prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Which country is home to Alsa Mall and Spencer Plaza?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Harbor Square
Harbor Square, formerly Shore Mall, is a shopping plaza (formerly a shopping mall) in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey in the United States on U S  Route 40/U S  Route 322 originally known as "Searstown"  The plaza is accessible from Exit 36 off the Garden State Parkway  The plaza is owned by Aetna Realty  The plaza has a gross leasable area of 337,423 ft², formerly 620,000 ft² when it was a mall, located on 73 acres (300,000 m2) of land  The plaza's anchor stores include Boscov's, Restaurant Depot and Proshot Pickleball 

History
1968-1988
Shore Mall originally opened in 1968 as an open-air mall called Searstown  Original anchor stores included Sears, Grant City and a Pantry Pride supermarket  Between 1971 and 1974, the mall was enclosed and expanded, with regional up-market department store Steinbach being added as a fourth anchor store  A time capsule was buried next to the Steinbach store to be opened 100 years later on March 20, 2074  Grant City was  shuttered in 1976 when the chain declared bankruptcy; by the end of the year, JCPenney opened in the former Grant City space  Pantry Pride was subsequently replaced with Foodtown, and the mall was renamed Shore Mall 
In 1987, Developer Kravco Company (Kravco Company LLC) and JCP Realty, the development arm of JCPenney, opened the new Hamilton Mall about 5 miles west on the Black Horse Pike (U S  Route 40 and U S  Route 322)   This caused problems with the Shore Mall, because the Sears and JCPenney anchors moved to the Hamilton Mall  With the two anchors gone, Shore Mall underwent a fair sized renovation enclosing the still open-air portion between the two anchors (pictured to the right in December 2012) as well as re-tiling the mall to its current blue and white color scheme 
In 1988 Clover, a discount chain owned by the Strawbridge's chain (now Macy's), soon opened in the former JCPenney/Grant City space, while Boscov's replaced the former Sears   Circuit City opened in the former Foodtown, which closed in the early 1990s  Steinbach went out of business in 1995 but was replaced in 1996 with Value City Department Store  Clover closed in 1997 when that chain also faced closure by its parent company, becoming Burlington Coat Factory a year later 

2004-2010
In 2004, Circuit City moved to a strip mall called Hamilton Commons near the Hamilton Mall  The Circuit City's location at the mall was replaced with a K&G Fashion Superstore in 2006 (which has since closed)  Since then it has remained vacant but in 2012 it was rented by The Spirit Halloween Costume Store as a seasonal tenant  In January 2006, the Shore Mall was sold Cedar Realty Trust (Formally Cedar Shopping Centers) for $36 5 million   Their initial plan was to "de-mall" the mall converting it into an open-air plaza 
In 2008, the Value City store at Shore Mall was among 24 locations sold by Value City's parent company to Burlington Coat Factory  The store closed on September 21, 2008 and remained vacant until it was occupied temporarily by The Community Food Bank of New Jersey in 2011-2012 while their permanent location was torn down and reconstructed 
Construction began in 2010 on a Golden Corral restaurant near the main entrance to the mall (where the former Dairy Queen stood, before moving into the outer building where the AT&T store and Wells Fargo bank are located) and opened in 2011 
In August 2010, Cedar Shopping Centers applied for a state Economic Redevelopment and Growth(ERG) grant in the amount of $3 million to $41 million  The grant would be used to help finance an $87 million revamp of the mall  The plan called for demolishing most of the mall (except Boscov's, Burlington Coat Factory, and all everything else that can be seen from the Black Horse Pike), then converting the site to a strip mall with four additional large stores  It also includes $23 million for transportation upgrades such as a reconfiguration of Exit 36 of the Garden State Parkway, an intersection between West Jersey Avenue and the Black Horse Pike, and a boulevard style road network 

2012-present
In July 2012, Cedar Realty Trust stated that they will be razing 1/3 (over 250,000 square feet) of the mall including the former Value City location   Most tenants will have to relocate as the space will be torn down  After demolition, Cedar Realty Trust plans to do some improvements to the location such as a new south entrance to what is remained of the main shopping center, new landscaping, parking lot improvements, and fencing off the excess land in the rear part of the property to put up for sale as vacant commercial land unless phases of new development occur under the owner On January 28, 2013,  the Steinbach Time Capsule was dug up in a small ceremony due to demolition process needing it to be moved  The plaque and contents of the capsule were given to the Egg Harbor Township Historical Society who will create a display in remembrance of the mall at their location  Demolition continued through early-mid 2013, including the former Value City store 
The Motor Vehicle Commission office closed on August 23 and August 24, 2013, due to demolition of the back of the mall and the relocation to behind Boscov's which opened on August 26The center was renamed Harbor Square in October 2013  In February 2014, Cedar Realty Trust sold Harbor Square to Aetna Realty for $25 million In early 2017 the Carrabba's was closed abruptly along with 13 others due to under performance, in Fall 2019, Burlington Coat Factory moved to Consumer Square in Mays Landing 
In May 2023 Restaurant Depot opened in the old Burlington Coat Factory along with Proshot Pickleball and Umi Sushi & Seafood Buffet 

Gallery
Passage 2:
Smith Road, Chennai
Smith Road in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India branches off from Anna Salai, Chennai's arterial road near Spencer Plaza from the TVS Junction to join Whites Road near Hobart Muslim Girls Higher Secondary School Major companies and organizations located at this road includes

TVS Motors
Data Software Research Company
Passage 3:
Ashley Landing
Ashley Landing (originally opened as Ashley Plaza and later known as Ashley Plaza Mall) is a shopping mall in Charleston, South Carolina, United States  It was the first indoor shopping mall in the West Ashley area of Charleston when the complex was fully completed in 1972  The center, located at 1401 Sam Rittenberg Boulevard (S C  Highway 7) at the fork of Old Towne Road (S C  Highway 171) was developed by Gate City Realty Company of Fort Lauderdale, Florida  Ground was broken for the complex in 1962 with Ashley Plaza opening on April 16, 1964   At its opening the shopping center consisted of J M  Fields Department Stores joined to a Pantry Pride supermarket, built at a cost of $1 75 million and owned by Sumar Corporation of South Carolina  The locally owned Condon's Department Store, constructed adjacent to Pantry Pride as a freestanding building, became the third tenant when it opened in 1970  The center, originally known as "Ashley Plaza" was noted for its large red and white neon pylon "Ashley Plaza" sign in the center of the parking lot that remained until 1989 when it was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo 

Expansion and mall addition
In April 1972 an indoor shopping mall that was created by adding on to the shopping plaza and enclosing the area between Pantry Pride and Condon's Department Store opened  The mall featured a number of local retailers as well as nationally known retailers and specialty shops and a dual screen General Cinemas (which was later expanded to three screens)  A third department store, the locally owned Edward's was also added at this time  With the completion of the enclosed mall came a new name, Ashley Plaza Mall 

Turbulent 1970s and 1980s
The mall thrived for many years during the 1970s, but was dealt several blows beginning in the late 1970s  Perhaps the most devastating was the bankruptcy and subsequent closure of J M  Fields and Pantry Pride leaving one entire wing of the shopping complex vacant  Locally owned Edward's, on the opposite end of the mall, was purchased by the Kuhn's-Big K Corporation who renamed the store "Big K-Edwards "  The changes were in name only as the merchandise mix was not altered with the sale  Big K was subsequently sold to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc  who closed the Big K-Edwards store as it was not large enough to operate as a Wal-Mart  This left another large vacancy on the other end of the shopping center 
The mall's owners worked diligently to secure replacement anchor tenants for the vacant buildings and were successful in leasing the vacant J M  Fields building to the F W  Woolworth Company which opened a Woolco Department Store in the building  The Pantry Pride store was leased to a local businessman who opened Jameson's Red & White Supermarket in the vacated space  The former Edward's store remained vacant for a number of years before finally being subdivided and leased to a mattress shop and an unfinished furniture store  While all appeared to be on the upswing for the newly invigorated mall, change was again in store and would deal another devastating blow to the mall 

Woolco closure and Citadel Mall opening
The early 1980s brought a surprising announcement when the F W  Woolworth Company announced that it was closing all Woolco stores in the United States in 1983  The 87,000-square-foot (8,100 m2) big box store would again be left vacant which made a tremendous impact on traffic at the mall  Two years before Woolco closed, the new 100-store Citadel Mall opened less than three miles (5 km) away from Ashley Plaza Mall  Many of the major national retailers pulled out of Ashley Plaza Mall and opened new locations in the much larger, more modern Citadel Mall  The mall struggled to survive as occupancy rates fell significantly  The supermarket space that formerly housed Pantry Pride and later Jameson's Red & White was leased to another locally based supermarket retailer known as The Big W Food Warehouse and ultimately closed  This space would later temporarily become a locally operated fruit and vegetable retailer for a short time 
A large portion of the mall, including the space formerly occupied by Edward's, was closed in the late 1980s and vacant stores were combined and reconfigured for a Burlington Coat Factory store leaving only one small wing of the indoor mall operating with a handful of merchants 

Hurricane Hugo
On September 22, 1989, the mall was dealt another tremendous blow with the arrival of Hurricane Hugo which caused severe roof and water damage to many of the stores and destroyed some of the exterior facades  It would be several months before the majority of the stores could be repaired and reopened  The exterior was given a fresh new look with synthetic stucco and paint and redesigned storefronts and the remaining interior mall wing was updated with lighter floors and decor  The mall was renamed Ashley Landing (complete with new signage) to honor its close proximity to the nearby Charles Towne Landing state historic site, and "mall" was officially dropped from the name  The remaining indoor mall wing was closed within a short period of time and the individual store spaces combined and converted into space for another discount retailer, 50-Off Stores, which also ultimately closed, thus ending the mall's classification as a true indoor mall 

Conversion to a strip shopping center
With the mall's two concourses now combined to make space for big box retailers, the shopping center returned to its original roots as a strip shopping center  The former Woolco space had been subdivided into two smaller spaces and a portion was leased to Brendle's Catalog Showroom and the remaining space to a regionally owned clothing store, United Clothing Company  The clothing store closed within a year of opening although Brendle's, which had opened in the late 1980s, was rebuilt after Hurricane Hugo and reopened a newly designed store  The store remained at Ashley Landing until the company's subsequent bankruptcy in the mid-1990s  Discount retailer Big Lots leased the former grocery store space and remains there today  Upon Brendle's departure, the subdivided space that originally housed J M  Fields and later Woolco was once again converted back into a single 87,000-square-foot (8,100 m2) building and leased in 1997 to Carolina Pottery, a large regionally based importer of pottery, housewares and china 
Carolina Pottery remained at the center until 2001 when they suddenly broke their lease and departed resulting in a lawsuit filed by the center's owner, Ashley Plaza Mall Associates  The Carolina Pottery space was once again subdivided - this time into 3 separate buildings, with portions being leased to Dollar Tree and Pivotal Fitness, with a remaining 24,500-square-foot (2,280 m2) space leased to NAPA Auto Parts 
Another dispute emerged between original anchor, Condon's Department Stores, and Ashley Plaza Mall Associates over the center's construction of a new Publix Super Market addition that left large piles of dirt in the parking area, which Condon's claimed blocked customer access to their store and created a dangerous situation for customers  The dispute ultimately led to the Condon's store closing after their lease was not renewed 

Ashley Landing today
The center still suffered from an identity crisis in 2000 when the City of Charleston, in conjunction with the adjoining residential neighborhoods conducted a design charrette for the Ashley Landing site and recommended a number of improvements to the shopping center's owners for revitalization  The city proposed an extensive overhaul of the property in an attempt to make it a neighborhood gathering place, complete with redesigned buildings that would include retail, offices and residences  Design elements such as new store facades, extensive landscaping and brick pedestrian crosswalks were proposed  Representatives from The Cordish Company indicated that they were interested in the city's plans but could not commit to any revitalization efforts due to existing store leases 
It was announced on February 5, 2014, that Faison Enterprises Inc  of Charlotte, NC acquired Ashley Landing for $19 2 million   Faison is currently undertaking an extensive renovation, revitalization and expansion of the property and adding new tenants that are better suited to the area   While initial and substantial improvements are underway, Faison has indicated that this is a long-term redevelopment project   In conjunction with the redevelopment plans, Faison also acquired the adjacent vacant former Piggly Wiggly building and adjoining property located on Sumar Street, which was later sold to the City of Charleston   Faison Enterprises spun off a majority of its retail holdings in 2017, including Ashley Landing, to a newly formed sister company, Wintergreen Capital 
Passage 4:
Desert Fashion Plaza
Desert Fashion Plaza, formerly known as Desert Inn Fashion Plaza, was an enclosed shopping mall located in Palm Springs, California  The mall was originally developed by Home Savings and Loan Association, which sold the shopping center to Desert Plaza Partnership  In the early 1980s, Desert Plaza Partnership sold the property to DeBartolo Corporation which expanded and revamped the mall to accommodate more shops  Subsequently, sales declined prompting major retailers to close down business at the Desert Fashion Plaza  In 2002, John Wessman of Wessman Development bought the property and proposed a significant redevelopment on the whole site  Demolition began to take place in 2013, and shops, restaurants, and a six-story hotel have opened on part of the site with more planned 
Former anchor tenants in the mall were Saks Fifth Avenue, I  Magnin, and Bank of America The mall was used as the set for the fictional S'wallow Valley Mall in the 2012 comedy film, Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie 

History
The site of the Desert Fashion Plaza was formerly a resort hotel named the Desert Inn opened and operated by Nellie Coffman, an early settler of Palm Springs  After Nellie's death in the 1950s, sons George Roberson and Earl Coffman, who had continuously assisted Nellie in the operation of the Inn, sold it in 1955 to actress Marion Davies By April 1956, there were plans for a $4 5 million, five story hotel and shopping center on the site  The project would have originally included a swimming pool, a Las Vegas-style restaurant, and a theater for both Broadway plays and cinema films during the winter and summer seasons, respectively  The hotel itself would accommodate 200 rooms and suites, along with a parking space for 1,000 cars  Victor Gruen and Associates were to be the architects to design the project, with Joseph Bliti of New York being contracted for the proposed construction  The proposed center was scheduled for completion by November 1957  However, the plans never came to fruition due to Davies's health deteriorating at the time 
Davies eventually sold the land for $2 5 million to developers Samuel Firks and George Alexander in 1960  Alexander and Firks originally envisioned an eight-story hotel that would accommodate 300 rooms and a 1,600 parking space facility for a proposed $4 million  Plans for redeveloping the Desert Inn fell, which prompted the Alexander Construction Company to focus more of using the property for commercial use instead On November 14, 1965, Alexander and his spouse Mildred, along with their son Robert and his wife Helene, were all killed when their plane impacted shortly after taking off from Palm Springs International Airport  The plane was expected to reach Hollywood-Lockheed Air Terminal, but the plane lost control while in flight and collided into the Chocolate Mountains region near Indio, California  All plans for redeveloping the old site were dropped 

Operation
After Alexander's death, Home Savings and Loan Association obtained the Desert Inn property in 1966  That same year, developer Joseph K  Eichenbaum released a statement on plans of constructing a multi-million dollar commercial center on the old site  Architect Charles Luckman was commissioned to design the new shopping mall  Demolition of the Desert Inn began in August 1966 The Desert Inn Fashion Plaza was officially opened to the public on October 16, 1967, with the grand opening of a 20,000 square-foot I  Magnin, which represented the retailer's return to Palm Springs after its 1933–1942 presence with a resort shop at the El Mirador Hotel  A month before the mall opened, Luckman and Leonard R  Lockhart, first vice president of Home Savings and Loan Associates, were both honored by Southern California Edison for the all-electrical design In 1969, Joseph Magnin Co  broke ground on a 26,000 square foot department store in the mall  The new store would anchor at the corner of North Palm Canyon Drive and Andreas Road, and was set to open in September the same year  San Francisco-based architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, would design the store, along with contractors Diversified Builders, Inc 
In addition, 12 other major establishments also opened up in the new mall, including: Bank of America, Belmont Savings & Loan, P'iddlers Three Restaurant, Stuard's Sahara, Silverwoods, Islamania, Michael's, Robert Sands Hairstyling, Master's Candies, Village Card & Gift Shop and Orange Julius In 1978, Home Savings and Loan Associates sold the Desert Inn Fashion Plaza to Desert Plaza Partnership  The group compromised Arthur Gilbert, David Blum and Gerson Fox; three partners that were based in Los Angeles 

Expansion
During the 1980s, major shopping destinations such as Palm Desert Town Center and the El Paseo Shopping District were growing rapidly in Palm Desert, California  National chains also opened up businesses throughout the Palm Desert area  Because of this, most local shops that were in the central hub of Palm Springs began to shift away into other areas that were also seeing growth  This situation prompted Desert Plaza Partnership to focus on plans of expanding the mall 
In 1983, Edward J  DeBartolo Corp  announced an agreement with Desert Plaza Partnership to renovate the Desert Inn Fashion Plaza for $42 million  The Ohio-based corporation planned to enlarge the mall to accommodate more tenants, a six-story hotel, and underground parking  Meanwhile, the local redevelopment agency was authorized to help developers acquire the additional property needed for the potential project In 1984, redevelopment took place by first razing historic-period buildings on the site, and setting up the new section on top  At the same time, Joseph Magnin announced that they would close their remaining 24 stores, including the one in Palm Springs due to bankruptcy 
The mall was officially opened on November 16, 1985, under the new name of Desert Fashion Plaza  I  Magnin and Saks Fifth Avenue would serve as the main anchors of the newly redeveloped mall, as well as a hotel called Maxim's Paris Suite Hotel 

Decline
Despite the new stores that were opened, mall traffic did not increase considerably  In the years to come, retail sales declined and by 1991, Silverwoods men's clothing and Marie Callender's moved out of the still partially vacant Desert Fashion Plaza  Hyatt Regency Suites bought the hotel management and renamed it as Hyatt Palm Springs 
In 1992, R H  Macy & Co  closed the Palm Springs location of I  Magnin after several years in operation citing that their store was not a “suitable location" at the Desert Fashion Plaza In 1995, developer Mark Bragg, a former adviser to Ronald Reagan, and the ever-present Eddie DeBartolo Jr  teamed up to pass a measure which approved card clubs at three sites: two controlled by Bragg, and the third at DeBartolo's Desert Fashion Plaza mall  Palm Springs voted a ballot by a 2-to-1 margin for the gambling establishment 
At a cost of $13 5 million, Phoenix-based Arizona Partners became the new owners of Desert Fashion Plaza  Arizona Partners planned on expanding the Desert Fashion Plaza to over 350,000 square feet and removing the roof to make the mall open-air  The main entrance was to be an open air plaza with outdoor dining, shops, and gather places, plus a 3,000-seat cinema and a 2,400 seat live theater; the project would have been renamed The Promenade  The first phase of the project would begin in mid-1998 and be completed sometime at the end of the year 
By the beginning of 1999, about 75% of the tenants inside the mall were closed down  At the same time, San Diego-based Excel Legacy Corporation scrapped Arizona Partners's concepts and proposed its own project  Developer MBK Southern California Ltd  would design the center  Their decision was to bulldoze the whole mall and replace it with an open air plaza  Proposed tenants included Saks, a two-story multiplex theater, a food court, gourmet market, restaurants and various specialty shops  However, the concept was never realized, and the owners decided to sell the mall for an asking price of $25 million 
In 2000, the Agua Caliente Development Authority, a subsidiary of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, considered the  purchase and redevelopment of Desert Fashion Plaza, and were in discussions with Palm Springs city officials and the director of the Palm Springs Desert Museum  Agua Caliente ultimately made the decision to not to buy the property 
Developer John Wessman purchased the Desert Fashion Plaza and initially planned a Spanish-Mediterranean plaza on the site  Simultaneously, Saks Fifth Avenue closed down their location and moved to a new store in the El Paseo shopping district down in Palm Desert  At the same time, the attacks on September 11, 2001 caused the project to slow down 

