‘The ultimate judgment of history will be kind’

CHARLES HAUGHEY was described as the dominant public figure of late 20th century as he was laid to rest yesterday in St Fintan’s Cemetery in Sutton in Dublin yesterday.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, delivering the graveside oration, accepted that Mr Haughey’s career was controversial but said he had “no doubt that the ultimate judgment of history will be kind”.

Mr Ahern, in a 12-minute oration during which his voice occasionally quivered with emotion, dwelt strongly on the political achievements and personal abilities of his predecessor, rather than on the controversies and flaws that made him such a polarising figure, and drew scorn upon him in his final years.

A surprisingly low number of mourners were at the graveyard for the burial. The State had expected many thousands of people to turn out and had installed two large video screens in an adjacent field for the anticipated overflow. In the event, the turnout was between 1,000 and 1,300 according to most estimates, of whom perhaps 400 had congregated before the main funeral party arrived from Donnycarney Church.

Civic, judicial, religious, diplomatic leaders attended the burial. The State was represented by President Mary McAleese, the Taoiseach and most members of the Cabinet. The former European Commissioner Pádraig Flynn was also in attendance.

The chief mourners were Mr Haughey’s widow, Maureen, her four children, Ciaran, Eimear, Conor and Sean, the TD for Dublin North Central who had earlier paid tribute to his father at the Requiem Mass.

Also in attendance were Mr Haughey’s two brothers and sister. His brother Fr Eoghan Haughey led the service at the funeral.

Mr Haughey’s coffin, draped in the Tricolour, was carried at slow march by a military bearer party from the entrance to the plot, situated at a corner of the graveyard in the shade of two sycamore trees.

At the graveside, the flag was removed from the coffin and presented by Sergeant John McGlinchey to the chief mourner, Maureen Haughey.

At the conclusion of prayers, a firing party drawn from the naval service, under the command of Lieutenant Alan O’Regan, fired three volleys over the grave.

The Last Post and the Reveille were then sounded by buglers and drummers from the army’s College of Music.

Mr Ahern had spent much of Thursday working on his oration which, he told the congregation yesterday, he considered a great honour.

The speech was a strong reaffirmation of what has been seen as a move within Fianna Fáil to rehabilitate the reputation of a political leader who was always controversial but who endured deeply humiliating revelations about his personal life and finances during his later years.

Mr Ahern said that during his career, Mr Haughey had never forgotten his roots or his quintessential Dublin values.

“He did not ride the wind or tides. He sought to change them,” he said.

A little later, he said: “Charles Haughey was a patriot to his finger tips.”

In his eulogy, Mr Ahern also compared Mr Haughey to WB Yeats, who he said shared his complex nature and his impatience for progress in Ireland.

“When Yeats wrote ‘I am of Ireland’ he could not have penned a better description of Charles J Haughey,” he said.

Concentrating solely on Mr Haughey’s political career, Mr Ahern said that he had set himself three objectives as a political leader, all of which had now been greatly achieved. They were to secure a lasting peace in Northern Ireland; to bring Ireland from the periphery of the European Union to its centre; and to consign a failing Irish economy to the dustbin of history.

“History will favourably record that from 1988, CJ Haughey took the first steps in the long road to peace when he opened up secret channels of negotiations with the Provisional IRA,” he said.

In a speech that will be seen as a strong effort to re-establish Mr Haughey’s legacy, he paraphrased the Shakespearean quote from Mr Haughey’s last speech as Taoiseach.

“He had done the State some service,” said Mr Ahern. “I have no doubt that the ultimate judgment of history will be positive.”

In one of several personal references, the Taoiseach remembered how after surviving one of the heaves against him in Fianna Fáil, Mr Haughey had “ruefully admitted to me he enjoyed the proverbial nine lives.

“Charlie, Boss, the last of those lives has now been extinguished,” said Mr Ahern. “The life of the most agile and able of our political leaders is still.”