He tried a middle course but social issues toppled him

Some talking points from Albert Reynolds's two terms as Taoiseach sound an echo, as though from a far distant time. Others remain as raw, divisive and hotly debated today as they were on his watch more than 20 years ago.

Take the X case - a 1992 furore over a suicidal girl carrying her rapist's baby. That's an issue which chimes with the current case involving an asylum seeker. By comparison, Mr Reynolds's important groundwork on the peace process - which led to the first IRA ceasefire - seems almost lost in the mists of time. But its impact, along with the commitment, energy and mediation skills he brought to the negotiating table, cannot be underestimated.

He was neither a dinosaur nor an ardent social reformer - the middle course was his preference - yet it was social issues which helped to topple him. After his first government collapsed, he lost electoral support over the fallout from the abortion referendum following the X case.

His second administration developed cracks beyond repair for a variety of reasons, but the swirl of rumour and rancour arising from its handling of clerical child sex abuse had to be a factor.

His Attorney General Harry Whelehan was a key player in both dramas. Mr Reynolds was no sooner Taoiseach in 1992 than the controversial X case needed his attention. A 14-year-old girl had been raped and impregnated by a neighbour, and was suicidal. Her family were preparing to take her to Britain for an abortion, and a family member asked a guard if DNA from the aborted foetus could be used to prove paternity. The authorities were alerted, and Mr Whelehan intervened. He sought and was granted a High Court injunction under the Constitution, which outlawed abortion.

But the decision was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled that a woman had a right to travel for an abortion if there was "a real and substantial risk" to her life, including from suicide.

The girl, known as Miss X to protect her identity, miscarried soon after and her permission to have an abortion was never implemented. But the stance taken by Mr Whelehan's office was a contentious one, and it damaged Reynolds's government. He attempted to tread a middle course and drew fire from liberals and conservatives alike. A referendum on abortion was held to change the Constitution's wording on abortion, causing stress lines to fracture between Fianna Fail and their government partners, the PDs, although there were other tensions. The government fell after less than a year, in January 1993, and Mr Reynolds led his party into a coalition with Labour.

Here, Mr Reynolds's trademark pragmatism asserted itself, and social reform favoured by Labour was advanced by him. But the Attorney General returned to the firing line over delays by his office in extraditing the notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth to Northern Ireland.

Pressure of work at the Attorney General's office in examining the extradition papers, which related to multiple child sex abuse charges stretching back over 20 years, were offered as an excuse. Not a particularly convincing excuse, because the delays stretched on for many months.

Eventually Smyth, pressurised by his Norbertine order, handed himself into the RUC.

Tensions were high. Amid this maelstrom, with fears of church-state collusion, Mr Reynolds made a fatal miscalculation.

He determined to appoint Mr Whelehan as President of the High Court, an honourable exit. The Government was accused of protecting the Attorney General, and his Labour partners - who objected strenuously to the appointment - were incandescent.

There were other sources of conflict between Labour and Fianna Fail, including a tax amnesty. But Mr Reynolds's persistence with the appointment seemed to be the final straw. In sensational fashion, Tanaiste Dick Spring led his party out of government. Compared with scandals that have followed in the ensuing two decades, it seems a relatively tame reason to exit. But it demonstrated an adherence to ethical standards which would have held Ireland in good stead subsequently.

Mr Reynolds's talents as a deal-maker crumbled with Labour, but they were put to good use in the North - and that deserves to be remembered in any assessment of his contribution to public life.

Martina Devlin

Irish Independent