Obituary: Maureen Haughey

Maureen Haughey, who died aged 91 years, was steeped in politics throughout her long life. She was daughter of Seán Lemass and wife of Charles Haughey, both of whom served as Fianna Fáil taoiseach, and mother of Seán Haughey who is the party's TD for Dublin Bay North.

She was an astute observer of politics, and interested in history, but kept her views largely for her family circle and friends. Her privacy and that of her family, difficult to preserve at the height of her husband’s controversial career, was important to her. She was unassuming and well liked.

Journalists who visited the Haughey mansion in Kinsealy in north Dublin to cover political events, when Charles Haughey was taoiseach, found her courteous and hospitable. Away from the glare of publicity, she lived a full life, immersed in her family, hunting with the Fingal Harriers and pursuing her charity work which included the Riding for the Disabled Association.

A lover of dogs, she was a successful breeder and exporter of Irish wolfhounds. Although uncomfortable with a public role, her resilience was shown when her husband became embroiled in controversy and scandal after he retired as taoiseach in the 1990s.

The Moriarty tribunal, which investigated his personal finances, found he had accepted large amounts of money from business people and had "devalued democracy''. He agreed a €5 million settlement with the Revenue Commissioners. There was also the revelation by Sunday Independent journalist Terry Keane that she had a long-running affair with Charles Haughey in an interview with the then presenter of the RTÉ television programme, The Late Late Show.

Maureen Haughey did not comment publicly on the revelation nor did her husband. Following her death, family friend Des Peelo said her husband and herself had made their peace, adding Terry Keane had exaggerated the length of the affair.

In 1999, she won undisclosed damages from the News of the World in a libel action, after the newspaper suggested she had left the family home when, in fact, she was on holidays.

Maureen Frances Lemass was born in 1925, the eldest child of Sean and Kathleen Lemass. Her father had fought in the War of Independence, and on the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War, and later served in several Fianna Fáil governments. She attended Muckross Park college and later UCD where she graduated with a commerce degree. She would later recall it as a happy childhood, enjoying camogie, tennis club dances and cycling in the Dublin mountains with her wide circle of friends.

She met her husband in UCD and they were married in Beechwood Avenue church in Ranelagh in September 1951. They lived in Raheny before moving to Kinsealy in 1969.

She was familiar with the public role of a taoiseach’s spouse, having observed her mother in a more formal era when politics was largely male dominated. Maureen Haughey assumed the role when the media spotlight was greater and, despite her desire to retain her privacy, she gave a number of interviews in the years after Charles Haughey was first elected taoiseach in 1979.

In 1982, she said she felt the media had been unfair to her husband at a time when the then Fine Gael leader was Dr Garret FitzGerald. “It’s always Garret is good, Garret has a halo and Haughey has horns,’’ she said. She said the “strident criticism’’ of her husband at the time did upset her a bit. “But being in public life as long as I have been you do get immune to it, though of recent times it has been absolutely dreadful,’’ she added.

She also described aspects of her domestic life at the time. Two women helped her in the large house, mainly doing the cleaning, and they finished at 4.30 pm. “I always get the dinner – not fancy things but good plain Irish food – spuds, steak, chicken or whatever,’’ she added.

She recalled a highlight of her public life was accompanying her husband to the White House on St Patrick's Day and meeting the then US president Ronald Reagan who recalled his film career and told some stories against himself.

In an interview with The Irish Times in 1987, she recalled giving up work when she married aged 25 years. She said she did not think she could cope with working and running a house. "I understand young people have to have the two wages to pay the mortgage, but I never had any ambition to continue working,'' she added. "Horses and dogs and people, that's what I like.''

Maureen Haughey is predeceased by her husband Charles, and survived by her children Eimear, Conor, Ciaran and Sean and eight grandchildren.