Dublin Report Checkered past finally catching up to ex- taoiseach
February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By John Kelly
The friends and even the erstwhile enemies of Charles Haughey are now finally gathering to shout, "It’s time to leave him alone."
Bono of U-2, Sinead O’Connor, and Dr. Garret Fitzgerald, who shared his UCD days with Haughey and once famously described him as having a "flawed pedigree," have all expressed the hope that the Squire of Kinsealy should not be jailed.
Not that anybody is trying to do anything of the sort. Haughey is merely expected to answer questions posed at the Moriarty Tribunal.
That long-running tribunal, which holds its sessions in the cobblestoned upper courtyard in Dublin Castle, is currently intent on probing his usage of the Exchequer-funded political party leader’s account.
This is only one of myriad financial details it wants to extract. For example, it also wants to learn just what he knew about the Ansbacher Cayman, tax-free deposit accounts his former financial advisor, the deceased Des Traynor, entered in his name.
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It also wants to know about many other things like the fund Haughey set up to finance the liver transplant operation for the late tanaiste and failed presidential candidate Brian Lenihan.