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CHARLIE HAUGHEY IS as controversial in death as he was in life.
His name has made the front pages over the past three days after a new claim emerged that he was beaten with an iron bar in a pub row on the morning of the Budget announcement in April 1970.
The story, published in a new book about the legendary civil servant TK Whitaker, has been denied by Haughey’s family, and there is now confusion as to who exactly made the claim – and whether there is any truth at all to it.
Here’s what we know (and what we don’t know)…
What’s this about Charlie Haughey missing his own Budget speech?
The Budget announcement of 22 April 1970 was the ‘Budget Without A Minister’ as Charlie Haughey, finance minister of the day, was unable to make the Dáil speech, forcing taoiseach Jack Lynch to deliver the annual announcement instead.
What happened to Haughey?
According to widespread media reports at the time, Haughey had fallen off his horse while riding at his home in Kinsealy that morning. The story has gone down in Irish political folklore.
RTÉ’s archive even has video of Haughey’s election Patrick O’Connor making a statement to the media outlining the extent of the minister’s injuries which included concussion, a fractured skull, a torn right eardrum, a broken collarbone and a fracture in one of the bones in his back.
Here is Haughey (right) with his arm in a sling a few weeks after the incident when he was sacked as Finance Minister over the Arms Crisis.
But what’s this about Haughey being beaten in a pub?
At the weekend, the Irish Independent reported a new claim being made in the book about TK Whitaker, a former secretary general at the Department of Finance and a man credited with being the ‘architect of modern Ireland’, that Haughey was in fact beaten with an iron bar in a pub row that morning.
The book - TK Whitaker: Portrait of a Patriot by Anne Chambers – quotes Whitaker as saying that Haughey was injured after a severe beating inflicted by unknown persons in a pub on the morning of Budget day.
Dr Whitaker is quoted in the book as saying: “His injuries were so severe – an iron bar having been used by his attacker or attackers – that he had been admitted as an emergency case to the Mater Hospital.”
Are the claims true?
Well, the Haughey family have “categorically” stated that version of events is “completely and utterly untrue”. In a statement issued on Sunday, his relatives said:
On the morning in question Mr Haughey was returning to the stables in Abbeville on his horse. He grabbed an overhead drainpipe to dismount from the horse and it reared up and jumped forward when the pipe broke. Mr Haughey fell from the horse and became unconscious.
The family said that the new claims had caused great distress to Haughey’s wife, Maureen, and family.
What has the book’s publisher said?
Rather embarrassingly, the book’s publisher, Doubleday Ireland (part of Transworld Ireland), has been forced to clarify that the iron bar beating claim was incorrectly attributed to TK Whitaker in Portrait of a Patriot.
In fact the claim should have been attributed – as a direct quotation – from the book Jack Lynch: A Biography by Professor Dermot Keogh.
“The author and publishers wish to clarify that due to a reference error in the endnotes, the words were incorrectly attributed to Dr. Whitaker. The reference will be amended accordingly in future editions of the book,” the statement added.
The source of the claim in the Jack Lynch biography is not known. We’ve attempted to contact the book’s author, Professor Keogh, this morning but to no avail.
What about Anne Chambers, the author of Portrait of a Patriot?
We’ve asked for an interview with Chambers but have received a response to indicate it’s unlikely she’ll be speaking about the matter.
So, was Charlie Haughey beaten-up in a pub on the morning of Budget day in 1970?
As intriguing as the claim is, it does not yet appear to be backed up by any solid evidence. It is worth noting that throughout this period, Haughey and others in the Fianna Fáil government were embroiled in what became known as the Arms Crisis – the alleged attempt to illegally import arms for the IRA into Northern Ireland.
Haughey and his fellow Cabinet minister Neil Blaney were sacked by Jack Lynch on 6 May after they refused to resign. Another minister, Kevin Boland, resigned in protest, claiming that Lynch and most of the Cabinet knew about the arms import plan all along. Haughey and Blaney later went on trial and were acquitted.
But as for whether he was beaten in a pub with an iron bar on the morning of Budget day, all of the evidence so far indicates it’s more likely that Haughey did fall of a horse on the morning of 22 April 1970 as his family maintain, and as was widely reported at the time.
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I never heard about a bar being uses, asked the father, as far as he heard at the time it was a severe beating he received.
It is odd to see how people still choose to believe the horse story. Is there anyone left at this stage in Dublin FF who thinks a horse was involved.
A riding incident caused it but there was no horse.
