Throughout the 1980s, two men dominated the Irish political landscape. Charles Haughey and Garret Fitzgerald embodied and articulated very different visions of Ireland and its future. Over the course of five different governments, they would both struggle to address the twin challenges of political violence and economic failure which the country faced. At the time, they often seemed to fail more than they succeeded. But even their failures would ultimately help to shape the country we live in today.
In the first instalment of a special Inside Politics podcast series, Pat Leahy and Hugh Linehan look at what shaped Charlie and Garret. Born a year apart, one a Northsider, one a Southsider, both sons of Civil War veterans, divided by social class, personality and beliefs, they came to epitomise their two respective parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. In this episode Pat and Hugh trace their stories from childhood to the early stages of their political careers until at the end of the 1970s each of them rises to become leader of his party.
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