Demolition and Redevelopment
In 2011, it was announced that workers were to begin the process of removing the large tent behind the mall, which removed in several phrases with the first stage After more than a decade since the mall sat empty, redevelopment finally moved forward on February 7, 2013, with the demolition of the mall  The large, vacant property would be turned into an outdoor shopping center with new shops, restaurants, and a six-story hotel  Wessman pledged that demolition of the plaza would take just four months, and that 90% of the materials would be recycled Before construction commenced in the middle of the same year, a lawsuit was filed by Frank Tysen, a member of the Citizens for a Sustainable Palm Springs, and owner of Casa Cody Bed & Breakfast  Tysen and his group were suing because it believes the city did not follow the proper protocol when it came to a petition that was submitted  The petition asked the city to place a portion of the concept on a ticket  However, the city of Palm Springs opted out of the deal saying that the redevelopment action was considered as administrative, and not legislative action  In April 2014, the court denied the halt of the project 
The mall was demolished in 2014  A Kimpton Hotel (Rowan) opened in 2017 on the southeast portion of the site  Other shops on or near the former mall property include H&M and Free People, as well as several smaller shops and restaurants 
Passage 5:
L  L  Berger
L  L  Berger was a high-end department store based in Buffalo, New York  The family owned store was started by Louis L  Berger in 1905, at 500 Main Street  The company grew through the next two decades and opened its flagship store at 514 Main Street on February 4, 1929  The first suburban branch opened in 1953, at Thruway Plaza (later Thruway Mall) in Cheektowaga, New York, followed in 1960, with a location at Sheridan Plaza, in Tonawanda (Town), New York  At the death of its founder in 1967, the L  L  Berger company was "compared in fashion retailing to Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylor in New York, I  Magnin in San Francisco, and Neiman Marcus in Dallas " Expansion continued with stores opening in 1969, at the Seneca Mall, in West Seneca, New York and 1970, at the Northtown Plaza in Amherst, New York  Additional stores opened in 1975, at the Lockport Mall, in Lockport, New York; in 1982 at the Transitown Plaza in Clarence, New York; in 1988 at the McKinley Mall, in Hamburg, New York; and in 1989 at the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, New York  A second Buffalo location opened at 510 Elmwood Avenue in the early 1980s  The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991  In the early 2000s the flagship store was renovated to be upscale apartments and commercial space 
Passage 6:
The Plaza (mall)
The Plaza, formerly known as Evergreen Plaza, was a shopping mall in Evergreen Park, Illinois, United States  It was legally organized by Arthur Rubloff, who is also credited with coining the phrase "Magnificent Mile" describing the upscale section of Michigan Avenue north of the Chicago River to Oak Street   Rubloff secured the funding for the Evergreen Plaza from the Walgreen family who lived nearby in Beverly, Chicago   The Evergreen Plaza operated from 1952 to 2013  It featured over 120 stores, as well as a food court  The mall closed in 2013 and became an outdoor shopping center  Anchors include Whole Foods Market, and Burlington Coat Factory 

History
In 1936, developer Arthur Rubloff conceived a shopping mall in the Evergreen Park area located between the corners of W 95th Street and Western Ave, 98th Street and Western Ave , 98th Street slightly west of Campbell Ave , 96th Street and Campbell Ave , and 95th and Campbell Ave  Opened to the public in August 1952, the mall was originally an 500,000-square-foot (46,000 m2) open-air shopping center anchored by The Fair Store, Lytton's, Barnett's, and Walgreens  The center also contained a Jewel supermarket, which featured a conveyor belt that carried groceries from the store to a parking lot kiosk  The mall's Walgreens was the second self-service Walgreen pharmacy in the chain; it was also the chain's first location in a shopping center 
Evergreen Plaza was regarded by some sources as the first regional mall in the United States  Chas  A  Stevens added a store in 1962, Carson Pirie Scott was added as another anchor  Also, The Fair Store was converted to Montgomery Ward in April, 1964  In 1966, the mall was enclosed, becoming an indoor mall Circuit City came in the early 1990s, replacing a Silo electronics store that was formerly in this space Montgomery Ward closed its four-story store in 2001 as the chain declared bankruptcy  Shortly afterward, Village of Evergreen Park officials submitted proposals for Target to open in the former Wards; however, these deals fell through  Discount chain National Wholesale Liquidators opened in 2005, occupying two levels of the four-level anchor slot once occupied by Montgomery Ward until it closed in 2008  Walgreens closed in 2005, moving to a newer store about a mile away, and was replaced with an Office Depot  Circuit City also closed in mid-2005 
The movie theater, which had been converted to a triplex in 1977 and quadplex in 1983, closed in 1999  Office Depot closed its Evergreen Park location in 2008, along with many other small retail shops over the last few years  Following 2008, the mall began to gradually diminish as patronage numbers decreased, leading to the chronic closure of many of the original stores  Many businesses that had opened in more recent years had shorter longevity  Planet Fitness signed a 10-year lease to reside in the Plaza in 2011 in the original Walgreens space and began operation in January 2012 
The mall was scheduled for demolition in July 2013, to be replaced by an outdoor shopping center (which the Plaza once was during its first 14 years)  However, the building was not demolished and more proposals and rumors started floating around  Two development companies, Debartolo LLC, based in Tampa, and Lormax Stern, a developer from a Detroit suburb, came together to reach a deal to demolish the existing property to build a new outdoor mall that will feature 30-40 brand new stores including Burlington and Whole Foods  Applebee's and Planet Fitness are staying, while Enterprise Rent-A-Car left  Demolition began in May 2015 and continued until the fall of 2017  Carson's opened a brand-new store in September 2016, replacing the older store that was later demolished  The shopping center opened in Fall of 2017  On April 18, 2018, Carson's parent company The Bon-Ton Stores, announced that they will close all Carson's locations, including the Evergreen Plaza location following their bankruptcy  However, on Black Friday 2018, CSC Generation, Carson's new owner, reopened the location  On August 11, 2020, it was announced that Carson's would be closing again in October 2020  On June 16, 2022, it was announced that Macy's would be opening in the former Carson's space  The first floor will hold Market by Macy's and the second floor will hold Macy's Backstage 

Evergreen Theater
On June 26, 1964, Evergreen Theater was added in a separate building, located on the mall's south end  It first opened with two screens and sat upon the parking lot by 98th Street and Western Ave   Later, two more screens were added  Even later, two more screens were added, bringing the total up to six   In 1973, the manager was shot and killed during a robbery; other incidents occurred which led to its closure in July 1999  In 2003 the venue was torn down, along with the parking garage, on the west corner of the mall for landscaped parking, and parking entrances were widened  That same year, an Applebee's opened on an outparcel 
Passage 7:
The Crossings at Northwest
The Crossings at Northwest is a mixed-use commercial center containing 400,000 SF of retail and 500,000 SF of office uses located in St  Ann, a suburb of St  Louis, Missouri, United States  It was redeveloped from the old Northwest Plaza  The former mall comprised nearly 1,770,000 square feet (164,438 4 m2) of gross leasable area, making it the 27th largest mall in the United States according to the International Council of Shopping Centers prior to its closure  With a total of 1 9 million square feet (180,000 m2) of enclosed space, it was the largest enclosed mall in the state of Missouri  The mall featured nine anchor stores and more than 210 stores at its peak 

History
Beginning
Northwest Plaza opened in 1965 as an open-air shopping center comprising 1,600,000 square feet of retail space  The developers were Louis Zorensky, Milton Zorensky and Saul Brodsky   At the time the mall opened, it was the largest mall in the world  It was anchored by Famous-Barr, JCPenney, and Sears  Junior anchors included local department stores Vandervoort's (opened in 1965) and Boyd's (an upscale apparel store), a Walgreens pharmacy, and a two-story Woolworth dime store  The Famous-Barr (later Macy's) store also featured a rotunda  In 1969, a 12-story 194,000 sq ft (18,000 m2) adjacent office tower was added to the mall  Stix Baer & Fuller later joined the center between 1971 and 1983  When Vandervoort's closed, its building was leased by Famous-Barr to use as its home fashions store while the basement was leased to Venture Stores for office space  Dillard's acquired and re-branded all Stix, Baer & Fuller stores in 1984 including the River Roads Mall location in North St  Louis County 

Paramount
Paramount enclosed and expanded the mall in 1989, adding more than 200,000 square feet (18,580 6 m2) of retail space in the process  The enclosed space contained nearly 2 million square feet (190,000 m2), making it one of the largest malls in the country  The biggest change was remodeling the Famous-Barr home store/Venture office space into a mixed-use complex  A 40,000 square foot (3,716 1 m2) Tilt! arcade, including an 18-hole miniature golf course, was opened in the basement, the main level became a 12-bay food court, and a 9-screen movie theater was added on the upper level, replacing a freestanding cinema complex in the mall's parking lot  Kids "R" Us was also added shortly after the mall's enclosure, and the large Woolworth store was shuttered in early 1989 when the mall terminated its lease  Phar-Mor and Oshman's Sporting Goods were added in the early 1990s  In 1993 Phar-Mor closed due to a corporate scandal that threw the company into bankruptcy  After a mid-1990s lull with occupancy dropping to 86%, an unorthodox approach revived the struggling mall increasing occupancy to 96%  Office supply store chain OfficeMax opened one of its first mall-based location at Northwest Plaza in 1997  Also, opening in 1997 was the area's first Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill 

Westfield
Northwest Plaza was acquired in late 1997 by the Westfield Group for $111 million, who renamed the mall "Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest" (later shortened to "Westfield Northwest" in June 2005) to match the nomenclature of other malls in their portfolio  Under Westfield's tenure, the mall opened many new stores  Burlington Coat Factory moved into the former Oshman's, Schweig Engel Furniture moved into the old Phar-Mor, and many other stores: American Eagle Outfitters, and Bath & Body Works opened  Gap, which had closed in 1996, returned to the mall  By 1999, the occupancy rate had increased to 98%  Additional plans for renovation were made by Westfield Corporation, but these plans never got beyond the addition of family restroom and a children's play area   Around this time, Westfield instead focused more on driving customer business to other area malls such as West County Center in Des Peres and Mid Rivers Mall in St  Peters, in turn neglecting Northwest Plaza, along with its redevelopment and upkeep  The first major vacancy at Northwest Plaza was JCPenney in 2002  Northwest Plaza had the second lowest occupancy rate of a Westfield mall, which was just 79% at year-end 2004 

Somera
After years of continued decline, Westfield Corporation sold the mall in June 2006 to Somera Capital Management, LLC  After having bought the mall for $45 million, with General Growth Properties acting as third-party leasing and management agent, the mall's name reverted to Northwest Plaza  As per the Federated Stores/May Co  merger, Famous-Barr was re-branded as Macy's  Later in 2007, the Tilt closed for good Somera unveiled a redevelopment plan in which the mall would become Lindbergh Town Center  In the plan, a small part of the Macy's hallway plus the former Kids "R" Us would be turned into a lifestyle center  The Dillard's and the hallway between it and Sears would become a new anchor, plus the old food court/theater/Tilt would revert to an anchor  The remaining mall was to be renovated to feature a new "picnic inspired" food court (on the upper level of the former Woolworth's), new flooring, new paint, new skylights, a "Secret Garden" themed play area, and a feature coffee kiosk  After the foreclosure of Northwest Plaza in September 2009, Somera was no longer associated with the property 

Crime
After the expansion of Northwest Plaza, the mall developed a reputation for crime  Part of this was because of multiple fatal shootings that occurred at the mall  The first fatality was in 1990  There was a second shooting in 1994 inside the Famous-Barr store, which resulted in the death of a teenager  In 2006, the third shooting involved an off-duty police officer who fatally shot a man inside the mall 

Damage
The mall suffered from a leaking roof  Also, crumbling floor tiles in the north court caused by the leaking roof between the former Sears and Dillard’s required it to be blocked off from foot traffic  The Tilt! arcade's 18-hole miniature golf course left behind after it closed was damaged beyond repair by vandalism, and subsequently the basement area was walled off  The food court which used to contain a 12-bay court, as well as the 9-screen cinema were also both walled off due to the extensive water damage 

Decline
The anchor stores once included (even as of 2008) Famous-Barr (later Macy's), Steve & Barry's, Dillard's and Sears  Other anchors at one time included JCPenney and Burlington Coat Factory  Junior anchors included the Wehrenburg Northwest Plaza 9 screen cinema, Tilt! arcade, Office Max as well as Schweig Engel Furniture and Toys "R" Us (built on part of the mall's massive parking lot) 
Northwest Plaza's highest grossing sales year was 2001  The early 2000s recession caused a small decline in the number of stores occupying Northwest Plaza  A rapid decline began in 2004, due to the increased competition from St  Louis Mills mall, which opened only 4 miles (6 4 km) away from Northwest Plaza  At the same time, the mall was suffering from lack of upkeep by then current owner Westfield  The mall's roof was examined under their ownership, and determined it needed to be replaced, among other things  Rather than the expensive rehabilitation of the mall, Westfield concluded it would not be cost effective, and decided to sell the mall entirely  When it was sold in 2006, Northwest Plaza had an occupancy rate of just 64%  Business continued to decline and when the late 2000s recession hit, most of the remaining stores vacated the mall  It was considered a dead mall by 2009 JCPenney was the first anchor store to close in 2002  OfficeMax was the second to leave the mall, and remaining vacant for eighteen months before being replaced by 24 Hour Fitness  Burlington Coat Factory then left to move to St  Louis Mills mall, but it was soon rented out to Ford Motor Company  Schweig Engel Furniture closed in July 2004 when the company went bankrupt but it was briefly replaced with discount retailer US Factory Outlets the following spring before becoming vacant again  Furniture retailer IKEA had also planned to open a store at the mall, but later withdrew its plans  Also in 2004 there was the addition of a Retail Skills Center, which offered training and placement facilities for people seeking careers in retail, the first such center in the Midwest, and discount clothing retailer Steve & Barry's in the former JCPenney  At the time Steve & Barry's opened, it was the largest in the chain  The mall's movie theater complex closed for good in September 2005  Toys "R" Us left the mall in early 2006  The Tilt! arcade closed in the summer of 2007, moving most of their arcades to other stores, namely their newest location in St  Louis Mills, despite being rated as one of the top 3 arcades in the St Louis area in 2003  Steve & Barry's closed in 2008, a year before the company became defunct  In early 2009, Dillard's left Northwest Plaza entered foreclosure and was auctioned on September 1, 2009  The shopping center was purchased by the only bidder at foreclosure, St  Ann Shopping Center LLC, for $29 95 million  The Macy's store closed in March 2010 and the Sears store closed in July 2010, the final anchor stores to leave  The final store left in November 2010  This left the mall with no internal stores  As of January 1, 2011, Northwest Plaza's doors have been permanently locked  Public access to the building is no longer allowed, as the only stores remaining are contained in the mall's outer ring (with external entrances only) and parking lot  The office tower remains open, but with entrances to the mall blocked  The future of the mall is unknown, with the idea of a total demolition, and the entire lot renovated into an office complex is one of the main proposals 

Redevelopment efforts
In March 2010, the St  Ann Board of Aldermen voted to select G J  Grewe Development Co  of Crestwood, Missouri as the preferred re-developer of the mall  It is expected that the bulk of the mall will be torn down (although the current office tower could remain) and its 122-acre (0 49 km2) site remade as a mixed-use development with offices and some retail  The developer was expected to work with Sears, the only remaining anchor at the time, to keep its store on the site, but not necessarily at the same location  In light of the closing of the Sears store, it is unclear how this will affect the redevelopment effort  The city of St  Ann holds a purchase option on Northwest Plaza that was set to expire on December 31, 2010 There have been a number of people in the area who are calling for the redevelopment of the site, rather than having a very large empty building  Demolition of the mall is anticipated, as efforts to revive the mall have failed  The new plans call for a completely new complex  The only part of the mall expected to remain is the office tower  It is expected this new complex will contain both office buildings as well as condos As reported by the St  Louis Post-Dispatch on July 6, 2011, the distressed Northwest Plaza, with no internal stores which has an 8% overall occupancy, with the office tower less than 50%, was put up for auction online by current owner, a division of Wells Fargo for $1 25 million in an attempt to spark interest in the property  The property failed to meet expectations though, as the bidding fell short of the minimum price 

Crossings at Northwest
Northwest Plaza was purchased by NWP LLC from St Ann Shopping Center LLC for $10 million in 2012  An approval of $33 million in TIF allowed for redevelopment of the center  The $106 million redevelopment of the 122 acre site began in 2012 with demolition of 1,000,000 square feet of the 1 8 million square foot mall, renovation of the office tower, and building big box stores, restaurants, and other outlot development  The demolition and completion of the project occurred in spring 2015 The redeveloped property is named The Crossings At Northwest  Menards, a chain of home improvement stores in the Midwest, was announced as the first large retail tenant   The conceptual site plan calls for an additional 89,600 SF second anchor, two 30,000 SF Jr  anchors 26,000 SF of small shop retail and 10 outlots  Menards opened in August 2015   The former Macy's Department Store has been renovated and Charter Communications opened a $16 million call center in January 2016 occupying 135,000 SF   Tenet Conifer has leased an additional 48,000 SF in the renovated office tower  Ruler Foods has opened a 10,000SF location in the development   An 80,000 SF retail strip center opened in early 2017  Current tenants include Bob's Furniture, Edge Fitness Club, and Value City Furniture   Starbucks also opened an outlot location on site in 2017   Save-A-Lot food stores announced that they would be moving their corporate headquarters to the site from Earth City   Some 450 existing jobs along with 65 new positions will occupy 162,000 SF of space   Additionally, American Family Insurance  leased 81,000 SF of space, relocating from an existing office in the Riverport area of Maryland Heights  St  Louis County leased 155,000 square feet in 2016 for a 20-year term for use as its Government Center Northwest  As of 2019, the redevelopment was home to about 4,000 jobs  In fall 2021, Discount Tire opened on the final outlot of the redevelopment  Other outlots were previosuly developed into Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Popeye's Panda Express, Sherwin Williams, Raising Cane's, QT, the previously mentioned Starbucks, two retail strip centers containing First Watch, Sprint, Jersey Mike's Subs, GNC, and Cricket Wireless  One outlot containing a freestanding Jack-In-The-Box dates has been in operation since prior to the closure of the original mall 
Passage 8:
Farmers Plaza
Farmers Plaza is a shopping mall located at the Araneta City in Cubao, Quezon City  Renovated and expanded in 1999 and in 2014, the five-level complex is the first ever fully first enclosed, air-conditioned mall in the Philippines, making it one of the oldest commercial buildings in the country  The mall is owned by the ACI, Inc  and offers 60,400 m2 (650,000 sq ft) of retail space, occupied mostly by various merchandise and lifestyle outlets 

