Cash From the Closet.(corruption in Irish politics)(Brief Article)

Charles Haughey loved to spend. And the former Irish prime minister spent big. Before retirement he'd acquired a 171-acre island off Ireland's west coast, a private yacht and a 10-bedroom Georgian mansion. Other costly indulgences included handmade shirts from Paris and a mistress in Dublin. Haughey served as prime minister three times between 1979 and 1992 and has denied any suggestion of criminal wrongdoing. But to many observers, his widely publicized extravagances were hard to square with his habit of preaching economy to the cash- strapped Irish. Says author and commentator Kevin Toolis: "It was apparent to everyone who could do simple arithmetic that he was living wildly beyond his income as a government minister."

Soon everyone will be able to do the math. This month Haughey--now 75 and suffering from prostate cancer--will testify for the last time before the official inquiry that's been exploring the sources of his wealth for the last three years. Among the charges: a so-called golden circle of senior businessmen contributed at least [pound]8.5 million to help fund the prime minister's lifestyle. A single retailing tycoon, Ben Dunne, paid out more than [pound]1 million. How Haughey's benefactors profited is still unknown, but the overall picture is clear. Today's shiny new-look Ireland, a global favorite of high-tech investors and the European Union's economic pacesetter through the '90s, emerged from a world of sleaze and cronyism. The scandals surrounding Haughey, one architect of the current boom, have come to symbolize a grubby past that Ireland is seeking to purge. "This [tribunal] is about catharsis," says former M.P. Conor Cruise O'Brien. "Ireland is now among the rich countries of the world and it is starting to look curiously back."

That backward glance has shown a pattern of questionable behavior that appears to embrace more than just the prime minister and a few friends. The tribunal's legal team has claimed, for instance, that Haughey was just one of 120 of Ireland's superrich--including business leaders--to profit from an elaborate tax scam involving offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. Another inquiry is looking at how pols and civil servants took cash from businessmen to rezone land around Dublin for development. Former foreign minister Ray Burke resigned three years ago following reports linking him to one of the builders. An inquiry into the beef industry in the mid-'90s found evidence of fraud and unsavory links between ...