Gavin's Blog

I read in the Tribune on Sunday that Le Monde made a boo-boo with the following:

Citant Othello dans son discours d’adieu, “Charlie” affirme “avoir rendu quelque service à l’Etat”. Mais le dernier hommage pourrait revenir à Moira Geoghegan-Quinn, ancien ministre de son cabinet, qui décrit ainsi celui qu’elle appelait “Sweetie” : “C’était un personnage entouré d’intrigues, de mystères et d’argent, mais protégé par son populisme, son intelligence et son sens opportun du bon mot.”

Maire Geoghegan-Quinn was ‘Sweetie’, not Terry Keane? Or else my French is really bad.

Word has it in the Tribune that Quinn is consulting her lawyers.

…sick at the pathetic fawning interviews RTE has conducted in relation to Charles Haughey. Saturday View today was tantamount to this bullshit coverage I have watched and listened to over the last few days.

Vincent Browne has turned coat and now loves Haughey apparently.

But RTE are not alone. The Indo today made me feel even more sick. Pathetic. They gloss over the fact that no one turned up for the funeral too. Here’s some cringeworthy quotes:

Past Irish men and women and children from the four provinces – relatively few in number – come to pay their final respects.

Then the roof of the hearse, as measured and magisterial as the old Haughey when he would coast through rooms like Napoleon.

For Bertie Ahern did not come to bury Caesar. He came to praise him, and to ensure that the good he did would not be interred with his bones.

A radical reformer. A complex man, like WB Yeats.

Afterwards, Fr Eoghan walked over and hugged the Taoiseach. Caesar is dead. Long live Caesar.

Fucking pathetic. What unadultered and absolute bullshit.

More level headed coverage after I calm down.

Richard calls the event a human one before a political one. He wonders if the week can pass off with some level of respect before the war over his legacy rages.

The war has already begun on the TV and radio, and on this blog. I don’t think it is a human event before a political one. It’s the biggest political story this year, and the reaction of politicians to his death is a story in itself. I don’t see how it’s disrespectful to argue over the man’s legacy today, or tomorrow, or every day until his funeral. He was afterall a politician, a former Taoiseach, and by far the most controversial figure in Irish politics since the foundation of the State.

I say: Have at it.

I could go further and say that I had no respect for the man when he was alive, why should I show him respect now he is dead?

But I won’t.

You have the love the conclusion:

In his last Dáil address Haughey said: ‘I have always sought to act solely and exclusively in the best interests of the Irish people.’ Even allowing for his public ignominy in the interim, Charles Haughey remained unflinching and, in his own terms, undefeated.

What?

The Irish Times obituary meanwhile:

While he was heavily criticised for his lavish lifestyle and his acceptance of massive payments from business people such as Ben Dunne, Mr Haughey was also credited with many innovative political ideas. He is most often noted for extending free travel on public transport to older people and for the creation of generous tax breaks for artists.

It’s as if they balance out. He may have taken millions in bribes payments, but he did give tax break for artists. What a legend.

Let the revisionism begin…

Odds on everyone saying Charlie was a great leader, wonderful man, rogue character, we are all like Charlie etc etc – 10-1 on

How many people will bring up his attempt to bring down McCracken, decades of corruption, endemic cronyism…. 50-1

According to the Indo, Charlie had a personal say in how his State funeral would be handled, but RTE reports:

A spokesperson for the Taoiseach has said that the Government has offered a state funeral and that the offer has been accepted by the family.

The Indo article suggests that:

The Irish Independent has also learned that arrangements have been made for a State funeral for the former Taoiseach.

Mr Haughey approved the arrangements last year.

It is understood he asked for a Requiem Mass to be held in Our Lady of Consolation Church in Donnycarney, in the heart of the Dublin North Central constituency he served rather than in the Pro-Cathedral, as might have been expected for holding a State funeral.

Mr Haughey has chosen St Fintan’s churchyard overlooking the sea in Sutton, Co Dublin – just a couple of miles from his Abbeville home – as his final resting place.

Speakers for the Requiem Mass were being contacted yesterday.

Staffords, a company with close ties to Mr Haughey and which has links with Fianna Fail dating back to the foundation of the party, are to be the undertakers.

Mr Haughey approved the arrangements after he recovered from another bout of his recurring illness last year. Preparations for his State funeral are already at an advanced stage, with the same officials from the Department of the Taoiseach and senior Army officers who planned the recent Easter 1916 commemorations.

Mr Haughey and his family decided he would have a State funeral, a privilege automatically available to all former Taoisigh.

It is understood Mr Haughey wanted to have his Requiem Mass in his former constituency rather than the Pro-Cathedral in central Dublin because of his family ties to the area for three generations. Mr Haughey has recovered from a number of health scares over the past five years.

Conor Cruise O’Brien believes Charlie Haughey should not be given a State funeral.

Dr Cruise O’Brien, who turns 90 next year, dismissed suggestions that Mr Haughey had contributed to the State, and said any of the reforms he had introduced “were dictated to him”.

“They were not his idea”.

Is the country split on this or does everyone think Haughey should be given a State funeral?

I agree with O’Brien, Haughey should not get a State funeral.