THE HAUGHEY family does not believe the Moriarty tribunal got it right in its findings on Charlie Haughey’s role in the fund for Brian Lenihan snr’s liver transplant operation, Seán Haughey has said.
The son of Charlie Haughey and former minister of state said there had been a lot of “untruths” about the episode involving Mr Lenihan’s medical treatment.
Charlie Haughey had set up a fund to contribute to the cost of his colleague’s liver transplant in the United States. The Moriarty tribunal found that Mr Haughey had “deliberately sought to raise funds in addition to what he knew or must have known was required to meet the cost of Mr Lenihan’s treatment, and that he ultimately applied part of those funds for his own use”.
Seán Haughey said he believed the Lenihans were “very happy” with the role his father played in securing the medical treatment for Mr Lenihan.
“We’re a little bit unhappy with the way events unfolded. If you read my father’s evidence to the Moriarty tribunal, he said it was the most compassionate thing that he ever did . . . and he said he believed that if he had not intervened his friend would have died. To be honest with you, we don’t believe that Moriarty got it all right in that regard.”
Before his father died, Seán Haughey said he had approached the late Brian Lenihan jnr in the Dáil to read a prayer of the faithful at the funeral. “And to my surprise, he burst out crying which said a lot I think, and was very taken back to learn that my father was gravely ill, and was very honoured to be asked.”
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s The Marian Finucane Show on Saturday, Mr Haughey also said his mother Maureen was dictating her memoirs. As well as being the wife of a former taoiseach, she is the daughter of former taoiseach Seán Lemass.
Mr Haughey said he had encouraged his mother to write her memoirs. “Initially she was reluctant but now she is in full swing,” he said. “She’s taken to it with relish.”
He said the book was “for family consumption” at the moment as his mother was a very private person.
“I think there’s a good book in it but obviously we’d have to do it with her consent.”
His mother was “a great judge of character”, he said.
“She could see the chancers coming along and would, from time to time, think that maybe my father couldn’t see them as well as she could see them coming along.”
Asked whether she was hurt by the revelations about the affair between Charlie Haughey and columnist Terry Keane, he said: “She’s never spoken about it. I often think about it myself. I mean, she must have known about it.”
There were always rumours and it didn’t take much to put two and two together. “I think the thing that affected her most was just the sheer embarrassment of it, to have it discussed in public like that. I think she was particularly hurt for her grandchildren as well.”
The morning after Terry Keane appeared on The Late Late Show to reveal the affair was “a very reflective sort of a day” in the Haughey home.
“It wasn’t a barrel of laughs, no. I think if you gave her an interview that day you might have got a few unprintable quotes.”
Asked whether he or his siblings had chastised their father for the affair, he said: “These things happen, and what do you do? It wouldn’t be the first time a politician had an affair.”
Mr Haughey also said the family was taken aback at the amount of publicity given to the sale of Abbe-ville, the former Haughey home. He said Col Gadafy was never entertained in Abbeville, despite reports to the contrary.
Mr Haughey lost his seat in the last election but said he was considering running for local election. He had been assured by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin that there was a place in the party for him, and the “so-called Haughey legacy wasn’t an issue for me”.
