Death seems to have really boosted Haughey's reputation

gallagc8

I found it a little surprising the amount of new found respect people had for Charlie Haughey after his death (despite the fairly meagre turnout for his funeral).
This was especially prevalent in the media. One such example is the Irish Independent headline "He did the state some service".
When Regan died last year there was a similar outpouring of praise and a quick glossing over of his failings.
Does anyone else have any memories of the death of a controversial leader causing mass amnesia?

Zombrex

Stalin - in 2003 Russians voted Stalin the 4th most popular (not longest, greatest or best, but actually popular) leader of the USSR. 36% of Russians believed he did more good than harm (29% the opposite), despite the fact that 68% believe he commited genocide against his own people.

I said it before and I'll say it again - People are dumb

mike65

Easy to be generous when they are dead.

Mike.

Well he did do some good stuff as well as a lot of not so good stuff. Obviously media focus has been on the not so good for the last decade or so. With his death people have discussed both the debit and credit side as Ruari Quinn put it. Acknowleging that he did some good is not the same thing as saying he did no wrong. I don't really think there has been a case of collective amenisia. It is better that people recall both the positives and negatives, rather than just one of the two. I think as a whole (if not individually) the media has done both and the debate following his death has been healthy .

ScottishDanny

As Elvis Presley's Manager said when he heard the King had died
"Good Career Move"

Sand

Generally people are cautioned not to speak ill of the dead, especially when the family are grieving. Though to be honest, its nothing they havent heard before and indeed they were happy to benefit from Charlies connections.

I guess if people didnt claim Charlie was some sort of Messiah who came down from the heavens to save us, then common sense people wouldnt feel the need to correct them and remind them he was a jumped up corrupt inept gombeen who basically ran this country into the ground. Sad that this has to be pointed out to people, but I guess its not surprising given someones voting for Bertie.

Philistine

gallagc8 wrote:

I found it a little surprising the amount of new found respect people had for Charlie Haughey after his death (despite the fairly meagre turnout for his funeral).
This was especially prevalent in the media. One such example is the Irish Independent headline "He did the state some service".
When Regan died last year there was a similar outpouring of praise and a quick glossing over of his failings.
Does anyone else have any memories of the death of a controversial leader causing mass amnesia?

Do you not see the irony here with this tread ? But have to agree with your view. As has been said so many times, we don't speak ill of the dead. Don't agree myself. The man was a crook, plain and simple !

gallagc8

Philistine wrote:

Do you not see the irony here with this tread ?

No, help me out.