Three Monkeys Online

A Curious, Alternative Magazine

And people will still say he was a Great Man

From page 41 from the 700+-page charge sheet against Charles J. Haughey that is the Moriarty report:”The reference to a debt of honour outstanding free of interest in the sum of �110,000.00 to be paid within a reasonable time throws an interesting light on the true meaning of both the letter and the terms of settlement. Apart from the fact that bank never requested the sum, no steps were ever taken by either Mr. Haughey or Mr. Traynor to comply with this element of the settlement. Mr. Haughey, in acknowledging that he had never paid the outstanding amount stated that he had never been called upon to make payment. When it was suggested to him that it may have been expected, that as a man of honour, he would pay the amount, Mr. Haughey responded that much stress was being placed upon honour, and he did not know what significance the Bank attributed to it, but it had never been sought from him or mentioned by the Bank: frankly, he had forgotten about it.”So one wonders whether Charles J. was the man who introduced our current Taoiseach to the conveniently elastic concept of the “debt of honour“–which in both Ahern’s and Haughey’s cases meant debts they hadn’t the faintest intention of paying.