History
Originally named the "Coliseum Farmers Market and Shopping Center", the mall was constructed in 1968, and opened its doors in 1969, nine years after the opening of the Araneta Coliseum  The mall was designed by Filipino architect Antonio Sevilla Sindiong  Sindiong, along with Fernando Hizon Ocampo (Sindiong/Ocampo), were also responsible for the architectural designs of Ali Mall, located along P  Tuazon Boulevard  The mall is known as the first air-conditioned mall in the country and hosted numerous commercial establishments, including the Farmers Market, as one of the original tenants of the building  The market occupied the building's lower ground floor since its opening, until in 1975, when the market was moved to its new site, located across the mall  Due to the mall's location to various entertainment facilities and department stores, the mall also complemented with various buildings such as Ali Mall, located two blocks away, and made Cubao a bustling shopping hub throughout its time, and entered stiff competition to malls such as Harrison Plaza, the first mall in the country to include a department store within the building; Greenhills Shopping Center, and other shopping districts such as the Makati Central Business District and the areas of Binondo and Quiapo in Manila In 1985, the mall encountered a fire that destroyed many parts of the building  Three years later, the mall was rebranded and renamed as the "New Farmers Plaza Shopping Center", also known as "New Farmers Plaza", after being delayed within the construction phase following the political uncertainties within the 1986 People Power Revolution and the coups made by Reform the Armed Forces Movement and Marcos Loyalists in the following months after the revolution  The mall also faced its second renovation project in 1990 and was completed in 1991  In early 1991, a stampede in Cinema 2 was caused by a 31-year-old shouting "fire" during a screening of My Pretty Baby, injuring 20 people Following the construction of the Araneta Center-Cubao MRT Station located adjacent to the mall, the mall entered its third renovation in 1999 and was completed in 2001, where the western portions of the mall were renovated, and connect the mall to the adjacent MRT Station  The mall became the first property within the Araneta Center to be renovated as part of the Araneta Center Master Plan  The mall entered its fourth renovation project in 2012, and was completed in 2014, featuring a new and modernized facade and interiors, upgraded facilities and amenities, and enhanced security systems 

Location and transportation
The mall is directly linked to the Line 3 Araneta Center-Cubao station, and is located along one of Metro Manila’s busiest thoroughfare, EDSA  The mall is also directly connected to the Smart Araneta Coliseum, the Gateway Mall, the Gateway Tower, and the upcoming New Gateway Mall and the Ibis Styles Araneta City  The mall is also located close to the Araneta Center–Cubao LRT Station, the New Frontier Theater, the Manhattan Gardens complex, the Araneta City Cyberpark, the Aurora Tower, the SM Cubao, and Ali Mall  The mall is also used as a terminal for UV Express vehicles 

Features
The mall consists of 5-levels and has 60,400 m2 (650,000 sq ft) of retail spaces, and is occupied by a mix of international and local shops; lifestyle, electronic, and merchandising shops; dining outlets and entertainment facilities  The mall also has 100 outdoor parking slots, and features 193 stores anchored by Robinsons Easymart (formerly Wellcome), Handyman, Mercury Drug, Bench, National Book Store, Penshoppe and other shops  The mall also features a Food Court (Food Plaza) and an activity area atrium, where public events, sales and concerts were held, both located at the Lower Ground Floor; and the Farmers Plaza Bazaar, an indoor bazaar, featuring fashion, electronics, and food stores, located at the 4th floor 

Gallery
Passage 9:
Alsa Mall
Alsa Mall is a shopping mall on Montieth Road in the neighbourhood of Egmore in Chennai, India  Established in the mid-1980s, along with the Spencer Plaza, it is one of the oldest surviving malls in the city  Alsa Mall has a variety of shops in and around it  It is also considered to be a hangout location for youngsters during evening owing to the variety of street food vendors who hold business in the mall 

History
Alsa Mall was a private property before it was converted into a mall  Along with the Spencer Plaza, it remained one of the premier shopping malls in the city until the 2000s, when numerous malls began to appear across the city  In 2013, the mall became the first mall to host the state-owned Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation's (Tasmac) first premium alcoholic beverages outlet 

See also
Shopping in Chennai
Passage 10:
Spencer Plaza
Spencer Plaza (Tamil: ஸ்பென்சர் பிளாசா) is a shopping mall located on Anna Salai in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and is one of the  modern landmarks of the city  Originally built during the period of the British Raj and reconstructed in 1985 on the site of the original Spencer's department store, it is the oldest shopping mall in India and was one of the biggest shopping malls in South Asia when it was built  It is one of the earliest Grade A commercial projects of the city, which were developed in the second half of the 1990s  As of March 2010, it is the 11th largest mall in the country, with a gross leasable (retail) area of 530,000 sq ft 

History
Spencer Plaza was built in 1863–1864, established by Charles Durant and J  W  Spencer in Anna Salai, then known as Mount Road, in the Madras Presidency  The property originally belonged to Spencer & Co Ltd  Spencer & Co opened the first department store in the Indian subcontinent in 1895  It had over 80 individual departments  After a few years, Eugene Oakshott, owner of Spencer's, shifted the department store to a new building, which was an example of Indo-Saracenic style of architecture  The building was designed by W  N  Pogson  In 1983, the original building was destroyed in a fire 
The present Spencer Plaza was constructed on the same site, measuring about 10 acres, and was opened in 1991  Spread across a million square feet built in three phases with parking space for 800 cars, the plaza is a major hangout for the people of Chennai  The mall was developed by Mangal Tirth Estate Limited in January 1993 

Building
The plaza is an eight-storey shopping-cum-office complex of approximately 1 068 million sq ft, consisting of nearly 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2) of air-conditioned shopping units and 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) of office units  The shopping arcade is located on the ground, first and second floors in all three phases, and the office units are spread between the fourth and the seventh floors  The car parks are spread over the basement, ground, second and third floors, in addition to double basement parking lots in the third phase of the building The first phase of the building consists of about 300,000 sq ft, including about 125,000 sq ft of centrally air-conditioned shopping space and 100,000 sq ft of office units together with about 75,000 sq ft of service areas  The second phase consists of about 400,000 sq ft, with a provision for about 600 cars at the basement, with shops with various sizes ranging from 300 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft  The third phase covers another 300,000 sq ft  The theme of the third phase is based on colonnaded structure recreating the old Spencer's around a full-height atrium There are over 700 shops in the plaza and over 22,000 people visit the plaza every day, with the number increasing to 40,000 on weekends and to 60,000 on festival days  The complex has three counters to keep track of footfalls  Over 20,000 two-wheelers check into the parking lot on weekends 

Technical and safety aspects
Being a high-rise building, the complex has a wet riser system and electronic fire alarm system installed  The underground sump has a storage capacity of 100,000 litres (22,000 imp gal; 26,000 US gal)  A ring main surrounds the building from the pump room  Five wet risers run from basement to the second floor and three run from the fourth floor to the seventh floor  These risers are located at strategic points in each floor  The pump room has three pumps, one jockey pump, one main pump with an electric motor and one main pump connected with a diesel engine  The electronic fire detection system comprises smoke detectors and manual call points located in various points in common areas in all floors, sub-stations, electrical rooms, A/C plant and so forth, which are connected to a centralised computer located at the enclosures of the chief security officer  There are also many portable fire extinguishers at each floor in different locations  The rear periphery of the building has fire escape stairs, with fire escape routes displayed with signboards at various points of the building  The car ramps can also be used as fire escape routes  The building has two entrances, one from Binny Road and another from Anna Salai, for fire engines Fire safety includes a water capacity of 1 2 million litres, fire sprinklers, smoke and heat detection systems and fire extinguishers  The in-house fire department has six firemen per shift 

Shops
The mall hosts major anchor stores such as Westside (spread across 20,000 sq ft) and Landmark (40,000 sq ft), and several local and international brands such as Nike, Adidas, Bata, Regal, Health & Glow, Vummidiars, Van Heusen, Proline, Allen Solly, Florshaim shoes, Lipton, Louis Philippe, Titan, Levi's, Casio, V I P  Luggage, Spencer & Co (40,000 sq ft on the ground, first and second floors), Timex Watch Showroom, Swatch, Cookie Man, BPL (Profx), Color Plus, Navigator, Witco, Pantaloons (26,000 sq ft), Arrow, Lee, Music World (now closed), Food World, HSBC, ABN AMRO, American Express, Citibank (65,000 sq ft in second and third phases), First Flight and Du Bowl (16,000 sq ft)  McDonald's, the world's largest fast food chain, has established an outlet 

On 26 February 2004, the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (SLEDB) established a trade centre at the complex at a cost of ₹17 million  The Sri Lanka Trade Centre is spread over 20,000 sq ft on the first floor at the third phase of the building  Seventeen frontline Sri Lankan companies display apparel, artificial flowers, confectionaries, footwear and leather products, gems and jewellery, herbal products, light engineering products, porcelain, tableware, Ceylon tea and toys 

Incidents
On 4 September 2008, a fire erupted on the first floor of the building's first phase around 10:20 p m  local time, perhaps due to a short circuit  A garment shop was burned in the incident  With the help of 12 water tenders and 9 fire tenders, the fire was extinguished within 30 minutes, and no casualties were reported  The firemen had easy access to the spot, mainly due to the setback space available inside the building 
Context 2: Passage 1:
Charles Haughey
Charles James Haughey (; 16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach on three occasions – 1979 to 1981, March to December 1982 and 1987 to 1992  Haughey led four governments while serving as Taoiseach; December 1979 to June 1981, March to December 1982, March 1987 to June 1989, and June 1989 to February 1992  He was also Minister for the Gaeltacht from 1987 to 1992, Leader of the Opposition from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987, Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1979 to 1992, Minister for Social Welfare and for Health from 1977 to 1979, Minister for Finance from 1966 to 1970, Minister for Agriculture from 1964 to 1966, Minister for Justice from 1961 to 1964 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Justice from 1959 to 1961  He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1957 to 1992 Haughey was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD in 1957 and was re-elected at every election until 1992, representing successively the Dublin North-East, Dublin Artane and Dublin North-Central constituencies 
Haughey was the dominant Irish politician of his generation, as well as the most controversial  Upon entering government in the early 1960s, Haughey became the symbol of a new vanguard of Irish Ministers  As Taoiseach, he is credited by some economists with starting the positive transformation of the economy in the late 1980s  However, his career was also marked by several major scandals  Haughey was implicated in the Arms Crisis of 1970, which nearly destroyed his career  His political reputation revived, his tenure as Taoiseach was then damaged by the sensational GUBU Affair in 1982; his party leadership was challenged four times, each time unsuccessfully, earning Haughey the nickname "The Great Houdini"  Revelations about his role in a phone tapping scandal forced him to resign as Taoiseach and retire from politics in 1992 
After Haughey's retirement from politics, further revelations of corruption, embezzlement, tax evasion and a 27-year extra-marital affair tarnished his already chequered reputation  He died of prostate cancer in 2006, aged 80 

Early life
He was born in Castlebar, County Mayo in 1925, the third of seven children, of Seán Haughey and Sarah McWilliams, both natives of Swatragh, County Londonderry   Haughey's father was in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence, then in the National Army of the Irish Free State  Seán Haughey left the army in 1928 and the family moved to County Meath; he subsequently developed multiple sclerosis and the family moved again to Donnycarney, a northern suburb of Dublin, where Charles Haughey spent his youth Haughey was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers at St Joseph's secondary school in Fairview, where one of his classmates was George Colley, subsequently his cabinet colleague and rival in Fianna Fáil  In his youth he was an active amateur sportsman, playing Gaelic football with the Parnells GAA Club in Donnycarney; he won a Dublin Senior Football Championship medal in 1945  Haughey studied commerce at University College Dublin (UCD), where he took a first class Honours degree in 1946  It was at UCD that Haughey became increasingly interested in politics and was elected Auditor of the Commerce & Economics Society  He also met there one of his future political rivals, Garret FitzGerald He joined the Local Defence Force during "The Emergency" in 1941 and considered a permanent career in the Army  He continued to serve in the reserve FCÁ force, until entering Dáil Éireann in 1957 On VE-day Haughey and other UCD students burnt the British Union Jack on College Green, outside Trinity College Dublin, in response to a perceived disrespect afforded the Irish tricolour among the flags hung by the college in celebration of the Allied victory which ended World War II 
Haughey qualified as a chartered accountant and also attended King's Inns  He was subsequently called to the Irish Bar  Shortly afterwards, he set up the accountancy firm of Haughey, Boland & Company with Harry Boland, son of Fianna Fáil Minister Gerald Boland 
On 18 September 1951, he married Maureen Lemass, the daughter of the Fianna Fáil Minister and future Taoiseach Seán Lemass, having been close to her since their days at UCD, where they first met  They had four children together: Eimear, Conor, Ciarán and Seán After selling his house in Raheny in 1969, Haughey bought Abbeville and its estate of approximately 250 acres (100 ha), located at Kinsealy, north County Dublin   This historic house, once owned by Anglo-Irish politician John Beresford, had been extensively re-designed by the architect James Gandon in the late 18th century and it became the Haughey family home, where he lived for the rest of his life  This marked the beginning of a long period when Haughey's spending was well beyond his apparent income level  For the rest of his life Haughey would refuse to say where the extra money came from 

Early political career
He started his political career as a local councillor, being a member of Dublin Corporation from 1953 to 1955  Haughey's first attempt at election to Dáil Éireann came in June 1951, when he unsuccessfully contested the general election  While living in Raheny, Haughey was first elected to the Dáil as a Fianna Fáil TD at the 1957 general election for the Dublin North-East constituency; it was his fourth attempt 
Haughey was re-elected in every election until 1992, representing Dublin North-East from 1957 to 1977, Dublin Artane from 1977 to 1981, and Dublin North-Central from 1981 until his retirement in 1992 (moving constituencies in line with boundary changes) 
In 1959, Haughey obtained his first government position, that of Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Justice, serving under his constituency colleague Oscar Traynor, appointed by the first government of his father-in-law Seán Lemass  It is unclear whether the choice was made by Lemass directly as Taoiseach, or by the cabinet against his wishes  Lemass had advised Haughey;

As Taoiseach it is my duty to offer you the post of parliamentary secretary, and as your father-in-law I am advising you not to take it 
Haughey ignored Lemass's advice and accepted the offer  Although officially junior to Traynor, Haughey was the de facto minister, as Traynor, a minister in governments since the 1930s, was elderly and in poor health, and only nominally running the department  Haughey and Traynor clashed openly Haughey came to epitomise the new style of politician – the "men in the mohair suits"  He regularly socialised with other younger cabinet colleagues, such as Donogh O'Malley and Brian Lenihan 
By day he impressed the Dáil  By night he basked in the admiration of a fashionable audience in the Russell Hotel  There, or in Dublin's more expensive restaurants, the company included artists, musicians and entertainers, professionals, builders and business people 
His companions, Lenihan and O'Malley, took mischievous delight in entertaining the Russell with tales of the Old Guard  O'Malley in turn entertained the company in Limerick's Brazen Head or Cruise's Hotel with accounts of the crowd in the Russell  On the wings of such tales Haughey's reputation spread 
Haughey's status by 1961 was such that Leader of the Opposition James Dillon complimented him lavishly on the floor of the Dáil, remarking on his opponent's "skill with which he has had recourse to his brief," as well as his "extraordinary erudition" and "his exceptional and outstanding ability "

Ministerial office
Minister for Justice
When Traynor retired in 1961, Haughey succeeded him as Minister for Justice  As such, he initiated an extensive scale of legislative reforms  He introduced new legislation including the Adoption Act; the Succession Act, which protected the inheritance rights of wives and children; the Criminal Justice Act, which severely restricted the application of capital punishment; and the Extradition Act, which virtually prevented extradition for IRA offences  Haughey also introduced the Special Military Courts which helped to defeat the Irish Republican Army's Border Campaign 

Minister for Agriculture: 1966 Farmers' Strike
In 1964, Lemass appointed Haughey as Minister for Agriculture  Criticism was voiced from the National Farmers Association (NFA) of the appointment of a non-rural person to the position, and there was increased antagonism from farmers towards the government  Haughey became embroiled in a series of controversies with the NFA and with another organisation, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA)  Twenty-seven ICMSA picketers outside Leinster House, were arrested on 27 April 1966 under the Offences Against the State Act, an act originally intended for use against the IRA  78 were arrested the following day, and 80 a day later as the dispute escalated  The general public was supportive of the farmers, who were not in a position to hold a strike to air their grievances, and who were clearly only posing a problem to the Minister, rather than the state  The farmers then began a national solidarity campaign, and even farmers who supported Fianna Fáil turned against the government  Haughey, who did not rely on rural voters, was under intense pressure from fearful members of his own party to negotiate a deal and reduce the tension  It was Haughey's first alienation of a significant voting block, and probably damaged him electorally in later years as many farmers remembered the events, known in folk memory as the "Farmers' Strike" 

