Madam, - What has perhaps been hardest to bear in the unctuous eulogising of Charles Haughey has been the claim that he was a great and liberal legislator in the public interest. He has been mistaken for Solon the Lawgiver because he introduced some overdue legislation and because he provided a few small comforts to the elderly at the expense of some commercial State companies.
Free travel for the elderly at off-peak times was introduced at no cost to the Exchequer; what cost there was was borne by CIÉ. The free television licence also cost the Exchequer nothing; indeed, it had for Fianna Fáil the delightful consequence of diminishing revenue to RTÉ. In these and similar cases of legislative largesse, Mr Haughey acted like a medieval feudal lord, giving a gift or favour at someone else's expense.
The measures he introduced as minister for justice and for finance, notably the Succession Act, were merely the belated enactment of humane decencies. They would soon have been forced on the government by the newly activist Supreme Court if they had been postponed any longer. Most of the major enactments for which he is given such exaggerated credit were simply following what was then the normal practice of transcribing British law into the Irish statute book after a delay of years.
Mr Haughey's true measure as a legislator can be judged from his craven law to restrict the sale of condoms, from his opportunistic opposition to the 1986 divorce referendum on supposedly moral grounds and from his disgraceful opposition to the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement. In the latter case he turned all his personal and party energies at home and abroad towards trying to destroy a landmark agreement on the path to peace, going so far as to send the late Brian Lenihan on a shameful mission to the US to try to turn a foreign government against the Irish national interest.
Some record for the great and liberal legislator and patriot. - Yours, etc,
HUGO BRADY BROWN, Stratford on Slaney, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - Seems there is a bit of a stir over the possibility of renaming the Dublin Port Tunnel or the IFSC after Charles Haughey.
Might I suggest avoiding such controversy by choosing a different venue? One I believe that hasn't been named yet, so avoiding any renaming controversy.
The new prison in North Dublin? This I feel would be a convenient compromise.
The followers of CJH would have a notable building named after him and his detractors surely would be comforted in the knowledge that he would spend an extended period of time there in spirit, having unfortunately avoided a visit in person during his lifetime. - Yours, etc,
GARRETT McCAUL, Chalfont Avenue, Malahide, Co Dublin.
Madam - Hurrah for Ruairí Quinn and Mary Raftery. Only they had the courage to tell it like it was. Is the Fianna Fáil hierarchy suffering from collective amnesia? It's not that long ago since Mr Ahern admitted that Mr Haughey brought shame to the party. - Yours, etc,
BRIGID GREENE, Sorrento Court Dalkey, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Let there be no misty-eyed revisionism about the contribution of Charles Haughey to Irish public life.
He represented everything that is bad about Irish politics, and will not be missed by those who value probity in people holding high office.
Peter Murtagh and Joe Joyce sum it up appropriately in their Guardian obituary: "Haughey stands reviled and condemned". - Yours, etc,
DOUGLAS KEATINGE, Marino Ave East, Killiney, Co Dublin.
Madam, - In the last few days, those seeking to rehabilitate the reputation of Charles Haughey have argued that his achievements outweighed acknowledged moral and political failings.
Martin Mansergh (June 16th) takes a different approach. Having listed Haughey's achievements, he seeks to deny the former taoiseach's most public sin by defending his unorthodox financial arrangements. Is this then another charge to be laid at Charlie's door: he so corrupted the moral sensibilities of those around him that a leading intellectual of the ruling party does not believe that the practice of wealthy businessmen giving massive secret donations to a serving taoiseach to be inherently wrong? - Yours, etc,
ROBERT CARROLL, Kenilworth Park, Dublin 6W.
Madam - In the content, tone and timing of your Editorial of June 17th, you have done this State, its citizens, the reputation of Irish journalism - and of your newspaper in particular - a very considerable service indeed. Thank you. - Yours, etc,
PADDY MCGOVERN, Old Leighlin, Co Carlow.
A chara, - It is a measure of the character and decency of Charles Haughey's lifelong opponents, both in Fine Gael and the Progressive Democrats, that their tributes to him on his death were almost without exception warm and generous.
However, for a man who did more for the less well off in our society than any Labour minister ever did, it surprised many people to hear successive Labour Party leaders and associates, from Pat Rabbitte and Ruairí Quinn to Conor Cruise O'Brien and Fintan O'Toole, barely able to suppress their bile, condemning the man in the most vitriolic tones, before his family even had a chance to bury him. Again, it probably says something about character and decency. - Is mise, le meas,
DAVID CARROLL, Castle Gate, Dublin 2.