Haughey's Thatcherism
Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey made the biggest u-turn of his career so
far last week when he formed a coalition government with his former
arch-rivals in the Progressive Democrats. As well as their common
Thatcherite social and economic policies, the Programme for Government
signed by Haughey and Desmond O'Malley commits them to full support for
Thatcher's solution to Ireland's British problem - the Hillsborough
Agreement.
With only a week gone in the life of the government there were already
signs that the PDs will push Fianna Fáil even further towards the British
and support for a Stormont administration.
It was the action of Fianna Fáil TD Mary Harney in voting for the
Hillsborough Agreement in 1985 that led to her expulsion from the party and
to the eventual formation of the PDs. In the Leinster House debate on the
Hillsborough Treaty Haughey stated:
``In effect what is proposed in this Agreement is that the Irish government,
accepting British sovereignty over part of Ireland, will involve itself in
assisting and advising the British government to rule that part of Ireland
more effectively, to help make it more amenable to the authority of the
British government.''
That is exactly what the Fianna Fáil government did in office two years
later, going on to deliver one of the main prizes the British hoped to gain
from the Agreement - political extradition.
Phoblacht, 20 July 1989.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)