Minister for Finance and 1966 presidential election
Haughey was appointed by Fianna Fáil to run President Éamon de Valera's re-election campaign for the 1966 presidential election  His interventions proved highly controversial  Fine Gael chose a comparatively young TD and barrister, Tom O'Higgins (nephew of Kevin O'Higgins), to run against de Valera  Aware that de Valera's age (84) and almost total blindness might compare unfavourably to O'Higgins, whose campaign drew comparisons with the equally youthful US President John F  Kennedy, Haughey launched what was seen as a political stroke  He insisted that it was beneath the presidency to actively campaign, meaning that de Valera would have a low profile  Therefore, in the interests of fairness the media was asked to give O'Higgins an equally low profile, ignoring his speeches and publicity campaign  The print media, both nationally and locally, ignored Haughey's suggestion  But the state-run Raidió Teilifís Éireann, facing criticism from Lemass' government for being too radical in other areas, agreed and largely ignored the O'Higgins campaign 
De Valera got a high media profile from a different source, the fiftieth anniversary commemoration of the Easter Rising, of which he was the most senior survivor  While O'Higgins's campaign was ignored by RTÉ, de Valera appeared in RTÉ coverage of the Rising events regularly  To add further to de Valera's campaign, Haughey as Agriculture Minister arranged for milk price increases to be given to farmers on the eve of polling, as a way of reducing farmer disquiet after they had effectively become an opposition movement to the government 
These tactics should have ensured an easy de Valera victory  Instead O'Higgins came within less than one percent of winning the vote, with de Valera re-elected by a narrow margin of ten thousand votes out of a total of nearly one million  De Valera came to distrust Haughey; Frank Aiken, Minister for Foreign Affairs under de Valera and his lifelong political confidant, dismissed Haughey's political motives as being entirely selfish, and believed he was motivated to hold power for its own sake and not duty 
In 1966, the Taoiseach Seán Lemass retired  Haughey declared his candidature to succeed Lemass in the consequent leadership election, and George Colley and Neil Blaney did likewise  As this meant that there were three strong candidates who held strong and divisive views on the future of the party, the party elders sought to find a compromise candidate  Lemass himself encouraged his Minister for Finance Jack Lynch, to contest the party leadership, and encouraged Colley, Haughey and Blaney to withdraw in favour of Lynch, arguing that they would not win a contest against him  However, Colley refused the Taoiseach's request and insisted on remaining in the race, but he was defeated by Lynch  Upon Lynch's election as Taoiseach, Haughey was appointed Minister for Finance by Lynch, in a cabinet reshuffle, which indicated that Haughey's withdrawal was a gain at the expense of Colley  The inexpensive and socially inclusive initiatives that Haughey made caught the public imagination; these included popular decisions to introduce free travel on public transport for pensioners, subsidise electricity for pensioners, the granting of special tax concessions for the disabled and tax exemptions for artists  They increased Haughey's populist appeal and his support from certain elements in the media and artistic community 
As Minister for Finance, Haughey on two occasions arranged foreign currency loans for the government which he then arranged to be left on deposit in foreign countries (Germany and the United States), in the local currencies, instead of immediately changing the loans to Irish pounds and depositing them in the exchequer  These actions were unconstitutional, because it effectively meant that the Minister for Finance was making a currency speculation against his own currency  When this was challenged by the Comptroller and Auditor General Eugene Francis Suttle, Haughey introduced a law to retrospectively legalise his actions  The debate was very short and the record shows no understanding of the issue by the Opposition Spokesperson for Finance, O'Higgins for Fine Gael and Tully for Labour  The legislation was passed on 26 November 1969 

Arms crisis
The late 1960s saw the old tensions boil over into an eruption of violence in Northern Ireland  Haughey was generally seen as coming from the pragmatist wing of the party, and was not believed to have strong opinions on the matter, despite having family links with Derry  Indeed, many presumed that he had a strong antipathy to physical force Irish republicanism; during his period as Minister for Justice he had followed a tough anti-IRA line, including using internment without trial against the IRA  The hawks in the cabinet were seen as Kevin Boland and Neil Blaney, both sons of founding fathers in the party with strong Old IRA pasts  Blaney was also a TD for Donegal; a staunchly Republican area which bordered Derry  They were opposed by those described as the "doves" of the cabinet; Tánaiste Erskine Childers, George Colley and Patrick Hillery  A fund of £100,000 was set up to give to the Nationalist people in the form of aid  Haughey, as Finance Minister would have a central role in the management of this fund 
There was general surprise when, in an incident known as the Arms Crisis, Haughey, along with Blaney, was sacked from Lynch's cabinet amid allegations of the use of the funds to import arms for use by the IRA  The Garda Special Branch informed the Minister for Justice Mícheál Ó Móráin and Taoiseach Jack Lynch that a plot to import arms existed and included government members, however Lynch took no action until the Special Branch made Leader of the Opposition Liam Cosgrave aware of the plot  Cosgrave told Lynch he knew of the plot and would announce it in the Dáil the next day if he didn't act  Lynch subsequently requested Haughey and Blaney to resign from cabinet  Both men refused, saying they did nothing illegal  Lynch then asked President de Valera to terminate their appointments as members of the government, a request that de Valera was required to grant by convention  Boland resigned in sympathy, while Mícheál Ó Móráin was dismissed one day earlier in a preemptive strike to ensure a subservient Minister for Justice was in place when the crisis broke  Lynch chose government chief whip Desmond O'Malley for the role  Haughey and Blaney were subsequently tried in court along with an army Officer, Captain James Kelly, and Albert Luykx, a former Flemish National Socialist and businessman, who allegedly used his contacts to buy the arms  After trial all the accused were acquitted but many refused to recognise the verdict of the courts  Although cleared of wrongdoing, it looked as if Haughey's political career was finished  Blaney and Boland eventually resigned from Fianna Fáil but Haughey remained  He spent his years on the backbenches – the wilderness years – building support within the grassroots of the party; during this time, he remained loyal to the party and served the leader, but after the debacle of the "arms crises" neither man trusted the other 

Leadership years
Opposition to Jack Lynch
In 1975, Fianna Fáil was in opposition and Haughey had achieved enough grassroots support to warrant a recall to Jack Lynch's opposition front bench  Haughey was appointed Spokesman on Health and Social Welfare, a fairly minor portfolio at the time, but Haughey used the same imagination and skill he displayed in other positions to formulate innovative and far reaching policies  Two years later in 1977, Fianna Fáil returned to power with a massive parliamentary majority in Dáil Éireann, having had a very populist campaign (spearhead by Colley and O'Malley) to abolish rates, vehicle tax and other extraordinary concessions, which were short-lived  Haughey returned to the cabinet, after an absence of seven years, as Minister for Health and Social Welfare 
In this position he continued the progressive policies he had shown earlier by, among others, beginning the first government anti-smoking campaigns and legalising contraception, previously banned  Following the finding by the Supreme Court of Ireland, in McGee v The Attorney General, that there was a constitutional right to use contraceptives, he introduced The Family Planning Bill which proved to be highly controversial  The bill allowed a pharmacist to sell contraceptives on presentation of a medical prescription  Haughey called this bill "an Irish solution to an Irish problem"  It is often stated that the recipient of the prescription had to be married, but the legislation did not include this requirement 
The fallout from the giveaway concessions that had re-elected the government under Lynch, led to a succession race to succeed Lynch  As well as this a group of backbenchers began to lobby in support of Haughey  This group, known as the "gang of five," consisted of Jackie Fahey, Tom McEllistrim, Seán Doherty, Mark Killilea Jnr and Albert Reynolds  Haughey was also helped by the TD Síle de Valera  The granddaughter of Éamon de Valera, she was highly critical of Jack Lynch's policy regards to Northern Ireland  In a speech at the Liam Lynch commemoration at Fermoy on 9 September, de Valera made a series of thinly veiled attacks on Lynch  Although Lynch quickly tried to impose party discipline, attempting to discipline her for opposing party policy at a parliamentary party meeting held at the 28th, de Valera correctly pointed out that she had not opposed the party policy regarding Northern Ireland which called for the declaration of the British intent to withdraw from Northern Ireland  Lynch left for a trip to the United States on 7 November  On the same day the government lost two by-elections to Fine Gael in Cork and in Cork North-East  During the trip Lynch claimed in an interview with The Washington Post that a five-kilometer air corridor between the border was agreed upon during the meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to enhance security co-operation  This was something highly unsavoury to many in Fianna Fáil  When Lynch returned he was questioned on this by a Clare backbencher Bill Loughnane, along with Tom McEllistrim at a parliamentary party meeting  Lynch stated that the British did not have permission to overfly the border  Afterwards Loughnane went public with the details of the meeting and accused Lynch of deliberately misleading the party  An attempt to remove the whip from Loughnane failed  At this stage Lynch's position had become untenable, with supporters of Haughey and George Colley caucusing opinion within the party 
In December 1979, Lynch announced his resignation as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil  The leadership contest that resulted was a two-horse race between Haughey and the Tánaiste, George Colley  Colley had the support of the entire cabinet, with the exception of Michael O'Kennedy, and felt that this popularity would be reflected within the parliamentary party as a whole 
Haughey on the other hand was distrusted by a number of his cabinet colleagues, but was much more respected by new backbenchers who were worried about the safety of their Dáil seats  When the vote was taken Haughey emerged as the victor by a margin of 44 votes to 38, a very clear division within the party  In a conciliatory gesture, Colley was re-appointed as Tánaiste and had a veto over whom Haughey would appoint as Ministers for Justice and for Defence  This was due to his distrust of Haughey on security issues (because of the Arms Crisis)  However, he was removed from the important position of Minister for Finance 
Nonetheless, on 11 December 1979, Charles Haughey was elected Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil, almost a decade after the Arms Crisis set back his political career  In 2010, a founder of the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising firm, said that Haughey had asked for "a new image" similar to the one provided for Margaret Thatcher for the 1979 general election 

Taoiseach (1979–1981)
When Haughey came to power, the country was sinking into a deep economic crisis, following the 1979 energy crisis  Haughey effectively acted as his own Minister for Finance, ignoring the views of his Minister  One of his first functions as Taoiseach was a televised address to the nation – only the third such address in the Republic's history – in which he outlined the bleak economic picture:
I wish to talk to you this evening about the state of the nation's affairs and the picture I have to paint is not, unfortunately, a very cheerful one  The figures which are just now becoming available to us show one thing very clearly  As a community we are living away beyond our means  I don't mean that everyone in the community is living too well, clearly many are not and have barely enough to get by, but taking us all together we have been living at a rate which is simply not justified by the amount of goods and services we are producing  To make up the difference we have been borrowing enormous amounts of money, borrowing at a rate which just cannot continue  A few simple figures will make this very clear     we will just have to reorganise government spending so that we can only undertake those things we can afford…
While Haughey had identified the problem with the economy, his actions made the problem worse  He increased public spending, which soon became out of control, and led to increases in borrowing and taxation at an unacceptable level  By 1981, Haughey was still reasonably popular and decided to call a general election  However, the timing of the election was thwarted twice by external events, in particular the hunger strikes of IRA volunteers for political status  The Anti H-Block Committee announced that they would field abstentionist candidates which many predicted correctly would take Republican votes away from Fianna Fáil  This coincided with the Stardust Disaster, where a fire destroyed a night club in Haughey's constituency and claimed the lives of 48 young people; these caused Haughey to delay the Ard Fheis and the election  The poll was eventually held in June, much later than Haughey wanted  In the hope of winning an overall Dáil majority Haughey's campaign took a populist line with regard to taxation, spending and Northern Ireland  The campaign was enhanced and hyped up by a live debate on RTÉ between Haughey and the Leader of the Opposition Garret FitzGerald, of Fine Gael, over the major issues  On the day of the vote Fianna Fáil won 45 5%, failing to secure a majority in the 166-seat Dáil  A Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition came to power, under FitzGerald and Haughey went into opposition 
Within days of his becoming Taoiseach, Allied Irish Banks forgave Haughey £400,000 of a £1,000,000 debt  No reason was given for this  The Economist obituary on Haughey (24 June 2006) asserted that he had warned the bank "I can be a very troublesome adversary" 

Opposition (1981–1982)
FitzGerald's government lasted until January 1982, when it collapsed due to a controversial budget which proposed the application of Value Added Tax to children's shoes, previously exempt  FitzGerald, no longer having a majority in the Dáil, went to Áras an Uachtaráin, to advise President Hillery to dissolve the Dáil and call a general election  However, the night the government collapsed the Fianna Fáil Front Bench issued a statement encouraging the President not to grant the dissolution and to allow Fianna Fáil to form a government  Phone calls were also made to the President by Brian Lenihan  Haughey, on attempting to contact his former colleague, the President, and on failing to be put through to him, was reported to have threatened the president's aide de camp by telling him that he would be Taoiseach one day and when that happened, "I intend to roast your fucking arse if you don't put me through immediately"  Hillery considered such pressure to be gross misconduct, and granted the dissolution 
A biography of Hillery blames Haughey for the sex scandal rumours which almost destroyed the presidency of Hillery in 1979 

Second term as Taoiseach (1982)
After the February 1982 election, when Haughey failed to win an overall majority again, questions were raised about his leadership  Some of Haughey's critics in the party suggested that an alternative candidate should stand as the party's nominee for Taoiseach  Desmond O'Malley emerged as the likely alternative candidate and was ready to challenge Haughey for the leadership  However, on the day of the vote O'Malley withdrew and Haughey went forward as the nominee  He engineered confidence and supply agreements with the Independent Socialist TD, Tony Gregory (in return for £100 million of investment in the Dublin North Inner City; a deal dubbed the Gregory Deal), the Independent Fianna Fáil TD Neil Blaney and three Workers' Party TDs, which saw him return as Taoiseach for a second time 
Haughey's second term was dominated by even more economic mismanagement, based on Haughey's policy of using government policy and money, in an effort to induce a sufficiently large share of the electorate to vote him his elusive 'overall majority' in the Dáil  With Haughey and his supporters taking a dangerously populist line in every area of policy, and refusing to address serious shortcomings in the performance of the state, a growing minority in his own party were becoming increasingly concerned  The issue of his leadership cropped up again when in October the backbench TD, Charlie McCreevy, put down a motion of no-confidence in Haughey  Desmond O'Malley disagreed with the timing but supported the hasty motion of no confidence all the same  O'Malley resigned from the cabinet prior to the vote as he was going to vote against Haughey  A campaign now started that was extremely vicious on the side of Haughey's supporters, with threats made to the careers of those who dissented from the leadership  After a marathon 15-hour party meeting, Haughey, who insisted on a roll-call as opposed to a secret ballot, and won the open ballot by 58 votes to 22  Not long after this, Haughey's government collapsed when the Workers' Party TD's and Tony Gregory withdrew their support for the government over a Fianna Fáil policy document called "The Way Forward," which would lead to massive spending cuts  Fianna Fáil lost the November 1982 election and FitzGerald once again returned as Taoiseach at the head of a Fine Gael-Labour coalition with a comfortable Dáil majority  Haughey found himself back in opposition 
In August 1982, the Attorney General Patrick Connolly was the subject of controversy when a man in his house was arrested for murder  At a press conference on the affair, Haughey was paraphrased as having described the affair as "grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented", from which journalist and former politician Conor Cruise O'Brien coined the term GUBU 

Return to opposition (1982–1987)
Haughey's leadership came under scrutiny for a third time when a report linked Haughey with the phone tapping of political journalists  In spite of huge pressure Haughey refused to resign and survived yet another vote of no-confidence in early 1983, albeit with a smaller majority  Haughey's success was partly due to the death of the Fianna Fáil TD Clement Coughlan, a supporter of O'Malley  Haughey's supporters managed to have the meeting moved to the following week after the funeral, which gave him more time to manoeuver  Having failed three times to oust Haughey, most of his critics gave up and returned to normal politics 
In May 1984, the New Ireland Forum Report was published  Haughey was involved in the drafting of this at the time he was in office and had agreed to potential scenarios for improving the political situation of Northern Ireland  However, on publication, Haughey rejected it and said the only possible solution was a United Ireland  This statement was criticised by the other leaders who forged the New-Ireland Forum, John Hume, Garret FitzGerald and Dick Spring  Desmond O'Malley supported the Forum report and criticised Haughey's ambiguous position, accusing him of stifling debate  At a Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party meeting to discuss the report, the whip was removed from O'Malley, which meant he was no longer a Fianna Fáil TD  Ironically, when Haughey returned to power he embraced the Anglo-Irish Agreement that had developed from the New Ireland Forum Report 
In early 1985, a bill was introduced by the Fine Gael–Labour government to liberalise the sale of contraceptives in the country  Fianna Fáil in opposition opposed the bill  O'Malley supported it as a matter of principle rather than a political point to oppose for opposition's sake  On the day of the vote O'Malley spoke in the Dáil chamber stated:

But I do not believe that the interests of this State or our Constitution and of this Republic would be served by putting politics before conscience in regard to this     I stand by the Republic and accordingly, I will not oppose this Bill 
He abstained rather than vote with the government  Despite this Haughey moved against O'Malley and in February 1985, O'Malley was charged with "conduct un-becoming"  At a party meeting, even though O'Malley did not have the party whip, he was expelled from the Fianna Fáil organisation by 73 votes to 9 in roll-call vote  With George Colley dead, O'Malley expelled and other critics silenced, Haughey was finally in full control of Fianna Fáil 
O'Malley decided to form a new political party and 21 December 1985, Desmond O'Malley announced the formation of the Progressive Democrats  Several Fianna Fáil TDs joined including Mary Harney and Bobby Molloy 
In November 1985, the Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed between Garret FitzGerald and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher  The agreement gave Ireland a formal say in Northern Ireland and its affairs  As was the case with the New Ireland Forum Report, the Anglo-Irish Agreement was harshly criticised by Haughey, who said that he would re-negotiate it, if re-elected  FitzGerald called a general election for February 1987  The campaign was dominated by attacks on the government over severe cuts in the budget and the general mismanagement of the economy  When the results were counted Haughey had failed once again to win an overall majority for Fianna Fáil  When it came to electing a Taoiseach in the Dáil Haughey's position looked particularly volatile  When it came to a vote the Independent TD Tony Gregory voted against Fitzgerald but abstained on Haughey, seeing Haughey as the "lesser of two evils" (the reason for this was Gregory's opposition to the Anglo-Irish agreement as well as his personal dislike of Garret FitzGerald and Fine Gael)  Haughey was elected Taoiseach on the casting vote of the Ceann Comhairle 

Final term as Taoiseach (1987–1992)
Haughey now headed a minority Fianna Fáil government  Fine Gael under leader Alan Dukes, made the unprecedented move, with its Tallaght strategy, of supporting the government and voting for it when it came to introducing tough economic policies  The national debt had doubled under previous administrations, so the government introduced severe budget cuts in all departments  The taxation system was transformed to encourage enterprise and employment  One of the major schemes put forward, and one which would have enormous economic benefits for the country, was the establishment of the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Dublin 
In late April 1989, Haughey returned from a trip to Japan, to the news that the government was about to be defeated in a Dáil vote, on a private members' motion regarding provision of funds for HIV/AIDS sufferers  The government lost the vote, which was seen as merely embarrassing, but Haughey, buoyed by opinion polls which indicated the possibility of winning an overall majority, called a general election for 15 June  Fianna Fáil however ended up losing four seats and the possibility of forming another minority government looked slim  For the first time in history a nominee for Taoiseach failed to achieve a majority when a vote was taken in the Dáil, on 29 June 1989  Constitutionally Haughey was obliged to resign, however he refused to, for a short period  He eventually tendered his resignation to President Hillery and remained on as Taoiseach, albeit in an acting capacity  A full 27 days after the election had taken place a coalition government was formed between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats  It was the first time that Fianna Fáil had entered into a coalition, abandoning one of its "core values" in the overwhelming need to form a government 
Haughey in 1990 had more difficulties than successes  The first half of the year saw Haughey in a leading role as European statesman, when Ireland held the presidency of the European Community, which rotated semi-annually between the member states of the European Union  Haughey supported German Reunification and during the extraordinary Dublin Summit, which he called for in April, he pressed this viewpoint forward  He believed both Ireland and Germany were similar in that both countries were divided  During a Dáil debate on German Reunification, Haughey stated "I have expressed a personal view that coming as we do from a country which is also divided many of us would have sympathy with any wish of the people of the two German States for unification" The presidential election was disappointing for Haughey with Brian Lenihan, the Tánaiste, who was nominated as the party's candidate, being defeated by Mary Robinson  During the campaign the controversy over the phone calls made to the Áras an Uachtaráin in 1982, urging the then President not to dissolve the Dáil resurfaced  Lenihan was accused of calling and attempting to influence the President, who as Head of State is above politics  The Progressive Democrats threatened to pull out of the coalition and support a Fine Gael no-confidence motion unless Haughey forced Lenihan out  Haughey tried to force Lenihan to resign, and sacked him when he refused to do so  Lenihan's dismissal damaged Haughey's standing in the Fianna Fáil organisation 
Haughey's grip on political power began to slip in the autumn of 1991  There was a series of resignations by chairmen of semi-state companies, followed by an open declaration by Minister for Finance Albert Reynolds, that he had every intention of standing for the party leadership if Haughey resigned  Following a heated parliamentary party meeting, Seán Power, one of Reynolds's supporters, put down a motion of no-confidence in Haughey  Reynolds and his supporters were sacked from the government by Haughey, who went on to win the no-confidence motion by 55 votes to 22 

Haughey's victory was short-lived, as a series of political errors would lead to his demise as Taoiseach



ground_truth: India

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Charles Haughey held what position when he dissolved the list of members who were elected to the lower house of the Oireachtas of Ireland on 25 May 1989?

