted by the Fianna Fail press office).