In this address, Gary Murphy, author of the bestselling and widely acclaimed biography of the late Taoiseach, Charles J. Haughey, will reassess Haughey’s role in the making of modern Ireland. His talk will explore Haughey’s role at heart of Irish political life for over three and a half decades and examine his still controversial legacy. Charles Haughey was arguably the most talented and influential politician of his generation. His presence still looms large over Irish politics, yet the very roots of his success – his charisma, his intelligence, his ruthlessness, his secrecy – rendered almost impossible any objective evaluation of his life and work. Gary Murphy rectified this in his widely praised biography of Haughey. Based on exclusive access to Haughey’s archive and interviews with dozens of Haughey’s contemporaries, his talk will offer a major reassessment of one of Ireland’s most significant and controversial politicians and a view of a man of prodigious gifts, who, for all his flaws and many contradictions, came to define modern Ireland.
Gary Murphy is Professor of Politics in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has held visiting professorships at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the University of Notre Dame. He regularly appears in the Irish print and broadcast media and is currently a columnist with the Irish edition of the Sunday Times. He has published extensively on the politics of modern Ireland and among his books are In Search of the Promised Land: the Politics of Post War Ireland; Electoral Competition in Ireland since 1987: The Politics of Triumph and Despair; and most recently Haughey the best-selling biography of the former Fianna Fáil leader, and Taoiseach, Charles J. Haughey. He is currently working on the biography of another former Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach, Brian Cowen.
Date: Monday 16 September 2024
Time: 20:00/8pm
Venue: Harbour Hotel, Galway