Brian Lenihan

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This article is about the elder politician. For his son, see Brian Lenihan, Jnr..
Brian Lenihan
Image:Brianlenihan.jpg

Former Tánaiste

Periods in office:
10 March 1987 – 31 October 1990
Predecessor(s) Peter Barry
Successor(s) John P. Wilson
Born 17 November 1930
Dundalk, Ireland
Died 1 November 1995
Dublin, Ireland
Political party Fianna Fáil

Brian Lenihan (Irish: Brian Ó Luineacháin; 17 November 1930 - 1 November 1995) was a Irish Fianna Fáil politician. In a long political career he served as Government Minister in different portfolios.[1] Lenihan was also Senator in Seanad Éireann. [2], he was Tánaiste in 1987 and was a defeated candidate for the office of President of Ireland in 1990.

He was a member of a family political dynasty; his father, Patrick Lenihan, and sister both followed him into Dáil Éireann, his sister Mary O'Rourke sitting in cabinet with him. Two of his sons, Brian Lenihan, Jr and Conor Lenihan became TDs in the 1990s. Both now serve as Ministers of State [3] in the government of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. His two catchphrases, no problem and on mature recollection, entered the Irish political lexicon.

Brian Lenihan was born in Dundalk in County Louth. After studying in University College Dublin he qualified as a barrister from King's Inns. He practised law for a few years before becoming a full time politician.

Contents

[edit] Minister for Justice

Lenihan contested his first general election, unsuccessfully, in 1954 and was appointed to Seanad Éireann in 1957 by Taoiseach Eamon de Valera. In 1961 he was elected TD for the Roscommon-Leitrim constituency. In 1964 he was appointed Minister for Justice by Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Sean Lemass. He was one of the new generation of political leaders Lemass brought to the fore; others included Donagh O'Malley, Patrick Hillery, George Colley and Charles J. Haughey. At Justice he succeeded Charles Haughey.[4] With Haughey's transfer to become Minister for Agriculture, Lenihan carried the legislative programme, covering everything from repealing mediæval laws[citation needed] to granting[citation needed] succession rights to married women. As Minister it was Lenihan who repealed Ireland's notorious censorship laws. Controversially he also suggested that the Republic of Ireland should rejoin the Commonwealth of Nations, though it is unclear whether that suggestion actually reflected his opinion or whether he was simply raising the issue at Lemass's request to gauge public reaction.

[edit] Minister for Education

In 1968 Lemass's successor Jack Lynch appointed Lenihan as Minister for Education. As Education minister he controversially proposed the merger of Dublin's (then) two universities, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Dublin (UCD).[5] However the scheme was abandoned after mass opposition, Lenihan famously being forced to flee student protests in TCD through a toilet window.

[edit] Foreign Minister, then loses Dáil seat

Between 1969 and 1973 he served as Minister for Transport and Power. In 1973, following Dr. Patrick Hillery's appointment as Irish EEC Commissioner, Taoiseach Jack Lynch appointed Lenihan as Minister for Foreign Affairs for a short time. However in the 1973 general election, Lenihan's party lost power and he dramatically lost his Roscommon Dáil seat. He contested the immediately following Senate election and was elected, becoming his party's leader in the upper house. In 1973, Lenihan was appointed a member of the second delegation from the Oireachtas to the European Parliament.

Lenihan moved his political base from rural Roscommon to Dublin, where he was elected again as a TD in the 1977 general election landslide victory by Fianna Fáil. Jack Lynch appointed him Minister for Forestry and Fisheries.

Lynch's retirement in 1979 saw a leadership battle between Charles Haughey (the radical republican[citation needed] candidate) and George Colley (the party establishment candidate). Lenihan dismissed the choice as being between a "knave and a fool". He also described himself as being the "x in Oxo"[6] He was believed to have backed Colley. Years later he claimed he had actually supported Haughey, but not everyone accepted this assertion.

Haughey, the new party leader, appointed Lenihan Minister for Foreign Affairs, a post he held until Fianna Fáil lost power in 1981. His period in Foreign Affairs was overshadowed by a comment made after an Anglo-Irish summit between Haughey and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, when he spoke of Britain and Ireland being able to bring about Irish unity within ten years, a comment which infuriated the British and Northern Ireland unionists and which undid much of the goodwill achieved by the summit. His comments, at a time of major problems within Northern Ireland, with the Provisional IRA and Irish National Liberation Army campaigns in full swing, were widely criticised in the Irish media as insensitive, especially as Irish unity had not even been on the agenda of the summit. One newspaper columnist commented simply "there goes Brian, pointlessly talking himself into trouble again".[7] In 1982, when Fianna Fáil regained power for ten months, Lenihan was Minister for Agriculture, the announcement in the Dáil being greeted by a sustained round of laughter on the opposition benches.

