HAUGHEY, CHARLES JAMES

born September 16, 1925, Castlebar, County Mayo, Ire. prime minister (taoiseach) of Ireland from 1979 to 1981, from March to December 1982, and from March 1987 to February 1992. Haughey, the son of an officer in the original Irish Republican Army (IRA), attended University College in Dublin, studying law and accounting. While making a fortuneapparently in real estatehe married (1951) the daughter of Sean Lemass (later to be taoiseach) and after several attempts entered the Dil (lower house of Parliament) in 1957 as a member of the Fianna Fil party for a constituency in Dublin. He became minister of justice in 1961 and later minister of agriculture and of finance. In 1970 Haughey was twice tried for conspiracy to use government funds to procure arms for the outlawed IRA; the first trial was aborted, and he won acquittal in the second. Dismissed from the government, he remained in the Dil and gained strong support among his party's grass roots. When Fianna Fil was returned to office in 1977, he was made minister for health and social welfare. On the resignation of party leader Jack Lynch in 1979, Haughey was elected party leader and became taoiseach. In June 1981 his government fell, but he returned to power briefly in 1982. He became taoiseach again after elections in February 1987, though his government lacked a majority in the Dil. When Fianna Fil formed a government with the Progressive Democrats in July 1989, thereby eschewing the party's traditional rejection of coalition rule, Haughey was made taoiseach for a fourth time. Haughey's first two terms in office were marked by deteriorating relations with Great Britain, a declining economy, and deep divisions within Fianna Fil. Despite the controversies that plagued his government, the charismatic Haughey remained party leader after losing office for a second time in late 1982. During his later terms, Haughey successfully mounted a fiscal-austerity program to address Ireland's financial crisis. He resigned and retired in 1992, remaining out of public life until 1997, when an official tribunal of inquiry determined that he had received large sums of money from a prominent businessman while taoiseach. The Dil then established another tribunal to investigate his financial affairs, and many other irregularities were uncovered. Michael Marsh