Haughey ‘error’ huge publicity boost for book

If controversy is the best publicity, then Anne Chamber’s upcoming book on TK Whitaker has got off to a good start — thanks in no small part to Charles Haughey.

Last Saturday, it was reported that Ms Chamber’s new book on Dr Whitaker — TK Whitaker: Portrait of a Patriot — included a claim that Haughey’s no-show for a budget speech in 1970 was due to his being badly beaten that morning by an assailant(s) wielding an iron bar.

The claim was attributed to Dr Whitaker. Subsequently, the Haughey family released a statement saying the account of how the then finance minister had sustained his injuries was “patently untrue”. Haughey’s injuries were due to a fall from a horse they said.

However it now appears the error in who said what lies with the author and the publishers of the Whitaker book.

A clarification issued last night by Ms Chambers and Bantam Press said the quotation attributed to Dr Whitaker was in fact a direct quotation from Jack Lynch: A Biography by Professor Dermot Keogh. The reason for the confusion was due to a “reference error in the end notes” which led to the words being “incorrectly attributed to Dr Whitaker”, the clarification said.

The clarification said the offending reference “will be amended accordingly in future editions of the book”.

Prof Keogh’s book was published by Gill and Macmillan in 2008. Prof Keogh was not available for comment last night.

TK Whitaker, 97, was the youngest ever Secretary General at the Dept of Finance and was appointed to the job in 1956 at age 39. He was subsequently appointed governor of the Central Bank.

He is credited with being the principal architect of the 1958 paper Economic Development, described as one of the seminal influences on our economic development. He was also hugely influential in developing Ireland’s international trade relations. He was born in Rostrevor, Co Down, and played a key role in the groundbreaking visit of the taoiseach Sean Lemass to Stormont in 1965. He remained a valued adviser to Jack Lynch on Northern Ireland issues during his term as taoiseach.

TK Whitaker: Portrait of a Patriot, is due for publication on Thursday.