Sure it wasn’t the same mystical horse Saint Bertie won all that money on Seanie?
As you well know seanie .. And even today the cover up continues … Eamonn Andrews and his brother beat the crap out of that weasel because he assaulted their sister when he gave her a lift home one night … Terry keane also said it in her book which the journal also fail to mention ! It seems the journal is going the way of RTE and all the other Gov controlled media propaganda machines … What a shame !! Irish media seems no better than the Russian and North Korean media sycophants !
I knew the beating was for his attacking a woman that he gave a lift home to.
And the most pertinent question goes unanswered: why did the assailant stop?
Hard to believe not a single journalist has asked the most important question about this incident.
And that question is…….
Was the iron bar ok?
Odd injuries though for a man falling from a horse. A torn eardrum? How would that happen. The rest are plausible but pretty excessive. Ambulance drivers? His driver?
Maybe it was a horse.
Haughey might have gotten out of the ambulance for a celebratory drink at finishing the budget preparation and had the bad luck to meet the family of the woman he attacked and received a beating for it.
And Maureen and the family are annoyed and hurt about THIS element of Charlie’s life…why? does it suggest he was thuggish? hanging with the wrong sort? a bit of a ‘lad about town’?a social menace? had a criminal element to his life?…goes to show a woman will forgive anything if she loves a man enough!
The main thing is he got a hiding and I commend the horse or brothers who gave it to him :-)
Bit of a backtrack from the Journal. How much did the Haugheys have to pay for this article?
Beaten by an Iron Bar and an Iron Lady during his time in Politics.
And ruled with an iron glove. Ironic really.
The good old days.
I’m surprised Enda hasn’t had similar done to him
If he wasn’t then he should have been and then some more…
It might have been enda with the iron bar his wasn’t his wife Charlie’s secretary.
My question is. .
Why was he in a pub on the morning of the budget ?
Was it that bad that he needed dutch courage to deliver it. ?
Fell of a horse..yeh right !!
He was well known for buying the regulars a round. This is today known as “buying votes.”
He was known for calling a round for all the people in the bar, telling the owner the local cumann would cover it.
Lot of bars got burnt with that one.
So that’s why Shergar had to disappear.
I remember at the time that people were saying that he had been beaten up by an “unhappy” husband.
This story was doing the rounds years ago. That he was caught in an upstairs bedroom in a pub in clonee with another mans wife
The other man’s wife was a different time.
Charlie got around!!
And a different horse?
Wonder will the tv show about him cover this incident? Would make for a more interesting show!
There is no sense beating a dead horse (-:
Of course he wasn’t. If the minister for finance was assaulted in such a fashion don’t you think there would have at least been a police report! I think it’s just wishful thinking by some of the pond-life that frequent places like The Journal.
“Of course he wasn’t. If the minister for finance was assaulted in such a fashion don’t you think there would have at least been a police report!”
If said Minister for Finance was setting up a dodgy deal, for example organising smuggling arms into the country for the IRA, then calling the police might not be such a tip top idea.
Bless the innocence of it all.
As if Haughey wanted the people who did it to have a platform as public as a court.
They might go to jail but his career would have been over.
Sorry Seanie if you’re Dad says it happened then that’s all the evidence we need! *sigh*
Do you honestly believe that it was a horse?
lol.
Even the most ardent party followers of the Boss will give the exact same tale.
All we are getting now is that the papers are writing about it.
I have no doubt that you know all this but are playing tribal politics in trying to rubbish it.
Any clues as to the identity of the patriot with the iron bar?
The source of the claim is the book “Jack Lynch: A Biography” written in 2008.
The only conclusion is that the original book was so boring that nobody read it.
Apparently the Fine Gael spokesperson on Finance Mr Tom O’Higgins walked across the floor of Dail Eireann that day and asked the Taoiseach of the day Jack Lynch if they should adjourn the House as a mark of respect to Haughey.
Sitting beside Lynch was O’Morain Minister for Justice who answered quietly………..would we like fcuk….didn’t the tinker get the beating of his life for taking advantage of that young one.
Apparently the beating was from members of a family who found Haughey in a compromised position with a young lady in her home.
Why would anyone beat up Charlie Haughey?
Is this really newsworthy let the man rest
Yes, that is why it is in the News.
He is resting whether we are talking about him or not.
Who actually cares.
likely that Haughey did fall of a horse on the morning of 22 April 1970
fall of a horse………………. what the ‘f’
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