Assuming you're not an aristocrat, the child of wealthy parents, a lottery winner … wouldn't you just like to be able to swan around asking for loads of cash from all sorts of people, living the life of Riley but neither have to pay the money back nor have to do anything in return for receiving the cash?

Hello Charlie Haughey: come on down!

Charlie Haughey was the Prime Minister (Taoiseach) of the Republic of Ireland for a time and this book unravels one of the most amazing life stories I've ever come across.

Haughey was born, like many of us, in reduced circumstances; and like many of us wanted to break free. Being a smart thinking lad, Haughey got himself to University and graduated from it; he became a Chartered Accountant and set up in practice with a friend.

So far so normal. However, as soon as Haughey became independent from growing up, he worked slavishly at crafting a lifestyle that many would admire and envy: as far as Keena can establish, Haughey didn't pay one single penny of his own money, ever, for anything he did, ate, admired and acquired. He didn't invent anything, he wasn't a monopolist like Bill Gates, he didn't really do anything … except separate a lot of wealthy and not so wealthy people from a lot of their money.

The main trick that Haughey employed was to become a big wheel in public life: he chose politics. He worked his way up from party hack to MP (TD) and via a series of shadow cabinet posts, to cabinet posts and then to the biggest job of all: PM.

Haughey knowingly used this trick to great effect with his bank: he spent, spent, spent money belonging to his bank and when they asked him to repay it, he always managed to do a deal but never repaid a penny. He was in debt to the tune of 50,000 then 100,000 then 200,000: he would have to behave himself, they told him, he said he would. 300,000 then 400,000 then 500,000: look, give us back our cheque book and no more cash … don't be so impertinent, you're not having your cheque book back … 600,000 then 700,000 then, well you get the gist. The bank's dilemma was that they felt that Haughey was so senior and so well known that if the excrement hit the air conditioning unit, their business would suffer let alone Haughey himself.

In the end, the bank financed Haughey to the tune of more than a million Punts.

Not content with all of this plundering, Haughey was taking money from all sorts of friends and acquaintances. Again, millions of Punts went his way (1.7 million between 1979 and 1987). These amounts were paid in cash, through various banks accounts in Ireland and the UK and through accounts offshore.

As someone remarked, Charlie never worried about how to pay the money back: he just didn't pay it back: never intended to.

Then there's the problem of cash for favours: isn't there a conflict of interests when a senior public servant takes cash from businessmen and the like? Not in Haughey's case: he just took the money and didn't do anything in return: never intended to. (aside: the Hamiltons and others could have profited a lot from Haughey's strategy!).

In the end, Haughey was seen as too much of a bad lot not to have to explain himself. A number of tribunals, press campaigns, personal campaigns and the rest began to hound the former PM. Undaunted, he ignored them all. However, the heat eventually got too much and he couldn't avoid them any more, so he faked illnesses: I have been told that Haughey got British doctors to testify that Haughey was a seriously ill man and probably had very little time left on this earth. Either these doctors perjured themselves on his behalf or the doctors he chose were incompetent. It bought him some time. The story on pages 299 -300 concerning Haughey's heart problems is felt by many to be bogus, too.

He was forced to spend day after day in the witness box being examined and cross examined by Ireland's finest lawyers!

One of the most interesting thing about the stories in this book is that most of the key people in it have very poor memories: they can't remember signing cheques for vast amounts of money, they can't remember who the cheques were made out to, and they can't remember why they paid the money either. We are looking at people here who had built large businesses, were senior politicians and so on.

I'm not Irish and my memories of Haughey as PM of Ireland are vague and incomplete. Nevertheless, he has blemished his country and his office. Two key things, perhaps, epitomize this man

Very early on in his political career, he told the Irish people that they were "living beyond their means" … and he was to be their role model.

Throughout his life, I think it's fair to conclude, he not only robbed a lot of people blind, but he nurtured massive tax debts. Keena includes an attempt to get Haughey to settle his tax account with a deal involving a million Punts, Haughey refused. Moreover, in 1984, Haughey was the subject of an official tax inspection and review: the Revenue Commission decided not to pursue the matter, saying that their decision had "not let Haughey's "status" influence his decision, which was an "administrative" one. I don't accept that, given the evidence Keena has presented.

This book is well worth reading if you are interested in Irish politics and if you are interested in corruption in high places. The number of transactions facing the reader of this book is astonishing, let alone the amounts involved.

In the end, I can only conclude by using an old London saying: Charlie Haughey "had more front than Selfridges". A wretched man. After posting this review, I received an email from a frien of mine who hails from the Emreald Isle and what he said is worthy of sharing:

What a good review. The only thing I disagree with is your suggestion that Haughey did not (nor intended) to "do anything" in exchange for his vast wealth. Here are examples:

The Dunnes Stores Trust fund faced a potential tax liability of 30 million. Thanks to the generosity of Ben Dunne (who gave haughey more than 1.3m) an obscure amendment was inserted into a Finance Act that relieved the Dunnes Stores children of this liability, occasioned by his death.

Dublin City, and to a lesser extent others, is a planning mess. Huge tracts of land were bought by or on Haughey's behalf, he organised they be either zoned for residential use (massively inflating their value), or better still, he had one of his friends who ran a State Company to buy said land at an outragoeus price.

Haughey's brother in law was the senior revenue official who decided not to pursue Haughey for tax on the over 1.3 million declared at the Tribunal....

The list is endless. My point is that his contributors, EVERY ONE OF THEM, benefitted directly , and many still do to this day. A Govt enquiry into the proposed Bertie Ahern Super Stadium (still not built) has discovered that the PM's Office has entered into a 30 year contract (in 2001!) for consulting advice, worth over a million and a half a year, and priced at 1.5% of the value of the entire project (est over a billion). It gets better.

A UK "shelf company" was nominally awarded a huge contract to build a national aquatic centre and guess what? A bunch of Kerrymen end up as beneficial owners ...

Its a facinating unfolding story!

My reply was:

About a third of the way through the book, I picked up the comment from a "friend" of Haughey's about whether he would pay them back or not. In view of what you are saying, and I know you told me all of this before, I suppose the meaning is that he did nothing as direct as, say, those wretched Hamiltons. Rather, he had his cronies do all of the work as he just shagged, drank and ate his life away.

Is that a fair comment? In any case, I want to incorporate your insights into this review to add the balance I have missed.

Duncan Williamson
24 March 2002 updated 6 April 2002