15 July 1999 Edition
Back issue: Haughey's Thatcherism
Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey made the biggest u-turn of his career so far last week when he formed a coalition government with his former arch-rivals in the Progressive Democrats. As well as their common Thatcherite social and economic policies, the Programme for Government signed by Haughey and Desmond O'Malley commits them to full support for Thatcher's solution to Ireland's British problem - the Hillsborough Agreement.
With only a week gone in the life of the government there were already signs that the PDs will push Fianna Fáil even further towards the British and support for a Stormont administration.
It was the action of Fianna Fáil TD Mary Harney in voting for the Hillsborough Agreement in 1985 that led to her expulsion from the party and to the eventual formation of the PDs. In the Leinster House debate on the Hillsborough Treaty Haughey stated:
``In effect what is proposed in this Agreement is that the Irish government, accepting British sovereignty over part of Ireland, will involve itself in assisting and advising the British government to rule that part of Ireland more effectively, to help make it more amenable to the authority of the British government.''
That is exactly what the Fianna Fáil government did in office two years later, going on to deliver one of the main prizes the British hoped to gain from the Agreement - political extradition.
With only a week gone in the life of the government there were already signs that the PDs will push Fianna Fáil even further towards the British and support for a Stormont administration.
It was the action of Fianna Fáil TD Mary Harney in voting for the Hillsborough Agreement in 1985 that led to her expulsion from the party and to the eventual formation of the PDs. In the Leinster House debate on the Hillsborough Treaty Haughey stated:
``In effect what is proposed in this Agreement is that the Irish government, accepting British sovereignty over part of Ireland, will involve itself in assisting and advising the British government to rule that part of Ireland more effectively, to help make it more amenable to the authority of the British government.''
That is exactly what the Fianna Fáil government did in office two years later, going on to deliver one of the main prizes the British hoped to gain from the Agreement - political extradition.