Fallen idol - T. Ryle Dwyer

This is the story of Haughey's controversial career, from the 1960s to date, drawing extensively on personal recollection. The book is a reissue of Ryle Dwyer's "Haughey's Thirty Years of Controversy", with a new updated chapter on recent events in the Haughey saga.;Charles Haughey and controversy have always been synonymous. He has been involved in major political scandals of Watergate proportions in four different decades: in the 1960s and 1970s as Fianna Fail minister; and in the 1980s as a Taoiseach minister.;When Sean Doherty finally blew the whistle on the "Liffeygate" scandal - the earlier tapping of the telephones of political journalists - Haughey fell from power in 1992.;But it was the events of 1997, particularly the Payments to Politicians Tribunal, that finally toppled Charles Haughey. Fired by his prodigious self-belief, reassured by his ability to literally rise from the dead in political terms, Haughey had managed to retain the aura of a god-like national leader despite all the controversies, speculation, douts and mysteries. The confirmation of massive payments made by Ben Dunne to Charlie Haughey changed all that.