[edit] Opposition to, then implementation of, the Anglo-Irish Agreement

In opposition, Lenihan and Haughey attracted some international criticism when, against the advice of senior Irish-American politicians Senator Edward Kennedy and Speaker Tip O'Neill, they campaigned against the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which the government of Garret FitzGerald had signed with the British government of Margaret Thatcher and which gave the Republic an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In 1987 Fianna Fáil returned to power and Lenihan was for the third and final time appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, with the additional post of Tánaiste (deputy prime minister). In power Haughey and Lenihan reversed their opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Lenihan attending meetings of the Anglo-Irish Conference which the Republic's foreign minster and the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland co-chaired.

[edit] Liver transplant

Lenihan's last period as Minister for Foreign Affairs was overshadowed by his serious ill-health. A long-standing liver problem present since childhood[citation needed] had developed into a life-threatening issue requiring a liver transplant. [8]In May 1989 Lenihan underwent the liver transplant in the Mayo Clinic in the United States. In his absence he was re-elected to the Dáil in the 1989 general election, after which, while remaining Tánaiste he was made Minister of Defence. Brian Lenihan returned[9] with a new lease of life, speaking[citation needed] about his religious beliefs in an Irish religious magazine.

It was revealed subsequently that Brian Lenihan's operation was partly paid for through fundraising by Taoiseach Charles Haughey from senior businessmen with Fianna Fáil links. In evidence to a tribunal investigating Haughey's finances[10] it was suggested that some of the money raised but not ultimately needed for the operation was redirected by Haughey into his own personal bank account.

[edit] Presidential candidate

In January 1990 leaks to the media suggested that Brian Lenihan was considering seeking the Fianna Fáil nomination to become the party candidate for the Irish presidential election, which was due in November of that year. Speculation abounded that the media spin was part of a plan to discourage other parties from running candidates in the belief that Lenihan would prove unbeatable and so get the office unopposed.[11] This idea was derailed when Irish Labour Party leader Dick Spring indicated in January 1990 that not merely was Labour guaranteed to run a candidate for the presidency, he[citation needed] would run if no-one else was available. Ultimately in April 1990 Labour chose former Senator Mary Robinson as its candidate.

[edit] Challenge of John Wilson

Lenihan was generally perceived[citation needed] as unbeatable for the presidency, though he did receive a late challenge for the nomination from cabinet colleague John Wilson. [12] However, in September 1990 Lenihan was formally nominated as his party's candidate. The main opposition party, Fine Gael chose new Fine Gael TD and former Social Democratic and Labour Party cabinet minister in Northern Ireland, Austin Currie, to be its candidate.

Lenihan however had one serious flaw. Though regarded by those who knew him personally as an intellectual heavyweight he had masked his ability behind an image of a lightweight, semi-comic politician, the "clown prince" of Irish politics, in the words of longtime friend, journalist John Healy. He was once described by Fine Gael politician and former Attorney General, John Kelly as[citation needed] like a lighthouse in the Bog of Allen, brilliant but useless. During leadership heaves against Haughey in the 1980s Lenihan had regularly appeared on RTÉ television to insist that Fianna Fáil was not divided, even as ministers were resigning from cabinet, and when Haughey supporters physically assaulted an opponent of Haughey's, ex-minister Jim Gibbons, in the environs of Leinster House, the Republic's parliament building.

That image was augmented by a disastrous Late Late Show TV special devoted to him and broadcast only weeks before the presidential campaign started, in which colleagues and friends of Lenihan projected an image of him as a political cute hoor,[13] which describes someone who would do anything and pull any stunt that was required, including making any promises to the electorate without any intention of following them through. As a result, while his personal popularity was high, his perceived trustworthiness did not achieve the same heights.

[edit] The Lenihan tape

The issue of Lenihan's trustworthiness became the central issue of the second half of the presidential campaign, where a furore arose over his involvement on Haughey's behalf in 1982 to pressurise the President, Patrick Hillery, a former government colleague of Lenihan's, into refusing Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald a parliamentary dissolution in January 1982. Had Hillery done so[14] FitzGerald would have had to resign, allowing Haughey to attempt to form a government. Allowing Haughey to form a government without calling a general election and giving him the freedom to choose the timing of a subsequent election would have protected Haughey from rumoured plans to depose him, [15], as he would have been able to use his appointments powers to reward middle ground TDs who might otherwise have supported moves to topple him.[16]

Lenihan, over the eight years since the incident, had never denied that he had been one of the people making phonecalls to Áras an Uachtaráin [17] that night in January 1982. That he had made phone calls was mentioned[citation needed] in newspapers and in books by authors Stephen O'Byrnes and Raymond Smith and by many political journalists in newspaper articles, some of whom had Lenihan privately as their source. In September 1990 The Irish Times carried a series of articles on the presidency, one of whom mentioned in passing the role of Lenihan, Sylvester Barret and Charles Haughey in making the controversial phonecalls to Áras an Uachtaráin, to pressurise the President.