The following are given passages.
Context 2:  Controversy erupted over the attempted appointment of Jim McDaid as Minister for Defence, which saw him withdraw his nomination under pressure from O'Malley  Worse was to follow when Seán Doherty, who as Minister for Justice had taken the blame for the phone-tapping scandal of the early 1980s, went on RTÉ television, and after ten years of insisting that Haughey knew nothing of the tapping, claimed that Haughey had known and authorised it  Haughey denied this, but the Progressive Democrats members of the government stated that they could no longer continue in government with Haughey as Taoiseach  Haughey told Desmond O'Malley, the Progressive Democrats leader, that he intended to stand down shortly, but wanted to choose his own time of departure  O'Malley agreed to this and the government continued 
On 30 January 1992, Haughey resigned as leader of Fianna Fáil at a parliamentary party meeting  He remained as Taoiseach until 11 February 1992, when he was succeeded by the former Finance Minister, Albert Reynolds  During his final address to the Dáil he quoted Othello, saying "I have done the state some service, they know it, no more of that"  Haughey then returned to the backbenches before retiring from politics at the 1992 general election  His son, Seán Haughey, was elected at the election that followed, in his father's old constituency  Seán Haughey was appointed as a Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science in December 2006 

Retirement, tribunals and scandal
Financial scandals
Haughey's personal wealth and extravagant lifestyle (he owned racehorses, a large motor sailing yacht Celtic Mist, an Inishvickillane island and a Gandon-designed mansion) had long been a point of speculation  He refused throughout his career to answer any questions about how he financed this lifestyle on a government salary  Despite his professed desire to fade from public attention, these questions followed him into retirement, eventually exploding into a series of political, financial and personal scandals that tarnished his image and reputation 
In 1997, a government-appointed tribunal, led by Judge Brian McCracken, first revealed that Haughey had received substantial monetary gifts from businessmen and that he had held secret offshore bank accounts in the Ansbacher Bank in the Cayman Islands  Haughey faced criminal charges for obstructing the work of the McCracken tribunal  His trial on these charges was postponed indefinitely after the judge in the case found that he would not be able to get a fair trial following prejudicial comments by the then PD leader and Tánaiste Mary Harney Also in 1997, the public were shocked by allegations that Haughey had embezzled money destined for the Fianna Fáil party, taxpayers' money taken from government funds earmarked for the operation of a political party, and that he had spent large portions of these funds on Charvet shirts and expensive dinners in a top Dublin restaurant, while preaching belt-tightening and implementing budget cuts as a national policy The subsequent Moriarty Tribunal delved further into Haughey's financial dealings  In his main report on Charles Haughey released on 19 December 2006, Mr Justice Moriarty made the following findings:

Haughey was paid more than IR£8 million between 1979 and 1986 from various benefactors and businessmen, including £1 3 million from the Dunnes Stores supermarket tycoon Ben Dunne  The tribunal described these payments as "unethical" 
In May 1989 one of Haughey's lifelong friends, former government minister Brian Lenihan, underwent a liver transplant which was partly paid for through fundraising by Haughey  The Moriarty tribunal found that of the £270,000 collected in donations for Brian Lenihan, no more than £70,000 ended up being spent on Lenihan's medical care  The tribunal identified one specific donation of £20,000 for Lenihan that was surreptitiously appropriated by Haughey, who took steps to conceal this transaction 
The tribunal found evidence of favours performed in return for money (bribes): Saudi businessman Mahmoud Fustok paid Haughey £50,000 to support applications for Irish citizenship 
In other evidence of favours performed, the tribunal reported that Haughey arranged meetings between Ben Dunne and civil servant Seamus Pairceir of the Revenue Commissioners  These discussions resulted in an outstanding capital gains tax bill for Dunne being reduced by £22 8 million  Moriarty found that this was "not coincidental", and that it was a substantial benefit conferred on Dunne by Haughey's actions 
Allied Irish Banks settled a million-pound overdraft with Haughey soon after he became Taoiseach in 1979; the tribunal found that the lenience shown by the bank in this case amounted to an indirect payment by the bank to Haughey The tribunal rejected Haughey's claims of ignorance of his own financial affairs and Haughey was accused by the tribunal of "devaluing democracy" Haughey eventually agreed a settlement with the revenue and paid a total of €6 5 million in back taxes and penalties to the Revenue Commissioners in relation to these donations  In August 2003 Haughey was forced to sell his large estate, Abbeville, in Kinsealy in north County Dublin for €45 million to settle legal fees he had incurred during the tribunals  He continued to live at Abbeville and own the island of Inishvickillane off the coast of County Kerry until his death 

Terry Keane affair
In May 1999, Terry Keane, gossip columnist and once wife of former Chief Justice of Ireland Ronan Keane, revealed on The Late Late Show that she and Haughey had conducted a 27-year extramarital affair  In a move that she subsequently said she deeply regretted, Keane confirmed that the man she had been referring to for years in her newspaper column as "sweetie" was indeed Haughey  The revelation on the television programme shocked at least some of the audience, including Haughey's son Seán who was watching the show  Haughey's wife Maureen was also said to have been deeply hurt by the circumstances of the revelation 

Death and funeral
Haughey's attendance before the tribunals had repeatedly been disrupted by illness  He died from prostate cancer, from which he had suffered for a decade, on 13 June 2006, at his home in Kinsealy, County Dublin, aged 80 Haughey received a state funeral on 16 June 2006  He was buried in St  Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton in County Dublin, following mass at Donnycarney  The then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern delivered the graveside oration The funeral rites were screened live on RTÉ One and watched by a quarter of a million people  It was attended by President Mary McAleese, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, members of the Oireachtas, many from the world of politics, industry and business  The chief celebrant was Haughey's brother, Father Eoghan Haughey 

Legacy
Former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald said that Haughey had the potential to be one of the best Taoisigh that the country ever had, had his preoccupation with wealth and power not clouded his judgement: Charles Haughey spent much energy fending off leadership challenges, chasing an elusive Dáil majority and dealing with GUBU-like events "
He comes with a flawed pedigree      His motives can ultimately only be judged by God, but we cannot ignore the fact that he differs from his predecessors in that these motives have been widely impugned, most notably by those in his own party who have observed him over many years 
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said,
He had an immense ability to get things done and he inspired great loyalty amongst many of his followers both inside and outside Fianna Fáil 
In recent times, these achievements have become clouded by the revelations that are the subject of inquiry by the Moriarty Tribunal 

History will have to weigh up both the credit and the debit side more dispassionately than may be possible today, but I have no doubt its ultimate judgement on Mr Haughey will be a positive one 
Historian Diarmaid Ferriter said, He was a very promising minister in the '60s, but once he became leader all he was concerned with was staying leader  It was always about the cult of leadership  His sense of himself was much more important than any vision he had for the country  People say he discovered fiscal rectitude in '87, and people talk about his contribution to Anglo-Irish affairs, but really if you try and look for any consistency in his affairs after the late '70s you can't find it because it's just about him 
Historian John A  Murphy said, His vision was one of personal vanity  I don't think history's assessment will be the one Bertie uttered over his grave 
Haughey was characterised in a 2012 novel Ratlines, by Stuart Neville  A three-part television drama Charlie, covering Haughey between 1979 and 1992, débuted on RTÉ in January 2015, with Aidan Gillen in the title role  

Governments
The following governments were led by Haughey:

16th Government of Ireland (December 1979 – June 1981)
18th Government of Ireland (March 1982 – December 1982)
20th Government of Ireland (March 1987 – July 1989)
21st Government of Ireland (July 1989 – February 1992)

See also
Families in the Oireachtas
Haughey
Haughey (TV series)
Passage 2:
Members of the 25th Dáil
The 25th Dáil was elected at the 1987 general election on 17 February 1987 and met on 10 March 1987  The members of Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas (legislature), of Ireland are known as TDs  The 25th Dáil was dissolved by President Patrick Hillery on 25 May 1989, at the request of the Taoiseach Charles Haughey  The 25th Dáil lasted 808 days  There were no by-elections during the 25th Dáil 

Composition of the 25th Dáil
Fianna Fáil, denoted with bullet (●), formed the 20th Government of Ireland 

Graphical representation
This is a graphical comparison of party strengths in the 25th Dáil from March 1987  This was not the official seating plan 

Ceann Comhairle
On 10 March 1987, Seán Treacy (Ind) was proposed by Charles Haughey and seconded by Brian Lenihan for the position of Ceann Comhairle  He was approved without a vote 

TDs by constituency
The list of the 166 TDs elected is given in alphabetical order by Dáil constituency 

Changes
See also
Members of the 18th Seanad
Passage 3:
Members of the 21st Dáil
The 21st Dáil was elected at the 1977 general election on 16 June 1977 and met on 5 July 1977  The members of Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas (legislature) of Ireland, are known as TDs  The 21st Dáil saw a change of Taoiseach from Jack Lynch to Charles Haughey  On 21 May 1981, President Patrick Hillery dissolved the Dáil on the request of Taoiseach Charles Haughey  The 21st Dáil lasted 1,417 days 

Composition of the 21st Dáil
In July 1977, Fianna Fáil, denoted with a bullet (●), formed the 15th Government of Ireland, a majority government, led by Jack Lynch as Taoiseach  In December 1979, Charles Haughey succeeded as Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach, forming the 16th Government of Ireland 

Graphical representation
This is a graphical comparison of party strengths in the 21st Dáil from July 1977  This was not the official seating plan 

Ceann Comhairle
On the meeting of the Dáil, Joseph Brennan (FF) was proposed by Jack Lynch (FF) and seconded by George Colley (FF) for the position of Ceann Comhairle  Seán Treacy (Lab) was proposed by Garret FitzGerald (FG) and seconded by Joseph Bermingham (Lab) for the position  Brennan was elected by a vote of 84 to 60 Brennan died on 13 July 1980  On 15 October 1980, Pádraig Faulkner (FF) was appointed Ceann Comhairle on a temporary basis  On 16 October 1980, Faulkner was proposed by Jack Lynch for the position on a permanent basis, and was elected without a vote 

TDs by constituency
The list of the 148 TDs elected is given in alphabetical order by Dáil constituency 

Changes
On 11 February 1981, a motion to move the writ for the vacancy in Tipperary North was rejected on a vote of 40 to 66 

See also
Members of the 14th Seanad
Passage 4:
Members of the 23rd Dáil
The 23rd Dáil was elected at the February 1982 general election on 18 February 1982 and met on 9 March 1982  The members of Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas (legislature), of Ireland are known as TDs  On 4 November 1982, President Patrick Hillery dissolved the Dáil at the request of the Taoiseach Charles Haughey after the loss of a vote of confidence  The 23rd Dáil is the third shortest Dáil in history, lasting 241 days 

Composition of the 23rd Dáil
Fianna Fáil, which formed the 18th Government of Ireland, is marked with a bullet (●) 

Graphical representation
This is a graphical comparison of party strengths in the 23rd Dáil from March 1982  This was not the official seating plan 

Ceann Comhairle
On the meeting of the Dáil, John O'Connell (Ind), who had served as Ceann Comhairle in the previous Dáil, was proposed by Neil Blaney (IFF) and seconded by Garret FitzGerald (FG) for the position  He was elected without a vote 

TDs by constituency
The list of the 166 TDs elected is given in alphabetical order by Dáil constituency 

Changes
See also
Members of the 16th Seanad
Passage 5:
P  J  Mara
Patrick James Mara (1 February 1942 – 15 January 2016) was an Irish public affairs consultant and politician who served as Senator from July 1981 to October 1981 and May 1982 to December 1982  He was most renowned for being the political adviser to former Taoiseach Charles Haughey  He also served as Press Secretary to Fianna Fáil from 1983 to 1987 and Government Press Secretary from 1987 to 1992 He was appointed the Fianna Fáil Director of Elections for the 1997, 2002, and 2007 general elections  He was a member of the board of Digicel, the company founded by Denis O'Brien to build mobile networks in the Caribbean 
He was regularly lampooned on the satirical Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) radio sketch show Scrap Saturday, which ran from 1989 to 1991 

Early life
Mara was born in Galway, but was raised in Millmount Avenue in Drumcondra, Dublin  He was educated at O'Connell's Richmond Street, and at Coláiste Mhuire, an Irish-language Christian Brothers secondary school (Gaelscoil) on Parnell Square  Mara's father, a Garda, died when Mara was still in school  He was raised by his mother and sister  After school, Mara worked at Boland's Mill for a short time  After a few more jobs, he started working in the textiles industry 

Earlier career
Mara started becoming actively involved in politics in his late 20s, having come from a family background of support for Fianna Fáil  He unsuccessfully ran for public office multiple times 
Mara began to show interest in the career of Charles Haughey in 1970, during the Arms Trial, and began a professional relationship with him, eventually becoming his right hand man and confidante  Haughey and Mara at the time would travel around Ireland visiting local branches of Fianna Fáil  Mara assisted Haughey with strategy during election campaigns  His attempts at a non-political entrepreneurial career were sidelined by his political aspirations, including his carpet sales business, which failed 
When Haughey came back from the political wilderness in the late 1970s, Mara helped to secure support for him in the 1979 leadership election of the party  In his first government, Haughey appointed Mara as a senator 
In 1982, despite having no previous experience in public relations, Mara was appointed press secretary for Fianna Fáil by Haughey  He made innovations in how to operate public relations for the party, including holding opposition press briefings  He also tried to increase the electability of Haughey, particularly among young people  
Mara adopted techniques of electioneering from US politics for the campaign for the 1987 Irish general election  He devised a strategy for the election by consulting with a broad range of people, to aid re-election  When the party went back into government in 1987 with Haughey as Taoiseach, Mara served as the press secretary for the new government, and until the resignation of Haughey  He did not work with Albert Reynolds in government 

Flood Tribunal
Mara was one of the components of the so-called Century Radio module at the Flood Tribunal  Mara told the Tribunal that during the course of his employment as a Press Secretary, his financial remuneration was not sufficient to meet his immediate financial requirements, and he experienced financial difficulties  He said he received assistance from his friends, Oliver Barry and financier Dermot Desmond, in the form of loans  However, there was no interest charge, nor was there any fixed schedule for repayment  Those making the loans did not intend that the sums advanced would be treated as gifts by Mara, but were content to receive their money back, once Mara was in a position so to do  Desmond told the Tribunal that he had lent £46,000 to Mara between 1986 and 1989  Barry said he remembered lending Mara a sum of £2,000 on one occasion between 1982 and 1984 In the Second Interim Report of the Flood Tribunal, Judge Feargus Flood found that Mara failed to co-operate with the Tribunal by: "Failing to provide the Tribunal with details of an account in the name of Pullman Limited, operated by him at Royal Bank of Scotland in the Isle of Man, when swearing his Affidavit of Discovery made pursuant to an Order of the Tribunal requiring him to discover, inter alia, any such account "

Later career
Mara was the director of elections for Fianna Fáil when Bertie Ahern was leader, which included managing the campaigns for the party in the general elections in 1997, 2002, and 2007 
Starting in the 1990s, Mara began working as a public relations consultant for many prominent Irish businessmen  He worked closely with Denis O'Brien in the later stages of his life 

Personal life
Mara married Breda Brogan from Kinvara, County Galway, who was a model and later an entrepreneur, setting up a clothing wholesales company which was later bought out by Penney's  They had one son, John  Breda died in 2003  With his partner Sheila, Mara had a daughter, Elena, born in 2013  Mara pursued unsuccessful business ventures, which included selling carpets   While Mara was wealthy in his earlier career before politics, and during it, at one point after he could not even get the credit to buy a used car 

Death
Mara died at the Beacon Hospital after a long illness on 15 January 2016 at the age of 73  He died without a will, leaving an estate of €1,593,213  He was buried in Kinvara, County Galway 
Passage 6:
Members of the 28th Dáil
The 28th Dáil was elected at the 1997 general election on 6 June 1997 and met on 26 June 1997  The members of Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas (legislature) of Ireland, are known as TDs  The 28th Dáil lasted 1,765 days, the 2nd longest after the 10th Dáil  The 28th Dáil was dissolved by President Mary McAleese on 25 April 2002, at the request of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern 

Composition of the 28th Dáil
Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, denoted with bullets (●), formed the 25th Government of Ireland 

Graphical representation
This is a graphical comparison of party strengths in the 28th Dáil from June 1997  This was not the official seating plan 

Ceann Comhairle
On 26 June 1997, Séamus Pattison (Lab) was proposed by Dick Spring and seconded by Mary O'Rourke for the position of Ceann Comhairle  Pattison was approved without a vote 

List of TDs
This is a list of TDs elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1997 general election, arranged by party  This table is a record of the 1997 general election results  The Changes table below records all changes in membership and party affiliation 

Changes
See also
Members of the 21st Seanad
Passage 7:
Arms Crisis
The Arms Crisis was a political scandal in the Republic of Ireland in 1970 in which Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney were dismissed as cabinet ministers for alleged involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle arms to the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland  At the ensuing Arms Trial, charges against Blaney were dropped, and Haughey, along with co-defendants Captain James Kelly, John Kelly and Belgian businessman Albert Luykx, were found not guilty of conspiracy  Blaney claimed that the then government knew about the plan, while Haughey denied this 

