Book Review

An Enemy of the Crown: Colourful confirmation of what we already knew of Haughey’s extraordinary charisma

Dublin author and barrister David Burke’s well-researched but highly speculative follow-up to Deception and Lies focuses on the MI6 campaign to sully the Fianna Fáil leader’s reputation

Charles Haughey: a new book by David Burke claims there was a long-running campaign by British intelligence agents to blacken the Fianna Fáil leader’s reputation. Picture: Getty

In early 1980, the British satirical magazine Private Eye published a bizarre story about Ireland’s new taoiseach. It claimed that Charles Haughey had gone to a fancy Dublin eatery for lunch, seen his lover Terry Keane there with another man, and remarked: “That dress I bought [for] you looks well on you.”

“At this, the plucky colleen stood up, grasped the dress at the neck and ripped it apart,” Private Eye reported. “She hurled [it] ...