Tide turns as Charlie’s son gets call to arms

TIMES they are a-changing in the Haughey dynasty. First Abbeville went under the hammer and yesterday Charlie broke a 36-year tradition when his son Conor opened the Dingle regatta, in Co Kerry.

From the time he was a dashing young Cabinet minister to the wilderness years after the Arms Trial, to his three terms as Taoiseach, Charlie, 77, always fired the starting shot in Dingle.

It was known for weeks that The Boss was unlikely to make another appearance at the busy curragh races, but many still hoped he would show up.

But from early yesterday hopes dwindled that Charlie had the health to face a Kerry public that always warmed to him, even after a wave of tribunal revelations.

He did send his regards to the people of Dingle but it was left to Conor to carry on the Haughey tradition in Dingle. “He’s alright. He’s been through bad health but he’s survived it. He wouldn’t be able for the big crowds here today,” Conor said. Some passing onlookers even stopped and moved closer when businessman Conor held the double barrel rifle skywards in Dingle harbour. “Sure that’s not him at all,” one woman said, obviously searching for Haughey senior.

Charlie had been in west Kerry until Friday but he returned to Dublin after a relative became ill.

“My uncle Jock is not well, he has been sick for a while. He [Charlie] is here in spirit anyway. He would like to be here though.”

Indeed Conor, the eldest Haughey son, who was accompanied by wife Jackie McClafferty and brothers TD Sean and Ciarán, is a former race winner at the regatta.

“I rowed in it a few times myself when I was a young fella back in the 1980s. We won a race once with Eddie Hutch, but I’m back on the shore today,” he said.

There was also a thank you from the people of Dingle to Charlie, the man who helped make the local regatta a national media event.

“Charlie has been one of our own down through the years. He has been a landmark here. To you Charlie we say thank you,” regatta master of ceremonies Colm O’Sullivan said. Sean and Ciarán arrived in Dingle on Friday and stayed in the Skellig Hotel while Conor and Jackie, sister of former Miss Ireland Siobhan, were accommodated on that famous yacht The Celtic Mist.