In October 1990, in the midst of the presidential election, Lenihan changed his story and, in an interview in the Irish Press newspaper and on RTÉ's Questions and Answers political programme, insisted that he had played no hand, act or part in efforts to pressurise President Hillery. All his previous confirmations had been in off the record briefings to journalists who could not reveal he was the source of their stories. However on 17 May 1990 Lenihan had confirmed his participation in one on the record interview with a post-graduate student and journalist, Jim Duffy, who was researching the presidency of Ireland for a thesis and for a series of newspaper articles in The Irish Times. In the aftermath of Lenihan's TV denial, The Irish Times, which was aware that Lenihan himself was Duffy's source for the original article claim, with Duffy's agreement, published a newspaper story confirming that contrary to Lenihan's TV claim, he had made the controversial phone calls to the Áras in an attempt to pressurise President Hillery. When Lenihan's campaign manager, Bertie Ahern, on radio inexplicably named Duffy as someone who had interviewed Lenihan back in May, a political storm erupted in which the journalist was put under siege by the media and Fianna Fáil, leading to the reluctant decision after consulting with lawyers to release the portion of the tape in which Lenihan talked about the events of January 1982.

[edit] 'On mature recollection'

Lenihan's immediate reaction severely damaged his credibility. He appeared on a live news bulletin and looking to camera in a manner media commentators referred to as Nixonesque pleaded with the Irish people to believe him, arguing that on mature recollection he had not phoned President Hillery and his account to Duffy had been wrong. He then requested an audience with President Hillery to seek his confirmation that he made no phone calls. In the end when no audience was granted his campaign manager, Bertie Ahern, decided to withdraw the request though in a sign of the chaos envelloping the campaign, Lenihan, not knowing of this decision, told RTÉ journalist Charlie Bird that the request was still there until the journalist played back his interview with Ahern, after which Lenihan recorded a new soundbite explaining why the request had been withdrawn. [18] It was further revealed that one of the callers named under parliamentary privilege was Haughey, though he denied it. Haughey had threatened when he returned to power to end the career of the army officer who took the calls and who on President Hillery's explicit instruction had refused to put any of them through to the President. Fergus Finlay, a senior aide to Labour leader Dick Spring, was telephoned by an anonymous source will details of the threat. [19] According to Finlay, Haughey having told the Army Officer to put me through to the President and, on the basis of the President's earlier instructions being refused, told the army officer that he would be Taoiseach one day and when I am, I intend to roast your fucking arse if you don't put me through immediately. [20] It was stated that the President as Commander-in-Chief had expressly recorded details of the threat made against the army officer in the officer's file with an instruction that his career was not to be harmed in any way by the politician.

The opposition put down a motion of no-confidence in the government. The minority party in government, the Progressive Democrats, told Haughey that unless Lenihan was either dismissed or an inquiry set up into the events of January 1982 it would resign from government, support the opposition motion and so force a general election on the issue. Though insisting that he would put no pressure on Brian Lenihan, "my friend of thirty years", in private, Haughey drew up a letter of resignation which he tried to get Lenihan to sign. Lenihan refused, and so Haughey formally instructed President Hillery to dismiss Lenihan from his cabinet post, as Tánaiste and as Minister for Defence, which Hillery, as was required constitutionally, duly did. Many in Fianna Fáil were disgusted with what they saw as Haughey's betrayal of his old friend.

[edit] Padraig Flynn's attack on Mary Robinson

Lenihan's dismissal led to an immediate collapse in popularity (from the mid 40% to 31% almost overnight) but then rallied. However a subsequent personal attack by former cabinet colleague, Padraig Flynn on Mary Robinson, in which he accused her of showing a "new found interest" in her family, backfired and destroyed Lenihan's campaign. Progressive Democrats president Michael McDowell verbally savaged Flynn on the radio show where the attack was made. Women voters, incensed at Flynn's attack, rallied to Robinson and abandoned the Lenihan campaign in droves. While Lenihan did win more votes in the first count, most of the votes that went to Austin Currie (who came in third with 17%) transferred against Lenihan, going to Robinson. As a result, Mary Robinson, not the odds-on favourite at the start of the campaign, became the 7th President of Ireland. Lenihan was the first Fianna Fáil candidate to lose an Irish presidential election.

