The third part of the Haughey documentary was on TV last night. Yawn. Nothing new, nothing controversial, nothing interesting. It just laid out the well known facts with all the flair of a school history essay.
No one involved has come out of the show looking good. Everyone seems to be a bit weird. Haughey himself seems to be portrayed as a being indecisive and just keeps getting lucky. His advisors, like PJ Mara, seem to be lost in their own fantasy land where the geeks are the local heavies. His enemies seem cowardly and unable to grasp the power laid before them. Albert Reynolds gets all emotional. The Fianna Fail party grass roots are portrayed as rejects from the movie Deliverance. The only question you are left with in the end is how did these people manage to govern the country? Unfortunately thats the last of the questions a show about Haughey should be asking.
With each episode I watch I cant help but feel there is a good 6 to 8 part series in there somewhere trying to get out. That may be too long for RTE to sanction in one go (it could interfere with their endless repeats of Friends) but its the only way to cover his career in any real detail. As soon as the man himself shuffles off this mortal coil we may well see a new series with secret interviews given by Haughey on the condition that they are not shown before his death.
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