The small town boy who went to the top
AS HE APPROACHES A MAJOR MILESTONE BIRTHDAY, 79-YEAR-OLD RAY MACSHARRY REFLECTS ON LIFE, FROM POLITICS TO MARRIAGE, HEALTH ISSUES TO HOBBIES, HE TELLS EDITOR JENNY MCCUDDEN WHAT MAKES HIM THE PROUD SLIGO MAN HE IS TODAY.
AGOOD car was always top of the list for Ray MacSharry as he always knew wherever he was in the country or beyond, he would always want t o drive home to his beloved Sligo.
The 79-year-old former EU Commissioner still drives a BMW today but thankfully his hours on the road have decreased somewhat.
However speaking to him in Sligo last Wednesday afternoon he had just travelled from a meeting in Kildare the previous day and was due to drive to Galway that evening. No such thing as slowing down for this pensioner who likes ‘ to keep himself busy.’
Dressed dapper in a navy blue suit and pink tie the Fianna Fail man never leaves home without this attire.
“I wear a suit every day. If I took off my tie, I would get a cold,” he jokes. Behind the scenes though in his own back yard you will find him happily tending to the flower beds in his shorts.
That ‘ big back garden’ on the Pearse Road came with the house he bought for 7,500 pounds in 1967. It was here he and his late wife Elaine raised their 6 children and also where he ran his local political clinics.
Now the house that was once teeming with life (with 5 children under 6 at one stage) is empty except for Ray. He admits to having a partner who lives and works elsewhere but says he would rather not talk about this particular part of his private life.
He is content though to reflect on a stellar political career, his wonderful family and talk about what it is that makes him the man he is today. So approaching his milestone 80 th birthday does he feel older and wiser?
Ray simply says: “I am only older. I’m not any different. If I am to make a decision, I listen to all sides and I suggest my opinion. It is not always right but it is not always wrong either. That is how I’ve always made decisions and it is how I still operate.”
I wonder how a man who left school at the tender age of 16 after failing his Intermediate certificate got to make so many crucial decisions at the highest level in society, rulings from CAP reform to tax cuts that would affect the entire country for generations.
He admits that lady luck played a part in his political prowess but he puts his success down to one thing above anything else ‘common sense.’
“There were five top jobs in politics. Taoiseach, Tanaiste, Minister for Finance, Minister for Agriculture and EU Commissioner. I held four out of five of those roles and if I wanted to be Taoiseach I would not have gone to Europe. I had more influence to do what I wanted to do as EU Commissioner. I knew there was serious problems with the Common Agricultural Poilcy. 70 percent of the EU budget was going on agriculture. I was the first Irish EU commissioner on Agriculture from 1989 to 1993 and I worked to make that move happen.”
His negotiation skills brought him far beyond Europe. He recalls a journey to Gaddafi’s tent in Libya where despite dealing with a leader he describes as a ‘ tough cookie’ an agreement was struck to trade beef for oil.
Behind every great man is of course an even better woman - and Ray MacSharry was no different. Over the course of his 30 years in politics his wife Elaine held the fort in more ways than one.
Not only was the Roscommon woman who trained as a
nurse in the Mater Hospital running the home, she was also a central figure in her husband’s political life.
“Without Elaine, things would not have been done,” explains Ray: “TD’s had no secretaries in those days from 1969 to 1982. The house was the office. Elaine ran the family home and the busy enterprise of a political office and she made a good job of both.”
Thinking back on his life with Elaine Ray admits that she would in fact have been more popular with the electorate.
“She loved meeting people and helping them. We ran a clinic every Saturday and she helped more people fill in forms and applications. I was very lucky with my choice of wife. She was such a support. She took all messages and canvassed. She was an outstanding woman. People knew her better than me. I think her funeral was probably the biggest funeral that I ever saw in this town.”
