In this newspaper last Saturday there was a brief report on the death of Paraic ("Jock") Haughey, brother of Charles Haughey, notes Vincent Browne
The report noted that he was a brother of the former taoiseach and how he came to public attention in 1970 via the Committee of Public Accounts, which investigated the disposal of £100,000 voted for the relief of distress in Northern Ireland the previous year and a celebrated constitutional case that arose from his refusal to answer questions at the committee.
It went on to record that he was fined £50 for assault, fined £150 and disqualified from driving for six months for drunk driving, a further drunk driving offence and an award against him of £724.70 damages following a car crash. And that was it.
Nothing else about the man's 71 years worth reporting. Just a string of items taken from clippings of court cases. Nothing about his distinguished career as a member of the Dublin football team of the 1950s which won an All-Ireland.
Nothing about his hurling prowess or his successes at St Vincent's. Nothing about winning a junior All-Ireland medal in soccer with Home Farm (some accomplishment in those days for someone so involved in the GAA). No reference to his prowess in golf - he had a handicap of two for a while - or his popularity at Royal Dublin Golf Club and his enduring popularity at St Vincent's.
Nothing about his success as a family man, how he had a long and loving relationship with his wife for many years, how he reared two children who remain hugely fond of him. Of his loyalty to his brother, Charlie, and to his extended family.
His life summed up in a catalogue of a few court cases. Surely there is some responsibility to acknowledge his life was not all about court cases? That there were other admirable dimensions to him, which caused hundreds of people to attend his funeral? Sure, some of them (including me) were there because of his brother, but most were there because of Jock and those that I spoke to spoke warmly of him, of his irascibility, his humour, his courage and the dignified way he faced death over the last six months.
What is it about us that we so easily dismiss people's entire lives with derisive reference to a few transgressions? And, boy, will it happen again when Jock's brother, Charlie, goes to his grave. The "disgraced" former taoiseach, as though all there was/is to him was that which caused disgrace? Which of us is not disgraced in some regard or rather which of us does not deserve to be disgraced in some regard?
Jock was not the star of the show at Donnycarney church on Monday morning, his brother was. No, not Charlie, Father Eoghan, the youngest of that family. And what a performance. Not in any sense of self-advertisement or in any way of self-regard.
There were 18 priests on the altar and had there been 17 cardinals and one Oblate priest, only the formidable Oblate priest would have stood out.
Clear, crisp, in command. He has a better, clearer voice than Charlie but the same inflections and that slight lisp. He can also sing. A clear, strong tenor voice singing in Irish and English throughout the Mass.
One of the readings was from the Book of Job. Job, the pious, prosperous upstanding chieftain, who suffered disaster after calamity, pain, disease and loneliness and yet who kept the faith. Father Eoghan spoke of how Job had been deserted by all his friends, relatives and comrades. A few eyes must have turned on the older brother at the front of the church. I saw only one sitting Fianna Fáil TD present, no member of the Government and only a handful of former comrades.
I was going to write this week of how our democracy was emaciated and how two recent events had illustrated that. Had either occurred during the reign of Charlie Haughey, it would have been further "proof" of his nascent fascism. The more recent was the Fianna Fáil ardfheis of the weekend, which abandoned all pretence of being the decision-making organ of the party - no motions, no decisions, just spectacle and baloney. The other concerns the smoking ban (of which, incidentally, I am an enthusiastic supporter). A large section of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party are against, but it doesn't matter a whit.
Speaking on radio last weekend, Bertie Ahern disclosed that his view of party democracy was not that the parliamentary party decided anything but that party TDs were allowed to express their views, but then only within the confines of the party rooms. He seemed to think that his restraint in not going out to "mug" TDs was a remarkable democratic concession.
So our democracy is boiled down to electing one of two almost identical elites every four or five years and what the elected elite does in office is outside our control or influence. There must be some way of blaming Charlie Haughey for that.
PS: Yesterday's report of Paraic Haughey's funeral did acknowledge some of his accomplishments, but the point about Saturday's report remains valid.