Letter in today’s Irish Examiner (The full, unedited version).
Haughey’s flawed pedigree
Saturday, May 19, 2012
It is grotesquely hilarious to witness the Haughey family demanding and receiving an apology from the estate agents Savills because the agency mistakenly claimed that Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi and Margaret Thatcher had visited the former Taoiseach’s home in Kinsealy.
Apparently, the Haugheys are concerned that the former Taoiseach’s reputation could be sullied if associated with these particular people.
Only those in complete denial are capable of maintaining such a bizarre mindset.
Whatever about Col. Gaddafi’s reputation, Mrs. Thatcher’s good name would certainly be damaged by any association with the disgraced former Taoiseach.
The policies and politics of Mrs. Thatcher can, and are, rejected by a great many people, but it cannot be denied that she was a leader of courage and principles who worked selflessly for the good of her country and people.
Mr Haughey, on the other hand, abused political power to enrich himself and those close to him at the expense of the Irish people.
When a tribunal, established in the name of the Irish people, exposed the full extent of Mr Haughey’s flawed pedigree his family rejected its findings when they should have been apologising to the nation for his betrayal of the country.
Mr Haughey had three overweening ambitions in life — money, power and the hope that he would be remembered as a great statesman.
He succeeded in the first two, but no matter how often or how loudly the Haughey family protests he will never achieve the third.
Anthony Sheridan
Cobh
Co Cork