Bitter memories make Bertie skip the beef on the political menu

WE can be sure that Larry Goodman did not drop his multi-million euro lawsuit against the Government because he thought he had such a good case.

The Government could have pursued him for its costs, but history would suggest that Bertie was right to steer clear of that squabble, because beef difficulties have brought about the early political demise of most of his Fianna Fáil predecessors.

It was Albert Reynolds' testimony at the beef tribunal that brought down his first government in November 1992. Faced with what amounted to a perjury accusation, O'Malley had no real option but to bring down the Government. The same tribunal also played a major part in poisoning relations in the next Government as well.

Following the release of the beef tribunal report, Reynolds rushed into print claiming "total vindication", without giving his Labour colleagues a chance to digest the report. Trust between Reynolds and Dick Spring was so badly undermined that day that it was only a matter of time before another incident brought down the Government.

Charlie Haughey was forced to step down in early 1992 by the re-opening of the telephone tapping scandal, but this was just the last straw. He had to go because of a series of business scandals, in which the events leading to the Beef Tribunal played a major role.

Albert and Charlie were not the only Fianna Fáil leaders who got into cowboy trouble, however. Beef problems also hastened the departures of both Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch, and played no small part in undermining the ambitions of George Colley.

Lemass stepped down in 1966 during of a bitter dispute over beef prices with the National Farmers' Association (NFA), the forerunner of the IFA. His difficulties were exacerbated by the fact that his Minister for Agriculture was his son-in-law, Charles Haughey.

The EEC had closed its doors to Irish cattle that April and this was compounded by a dock strike in Britain, which meant that the main markets were closed to Irish beef 80% of which was for export. When the dock strike ended, Irish cattle were dumped on the British market and prices tumbled.

Haughey told farmers to hold on to their cattle to allow prices to rise, but Rickard Deasy, the president of the NFA, advised them to sell as prices were going to fall further. When RTÉ reported this, Haughey was indignant and he telephoned the news department.

"I felt compelled in the public interest to protest that the NFA statement should be carried immediately after mine," Haughey explained.

"I gave specific advice to farmers in reply to questions from deputies in the Dáil as the responsible minister, and I felt that to have my advice followed by contradiction from an organisation could only lead to confusion and damage the industry."

They were an uppity crowd in RTÉ in those days, weren't they? Imagine having the nerve to contradict the advice of a minister! But when the little fella called, they got into a funk.

The item was dropped from further broadcasts. Questions were asked in the Dáil about this blatant piece of news management and Haughey came across in all of his arrogance as he argued that RTÉ was wrong to air advice that contradicted him.

"I think it was a very unwise thing to say the least of it, for Radio Telefís Éireann to follow that solemn advice of mine, given as Minister for Agriculture, with a contradiction by one organisation," he said.

This almost caused a strike at RTÉ. Little over a week later the NFA set out from various centres on a march to Dublin. Deasy walked 210 miles from Bantry. People joined the march on the way and some 30,000 farmers arrived in Merrion Square for a protest meeting on October 19, 1966.

This was the forerunner to the recent tractor cavalcade, but the "poor farmers" in 1966 walked to Dublin, while the latest crowd rode on expensive tractors demonstrating their poverty by exhibiting their wealth.

The 1966 protest was much more effective. After the rally in Merrion Square, nine of the leaders went to the Department of Agriculture to protest, but Haughey refused to meet them, so they camped outside on the steps, insisting that they would stay there for a month, if necessary, until the minister met them.

As this dispute got worse, Lemass announced that he was stepping down as Taoiseach. He was planning to go soon anyway, but the dispute forced his hand.

Thirteen years later, in December 1979, Jack Lynch also decided to go earlier than he had planned. He was essentially pushed by the so-called gang of five. One of them, Tom McEllistrim Jnr (whose father actually proposed Lynch for Taoiseach in 1966) was adamant that their real motive was not to oust Lynch, or even elect Haughey, but to prevent George Colley getting the job.

IN his budget earlier that year, Colley, as Minister for Finance, had tried to introduce a 2% levy on the earnings of farmers.

The levy was to apply not only to money paid for cattle but also milk, cereals and vegetables.

Joe Rea, the president of the IFA, denounced the proposal as "absolutely outrageous". Even though farmers were still being asked to pay less than half the rate of tax of the PAYE sector, he said that they would not pay the levy, because it took no account of the individual farmer's ability to pay. Poorer farmers would have to pay the same 2% levy as the rich.

It reads almost like the sounds now being made by Joe Higgins and the garbage gang.

Traditionally, richer farmers tended to support Fine Gael, which had antagonised its supporters by bringing in income tax for the wealthier farmers during the previous Government. Then Fianna Fáil irked its own supporters among the small farmers by trying to tax them.

Amid the ensuing uproar the Government backed down, which provoked even more outrage among PAYE taxpayers. They organised a series of protest marches around the country.

On March 11, 1979, some 50,000 people marched at a rally organised in Dublin by the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, and there were other marches in various urban centres.

Colley had antagonised the farmers by trying to introduce the levy, and the PAYE workers by dropping it.

Lynch wanted Colley as his successor, but the gang of five were determined to block him. It was in an attempt to prevent them from organising properly that Lynch allowed Colley and Martin O'Donoghue to persuade him to step down early and call a snap meeting to elect his successor with just two days' notice. But they got it wrong, because Haughey was already better organised. Truth was, they couldn't have organised a party in a brewery.

When the Goodman cowboys backed down this week, it was an indication that the centre of power has shifted in Irish politics. Larry's former mouthpiece in the Dáil, Liam Lawlor, no longer enjoys his former influence. Times have changed.

The way things are going, Lawlor and his old Dublin West constituency colleague, Joe Higgins, could be sharing a cell before long.

Wouldn't they be the odd couple!