THE HAUGHEY FAMILY is behind a website that has been set up to provide “factual information” about the career of former taoiseach Charles J Haughey.
The detailed website has been established with the consent of his family and is aimed at highlighting Haughey’s career in public life and “his considerable contribution and achievements over many decades”.
The homepage of the website introduces Haughey as a former minister and taoiseach, stating that in all of his departments “he exhibited an abiding social concern and a commitment to reform”.
“He introduced major initiatives including enlightened programmes for social progress, law reform, improved health services, modernisation of the taxation system and restoration of the public finances,” the introduction states.
It lists his achievements in Northern Ireland and as the head of government during the EU Presidency in 1990, which saw the admission of a united Germany to the then European Community.
There is no mention of the political scandals that engulfed the former Fianna Fáil leader, such as the Moriarty or McCracken tribunals, between his 1992 retirement and death in 2006.
Nor indeed is there any reference to the Arms Trial or the phone tapping scandal in the 1980s which led to calls for him to resign as leader of Fianna Fáil at the time.
Other sections of the website include ‘some personal initiatives in public life’ including the provision of Government Buildings, the establishment of Templemore training centre for gardaí (which is described as the “first major decentralisation operation”) and the abolition of capital punishment in the 60s.
In a section called ‘Northern Ireland Peace Process’, former Fianna Fáil minister Martin Mansergh pays tribute to Haughey’s achievements in the North.
There is also a section on social partnership and on Haughey’s ‘interests and hobbies’ and a list of items bequeathed by his family to various institutions.
The emergence of the website comes ahead of the RTÉ drama ‘Charlie’ which is currently being filmed and, according to the Irish Independent, is concerning the Haughey family who are worried about how it will portray CJH.
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