Background
The events occurred during the Fianna Fáil government of Jack Lynch  Amid the 1969 Northern Ireland riots, which would lead to the Troubles, nationalist families were being forced from their homes, and refugees "streamed over the border" into the Republic  The Dublin government established a cabinet subcommittee to organise emergency assistance and relief   Haughey, then Minister for Finance and the hardline Blaney, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries who was from the Donegal North-East constituency bordering Northern Ireland were members of the subcommittee, along with Pádraig Faulkner and Joseph Brennan  Jack Lynch took little interest in the work of the subcommittee, and after an initial meeting, Faulkner and Brennan seem to have left their senior colleagues Haughey and Blaney to their own devices  A government fund of £100,000 was set up to provide relief to civilians forced out of their homes by the Troubles, and Haughey was given sole authority over this money Haughey and Blaney disapproved of the cautious policies of Taoiseach Lynch on Northern Ireland and favoured a more robust approach  In August 1969, after Blaney had proposed military intervention in Northern Ireland, Lynch had asked Irish Army Intelligence to draft proposals for limited military intervention in Northern Ireland to protect nationalist areas from Ulster loyalist mobs, known as Exercise Armageddon, but it was seen to be unworkable and was not adopted by the cabinet  The nationalist areas were given a form of protection later in August by British forces in Operation Banner, and Lynch saw this as an effective short-term measure  On 30 October 1968, Lynch had met with Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in London and had called on Britain to take steps to end the partition of Ireland 
Blaney, the then Minister of Agriculture, was an outspoken critic of government policy on Northern Ireland  In a speech in 1969 he said "the Fianna Fail party has never taken a decision to rule out the use of force if the situation in the Six Counties so demand"  Haughey had not publicly opposed Lynch's policy, but was concerned about being outflanked by his Fianna Fail leadership rival 
In October 1969, a meeting of the Northern Citizen Defence Committees, which had been set up to defend nationalist areas from unionist attack, and which included IRA officers, was held in Bailieborough, County Cavan, with Irish Army intelligence officer Captain James Kelly in attendance  Captain Kelly promised the Northern Citizen Defence Committees  £50,000, that would be made available to buy weapons for defense of nationalist areas against loyalist attack 
After the Bailiebourough meeting, Kelly reported directly to Blaney, who in turn brought him to Haugheys's house to give account of the meeting  Kelly suggested that the government should support the IRA, acknowledging "this would mean accepting the possibility of armed action of some sort as the ultimate solution" Blaney allegedly made plans with Captain Kelly to import weapons from continental Europe  Haughey provided the money for the purchase from his civilian relief fund, and also made a failed attempt to arrange customs clearance for the shipment Haughey met with the IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding  Garda Special Branch informed the Minister for Justice Mícheál Ó Móráin of this meeting and he reported it to the Cabinet, but Haughey dismissed it as a chance encounter  In November 1969, a Belfast republican leader named John Kelly, and Haughey's brother Jock, traveled to London to purchase arms, but Kelly became suspicious that their plot had been discovered and they returned to Ireland 

Revelation and trial
By late April 1970, the Garda Síochána Special Branch were aware of the plot and had informed Lynch  However, Lynch took no action until the leader of the opposition, Liam Cosgrave was also informed by the Special Branch of the smuggling scheme and pressed the Taoiseach to take action  Haughey and Blaney were sacked by Lynch on 6 May when they refused to resign   Kevin Boland, the Minister for Social Welfare resigned from the government in protest at the sackings as he was adamant (as were the accused) that Jack Lynch and most of the Cabinet—in particular Jim Gibbons, then Minister for Defence—knew about the plan to import arms  The Minister for Justice, Mícheál Ó Móráin who was in hospital at the time was asked to resign on 4 May  He later claimed that he had in fact informed Lynch of the individuals involved 
On 28 May 1970, Haughey and Blaney went on trial in Dublin, together with an Irish Army intelligence officer, Captain James Kelly, John Kelly and Belgian businessman Albert Luykx, who had allegedly agreed to use his contacts to acquire the weapons  All charges against Blaney were dropped in the District Court on 2 July 1970 and as a result he was not tried, before the main trial got underway under Justice Aindrias Ó Caoimh  The trial collapsed a week later as Ó Caoimh withdrew after allegations of bias  Following a second trial, presided over by Justice Seamus Henchy, the other four defendants were cleared on 23 October At the trial there was a direct contradiction of evidence regarding the sanctioning of the imports between Haughey and the chief prosecutorial witness, Jim Gibbons, Minister for Defence at the time of the attempted imports  Haughey admitted arranging customs clearance for the shipment, but claimed in his defence that he did not know it consisted of weapons  This directly contradicted the evidence of Gibbons and Peter Berry that Haughey was fully aware of all the details of the conspiracy  It also contradicted the testimony of his co-defendants, who admitted that they had tried to import weapons, but maintained that the shipment had been legally authorised by the government  During the trial the judge remarked that either Haughey or Gibbons had to be committing perjury 

Impact
The resignations and sackings left four vacancies in cabinet   As a result, there was a major cabinet reshuffle and some senior politicians of the future, such as Desmond O'Malley and Gerry Collins, got their first step on the ministerial ladder 
The scandal led to bitter divisions in Fianna Fáil between supporters of the sacked ministers Haughey and Blaney and supporters of Lynch   The same divisions affected government policy on Northern Ireland   Although the events led to Haughey being demoted to the back-benches, he remained a member of Fianna Fáil, while Boland was expelled in 1970 and Blaney in 1971   Blaney went on to found his own party, Independent Fianna Fáil, which re-joined Fianna Fáil in 2006, eleven years after Blaney's death   Haughey later returned to ministerial office and succeeded Lynch as party leader in 1979  There was no rapprochement in the relationship between Gibbons and Haughey and when Haughey became Taoiseach, Gibbons was dropped from his ministerial office   During a later leadership contest, Gibbons was assaulted in Dáil Éireann by Haughey supporters in retaliation for his testimony at the Arms Trial The events came to be one of the defining periods of Lynch's term as leader, during which there were several crises   Lynch supporters saw him as exhibiting strength in facing down the rebel ministers and his detractors saw it as an illustration of his weakness on the national question and procrastination in the face of difficult decisions 
As state papers relating to the period were released after 1995, further light was shed on the events, questioning the outcome   Much remains unknown about the truthfulness of the various personalities involved, and what exactly each knew, and when they came to know it  The diaries of Peter Berry, Secretary of the Department of Justice, published in Magill magazine, claimed that Lynch had not been forthright publicly  Documents released through the Freedom of Information Act 30 years later showed that the state had altered statements by Colonel Hefferon to suppress the fact that he and Captain Kelly had kept Gibbons informed  This caused the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to publicly state that Captain Kelly had done nothing wrong 

See also
Exercise Armageddon
Passage 8:
Members of the 27th Dáil
The 27th Dáil was elected at the 1992 general election on 25 November 1992 and met on 14 December 1992  The members of Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas (legislature) of Ireland, are known as TDs  The 27th Dáil lasted 1,614 days  The 27th Dáil saw a change of Taoiseach from Albert Reynolds to John Bruton in December 1994, the only time there was a new Taoiseach with a change in the party composition of the government during a Dáil term  The 27th Dáil was dissolved by President Mary Robinson on 15 May 1997, at the request of the Taoiseach, John Bruton 

Composition of the 27th Dáil
23rd Government of Ireland (1993–1994) coalition parties denoted with bullets (●)
24th Government of Ireland (1994–1997) coalition parties denoted with daggers (†)

Graphical representation
This is a graphical comparison of party strengths in the 27th Dáil from January 1993  This was not the official seating plan 

Ceann Comhairle
On 14 December 1992, Seán Treacy (Ind) was proposed by Albert Reynolds and seconded by John Bruton for the position of Ceann Comhairle  Treacy was approved without a vote  On 23 April 1997, Treacy announced to the Dáil that would not be availing of his constitutional right to automatic re-election to the 28th Dáil 

TDs by constituency
The list of the 166 TDs elected is given in alphabetical order by Dáil constituency 

Changes
On 24 February 1994, Proinsias De Rossa (DL) sought to direct that the writ be moved for the by-elections in Dublin South-Central, and Enda Kenny (FG) sought to direct that the writ be moved for the by-elections in Mayo West  This was opposed by the government  The government moved the writs on 18 May 1994  The by-elections were held at the same date as the European Parliament election and the local elections 

See also
Members of the 20th Seanad
Passage 9:
Members of the 20th Dáil
The 20th Dáil was elected at the 1973 general election on 28 February 1973 and met on 14 March 1973  The members of Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas (legislature) of Ireland, are known as TDs  On 25 May 1977, President Patrick Hillery dissolved the Dáil on the request of Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave  The 20th Dáil lasted 1,534 days 

Composition of the 20th Dáil
Fine Gael and the Labour Party, denoted with bullets (●), formed the 14th Government of Ireland, known as the National Coalition, with Liam Cosgrave as Taoiseach and Brendan Corish as Tánaiste 

Graphical representation
This is a graphical comparison of party strengths in the 20th Dáil from March 1973  This was not the official seating plan 

Ceann Comhairle
On the meeting of the Dáil, Seán Treacy (Lab) was proposed by Liam Cosgrave (FG) and seconded by Brendan Corish (Lab) for the position  His election was approved without a vote 

TDs by constituency
The list of the 144 TDs elected is given in alphabetical order by Dáil constituency 

Changes
See also
Members of the 13th Seanad
Passage 10:
Members of the 26th Dáil
The 26th Dáil was elected at the 1989 general election on 15 June 1989 and met on 29 June 1989  The members of Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas (legislature) of Ireland, are known as TDs  The 26th Dáil lasted 1,226 days, and saw a change of Taoiseach from Charles Haughey to Albert Reynolds  The 26th Dáil was dissolved by President Mary Robinson on 5 November 1992, at the request of the Taoiseach Albert Reynolds  There were no by-elections during the 26th Dáil 

Composition of the 26th Dáil
On 12 July 1989, Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, denoted with bullets (●), formed the 21st Government of Ireland, led by Charles Haughey  On 11 February 1992, they formed the 22nd Government of Ireland led by Albert Reynolds  The Progressive Democrats left the government on 4 November 1992 

Graphical representation
This is a graphical comparison of party strengths in the 26th Dáil from June 1989  This was not the official seating plan 

Ceann Comhairle
On 29 June 1989, Seán Treacy (Ind) was proposed by Charles Haughey for the position of Ceann Comhairle  Alan Dukes proposed Paddy Harte for the position  Treacy was approved by a vote of 87 to 78 

TDs by constituency
The list of the 166 TDs elected is given in alphabetical order by Dáil constituency 

Changes
See also
Members of the 19th Seanad
Context 3: Passage 1:
Noah's Compass
Noah's Compass is a novel by Anne Tyler first published in 2009 about a solitary 60-year-old man trying to come to terms with his own life  Critics agree that in this, Tyler's 18th novel, the author again treads familiar territory by setting her novel in Baltimore and by following the life of an inconspicuous man who has never realised his full potential 

Plot summary
On the surface, Liam Pennywell leads an ordered, decent life  Once widowed and once divorced, with three grown-up daughters, he has just been dismissed from his teaching job and, for lack of funds, has moved to a smaller apartment on the outskirts of Baltimore  Toying with the idea of retiring altogether rather than going job hunting at his age, Pennywell is assaulted by a burglar on the very first night he stays at his new place  When he wakes up in hospital with a bandaged head, he cannot remember a thing about the attack 
The loss of memory disturbs him more than the crime itself  In a neurologist's waiting room he observes 38-year-old Eunice accompanying an ageing entrepreneur to his doctor's appointment and finds out that she is working for him as a "rememberer" or, as she herself puts it later, the old man's "external hard drive " Intrigued by this occupation, Pennywell contrives a chance encounter with her, and eventually they strike up a relationship with each other 
Complications in their love affair arise when his youngest daughter, 17-year-old Kitty, decides to move in with him, obviously because she expects to be enjoying more freedom than if she stayed with her mother; and when his middle daughter Louise makes a habit of dumping his four-year-old grandson Jonah at Pennywell's apartment for him to babysit  On top of that, Eunice turns out to be a married woman who, after Pennywell has found out, still does not want to let go of him 
In the end the police arrest the burglar—a juvenile delinquent whose mother has the cheek to ask Pennywell to serve as a character witness at her son's forthcoming trial  By then, Pennywell has made up with his eldest daughter Xanthe, who was bearing an old grudge against her father, has got rid of Eunice, and has got settled in at his new apartment  Also, he has started working as a zayde for Jewish preschool children 

Title
The novel takes its title from a discussion Pennywell has with his grandson about whether Noah was steering his ark, or just bobbing up and down in the flood  "Noah didn't need to figure out directions, because the whole world was underwater and so it made no difference," he tells Jonah  “There wasn't anywhere to go  He was just trying to stay afloat "

Reviews
William Boot: "Do I Have to Read Noah's Compass?", www thedailybeast com (23 January 2010) 
Kathleen Byrne: "Families, They Suck You Up",  The Globe and Mail (29 January 2010) 
Elizabeth Day: "Anne Tyler's Noah's Compass, The Observer (16 August 2009) 
Kathryn Harrison: "The Memory Thief", The New York Times (3 January 2010) BR10 
Yvonne Zipp: "Noah's Compass", The Christian Science Monitor (5 January 2010) 
Links to more reviews at  www reviewsofbooks com 

See also
2009 in literature
Passage 2:
Stanley Elkin
Stanley Lawrence Elkin (May 11, 1930 – May 31, 1995) was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist  His extravagant, satirical fiction revolves around American consumerism, popular culture, and male-female relationships 

Biography
Elkin was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Chicago from age three onwards  He did both his undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, receiving a bachelor's degree in English in 1952 and a Ph D  in 1961 for his dissertation on William Faulkner  During this period he was drafted and served in the U S  Army from 1955 to 1957  In 1953 Elkin married Joan Marion Jacobson  He was a member of the English faculty at Washington University in St  Louis from 1960 until his death, and battled multiple sclerosis for most of his adult life  In 1968, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War During his career, Elkin published ten novels, two volumes of novellas, two books of short stories, a collection of essays, and one (unproduced) screenplay  Elkin's work revolves about American pop culture, which it portrays in innumerable darkly comic variations  Characters and especially prose style take full precedence over plot  His language is extravagant and exuberant, baroque and flowery, taking fantastic flight from his characters' endless patter  "He was like a jazz artist who would go off on riffs," said critic William Gass  In a review of George Mills, Ralph B  Sipper wrote, "Elkin's trademark is to tightrope his way from comedy to tragedy with hardly a slip " About the influence of ethnicity on his work Elkin said he admired most "the writers who are stylists, Jewish or not  Bellow is a stylist, and he is Jewish  William Gass is a stylist, and he is not Jewish  What I go for in my work is language "
Although living in the Midwest, Elkin spent his childhood and teenage summers in a bungalow colony called West Oakland, on the Ramapo River in northern New Jersey not far from Mahwah, the home of Joyce Kilmer  This was a refuge for a close-knit group of several score families, mostly Jewish, from the summer heat of New York City and urban New Jersey  Elkin's writings placed in New Jersey were informed by this experience Elkin won the National Book Critics Circle Award on two occasions: for George Mills in 1982 and for Mrs  Ted Bliss, his last novel, in 1995  The MacGuffin was a finalist for the 1991 National Book Award for Fiction  However, although he enjoyed high critical praise, his books have never enjoyed popular success  The 1976 Jack Lemmon film Alex & the Gypsy was based on Elkin's novella "The Bailbondsman" 
Elkin died May 31, 1995, of a heart attack, twenty days after his 65th birthday  His manuscripts and correspondence are archived in Olin Library at Washington University in St  Louis  Elkin's literary legacy is represented by the literary agency headed by Georges Borchardt 
He has a star on the St  Louis Walk of Fame 

Works
Novels
Boswell: A Modern Comedy (1964)
A Bad Man (1967)
The Dick Gibson Show (1971)
The Franchiser (1976)
The Living End (novella) (1979) ISBN 978-0525070207
George Mills (1982)
The Magic Kingdom (1985)
The Rabbi of Lud (1987)
The MacGuffin (1991) ISBN 978-0671673246
Mrs  Ted Bliss (1995)

Story collections
Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers (1966)
Early Elkin (1985)

Novella collections
Searches and Seizures (1973) (U K  title: Eligible Men (1974))
Van Gogh's Room at Arles (1993)

Other works
"A Prayer for Losers", from the Why Work Series (edited by Gordon Lish) (1966)
Stanley Elkin's Greatest Hits (anthology; foreword by Robert Coover) (1980)
The Six-Year-Old Man (screenplay) (1987)
Pieces of Soap (collected essays) (1992)

Limited editions
The First George Mills  (Part One of George Mills; 376 copies, all signed by Elkin and the illustrator, Jane E  Hughes) (1980)
Why I Live Where I Live (essay; 30 unnumbered copies) (1983)
The Coffee Room (radio play; 95 copies, all signed by Elkin and the illustrator, Michael McCurdy) (1987)

Audio
"A Poetics for Bullies", read by Jackson Beck, with comments by Elkin, in New Sounds in American Fiction, Program 10  (edited by Gordon Lish) (1969)

As editor
Stories From the Sixties (1971)
The Best American Short Stories 1980 (with Shannon Ravenel) (1980)

Awards
1995 – National Book Critics Circle Award for Mrs  Ted Bliss
1994 – PEN Faulkner Award finalist for Van Gogh's Room at Arles
1991 – National Book Award finalist for Fiction for The MacGuffin
1982 – National Book Critics Circle Award for George Mills
Passage 3:
Earthly Possessions (novel)
Earthly Possessions is a 1977 novel by Anne Tyler   This, Tyler's seventh novel, followed Celestial Navigation and Searching for Caleb and preceded her award-winning novels Morgan's Passing, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist, and Breathing Lessons 

Plot
Thirty-five-year-old Charlotte Emory has felt trapped her whole life in Clarion, Maryland—first by her embarrassingly eccentric parents, then by her preacher-husband whom she married too young, and eventually by "his variously afflicted brothers, a daughter who won't answer to her own name, a house full of refugees, an impossible clutter "  She finally decides to run away from it all, rid herself of her "earthly possessions," and start over   When she goes to the bank to withdraw funds for her escape, she gets taken hostage during a holdup   Prison escapee Jake Simms forces Charlotte into a stolen car and they head for Florida 
"Earthly Possessions…contains a chilling portrait of a habitual criminal, Jake Simms, Jr , who blames every destructive and chaotic act of his own on someone else   He kidnaps our heroine, the surpassingly amiable Charlotte Emory because while he was robbing a bank a bystander happened to produce a gun   "I could be clean free," he tells his victim, "and you safe home with your kids by now if it wasn't for him   Guy like that ought to be locked up "  As the chase continues, and the kidnapping lengthens into a kind of marriage, he persuades himself, "it ain't me keeping you it's them   If they would quit hounding me then we could go our separate ways…"  This is perfect loser psychology, the mental technology of digging a bottomless pit; but Anne Tyler would have us believe that Jake is saved from falling in by the doll-like apparition of a wee seventeen-year-old girl he has impregnated, Mindy Callender "Jake Simms' mission—besides avoiding arrest—is to "rescue" Mindy from a "home for wayward girls" where she is preparing to have his child   If Mindy is the essence of pure innocence, then Charlotte Emory is the earthbound mooring for this homeless couple—at least for a time   One irony here is that, when she was taken hostage, Charlotte herself was in the process of withdrawing her savings to run away from her own family and home  This is not the first time Charlotte has intended to run away, with no real plan or expectations   Charlotte has escaped one trap to find herself in another, but perhaps this "adventure" will provide her a new perspective 

