Warm tributes to Maureen Haughey
‘Dignified’ wife of former taoiseach dies aged 91
TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to Maureen Haughey, the wife of former taoiseach Charles Haughey, following her death at the age of 91.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin praised Mrs Haughey as a ‘wonderfully warm, dignified and intelligent woman’.
Her son Seán Haughey, a Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin Bay North, announced the news on Twitter yesterday morning.
‘So sad to announce that my mother passed away peacefully this morning – a truly remarkable woman. May she rest in peace,’ he wrote.
Paying tribute to the deceased, Mr Martin added: ‘She was a tower of strength to her late husband, former taoiseach Charles Haughey, and loving daughter of former taoiseach Seán Lemass.’
The Fianna Fáil leader added that ‘throughout her distinguished life’, Mrs Haughey had ‘witnessed some of the major turning points in Irish history’.
‘Maureen was a very active woman and kept a keen interest in the evolution of Irish society,’ Mr Martin continued.
‘She was a patriot who loved her country and retained a key interest in the development of Irish society. I knew Maureen personally for many years and I enjoyed her company whenever we met. She was very knowledgeable, wise and engaging.’
He added that Mrs Haughey ‘was particularly pleased to witness her son Seán’s re-election to Dáil Éireann during last year’s general election’. ‘Her life was steeped in the cause of Irish republicanism and her family contributed significantly to its advancement,’ Mr Martin said.
‘She was a loving and caring mother and our sympathies go to her family, Eimear, Conor, Ciarán, and Seán. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dhílis.’
In her lifetime, Mrs Haughey received much public sympathy due to her husband’s controversial leadership of Fianna Fáil and his long-standing affair with columnist Terry Keane.
Charles Haughey left a fortune of around €1milllion to his wife when he died in 2006. She was the sole beneficiary of his will, according to documents lodged with the Dublin Probate Office. After his death, she lived in a house at the edge of what had been the family’s 250-acre estate in Kinsealy, north Dublin. Des Peelo, a former financial adviser to Mr Haughey, yesterday described Mrs Haughey as ‘utterly unassuming’ with ‘a lovely presence’. He added: ‘She had no airs and graces and was warm and intelligent.’
Mr Peelo also told RTÉ’s Seán O’Rourke radio programme he believed she was Mr Haughey’s greatest adviser, and that ‘if he was being an eejit, she took him aside and told him’.
He added that she took great care of her husband in his later years when he was unwell.
Mrs Haughey was also the daughter of former taoiseach Seán Lemass, and opened up about her father in a rare public interview in 2015.
Speaking at the launch of Fianna Fáil’s programme of events to commemorate the 1916 Rising, she said that her father ‘never talked about’ his involvement in Ireland’s fight for independence. She said this was because it would have been too difficult for him, as his brother Noel was killed just as the Civil War was due to come to an end.
‘He never talked about it, only maybe when some of his old comrades came in and we’d listen in,’ she said.
‘A tower of strength’