For those of us in Irish satire, Dermot Morgan remains the grandaddy of the profession, and his defining creation was not Fr Ted, but Charlie Haughey. Morgan’s Haughey impression was so perfect and powerful, it is his voice we hear when we think of our most memorable Taoiseach now, instead of CJ’s actual tones. The voice in your head is probably already growling “Maaaara” as you read this. Dermot Morgan’s killer caricature also managed to do more journalism on Haughey while he was in office than most of the media put together. 

Scrap Saturday referred to Terry Keane’s problematic relationship with Haughey a decade before her revelation of their affair rocked the Late Late Show audience. Charlie’s money was a constant theme and Morgan made hay out of Haughey’s pompous view of himself as a direct descendent of a High King of Ireland, and therefore with a divine right to rule its tribes. When Scrap ended 30 years ago, rumours swirled that it was the Taoiseach of the day who had it axed. Just three years ago, co-creator Gerry Stembridge was still denying that political interference had them taken off air, explaining they simply wanted to move on to other projects. “How many times do I have to answer this question?” he sighed, exasperated.

Where Charlie Haughey is concerned, there has been almost no sin, real or imagined, that hasn’t been attributed to his dastardly sinister doings. The dark side of the man from Castlebar, Derry, Donnycarney, Kerry and everywhere in between, has overwhelmed any attempt to sense the light in him. It has frustrated all attempts to reckon with his legacy. The only agreement in the divisive debate about the era of Haughey is that he remains a fascinating figure of history, 15 years after his death and almost three decades after he left office.

In making a six-part comedy series for RTÉ this year about Ireland’s 100 years since the Treaty (Callan Kicks the Years), Haughey was always the only leader who was going to have his own episode. And for comedy purposes, playing up the dark side is the only way to go, if not to honestly review the career of Charlie, but to honour the memory of Dermot Morgan’s seminal portrayal of him.

Gary Murphy, author of Haughey. Photo: Bryan Meade

In researching for the programme, it was notable that one could only find books and other writings that either skewered Haughey or lauded him excessively. When I read Gary Murphy’s now best-selling Haughey biography, released in late November, I cursed him for not releasing it sooner. Gary is Professor of Politics at DCU and a former lecturer of mine. A well known commentator across the media, Murphy manages that rare thing, to be both colourful and meaningful, but always measured and with no discernible political agenda. He is the perfect candidate to grapple with Haughey’s legacy and his is the most comprehensive review of the man yet. Warts, Charvets, liver funds and all. It’s a weighty read but hugely entertaining, often comic, loaded with skulduggery, busted myths, hinted new conspiracies and a surprisingly intimate description of Haughey’s final days. It does not rehabilitate ‘The Boss’ but it does help us understand his time in power more.

I read the book over a weekend between TV shooting days and knew immediately I wanted to chat to Gary. The story remains electrifying, even to those of us who thought we knew all the twists already. We waited to have our discussion until after the reaction for the book began to reverberate. The reception has been unlike any response to a political biography in years.

Prof Diarmuid Ferriter has railed against what he saw as “deference” in the book. Former Taoiseach John Bruton seemed upset it didn’t deal more with his own tiny interests in the period. Alan Shatter bizarrely felt Murphy should’ve talked to more Fine Gael people. Fellow tribunal-stained Bertie Ahern, currently enjoying an inexplicable rehabilitation that Haughey was never gifted, loved the good parts about his old mentor.

Author Colm Tóibín reviewed it positively as did David McCullough, who must be wondering how his two huge volumes on DeValera failed to muster the same level of excitement. Dev was involved in three wars, survived execution, wrote a constitution we’re still unpicking, trolled Churchill, is blamed for the death of Collins and lived into this 90s, yet he’s still somehow duller than Charles James Haughey.

In our podcast interview, I confront Gary Murphy with some of the charges put to him about the book and he seems unbothered by the fuss, happy to stand over everything he’s written, which he repeatedly points out was about trying to view the world from Haughey’s vantage. After all, the marketing around the release is primarily focused on Murphy’s exclusive access to the Haughey papers. The documents were donated by the family to DCU and they put no conditions on Murphy’s use of them and he permitted no veto on anything he wrote. At the time of our conversation, while the world isn’t shy about giving its view on the outcome, the Haughey family simply congratulated him on the release in a text but gave no indication of how they viewed its contents.

This was interesting. In the promotion of my TV series in the autumn, I was preparing for a fairly light daytime broadcast interview about an episode dealing with the boom years. Bertie was the main figure of this period. A researcher gave me a final note from the lead producer. Under no circumstances was I to say on air that “Charlie Haughey was corrupt”. I was almost too stunned to respond initially, but I asked for an explanation. The gist of it was that the Haughey family are in touch with media and are “hurt” by the label. As you’ll hear in our chat, the family are indeed on something of a campaign but it was truly astonishing to hear that some producers, who should know better, are following their instructions.

Irish people are not good at reckoning with history. Owning it and roaring when someone else gives their version, we can do. Truly facing it and seeing ourselves within the dark chapters, we’re not so good at. It should be no shock then that there is no whole consensus on Haughey. His misdeeds are huge. The sheer opulence of his lifestyle, laid completely bare in Murphy’s book, has never been fully explained.

He left a gigantic fortune behind, literally tens of millions worth, mainly wealth he clearly did not directly earn. Did Haughey do favours for the enormous donations he received from rich men? The evidence is circumstantial, and the donors say he was simply a great man who deserved big rewards, but there were geniuses during Haughey’s time who never received a penny from businessmen. Poets can create beauty in words but they can’t make decisions that make rich men richer.

Haughey had amazing achievements, many of them overlooked today, and you’ll have to get to the end of the podcast to hear them listed. The founding of the IFSC is often named as one of his finest. Some of those involved were big donors of Haughey and its creation also happened to make them wealthier. Depending on your economic ideologies, the IFSC was either the proper start of a multinationals boom that created thousands of jobs. Or the beginning of our embarrassing reputation for tax avoidance, leading Noam Chomsky to recently declare that “Ireland, for its own benefit, has robbed poor working people around the world of tens of trillions of dollars”.

Perhaps Haughey’s reputation is as difficult for us to wholly conclude upon as Ireland’s tax reputation. Our FDI courting generates huge revenue for the country, creates enormous numbers of jobs but is inescapably morally wrong. Haughey did much good, commencing a process that would lead to peace in the North, social partnership, rights for widows, pensioners, artists, the disabled, legal aid, Temple Bar, a department of the marine, our solid position in the EU. And yet he risked overshadowing it all with his unethical, insatiable appetite for money. He created an atmosphere where other political figures expected and received corrupting rewards on top of already generous government salaries. Along the way at least, he was never boring. And oddly, we can thank Dermot Morgan for helping to form part of the allure.

Haughey, By Prof. Gary Murphy, is published by Gill