[edit] Out of government

Lenihan remained active in politics right up to his death in 1995. Bitter at what he saw as his betrayal by the Progressive Democrats, he campaigned[citation needed] for Fianna Fáil to coalesce with the Labour Party instead, something which happened after the 1992 general election. He also occasionally reviewed books, which showed an intellect that he had suppressed in his public persona as a politician.

[edit] Death

Brian Lenihan's health again deteriorated and he died in 1995 at the age of 64 from cancer. In the resulting by-election, his son Brian Lenihan, Jr. was elected to his seat.

In the 1997 general election another son, Conor Lenihan, was elected to Dáil Éireann.

[edit] Overview and legacy

Brian Lenihan was a complex Irish politician. He is regarded[citation needed] as one of the more intelligent people to have sat in Leinster House, mentioned[citation needed] alongside Eamon de Valera, Dr. Garret FitzGerald, Professor John Kelly, Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien and Dr. David Thorney, all of whom are generally regarded as the major parliamentary intellectuals in modern Irish political history.

Lenihan's public image was, as John Healy observed[citation needed], that of being the clown prince of politics, given to say no problem and there is no question of that continually in interviews, to the amusement of viewers and the exasperation of television presenters. Yet his legislative programme, including the abolishment of censorship, in the Department of Justice, have earned[citation needed] him a place in the history of Irish governance.

[edit] Brian Lenihan Memorial Lecture

A Brian Lenihan Memorial Lecture is delivered annually in the Irish Institute of European Affairs. The first guest speaker was the late Lord Jenkins of Hillhead (formerly British Home Secretary and President of the European Commission Roy Jenkins). In 2001 the lecture was given by Chris Patten, former Conservative Party minister, governor of Hong Kong and current British European Commissioner.

[edit] Quotes

  • On emigration; "We can't all live on a small island."

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ He was Minister for Justice (1964-1968), Minister for Education (1968-1969), Minister for Transport & Power (1969-1973), Minister for Foreign Affairs (1973, 1979-1981 & 1987-1989), Minister for Forestry & Fisheries (1977-1979), Minister for Agriculture (1982) and Minister for Defence (1989-1990).
  2. ^ On two occasions (1957-1961 and 1973-1977)
  3. ^ Junior ministers are below cabinet rank, formerly Parliamentary Secretaries.
  4. ^ Haughey systematically reviewed, repealed or amended Acts dating back 700 years in the single largest reform[citation needed] of the Irish civil and criminal code ever undertaken. Though a highly controversial politician, Haughey's made many reforms as Justice Minister (1961-1964).
  5. ^ Both still exist, alongside a third since created, Dublin City University, formerly the National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin (NIHE, Dublin).
  6. ^ Oxo is a well known brand of stock cube.
  7. ^ Sunday Independent.
  8. ^ Lenihan, previously a large framed man had been reduced to a bone-thin jaundiced-looking shadow of his former self, so ill-looking that the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Tom King, said afterwards[citation needed] that on seeing Brian at an Anglo-Irish Conference meeting, he had speculated as to whether Lenihan would die at the meeting.
  9. ^ When Brian entered the Dáil chamber he received an ovation, an indication of his personal cross-party popularity.
  10. ^ Though posing as a very wealthy man, and living in a former viceregal summer residence on the outskirts of Dublin, Haughey was revealed in the Moriarty Tribunal to have been bankrolled by rich businessmen, who made multi-million pound donations to him to enable him to avoid bankruptcy.
  11. ^ Of the nine presidential elections held before 1990 (1938, 1945, 1952, 1959, 1966, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1983) one candidate had been elected unopposed on five occasions (1938, 1952, 1974, 1976, 1983).
  12. ^ Fears grew among the party leadership that the party, in a minority government, would have great difficulty holding Lenihan's seat in a by-election, whereas Wilson had a 'safe seat' the party would have no difficulty in holding.
  13. ^ hoor is a phonetic rendition of whore
  14. ^ The President under the 1937 Constitution has the absolute right in consultation with the Taoiseach to dissolve the Dáil.
  15. ^ One TD, Charlie McCreevy had already been expelled from the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party a short time earlier for criticising Haughey's leadership
  16. ^ In the event, Haughey did face another leadership heave directly after the election requested by FitzGerald and granted by President Hillery. However efforts to replace Haughey by Desmond O'Malley as the Fianna Fáil nominee for Taoiseach failed.
  17. ^ the official residence of the President
  18. ^ RTÉ showed the image of Lenihan listening to the RTÉ reporter's tape recorder but the fact that he was listening to Ahern's interview before re-recording his own was not explained to viewers and only became known subsequently.
  19. ^ The source, challenged as to his trustworthiness, gave Finlay personal details that convinced Finlay as to his reliability.
  20. ^ Finlay, Snakes and Ladders p.91. Haughey tearfully told the Dáil he never insulted an army officer and he never would. Lenihan in his subsequent account noted that no-one ever claimed Haughey had insulted an army officer but that he had threatened him, a subtle but important difference, and that Haughey never denied threatening the army officer, merely denied ever insulting an army officer.

