In the rush to analyse, let’s not forget Haughey’s accomplishments

A FEW weeks ago I had coffee with a number of work colleagues, a few of whom were in their mid 20s.

The conversation turned to the RTÉ comedy programme Scrap Saturday. Some of us began to talk about the show’s most memorable sketches, including the frequent parodies of Charles Haughey’s exchanges with his press secretary, PJ Mara. Then one of the 20-somethings pointed out she had never seen Scrap Saturday. Not only did she not know about Scrap Saturday, but she had assumed we were talking about a television programme.

It showed there is a whole generation who have come to political consciousness in the post-Haughey era. It is about 15 years since he was Taoiseach, and so there is a large portion of the population who had no experience of him as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil in real time.