Reviews
In 1977, John Leonard wrote, "That part of Earthly Possessions spent on the road--gas stations and junk food--amounts to a Rabbit, Run without the Updike epiphanies  The rest is skillful flashback    I admit not being entirely sympathetic to the wry fatalism she proposes, to the notion that we travel enough in our heads to make leaving home almost redundant  Celestial Navigation (1974) and Searching for Caleb (1976) were more satisfying novels  But a taste of Anne Tyler, once acquired, is a splendid addiction "John Updike reviewed the novel in The New Yorker: "Anne Tyler, in her seventh novel, 'Earthly Possessions', continues to demonstrate a remarkable talent and, for a writer of her acuity, an unusual temperament    Small towns and pinched minds hold room enough for her; she is at peace in the semi-countrified, semi-plasticized northern-Southern America where she and her characters live   Out of this peace flow her unmistakable strengths—serene firm tone; her smoothly spun plots; her apparently inexhaustible access to the personalities of her imagining; her infectious delight in "the smell of beautiful, everyday life"; her lack of any trace of intellectual or political condescension—and her one possible weakness: a tendency to leave the reader just where she found him    Charlotte Emory   belongs to what is becoming a familiar class of Anne Tyler heroines: women admirably active in the details of living yet alarmingly passive in the large curve of their lives—riders on male-generated events, who nevertheless give those events a certain blessing, a certain feasibility "

Adaptation for TV
Earthly Possessions (TV) (1999) stars Susan Sarandon, Stephen Dorff, and Elisabeth Moss   "The eventual romance [between Jake and Charlotte is] an element invented for the movie  [It] doesn't disrupt the original sentiment of the story, but could easily have been left out without compromising the emotional development of the characters "
Passage 4:
Searching for Caleb
Searching for Caleb is Anne Tyler's sixth novel   It was originally published by Alfred A  Knopf in 1975 

Book Description
From The Boston Globe
Duncan Peck has a fascination for randomness and is always taking his family on the move  His wife, Justine, is a fortune teller who can't remember the past  Her grandfather, Daniel, longs to find the brother who walked out of his life in 1912, with nothing more than a fiddle in his hand  All three are taking journeys that lead back to the family's deepest roots   to a place where rebellion and acceptance have the haunting power to merge into one    

From the back of the April 1983 Berkley paperback edition
"Here is the heartbreaking and hilarious story of the Peck family - and a young woman's search for freedom, which leads her to the family's deepest roots   From the ragtime era at the end of the 19th century to the years of change in the mid-1970s, it is about growing up and breaking away, rebellion and acceptance   It is a haunting, human story that will live in your heart forever   "

From a 1976 review by Katha Pollitt in the New York Times
"When Duncan marries his cousin Justine, hitherto an ardent Peck, she begins to discover her own thirst for adventure   For years the two careen through the small towns of Maryland and Virginia as Duncan quits one makeshift job for another…  Justine is pulled both forward and back: an amateur teller of fortunes who advises her clients always to go along with change, she remains in thrall to her own childhood   And so, when Daniel decides to find his lost brother, Justine is the one who joins him   For the old man the quest is a way of recapturing the past, but for Justine it becomes a search for the self she has mislaid   The outcome is marvelously ironic, since the answers to her questions are themselves enigmatic   Yet she emerges triumphant, her own woman at last "

Reviews
In his 1976 review in The New Yorker, John Updike wrote, “Funny and lyric and true, exquisite in its details and ambitious in its design…This writer is not merely good, she is wickedly good ”Katha Pollitt praised: "Less perfectly realized than Celestial Navigation, her extraordinarily moving and beautiful last novel,Searching for Caleb is Tyler’s sunniest, most expansive book   While etching with a fine, sharp wit the narrow-mindedness and pettishness of the Pecks, she lavishes on them a tenderness that lifts them above satire… Reading “Searching for Caleb,” one is constantly being startled by…gestures, words, wrinkles of thought and feeling that are at once revelatory and exactly right   But at the center of Tyler’s characters is a private, mysterious core which is left, wisely, inviolate   Ultimately this wisdom is what makes Tyler more than a fine craftsman of realistic novels   Her complex, crotchety inventions surprise us, but one senses they surprise her too "
Passage 5:
Anne Tyler
Anne Tyler (born October 25, 1941) is an American novelist, short story writer, and literary critic   She has published twenty-four novels, including Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982), The Accidental Tourist (1985), and Breathing Lessons (1988)   All three were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Breathing Lessons won the prize in 1989   She has also won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the Ambassador Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award   In 2012 she was awarded The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence   Tyler's twentieth novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2015, and Redhead By the Side of the Road was longlisted for the same award in 2020  She is recognized for her fully developed characters, her "brilliantly imagined and absolutely accurate detail", her "rigorous and artful style", and her "astute and open language "Tyler has been compared to John Updike, Jane Austen, and Eudora Welty, among others 

Early life and education
Early childhood
The oldest of four children, she was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota  Her father, Lloyd Parry Tyler, was an industrial chemist and her mother, Phyllis Mahon Tyler, a social worker   Both her parents were Quakers who were very active with social causes in the Midwest and the South  Her family lived in a succession of Quaker communities in the South until they settled in 1948 in a Quaker commune in Celo, in the mountains of North Carolina near Burnsville  The Celo Community settlement was populated largely by conscientious objectors and members of the liberal Hicksite branch of the Society of Friends   Tyler lived there from age seven through eleven and helped her parents and others care for livestock and organic farming   While she did not attend formal public school in Celo, lessons were taught in art, carpentry, and cooking in homes and in other subjects in a tiny school house   Her early informal training was supplemented by correspondence school Her first memory of her own creative story-telling was of crawling under the bed covers at age three and "telling myself stories in order to get to sleep at night "  Her first book at age seven was a collection of drawings and stories about "lucky girls     who got to go west in covered wagons " Her favorite book as a child was The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton   Tyler acknowledges that this book, which she read many times during this period of limited access to books, had a profound influence on her, showing "how the years flowed by, people altered, and nothing could ever stay the same " This early perception of changes over time is a theme that reappears in many of her novels decades later, just as The Little House itself appears in her novel Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant   Tyler also describes reading Little Women 22 times as a child  When the Tyler family left Celo after four years to move to Raleigh, North Carolina, eleven-year-old Tyler had never attended public school and never used a telephone   This unorthodox upbringing enabled her to view "the normal world with a certain amount of distance and surprise "

Raleigh, North Carolina
Tyler felt herself to be an outsider in the public schools she attended in Raleigh, a feeling that has followed her most of her life   She believes that this sense of being an outsider has contributed to her becoming a writer: "I believe that any kind of setting-apart situation will do [to become a writer]   In my case, it was emerging from the commune     and trying to fit into the outside world " Despite her lack of public schooling prior to age eleven, Anne entered school academically well ahead of most of her classmates in Raleigh   With access now to libraries, she discovered Eudora Welty, Gabriel García Márquez, F  Scott Fitzgerald, and many others   Eudora Welty remains one of her favorite writers, and The Wide Net and Other Stories is one of her favorite books; she has called Welty "my crowning influence " She credits Welty with showing her that books could be about the everyday details of life, not just about major events   During her years at Needham B  Broughton High School in Raleigh, she was inspired and encouraged by a remarkable English teacher, Phyllis Peacock  "Mrs  Peacock" had previously taught the writer Reynolds Price, under whom Tyler would later study at Duke University   Peacock would also later teach the writer Armistead Maupin   Seven years after high school, Tyler would dedicate her first published novel to "Mrs  Peacock, for everything you've done "

Duke and Columbia Universities
When Tyler graduated from high school at age sixteen, she wanted to attend Swarthmore College, a school founded in 1860 by the Hicksite branch of the Society of Friends   However, she had won a full AB Duke scholarship to Duke University, and her parents pressured her to go to Duke because they needed to save money for the education of her three younger brothers   At Duke, Tyler enrolled in Reynolds Price's first creative writing class, which also included a future poet, Fred Chappell   Price was most impressed with the sixteen-year-old Tyler, describing her as "frighteningly mature for 16," "wide-eyed," and "an outsider " Years later Price would describe Tyler as "one of the best novelists alive in the world,     who was almost as good a writer at 16 as she is now " Tyler took an additional creative writing course with Price and also studied under William Blackburn, who also had taught William Styron, Josephine Humphreys, and James Applewhite at Duke, as well as Price and Chappell As a college student, Tyler had not yet determined she wanted to become a writer   She loved painting and the visual arts   She also was involved in the drama society in high school and at Duke, where she acted in a number of plays, playing Laura in The Glass Menagerie and Mrs  Gibbs in Our Town  She majored in Russian Literature at Duke—not English—and graduated in 1961, at age nineteen, having been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa   With her Russian Literature background she received a fellowship to graduate school in Slavic Studies at Columbia University Living in New York City was quite an adjustment for her   There she became somewhat addicted to riding trains and subways: "While I rode I often felt like I was     an enormous eye taking things in, turning them over and sorting them out     writing was the only way" [to express her observations]  Tyler left Columbia graduate school after a year, having completed course work but not her master's thesis   She returned to Duke, where she got a job in the library as a Russian bibliographer  It was there that she met Taghi Modarressi, a resident in child psychiatry in Duke Medical School and a writer himself, and they were married a year later (1963) 

Career
Early writing and first publications
While an undergraduate at Duke, Tyler published her short story "Laura" in the Duke literary journal Archive, for which she won the newly created Anne Flexner award for creative writing  In college and prior to her marriage, she wrote many short stories, one of which impressed Reynolds Price so that he later stated that it was the "most finished, most accomplished short story I have ever received from an undergraduate in my thirty years of teaching "  "The Saints in Caesar's Household" was published in Archive also and won her a second Anne Flexner award   This short story led to her meeting Diarmuid Russell, to whom Price had sent it with kudos   Russell, who was an agent for both Reynolds Price and for Tyler's "crowning influence" Eudora Welty, later became Tyler's agent While working at the Duke library—before and after marrying Modarressi—Tyler did continue to write short stories and started work on her first novel, If Morning Ever Comes   During this period her short stories appeared in The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post, and Harpers   After the couple moved to Montreal—Modarressi's U  S  visa had expired and they moved there so he could finish his residency—Tyler continued writing while looking for work   Her first novel was published in 1964 and The Tin Can Tree was published the next year   Years later she disowned both of these novels, as well as many of the short stories she wrote during this period   She has even written that she "would like to burn them "  She feels that most of this early work suffers from the lack of thorough character development and her failure to rework material repeatedly 

A hiatus from writing: having babies, raising children—1965 to 1970
In 1965 (age 24), Tyler had her first child, a daughter they named Tezh   Two years later a second daughter, Mitra, was born   About this time, the couple moved to Baltimore, MD as Taghi had finished his residency and obtained a position at the University of Maryland Medical School  With the moves, the changes in jobs, and the raising of two young children, Tyler had little time or energy for writing and published nothing between 1965 and 1970  She settled comfortably in the city of Baltimore where she has remained and where she has set most of her subsequent novels   Baltimore is generally considered to have a true mix of Southern and Northern culture  It also is an area of considerable Quaker presence, and Tyler eventually enrolled both her daughters in a local Friends school   During this period she began writing literary reviews for journals, newspapers, etc  to provide the family with additional income; she would continue this employment until the late 1980s, writing approximately 250 reviews in total   While this period was not productive for her writing career, Tyler does feel that this time enriched her spirit and her experience and in turn gave her subsequent writing greater depth, as she had "more of a self to speak from "

Growing recognition as a novelist—1970 to 1980
Tyler began writing again in 1970 and had published three more novels by 1974—A Slipping-Down Life, The Clock Winder, and Celestial Navigation   In her own opinion, her writing improved considerably during this period; with her children entering school, she was able to devote a great deal more focus to it than had been possible since she graduated from Duke   With Celestial Navigation, Tyler began to get national recognition: Gail Godwin gave it a very favorable review in the New York Times Review of Books  While she is not proud of her first four novels, Tyler considers this fifth novel one of her favorites   It was a difficult book to write she notes, since it required rewriting draft after draft to truly develop her understanding of the characters  John Updike gave a favorable review to her next novel, Searching for Caleb, writing: "Funny and lyric and true, exquisite in its details and ambitious in its design     This writer is not merely good, she is wickedly good " Afterwards he proceeded to take an interest in her work and reviewed her next four novels as well  Morgan's Passing (1980) won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction and was nominated for both the American Book Awards and the National Book Critics Circle Award  Joyce Carol Oates gave it good review in Mademoiselle: "Fascinating     So unconventional a love story that it appears to take its protagonists themselves by surprise "

National recognition achieved
With her next novel, Tyler truly arrived as a recognized artist in the literary world  Tyler's ninth novel, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, which she considers her best work, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, PEN/Faulkner Award, and the American Book Award for Fiction in 1983   In his review in The New Yorker, John Updike wrote, "Her art needed only the darkening that would give her beautifully shaped sketches solidity     In her ninth novel, she has arrived at a new level of power " Her tenth novel, The Accidental Tourist, was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1985, the Ambassador Book Award for Fiction in 1986, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1986  It was also made into a 1988 movie starring William Hurt and Geena Davis  The critical and commercial success of the film further increased the public awareness of her work   Her 11th novel, Breathing Lessons, received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1989 and was Time magazine's "Book of the Year"   It was adapted into a 1994 TV movie, as eventually were four other of her novels Since her Pulitzer Prize with Breathing Lessons, Tyler has written 13 more novels; many have been Book of the Month Club Main Selections and have become New York Times Bestsellers  Ladder of Years was chosen by Time as one of the ten best books of 1995   A Patchwork Planet was a New York Times Notable Book (1999)   Saint Maybe (1991) and Back When We Were Grownups (2001) were adapted into TV movies in 1998 and 2004, respectively  In her 2006 novel Digging to America, she explored how an immigrant from Iran, who has lived in the U  S  for 35 years, deals with her "outsiderness," perspectives with which Tyler is familiar due to her marriage to Iranian psychiatrist Taghi Mohammad Modarressi 
In addition to her novels, Tyler has published short stories in The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post, Redbook, McCall's, and Harper's, but they have never been published as a collection   Her stories include "Average Waves in Unprotected Waters" (1977), "Holding Things Together" (1977), and "Teenage Wasteland" (1983)   Between 1983 and 1996, she edited three anthologies: The Best American Short Stories 1983, Best of the South, and Best of the South: The Best of the Second Decade 

Personal life
In 1963, Tyler married Iranian psychiatrist and novelist Taghi Mohammad Modarressi  Modarressi, 10 years her senior, had left Iran and his family as a political refugee at age 25  After a year and a half internship in Wichita, Kansas, he obtained a residency in child psychiatry at Duke University Medical School  There he met Tyler and discovered their common interest in literature  Modarressi had written two award-winning novels in Persian and so was quite an accomplished writer himself  He later wrote three more novels, two of which Tyler helped to translate to English (The Book of Absent People and The Pilgrim's Rules of Etiquette)  In the 1980s, Modarressi founded the Center for Infant Study in Baltimore and the Cold Spring Family Center Therapeutic Nursery in Pimlico, Maryland, which dealt with children who had experienced emotional trauma   Modarressi died in 1997 at the age of 65, from lymphoma 
Tyler and Modarressi had two daughters, Tezh and Mitra  Both share their mother's interest in, and talent for, painting  Tezh is a professional photographer, and an artist who works primarily in oils,  who painted the cover of her mother's novel, Ladder of Years  Mitra is a professional illustrator working primarily in watercolors  She has illustrated seven books, including two children's books co-authored with Tyler (Tumble Tower and Timothy Tugbottom Says No!) Tyler resides in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, where most of her novels are set   Today tourists can even take an "Anne Tyler tour" of the area   For some time she was noteworthy among contemporary best-selling novelists, for she rarely granted face-to-face interviews nor did book tours nor made other public appearances   In 2012 she broke with this policy and gave her first face-to-face interview in almost 40 years; subsequently, Mark Lawson interviewed her on BBC Radio in 2013 about her approach to writing  In 2015, she discussed her 20th novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, in a live radio interview with Diane Rehm and callers on The Diane Rehm Show 

Writing style, influences, and philosophy
Tyler's novels have been reviewed and analyzed by numerous fellow authors, scholars and professional critics  The summary that follows of the nature of her work relies upon selected descriptions and insights by a limited number of the many distinguished literati who have reviewed her works   Also Tyler herself has revealed much about her own writing through interviews   Although she has refused to participate in face-to-face interviews until very recently, she has participated in numerous e-mail interviews over the years   These e-mail interviews have provided material for biographies, journal articles, reader's guides, and instructional materials 

Classification of her literature
Tyler has occasionally been classified as a "Southern author" or a "modern American author "  The Southern category apparently results from the fact that she grew up and went to college in the South   Also she admired and/or studied under well-known Southern authors Eudora Welty and Reynolds Price  In a rare interview with The New York Times, Tyler cited Eudora Welty as a major literary influence: "Reading Eudora Welty when I was growing up showed me that very small things are often really larger than the large things"



ground_truth: Taoiseach of Ireland

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Are Stanley Elkin and Anne Tyler from the same country?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:   However, poet and author Katha Pollitt notes, "It is hard to classify Anne Tyler's novels   They are Southern in their sure sense of family and place but lack the taste for violence and the Gothic that often characterizes self-consciously southern literature   They are modern in their fictional techniques, yet utterly unconcerned with contemporary moment as a subject, so that, with only minor dislocations, her stories could just as well have taken place in twenties or thirties "It is also difficult to classify Tyler in terms of themes; as she herself notes, "I don't think of my work in terms of themes   I'm just trying to tell a story "  Tyler goes on to say, "Any large 'questions of life' that emerge in my novels are accidental—not a reason for writing the novel in the first place but either (1) questions that absorb my characters, quite apart from me, or (2) on occasion, questions that may be thematic to my own life at the moment, even if I'm not entirely aware of them  Answers, if they come, come from the characters' experiences, not from mine, and I often find myself viewing those answers with a sort of distant, bemused surprise "