[edit] Additional Reading

  • Bruce Arnold, Jack Lynch, Hero in Crisis (Merlin, 2001) ISBN 1-903582-06-7
  • James Downey, Lenihan: His Life and Loyalties (New Island Books 1998) ISBN 1-874597-97-9
  • Fergus Finlay, Snakes and Ladders (New Island Books, 1998) 1874597766
  • Joe Joyce and Peter Murtagh, The Boss: Charles J. Haughey in Government (Poolbeg, 1983) ISBN 0-905169-69-7
  • Brian Lenihan, For the Record (Blackwater Press, ISBN 0-86121-362-9
  • T. Ryle Dwyer, Nice Fellow: A Biography of Jack Lynch (Mercier, 2001) ISBN 1-85635-368-0
  • T. Ryle Dwyer, Short Fellow: A Biography of Charles J. Haughey (Mercier, 1995) ISBN 1-86023-100-4
  • T. Ryle Dwyer, Fallen Idol: Haughey's Controversial Career (Mercier 1997) ISBN 1-85635-202-1
  • Raymond Smith, Haughey and O'Malley: The Quest for Power (Aherlow, 1986) ISBN 1-870138-00-7
  • Dick Walsh, Inside Fianna Fáil (Gill & Macmillan, 1986) ISBN 0-7171-1446-5

[edit] External links

[edit] Political career

Oireachtas
Preceded by
Gerald Boland		 Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála
for Roscommon
1961-1969		 Succeeded by
Constituency abolished
Preceded by
Newly created constituency		 Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála
for Roscommon-Leitrim
1969-1973		 Succeeded by
Patrick J. Reynolds
Preceded by
Newly created constituency		 Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála
for Dublin County West
1977-1981		 Succeeded by
Constituency abolished
Preceded by
Newly created constituency		 Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála
for Dublin West
1981-1995		 Succeeded by
Brian Lenihan, Jr
Political offices
Preceded by
Newly created office		 Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Lands
1961-1964		 Succeeded by
George Colley
Preceded by
Charles J. Haughey		 Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Justice
1961–1964		 Succeeded by
Office abolished
Minister for Justice
1964–1968		 Succeeded by
Micheál Ó Móráin
Preceded by
Donagh O'Malley		 Minister for Education
1968-1969		 Succeeded by
Pádraig Faulkner
Preceded by
Erskine Hamilton Childers		 Minister for Transport & Power
1969-1973		 Succeeded by
Michael O'Kennedy
Preceded by
Patrick Hillery		 Minister for Foreign Affairs
1973		 Succeeded by
Garret FitzGerald
Preceded by
Mark Clinton		 Minister for Fisheries
1977-1979		 Succeeded by
Paddy Power
Preceded by
Michael O'Kennedy		 Minister for Foreign Affairs
1979-1981		 Succeeded by
John Kelly
Preceded by
Alan Dukes		 Minister for Agriculture
1982		 Succeeded by
Austin Deasy
Preceded by
Peter Barry		 Tánaiste
1987–1990		 Succeeded by
John P. Wilson
Minister for Foreign Affairs
1987–1989		 Succeeded by
Gerard Collins
Preceded by
Michael J. Noonan		 Minister for Defence
1989-1990		 Succeeded by
Brendan Daly


Deputy Prime Ministers of Ireland
Tánaistithe na hÉireann		 Government of Ireland

Seán T. O'Kelly | Seán Lemass | William Norton | Seán MacEntee | Frank Aiken | Erskine H. Childers | Brendan Corish | George Colley | Michael O'Leary | Ray MacSharry | Dick Spring | Peter Barry | Brian Lenihan | John P. Wilson | Bertie Ahern | Mary Harney | Michael McDowell

Vice-Presidents of the Executive Council
Kevin O'Higgins | Ernest Blythe | Seán T. O'Kelly

This page incorporates information from the Oireachtas Members Database

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