Eoghan Harris

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Eoghan Harris is an Irish newspaper columnist who contributes to the Sunday Independent newspaper. Harris was educated at University College, Cork where he took a First in history. He later worked at RTE, the Irish television broadcaster.

Harris was a friend of leading Official Sinn Fein members Eamonn Smullen and Cathal Goulding and wrote their election maniefsto on one occasion. According to an article in Magill magazine (November 1997) Harris formed a branch of Sinn Fein the Workers Party (which Official Sinn Fein had become). People working in RTE could join this branch known as the 'Ned Stapleton Cumann'. It was believed that Sinn Fein the Workers Party, nicknamed the "stickies" exercised great influence within RTE during the 1970s and 1980s. Michael O'Leary, then leader of the Labour Party, commented that RTE current affairs coverage was "stickie orientated".Sinn Fein the Workers Party followed Marxist Leninist policies throughout that period. In 1989 Harris ended his involvement with the party after a policy disagreement.

He became friendly with Fine Gael leader John Bruton because of their shared opposition to the Provisional IRA. Harris received significant press criticism in April 1991 when he wrote the script for a sketch for the Fine Gael Ard Fheis in which Twink camped up the toilet roll 'ad lady' and lampooned an incident involving Una Claffey, an RTE reporter, and TD, Ned O'Keeffe.[1]

Harris worked as a consultant to Mary Robinson on the 1990 presidential election campaign. In 1997 Harris denounced Fianna Fail presidential candidate Mary McAleese, calling her a "tribal time bomb" and writing "if she wins not on a technicality but because so many people gave her their number one, then I am living in a country I no longer understand". Mcaleese won the election. In a subsequent RTE TV interview with John Bowman, Harris said that he had been wrong in his opinion of Mary McAleese.

In the late 1990s he became a political advisor to David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. In the 2005 elections the UUP lost all but one of its Westminster seats. Harris' involvement with the party has since ended.

Harris strongly supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In May 2003 he wrote "already as I predicted in the lead up to the war, the neoconservative hawks have done much better than the liberals in getting down to the dynamics of opening up the Gulf to democracy. Already, and this I predicted too, there is substantial hope for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, now that Saddam no longer scowls at Israel". He has been bitterly critical of Middle East journalist Robert Fisk. In November 2003 he wrote. "Far from wanting to pour venom on Fisk, I think he does us a favour by being so forthright. For my money his analysis of Middle East politics is a first cousin to believing that aliens take away people in flying saucers".

He is separated from his wife, Anne Harris, who now lives with Sunday Independent editor, Aengus Fanning. [2]