Charles Haughey, who served three terms as Ireland’s prime minister, died on Tuesday at his home in Dublin after a long battle with cancer, the government said. He was 80.
”It is a very sad occasion, and marks the passing of an era,” said Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
Haughey had grown increasingly ill in recent years, having been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
He was taoiseach (prime minister) from December 1979 to June 1981, then again from March 1982 to December 1982 and from March 1987 to February 1992.
He will be given a state funeral with full military honours on Friday.
Ahern will deliver a graveside oration and flags will be flown at half-mast on all government buildings until after the funeral.
Haughey is acknowledged as one of the architects of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger boom due to his prudent management of the public finances in the late 1980s.
But his economic reforms have since been overshadowed by revelations of political and financial scandals from his past that came back to haunt him.
Ahern said Haughey’s achievements had ”become clouded”.
”History will have to weigh up both the credit and debit side more dispassionately than may be possible today but, I have no doubt its ultimate judgement on Mr Haughey will be a positive one,” he said.
Mary Harney, the leader of junior coalition government partner the Progressive Democrats, said: ”When Charles Haughey retired as taoiseach in 1992, the government he had led had set the foundations for the historic achievements of our country since then, the peace process and our economic recovery.”
An accountant by profession, Haughey also headed the Fianna Fail party, which Ahern now leads.
Known as ”The Boss”, Haughey came from a humble background and the source of his conspicuous wealth was the subject of endless speculation.
He resigned from politics in 1992 when allegations resurfaced surrounding his role in a 1982 controversy involving the phone-tapping of prominent journalists.
Since he retired, details emerged about how businessmen secretly financed his lavish lifestyle and how payments to him were laundered through a Cayman Islands tax scam that also involved hundreds of millions of euros belonging to some of the country’s super-rich.
A well-known socialite also claimed she had been his mistress for decades.
Haughey’s flamboyantly wealthy lifestyle included one of the grandest houses in Ireland, a holiday island off the south-west coast, race horses and yachts.
Born the son of an army officer in County Mayo, western Ireland, in 1925, he married Maureen, the daughter of prime minister Sean Lemass, in 1951.
An accountant, he was first elected to the Dail (Lower House of Parliament) in 1957. His father-in-law made him a junior minister in 1960 and justice minister a year later.
When finance minister in 1970 — as Northern Ireland’s ”Troubles” intensified — he was embroiled in the so-called arms crisis and was fired by then prime minister Jack Lynch.
But he rebuilt his power base and when Lynch resigned in 1979, Haughey took over.
Irish President Mary McAleese, on a state visit to Southern Africa, paid tribute to Haughey’s talents.
”A proud man of considerable ability, charm, wit and intelligence, he was a skilled parliamentarian and an innovative legislator,” she said. ”Over the long years of his dynamic career, he weathered many storms and faced more than his share of drama and controversy.”
McAleese told RTE state radio she would curtail her visit to return for the funeral. — AFP
