Blazes Boylan

So far 1992 has been a deadly time in Northern Ireland. In fact the first two months of the year were deemed to be the most violent ones since 1976, as scores of people, Catholic, Protestant, Republican, and Loyalist, were killed.

The British government’s answer to the sharp escalation in the fighting was to import almost 1000 additional troops to the North, while the British Prime Minister called emergency meetings to determine further options. With what some are calling a situation which is just short of a civil war, a reintroduction of internment is reportedly becoming an attractive option.

What is significant about the latest wave of violence is the way in which civilians are increasingly seen as legitimate targets, thus the view by some that the North is headed for civil war.

On February 5, five Catholics were gunned down by the Loyalist paramilitary group Ulster Freedom Fighters, which is the illegal wing of the still-legal Ulster Defense Association. Just a week before, seven Protestant men whose construction firm does repair work for the British security forces were killed by a Provisional IRA road bomb detonated as their mini-bus left the RUC base on which they were working in the Tyrone countryside.

These were but the most sensational incidents in what has been a bloody new year.

The Loyalist tactic is an old one, that of killing easy targets, i.e., Catholic civilians, in the hopes of getting them to turn against the IRA. Most observers note however that it seems to be having the opposite effect. The IRA in turn defended the Tyrone killings by repeating their warning that anyone collaborating with the British security forces is a legitimate target.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams very nearly became one of the casualties, as his 15-minute delay at a roadblock prevented him from being at the Sinn Fein press center in Belfast the afternoon of February 4, when a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer posing as a journalist made his way into the center and killed three men. The 24-year-old officer opened fire with a concealed shot-gun, killing the doorman, a local man and a party official before fleeing. His body was found not too far away, where officials say he then turned the gun on himself. The reason for the officer’s shooting spree is unclear, although the stress of patrolling the strects of Belfast was given as a possible motive.

The usual rounds of condemnation from both England and Ireland surfaced after each attack, although beyond beefing up security forces even more and possibly reinstating internment there is little being considered which might end the bitter fighting. The inter-party talks regarding the future of Northern Ireland (to which Sinn Féin is the only major political party not invited) was yet again delayed until after the British general elections, which will most likely be held in April.

For a man who had been counted out more times than Rasputin, Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Charles J. Haughey always managed to survive. However, on February 10 the 66-year-old leader announced his resignation. There had been just one scandal too many, and what has been called the most outstanding and controversial career in modern Irish politics came to an end.

Haughey’s resignation was more or less forced on him, as new accusations against him regarding the 1982 phone-tapping scandal gave the opposition Progressive Democrat party the excuse they needed to push Haughey out. The PD’s threatened to break up the government coalition between themselves and Haughey’s Party, Fianna Fail, unless Haughey resigned.

Knowing that his party would most likely be devastated by a general election, the Taoiseach resigned.

The Haughey career started in 1957, when at the age of 31 the Mayo-born man was elected to the Irish parliament as a Dublin representative.

Haughey grew up in a Dublin city working-class neighborhood, and soon proved himself to be a bright student and a clever operator. He moved his way up to the position of Minister for Justice in 1961 due to an appointment from his father-in-law, then Taoiseach Sean Lemass. Throughout the 60’s his other positions as Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Finance garnered him much of the grass-roots support he would depend on for years to come.

Northern Ireland’s modern Troubles broke out in the late-60’s while Haughey was in charge of a committee to administer funds for the beleaguered Republican community in the North. He was knocked out of the political arena however with the Arms Trial, in which he was implicated but ultimately cleared of charges that he arranged for the delivery of arms to Republicans in the North.

Haughey was fired from the cabinet by then-Taoiseach Jack Lynch.

He returned to the front bench in 1975, however, and by 1979 he was the leader of Fianna Fail. Haughey remained in power throughout the 1980’s, sparring occasionally with Fine Gael’s Garret FitzGerald for the Taoiseach’s seat. He was credited with fostering business interests throughout the 1980’s and with sitting as the president of the European Community in 1991. 

Also, Haughey and his party enjoyed more support among Americans than any other, raising much money at posh fundraisers in the U.S. The single biggest blow to his power though came last October, when his friend and fellow party member Brian Lenihan was upset by Labor’s Mary Robinson for the presidency. There was widespread voter dissatisfaction with Fianna Fail, which was perceived to be corrupt and out of touch with modern Ireland.

There were numerous financial scandals, in which some of Haughey’s friends made millions off sweetheart government deals.

In the end, though, it was the phone-tapping scandal of 1982 that brought him down.

That scandal, a Watergate-type operation in which the phones of two Dublin journalists were bugged because of their purported knowledge of insider opposition party strategies, had haunted Fianna Fail for years, and in January the Fianna Fail member who had taken the fall for the scandal, Sean Doherty, claimed that he had not acted alone – his boss, Haughey, was in on the deal.

Haughey and his party were down in the dumps of the popularity polls, so when the PDs demanded Haughey step down their demand was met.

Haughey, tactician to the end, knew that neither he nor his party could survive a general election at the moment.

Even before Charles Haughey stepped down as the Taoiseach of Ireland, many others were lining up to take over. Several high-ranking Fianna Fail members let it be known that they coveted the position, and Haughey’s many political enemies waited in the wings for the opportunity to dump him.

In the end, the cutthroat world of parliamentary-style politics, much more so than the American federalist system, proved that what goes around eventually comes around.

The winner in the race to succeed Haughey, Roscommon-born Albert Reynolds, had ironically been one of the “Gang of Five” who plotted against former Taoiseach Jack Lynch in 1979 so as to ensure Haughey’s election.

Reynolds was rewarded by Haughey with cabinet positions throughout the rest of Haughey’s turns in power. However by the end of 1991 Reynolds, 60, was thinking of a turn in power himself, and in November he led a coup attempt against Haughey. The coup failed, and Reynolds and the others were fired by Haughey and banished to the political wilderness. Reynolds didn’t have long to wait for his return, however, as he took over from his former boss in February. Sure enough, his co-conspirators in the November coup were brought back for positions in Reynolds’ cabinet.

A self-made man who made his fortune in the pet food business, Reynolds entered politics in 1975 in his adopted home of Longford. He had also made money in the showband era dancehall business, where he undoubtedly learned the quick-step maneuvers which would carry him to the upper echelons of the Fianna Fail party.

Immediately after Reynolds took over he cleaned out the cabinet, dumping eight of Haughey’s most influential ministers, including Foreign Affairs Minister Gerard Collins and Education Minister Mary O’Rourke. Reynolds’ appointees included the new Finance Minister Bertie Ahern, who was marked as the frontrunner to succeed Haughey behind Reynolds, and the new Foreign Affairs Minister David Andrews, a bold choice in that he has been the most liberal Fianna Fail Minister, loudly supporting the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four.

It’s not yet certain what Reynolds’ plans are for the future of the country, but it is thought that he will have a pragmatic attitude towards the economy, based on his business past, and he is expected to be more amenable to change on social issues, such as divorce and birth control, which have cost Fianna Fail support among the younger voters.

 

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the March 1992 issue of Irish America. ♦