Haughey's Forty Years of Controversy by T. Ryle Dwyer

Author:T. Ryle Dwyer [RYLE DWYER, T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978 1 85635 724 1
Publisher: Mercier Press

THE BOSS

In late 1983 the publication of the book, The Boss caused a major political stir. Written by two journalists, Joe Joyce and Peter Murtagh, it was probably the most interesting and provocative book ever published on contemporary Irish politics.

Despite its subtitle, ‘Charles J. Haughey in Government’, the book was not so much about Charlie in government, as it was about the events which occurred while he was in power during 1982. In some cases he had no connection with the events under discussion and the authors might have taken a more dispassionate look at his actual role in the instances where he was involved.

Like so many others, the authors seemed inclined to presume Charlie’s guilt, despite his right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Easons, one of the major book distributors in the country, refused to handle The Boss for fear of being sued for libel. But this did not prevent it becoming a runaway bestseller, setting unprecedented sales records in the country for a book on a political topic. In a sense it was almost like another GUBU.

While readers would undoubtedly have been familiar with much of the material in the book because of the media’s extensive coverage within the past couple of years, the authors still brought out new information on virtually every facet of the story. They had the advantage of being able to provide a broader picture than the media had been able to give in the midst of the events. There was detailed coverage of the dismissed charge of double voting against Charlie’s election agent, and a thorough account of events leading to the O’Malley heave, the Gregory Deal, and Burke’s appointment to the European commission. There was also fresh material on the MacArthur affair, and the Dowra case in which Seán Doherty’s brother-in-law had the charges against him for assault dismissed after his victim failed to turn up in court. He had been ‘lifted’ by the police in Northern Ireland in an obvious attempt to prevent him testifying. He later won damages against both the police who detained him and the man who assaulted him.

The Boss was particularly good on the politicisation of the police, and the wire-tapping of the journalists. It went a long way to conveying the impression of fear that permeated opposition circles in 1982, when leading politicians, like Garret FitzGerald and Dick Spring, actually suspected that their telephones were being tapped. Frequently the authors did not actually give their own conclusions, they just led the reader to a point where conclusions seemed inescapable. But when they did come to conclusions, they seemed to judge Charlie by one set of standards and his critics by a very different criterion.

Charlie was depicted in a most unfavourable light over the Gregory Deal, while FitzGerald came off lightly even though he had also tried to make a deal. Burke’s appointment to the European commission was depicted as a piece of cynical opportunism, even though the reaction of Fine Gael was even more

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