Charles Haughey: The Irish minister who became known as ‘Great Houdini’

IMAGINE a UK Government minister being charged with assisting the importation of illegal weapons to arm an organisation considered by some to be freedom fighters, and by others to be terrorists.

Either way, getting involved in smuggling arms would surely be the end of that minister’s career, and even Dominic Cummings might not get away with it.

Yet 50 years ago today, Charles James Haughey, regarded by even his opponents as the future star of the Irish Government, walked free from court having been found not guilty after the most sensational trial in Irish history up to that point.

He had been sacked as the Republic’s minister for finance before the trial, but came back with a vengeance and was Taoiseach before the decade was out.

WHO WAS HAUGHEY?

BORN the son of a soldier who served in both the IRA and the National Army of the Free State, Haughey graduated from University College Dublin and became an accountant who was also called to the Irish Bar. He served in the Army Reserve until he was elected to the Dail for the Dublin North-East seat in 1957.

Having been friends at university, in 1951 he married Maureen Lemass, daughter of future Taoiseach Sean Lemass. After less than three years as a TD (MP) he was offered his first Government post as a parliamentary secretary. Sean Lemass famously told him: “As Taoiseach it is my duty to offer you the post of parliamentary secretary, and as your father-in-law I am advising you not to take it.”

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Haughey took the job and his rise from then on was sure and steady. He became minister of justice in 1961, securing several new progressive laws, and then minister for agriculture in 1964. Despite provoking the Farmers’ Strike in 1966, after Jack Lynch replaced Lemass as Taoiseach, Haughey was made minister for finance.

He piloted some popular reforms such as pensioners’ bus passes and tax exemptions for artists, and apart from the farming classes, he was probably the most popular politician in the country after Lynch.

Then came the extraordinary Arms Crisis of 1970, the details of which have never been fully revealed, though the story was truly shocking then and still causes incredulity today.

WHAT WAS HE CHARGED WITH?

NOW, remember this is the minister of finance we are talking about. With the Troubles having broken out in Ulster the previous year, many Catholic nationalist families fled south to escape the violence. Lynch ordered Haughey and agriculture minister Neil Blaney to set up a committee to assist the refugees with the equivalent of £100,000 of public money for their use. He also ordered the preparation of a military intervention plan to prevent further bloodshed in Catholic nationalist areas – some wag in the Irish military called it Operation Armageddon.

It was never implemented as British troops were deployed across the six counties, but Haughey and Blaney were determined that there should be protection for the Catholic nationalist communities. After hearing from Irish army intelligence officer Captain James Kelly, they met with the Citizens Defence Committees that included known IRA personnel.

The plan was complex – arms would be imported that would be paid for by Haughey from the relief fund, and he would also organise customs clearance, all of it strictly illegal.

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It was after Haughey “accidentally” met IRA chief of staff Cathal Goulding that the Irish Special Branch suspected there was a plot to smuggle arms to the IRA. Haughey’s own brother was alleged to have been involved, though he always denied it.

Lynch sacked both Blaney and Haughey when news of the investigation was leaked to the opposition Fine Gael party. Haughey denied all knowledge of the supposed plot, and the first trial in which he, Blaney and Captain Kelly were among those charged collapsed because of apparent bias against them. The second trial ended with Haughey being cleared on October 23, 1970.

Most careers would have ended then, but Haughey was only getting going.

HAUGHEY BOUNCED BACK, DIDN’T HE?

AND then some. He spent some years on the backbenches, but then won the leadership of Fianna Fail and became Taoiseach on three occasions, surviving numerous scandals, mostly about his wealth, and becoming known as the Great Houdini of Irish politics. He died from cancer in 2006 aged 80 and received a state funeral.