This doubleness suited the times and enriched Haughey’s claim to be the great representative of the people. In a way, he was. Mores and morals were uncertain: Catholic conservatism was increasingly impossible to live with in private life but not yet dispensable as a marker of public identity. Haughey’s sexual hypocrisy – the way his private life contradicted his political stance as defender of faith and morals – made him emblematic of the state of the place.
