Begrudgers target a great man

I AM not now, nor have I ever been, a Fianna Fáil supporter. Having said that, I listened with disgust to Joe Duffy’s Liveline programme on RTÉ radio (December 20) as people took to the air to insult the memory of Charles Haughey — a great man who, like all great men, had flaws.

While he should have been ashamed of the misappropriation of the Brian Lenihan fund, everything else should be consigned to history.

Mr Haughey did many great things for this country — free travel for pensioners, tax exemption for authors and artists, and the IFSC in Dublin, to name but a few.

His actions as Taoiseach, despite the protestations of the opposition parties, were the foundations of our modern prosperity. His private financial affairs, while murky at best, have never been proven in any way to have influenced his political activities while in government. Now that he is dead, small-minded men have come out from their dark corners to stick knives in his corpse.

These are the same people who were afraid to put their heads above the wall while their betters worked long and hard for the future of this country.

These begrudgers should crawl back into the dark where they belong. They couldn’t drag Charlie down while he was alive and we will not let them sully his memory now that he is gone.

Seán MacGabhann

Loughbollard

Clane

Co Kildare