Sadly Elaine passed away from lung and liver cancer aged just 67. Ray had shared 47 years of marriage with her, the pair having wed two years after meeting at a ‘ Tennis Hop in Merville.’
Ray recalls: “I had had my one and only crash outside Bundoran on the way back from Lough Derg. I had a cut across my forehead so I wasn’t going to go out.”
But the then 20-year-old from St. Patrick’s Terrace was persuaded to accompany his neighbour and friend who was playing in the drums in a band at the venue. There he met Elaine who was celebrating her 18th birthday with some Sligo friends. And the rest,
as they say is history.
Was it a happy marriage? Ray doesn’t hesitate. “It was a happy one when everything was going well. We had our ups and downs, more downs at times but it is the trouble that proves what you are made of, when you can solve problems together.”
Some moments stand out as better than others, most notably the annual trip to Rutland Island off the coast of Donegal. It was a family pilgrimage for the MacSharrys who would pack everything but the kitchen sink for the month long stay, as Ray explains: “I would get the lend of a van. The boat would serve as the trailer. We brought everything with us as there was nothing on the island. We stayed in a house up there from the 1st to the 31st August every year. It was fantastic. There was no phones. We would cook a turkey that would last hot or cold for days. We would go out to meet the trawlers coming in with our bucket and they would give us down fresh fish still flapping. We ate fresh fish every day. There were a few other families holidaying on the island so there would be about 30 kids on the island and the dog!”
In an era of no landlines on the island never mind mobile phones, Ray was out of range if his boss happened to be looking for him. He recalls one occasion when the local Garda from Burtonport on the mainland had to row out to the island with a message for him. “He said the station had a message from the Taoiseach’s office. I waited till later that day and sailed into the town to call him back.”
Could it have waited? “It was not that urgent,” says Ray. “Maybe he was just feeling a bit lonely in August,” he jokes.
All jokes aside though, Ray MacSharry believes Champagne Charlie got more stick than he deserved.
“No one is objective about that time. Every one has this notion that Charles Haughey was a certain way. I liked him as a person. Politically his record in Justice, Finance and Health was excellent. He was the most progressive Minister at the time and he made a great job of being leader in the beginning,” he says.
To this day, Ray MacSharry stands over his support to the former Fianna Fail Leader. “I do not regret my loyalty to Haughey. Remember I had more fights than anybody else with him on political issues. When he made that famous speech in 1981 about ‘ living beyond our means’ he didn’t do much to correct it. It took me to change things in 1982 as his then Minister for Finance.”
When pushed as to what his proudest moment in public office was MacSharry doesn’t say what I expect. His record on the national and international stage comes second to what he has done for the people of his home town. “My proudest time in public life was working for the people of the North West. That is the real pride in being a public representative. Like when you secure €5,000 in a grant for a local community centre, you remember to this day the real community stuff,” he explains.
So making other people’s dreams come true gives him his kicks, I ask? “That and making sure we get our share of the cake,” Ray says, “Sadly in the last 15 years the North West has not been getting our share of the cake. All political parties are focused on Dublin. We have been forgotten about.” This lack of investment for Sligo is a topic local TD Marc MacSharry has been very vocal on. Ray says:“My youngest son Marc is the only one who followed me into politics. He saw me working in the good times when he was young, but now he knows all about the hard times. It galled me recently when two Taoisigh Enda Kenny and Leo Varadkar berated him for fighting his corner for the North West. Marc does not get enough credit for what he does. If you do not fight you do not get.” Ray believes a special programme needs to be put in place for the region. He makes reference to Abbott and IT Sligo. “We have a third level institution, we have global companies like Abbott. If it’s good enough for Abbott, it should be good enough for another major foreign direct investor. Even one more such company would make the difference,” he concludes.
THE LOCAL GUARD ROWED OUT TO RUTLAND ISLAND WHERE WE WERE ON HOLIDAY WITH A MESSAGE FROM THE TAOISEACH’S OFFICE