DUBLIN: Now comes Sean Doherty, former Minister for Justice in the Irish government, the point man in a major scandal in the early 1980s involving the illegal tapping of phones of leading journalists.
Doherty recently declared that he tapped the phones with the full knowledge of party leader Charles Haughcy, and that he personally handed over transcripts of the tapes to Haughey.
Doherty recently resigned as leader of the Irish Senate, the upper house of parliament, after making allegations in a television program about Haughey’s role in that affair. These accusations clearly put him outside the pale and unable to continue as Haughey’s spear-carrier in the Senate.
In his resignation press conference, he took full aim at the man who removed him from cabinet power in the early ’80s after the wiretapping scandal broke. Like everything else in politics, what was behind the shock resignation and attack on Haughey was not immediately apparent.
Doherty, it now appears, has been aligning himself with Albert Reynolds, former Minister for Finance, whose abortive attempt to unseat Haughey resulted in him being cast to the political wilderness last year. Reynolds, however, is shrewdly cultivating support to rise again.
Reynolds has being busy assembling “the boys from the backwoods” led by former Environment Minister Padraig Flynn, whose main claim to fame was a role as chief hatchet man for Fianna Fail in their attempt to defeat Mary Robinson when she was storming towards the presidency.
Flynn eventually buried the hatchet deep in his own flesh when he made scurrilous allegations about Mary Robinson being a poor mother to her children during a radio interview. That allegation may have cost the Fianna Fail candidate Brian Lenihan, the election.
Sean Doherty would be from the same primal mould, an old “wink and a nod” type pol, who has always had the whiff of scandal permeating from his political clothing. These are the men who would seek to replace Haughey if he goes.
On the other side are two of the more “liberal forces” in Fianna Fail, Bertie Ahern, Minister for Finance and Mary Rourke, Minister for Health. Atage 40 Ahern has a bright political career ahead. Recently, he acknowledged the breakdown of his own marriage and called for a rethink on divorce radical strategy in a country where the Catholic Church wields a big stick and divorce is outlawed. Rourke has made similar liberal noises.
As for Haughey, he immediately called a press conference to deny the allegations made by Doherty, but at press time it appeared that after a very brief respite, the Irish leader was once again, fighting for his political life.
The involvement in the phone tappings was just the latest in a whirlwind of allegations against Haughey, mostly involving alleged “get rich quick” schemes for close business supporters, the combined effect of which has left the Irish Prime Minister resembling the captain of the Titanic.
As the ship of state reels towards the latest iceberg, unemployment continues to spiral in the Irish Republic with levels now surpassing the 20 percent mark. “Gloom deep sepulchral gloom” in the words of Canon Sheehan pervades the landscape.
And 1992 gets off to a dismal start with the whiff of scandal once more in the air.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the February 1992 issue of Irish America. ♦
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