Charlie had his good points but Garret was the political colossus

“TO Mr Haughey’s eternal credit, and this is not politically popular to say so, he will always be remembered as the man who turned the country around,” Charlie McCreevy declared last week.

We were bankrupt. We were the next case for the International Monetary Fund. There may be lots of things that Mr Haughey did that people could not approve of, but he turned this country around." McCreevy was one of the few men who had the guts to confront Charlie Haughey as leader of the party. "We seem to be against everything and for nothing," McCreevy declared publicly in December 1981.

A few weeks later, he complained that general elections were "developing into an auction in promises" with little regard for the national interest.