Henry Patterson wrote that at this time O’Kennedy was ‘in awe’ of Haughey.246 In fact, the previous year in February 1974, at a meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, Haughey had first proposed a motion calling on ‘... the phased withdrawal of the British army from Northern Ireland ...’,247 and O’Kennedy’s comments must be seen within this context. By using O’Kennedy as a ‘stalking horse’, to quote a confidential British source, Haughey was seeking to undermine Lynch’s conciliatory approach to Northern Ireland and more generally his leadership.248 The American Embassy in Dublin certainly believed this to be the case. ‘The “bipartisan” policy on Northern Ireland in the Irish Republic,’ the American Embassy reported back to the United States Department of State, was ‘shattered’ by the Fianna Fáil policy statement on Northern Ireland, which was described as a ‘radical swing in policy’.249
Lynch was caught off guard. Hitherto, a request for Britain to make a declaration of its intent to withdraw from Northern Ireland had not constituted official Fianna Fáil policy. Lynch reacted immediately and said O’Kennedy’s speech represented a ‘conflict of expression rather than of policy’.250 However, the signs were ominous. O’Kennedy’s remarks were a huge embarrassment for Lynch and his spokesman on Northern Ireland, Ruairí Brugha (the son of Cathal Brugha). An editorial in the Irish Times, ‘Shattered consensus’, asked why O’Kennedy had selected that time to add his voice to those calling for a British declaration of intent to withdraw from Northern Ireland. The obvious explanation, the paper noted, was that ‘he had taken the temperature of his party and found that there is a majority in favour of demanding a declaration of intent – and thereby posing a renewed challenge to Mr Lynch’s policies and leadership’.251 The explanation offered by the Irish Times was seemingly accurate – a poll conducted three years later, in 1978, revealed that 78 per cent of the Irish electorate favoured British withdrawal of troops and rule from Northern Ireland.252
Lynch soon buckled under the pressure from the ‘hawkish’ elements within Fianna Fáil, led by the Haughey/O’Kennedy caucus. On 29 October, in an attempt to present a united front within Fianna Fáil regarding its official stance on Northern Ireland, Lynch agreed to the publication of the controversial ‘Fianna Fáil policy statement on Northern Ireland’. Prior to its publication – and despite Lynch’s personal intervention – the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party ‘unanimously approved’ the contents of the statement.253 Significantly, in line with the Haughey/O’Kennedy-line the statement called on ‘Britain’s commitment to implement an ordered withdrawal from her involvement in the six counties of Northern Ireland’.254
The Irish Times described Fianna Fáil’s statement as ‘Civil War politics’. It pointed out that an aspiration for Irish unity and the view that a British withdrawal was inevitable was one thing, but to ‘issue demands for a declaration of intent to withdraw could not possibly help progress towards finding a workable solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland’.255 Reaction from the British government was likewise alarmist. One British official, Ann Symonds, noted that Fianna Fáil’s revised stance on Northern Ireland ‘can only make the task of a return to normality in Ireland, North and South, more difficult’.256
By this stage Haughey could sense Lynch’s political vulnerability. Fianna Fáil’s crushing by-election defeat in West Mayo to Fine Gael’s incumbent candidate, Enda Kenny, in mid-November, led to further speculation regarding Lynch’s position as Fianna Fáil leader. Not for the first or last time, Haughey used the Northern Ireland question to test the mood of the party in relation to Lynch’s leadership. Several days later on 19 November, at an event in Hollybrook Hotel, arranged under the auspices of the Dublin Artane Fianna Fáil constituency organisation, Haughey publicly accorded his support for Fianna Fáil’s recent policy statement on Northern Ireland. He specifically focused on the demand for British withdrawal. Haughey said he fully supported the statement, which he described as a ‘positive approach’. ‘The responsibility of ensuring that the achievement of Irish unity is kept firmly at the centre of democratic Irish politics’ was central to Fianna Fáil’s political DNA, he noted.257
Confronted by overwhelming support from within Fianna Fáil for British withdrawal from Northern Ireland, Lynch was reluctantly forced to adopt this policy-line for the remainder of his period as Fianna Fáil leader. However, Lynch and his supporters did try to distinguish from calling on the British government to implement a withdrawal from Northern Ireland to instead focus on the long-term plans towards facilitating Irish unity. Speaking on 6 December 1975, Ruairí Brugha said that ‘it is Britain alone who holds the key to the solution’ in Northern Ireland. ‘Britain,’ he exclaimed, must face this ‘political reality’. ‘No one has suggested,’ he said, that Britain ‘should suddenly withdraw her economic and financial support for the North. No one has suggested that she should withdraw her military forces in a precipitate fashion.’258 Indeed, addressing a meeting of the Fianna Fáil national executive the following week, 15 December, Lynch said that the purpose of the Fianna Fáil policy statement on Northern Ireland ‘was to point to the long term solution – unity of Ireland by agreement and in harmonious relationship’.259
In conclusion, despite Haughey’s best attempts to undermine Lynch’s leadership, the latter led Fianna Fáil into the 1977 general election campaign. The campaign was well-planned by Fianna Fáil, fought on a platform of widespread tax reforms and increased employment. Lynch’s image was also central to the campaign, with party slogans of ‘Bring back Jack’.260 During the election campaign the ghosts from Haughey’s dark past continued to haunt him. He was routinely taunted by Conor Cruise O’Brien regarding his involvement with the Arms Crisis. The outgoing minister for posts and telegraphs promoted the argument that ‘a shadow of suspicion’ continued to be cast over Haughey because of the latter’s alleged sympathy for the objectives of the PIRA. Haughey described O’Brien’s criticism as a ‘character assassination’ and that such accusations were ‘unfounded’.261
When the votes were counted in mid-June, Fianna Fáil won an unassailable majority, securing eighty-four seats, giving the party an overall majority of twenty seats. To Haughey’s dismay Lynch recorded the greatest electoral success in the history of the Irish state. Given Lynch’s stunning win at the polls, Haughey quickly realised that for the meantime at least his leadership ambitions would have to be put to one side. When the twenty-first Dáil assembled on 5 July 1977, a new Fianna Fáil government replaced the incumbent Fine Gael–Labour Coalition, which had been in power since 1973. Lynch was again appointed taoiseach. Haughey was given the job as minister for health and social welfare; a position that Lynch hoped would absorb his minister’s energies and distract him from his obvious political ambitions. As the minister responsible for health and social welfare, Lynch had also deliberately ensured that Haughey did not have access to the key security related ministries in the Irish government (those of the Departments of Justice and Defence).
Although, he may have been somewhat marginalised within the new cabinet, Haughey was elated to find himself back in the cut and thrust of frontline politics. Seven years on from the humiliation surrounding his sacking as minister for finance he was now presented with the opportunity to resurrect his naked ambition to secure the leadership of his beloved Fianna Fáil. As is discussed in the next chapter, over the following two years, until his appointment as Fianna Fáil leader and taoiseach in December 1979, Haughey made much capital out of his republican reputation, which he had insidiously nurtured since the days of the Arms Crisis.
CHAPTER THREE
The Boss: Haughey as Taoiseach, 1979–1980
‘I would regard the peaceful unification of the people of Ireland as my primary political priority.’
[Charles J. Haughey, 7 December 1979]1
An ‘indissoluble nation’: Haughey and the leadership of Fianna Fáil
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