Characters and detailed descriptions
In Tyler's works, the characters are the driving forces behind the stories and the starting point for her writing:  "I do make a point of writing down every imaginable facet of my characters before I begin a book, trying to get to know them so I can figure out how they'll react in any situation     My reason for writing now is to live lives other than my own, and I do that by burrowing deeper and deeper     till I reach the center of those lives "The magic of her novels starts with her ability to create those characters in the reader's mind through the use of remarkably realistic details   As early as 1976, Pollitt described her skill in this way: "Tyler [is] polishing brighter and brighter a craft many novelists no longer deem essential to their purpose: the unfolding of character through brilliantly imagined and absolutely accurate detail "  Twelve years later, Michiko Kakutani, in her review of Breathing Lessons, extolled "her ability to select details that reveal precisely how her characters feel and think" and her "gift for sympathy, for presenting each character's case with humor and compassion "  Kakutani later went on to note that "each character in Saint Maybe has been fully rendered, fleshed out with a palpable interior life, and each has been fit, like a hand-sawed jigsaw-puzzle piece, into the matrix of family life " Carol Shields, also writing about her characters, observes: "Tyler has always put her characters to work  Their often humble or eccentric occupations, carefully observed and threaded with humor, are tightly sewn to the other parts of their lives, offering them the mixed benefit of tedium and consolation, as well as a lighted stage for the unfolding of their dramatic selves  She also allows her men and women an opportunity for redemption "Tyler has clearly spelled out the importance of her characters to her stories:  "As far as I'm concerned, character is everything  I never did see why I have to throw in a plot, too "  In an earlier (1977) interview, she stated that "the real joy of writing is how people can surprise one  My people wander around my study until the novel is done  It's one reason I'm very careful not to write about people I don't like  If I find somebody creeping in that I'm not really fond of, I usually take him out "  Pollitt had even earlier noted how Tyler's characters seem to take on a life of their own that she doesn't seem to totally control: "Her complex, crotchety inventions surprise us, but one senses they surprise her too "

Realism through details
Just as Tyler is difficult to categorize as a novelist, it is also challenging to label her style  Novelist Cathleen Schine describes how her "style without a style" manages to pull the reader into the story: "So rigorous and artful is the style without a style, so measured and delicate is each observation, so complex is the structure and so astute and open the language, that the reader can relax, feel secure in the narrative and experience the work as something real and natural -- even inevitable "  The San Francisco Chronicle made a similar point: "One does not so much read a Tyler novel as visit it  Her ability to conduct several conversations at once while getting the food to the table turns the act of reading into a kind of transport "  Reviewer Tom Shone put it this way: "You're involved before you ever notice you were paying attention " Joyce Carol Oates, in her review of The Amateur Marriage, perhaps described the phenomenon best: "When the realistic novel works its magic, you won't simply have read about the experiences of fictitious characters, you will have seemed to have lived them; your knowledge of their lives transcends their own, for they can only live in chronological time  The experience of reading such fiction when it's carefully composed can be breathtaking, like being given the magical power of reliving passages of our own lives, indecipherable at the time of being lived "

Focus on family and marriage
While Tyler herself does not like to think of her novels in terms of themes, numerous reviewers and scholars have noted the importance of family and marriage relationships to her characters and stories  Liesl Schillinger summarized: "Taken together, the distinct but overlapping worlds of her novels have formed a Sensurround literary record of the 20th century American family—or, at least, of the proud but troubled archetypal families that     interested her most " New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani has been reviewing Tyler's novels for over 25 years  She has frequently noted Tyler's themes with regard to family and marriage  Reviewing Noah's Compass, Kakutani states that "the central concern of most of this author's characters has always been their need to define themselves in terms of family — the degree to which they see themselves as creatures shaped by genetics, childhood memories and parental and spousal expectations, and the degree to which they are driven to embrace independent identities of their own "  This is an example of where Anne Tyler got some of her characteristics from, being able to be independent and get to know herself through her writing 
Reviewing Saint Maybe, Jay Parini describes how Tyler's characters must deal with "Ms  Tyler's oddball families, which any self-respecting therapist would call 'dysfunctional'      An inexplicable centripetal force hurls these relatives upon one another, catches them in a dizzying inward spiral of obligation, affection and old-fashioned guilt—as well as an inexpressible longing for some perfect or "normal" family in a distant past that never really was   Almost every novel by Anne Tyler begins with a loss or absence that reactivates in the family some primordial sense of itself " Larry McMurtry wrote, "in book after book, siblings are drawn inexorably back home, as if their parents or (more often) grandparents had planted tiny magnets in them which can be activated once they have seen what the extrafamilial world is like      sooner or later a need to be with people who are really familiar – their brothers and sisters – overwhelms them "Novelist Julia Glass has similarly written about Tyler's characters' families: "What makes each story distinctive is the particular way its characters rebel against hereditary confines, cope with fateful crises or forge relationships with new acquaintances who rock their world "  In the same way, Glass mentions the frequent role of marriage struggles in her work: "Once again, Tyler exhibits her genius for the incisive, savory portrayal of marriage, of the countless perverse ways in which two individuals sustain a shared existence "  McMurtry puts it this way, "The fates of [Tyler's] families hinge on long struggles between semiattentive males and semiobsessed females  In her patient investigation of such struggles, Miss Tyler has produced a very satisfying body of fiction 

Passage of time and the role of small, chance events
The role of the passage of time and its impact on Tyler's characters is always present   The stories in many of her novels span decades, if only by flashbacks   Joyce Carol Oates emphasized the role of time in this manner: "[Tyler's novels] move at times as if plotless in the meandering drift of actual life, it is time itself that constitutes "plot": meaning is revealed through a doubling-back upon time in flashes of accumulated memory, those heightened moments which James Joyce aptly called epiphanies  The minutiae of family life can yield a startling significance seen from the right perspective, as Tyler shows us "  With regard to those minutiae, Tyler herself comments: "As for huge events vs  small events: I believe they all count   They all reveal character, which is the factor that most concerns me     It does fascinate me, though, that small details can be so meaningful "Kakutani described Saint Maybe in a similar manner: "Moving back and forth among the points of view of various characters, Ms  Tyler traces two decades in the lives of the Bedloes, showing us the large and small events that shape family members' lives and the almost imperceptible ways in which feelings of familial love and obligation mutate over the years "  Again in her review of Breathing Lessons, Kakutani perceives that "she is able, with her usual grace and magnanimity, to chronicle the ever-shifting covenants made by parents and children, husbands and wives, and in doing so, to depict both the losses – and redemptions – wrought by the passage of time "
Tyler herself further weighs in upon how small events can impact relationships: "I love to think about chance -- about how one little overheard word, one pebble in a shoe, can change the universe     The real heroes to me in my books are first the ones who manage to endure "

Criticism
Tyler is not without her critics   The most common criticism is that her works are "sentimental," "sweet," and "charming and cosy "  John Blades, literary critic for the Chicago Tribune, skewered The Accidental Tourist (as well as all her earlier novels) as "artificially sweet" and "unrealistic "  The Observer's Adam Mars-Jones stated, in his review of The Amateur Marriage: "Tyler seems to be offering milk and cookies "  Kakutani has also occasionally bemoaned a "cloying cuteness," noting that "her novels—with their eccentric heroes, their homespun details, their improbable, often heartwarming plots—have often flirted with cuteness "In a 2012 interview, Tyler responded to such criticisms: "For one thing I think it is sort of true  I would say piss and vinegar for [Philip] Roth and for me milk and cookies  I can't deny it     [However] there's more edge under some of my soft language than people realize "  Because almost all of Tyler's work covers the same territory—family and marriage relationships—and are located in the same setting, she has come under criticism for being repetitive and formulaic   Reviewing The Patchwork Planet, Kakutani states: "Ms  Tyler's earlier characters tended to be situated within a thick matrix of finely nuanced familial relationships that helped define both their dreams and their limitations; the people in this novel, in contrast, seem much more like lone wolves, pulled this way and that by the author's puppet strings     Ms  Tyler's famous ability to limn the daily minutiae of life also feels weary and formulaic this time around     As for the little details Ms  Tyler sprinkles over her story     they, too, have a paint-by-numbers touch  They add up to a patchwork novel that feels hokey, mechanical     and yes, too cute Tyler has also been criticized for her male characters' "Sad Sack" nature and their "lack of testosterone "  Tyler has disagreed with this criticism: "Oh that always bothers me so much   I don't think they are wimps   People are always saying we understand you write about quirky characters, and I think, isn't everybody quirky? If you look very closely at anybody you'll find impediments, women and men both "

Work habits
Over the last couple of decades, Tyler has been quite forthcoming about her work habits—both in written articles and in interviews   She is very disciplined and consistent about her work schedule and environment   She starts work in the early morning and generally works until 2 pm   Since she moved to the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore, she has used a small, orderly corner room in her house, where the only distractions are the sounds of "children playing outside and birds "  She has noted that at the beginning of her day, taking the first step—that is, entering her corner room—can be difficult and daunting   She begins her writing by reviewing her previous days' work and then by sitting and staring off into space for a time   She describes this phase of writing as an "extension of daydreaming," and it focuses on her characters Over the years Tyler has kept files of note cards in which ideas and observations have been recorded   Characters, descriptions, and scenes often emerge from these notes   She says the act of putting words to paper for her is a "very mechanical process," involving a number of steps: (1) writing first in long hand on unlined paper, (2) revising long hand versions, (3) typing the entire manuscript, (4) re-writing in long hand, (5) reading into a tape-recorder while listening for "false notes," (6) playing back into a stenographer's machine using the pause button to enter changes   She can be quite organized, going so far as to map out floor plans of houses and to outline the chronology of all the characters in a given novel In 2013, Tyler gave the following advice to beginning writers: "They should run out and buy the works of Erving Goffman, the sociologist who studied the meaning of gesture in personal interactions   I have cause to think about Erving Goffman nearly every day of my life, every time I see people do something unconscious that reveals more than they'll ever know about their interiors   Aren't human beings intriguing? I could go on writing about them forever "

Bibliography
Novels
If Morning Ever Comes (1964)
The Tin Can Tree (1965)
A Slipping-Down Life (1970)
The Clock Winder (1972)
Celestial Navigation (1974)
Searching for Caleb (1975)
Earthly Possessions (1977)
Morgan's Passing (1980)
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982)
The Accidental Tourist (1985)
Breathing Lessons (1988)
Saint Maybe (1991)
Ladder of Years (1995)
A Patchwork Planet (1998)
Back When We Were Grownups (2001)
The Amateur Marriage (2004)
Digging to America (2006)
Noah's Compass (2009)
The Beginner's Goodbye (2012)
A Spool of Blue Thread (2015)
Vinegar Girl (2016)
Clock Dance (2018)
Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020)
French Braid (2022)

Other
Tumble Tower (1993) A children's book illustrated by her daughter Mitra Modarressi
Timothy Tugbottom Says No! (2005) A children's book illustrated by Mitra Modarressi

Uncollected stories
Although Tyler's short stories have been published in The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post, Redbook, McCall's, and Harper's, they have not been published as a collection  Her stories include:

"A Street of Bugles," The Saturday Evening Post, November 30, 1963
"Dry Water," The Southern Review, Spring 1965
"I'm Not Going to Ask You Again," Harper's, September 1965
"As the Earth Gets Old," The New Yorker, October 29, 1966
"The Genuine Fur Eyelashes," Mademoiselle, January 1967
"The Tea-Machine," The Southern Review, Winter 1967
"The Feather Behind the Rock," The New Yorker, August 12, 1967
"Who Would Want a Little Boy?" Ladies Home Journal, May 1968
"The Common Courtesies," McCall's, June 1968—and The O  Henry Prize Stories 1969
"With All Flags Flying," Redbook, June 1971—and The O  Henry Prize Stories 1972
"Spending," Shenandoah, Winter 1973
"The Base-Metal Egg," The Southern Review, Summer 1973
"Neutral Ground," Family Circle, November 1974
"Half-Truths and Semi-Miracles," Cosmopolitan, December 1974
"A Knack for Languages," The New Yorker, January 13, 1975
"The Artificial Family," The Southern Review, Summer 1975
"The Geologist's Maid," The New Yorker, July 28, 1975
"Some Sign That I Ever Made You Happy," McCall's, October 1975
"Your Place Is Empty," The New Yorker, November 22, 1976—and Best American Short Stories 1977
"Holding Things Together", The New Yorker, January 24, 1977
"Average Waves in Unprotected Waters," The New Yorker, February 28, 1977
"Foot-Footing On," Mademoiselle, November 1977
"Uncle Ahmad," Quest, November–December 1977
"Teenage Wasteland," Seventeen, (1983)

Film adaptations
The Accidental Tourist (1988)
Breathing Lessons (TV) (1994)
Saint Maybe (TV) (1998)
A Slipping-Down Life (1999)
Earthly Possessions (TV) (1999)
Back When We Were Grownups (TV) (2004)

Awards
Tyler has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1983 for Morgan's Passing (1980):

Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction
nominated, American Book Award for Fiction
nominated, National Book Critics Circle Award for Fictionfor Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982):

Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Finalist, PEN/Faulkner Award
Finalist, American Book Award for Fictionfor The Accidental Tourist (1985):

1985 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
1986 Ambassador Book Award for Fiction
Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Fictionfor Breathing Lessons (1988):

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1989)
Time's "Book of the Year"for Ladder of Years (1995):

Finalist, The Orange Prize for Fiction 1996for Digging to America (2006):

Finalist, The Orange Prize for Fiction 2007for A Spool of Blue Thread (2015):

Finalist, The Man Booker Prize 2015
Finalist, The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015for Redhead By the Side of the Road (2020):

Longlist, The Man Booker Prize 2020for Lifetime achievement:

Finalist, The Man Booker International Prize 2011
The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence 2012
Passage 6:
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is a 1982 novel by Anne Tyler, set in Baltimore, Maryland  It is Tyler's ninth novel  In 1983 it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award  Tyler considers it her best work 
The book follows the lives of three siblings: Cody, Ezra, and Jenny, and explores their experiences and recollections of growing up with their mother, Pearl, after the family is deserted by their father, Beck  The novel ends with Pearl's funeral, and a surprise occurrence 
The novel examines how siblings may share the same events yet experience them differently; e g  Cody remembers his childhood as a harsh time  He blames himself for his father abandoning him and considers himself left to the mercy of an angry mother who favors Ezra  Meanwhile, Ezra remembers his childhood fondly and creates a nostalgic family-themed restaurant 

Plot
Pearl Tull is a rigid perfectionist  She has three children with her husband, traveling salesman Beck, who abandons the family  After Beck leaves, Pearl struggles to maintain a front as if nothing is wrong at all  Cody, the oldest, is wild and adventurous, but is envious of his brother Ezra, who he believes is Pearl's favorite  As they grow up, this plays out in endless pranks  Ezra is passive, and never tries to get back at Cody  He is nurturing and sweet, traits that often interest Cody's girlfriends, furthering Cody's resentment  Ezra goes to work at a restaurant, which he later manages and ultimately inherits, while Cody becomes a wealthy and successful efficiency expert  When Ezra becomes engaged to Ruth, his star cook, Cody becomes obsessed with luring her away, and ultimately succeeds, but his marriage to Ruth is not easy  Ezra never recovers, and remains at home with Pearl; he is a caregiver, both for Pearl and his customers, but this is underlain by sadness 
Jenny is the third child and the most scholarly of the Tulls, but in college, she marries on an impulse with unhappy results  Only in her third marriage to a man with six children whose wife has abandoned him does she find stability in family life and in her successful, if harried, career as a pediatrician 
A recurring scene in the novel involves Ezra's unsuccessful attempts to bring the family together for a meal at his "Homesick Restaurant", reflecting his desire to unite and mend the family  At Pearl's funeral, Beck returns to the family for the first time  However, they  never seem to be able to get through a single dinner without conflict, this time with Cody facing down his father, causing Beck to leave in the middle of the dinner  Ultimately, the entire family searches the town to find Beck, eventually bringing him back to the restaurant to finish their meal together 

Reviews
Benjamin DeMott, wrote in his 1982 New York Times book review:  "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is a book to be settled into fully    Funny, heart-hammering, wise, it edges deep into truth that's simultaneously (and interdependently) psychological, moral and formal - deeper than many living novelists of serious reputation have penetrated, deeper than Miss Tyler herself has gone before  It is a border crossing    
"On its face Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is a book about the costs of parental truancy  None of the three Tull children manages to cut loose from the family past; each is, to a degree, stunted; each turns for help to Pearl Tull in an hour of desperate adult need; and Pearl's conviction that something's wrong with each of them never recedes from the reader's consciousness  But no small measure of the book's subtlety derives from its exceptional - and exceptionally wise, the word bears repeating - clarity about the uselessness of cost accounting in human areas such as these    The behavior and feelings of all three are linked somehow with the terrible, never-explained rupture: their father's disappearance    But it's also the case that what is best in each of these people, as in their mother, has its roots in the experience of deprivation that they jointly despise   We arrive at an understanding that the important lessons taught by adversity never quite make themselves known to the consciousness of the learners - remain hidden, inexpressible 
"What one wants to do on finishing such a work as Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is maintain balance, keep things intact for a stretch, stay under the spell as long as feasible    We're speaking, obviously, about an extremely beautiful book "John Updike, in his 1982 review in The New Yorker, wrote, “[Anne Tyler's] art needed only the darkening that would give her beautifully shaped sketches solidity    In her ninth novel, she has arrived at a new level of power ”Margaret Manning of The Boston Globe thought that Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is "a book that should join those few that every literate person should read    You surface from this marvelous novel as if from the bends, lungs nearly bursting, tears rattling on the page "
Passage 7:
Steven Zwicker
Steven Nathan Zwicker (born June 4, 1943) is an American literary scholar and the Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St  Louis 

Biography
Zwicker is an expert on Restoration-era English literature and politics and is the author of Dryden's Political Poetry: The Typology of King and Nation (1972), Politics and Language in Dryden's Poetry: The Arts of Disguise (1984), and Lines of Authority: Politics and English Literary Culture, 1649-1689 (1993)  He has edited six volumes and published more than two dozen essays in journals and volumes in the United States and abroad 
Zwicker was born in San Diego, California  He received his BA from the University of California, Los Angeles (1965) and his MA (1966) and PhD (1969) from Brown University  He was a Woodrow Wilson Scholar at Brown University when he earned his PhD  He has been a member of the Washington University faculty since 1969 

Bibliography
Works
Dryden's Political Poetry: The Typology of King and Nation  Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 1972 
Politics and Language in Dryden's Poetry: The Arts of Disguise  Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984 
Lines of Authority: Politics and English Literary Culture, 1649-1689  Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993 

As editor or contributor
Politics of Discourse: The Literature and History of Seventeenth-Century England  Edited by Kevin Sharpe and Steven N  Zwicker  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987 
The Cambridge Companion to English Literature, 1650-1740  Edited by Steven N  Zwicker  Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998 
Refiguring Revolutions: Aesthetics and Politics from the English Revolution to the Romantic Revolution  Edited by Kevin Sharpe and Steven N  Zwicker  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998 
John Dryden: A Tercentenary Miscellany  Edited by Susan Green and Steven N  Zwicker  San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 2001 
Reading, Society, and Politics in Early Modern England  Edited by Kevin Sharpe and Steven N  Zwicker  Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003 
The Cambridge Companion to John Dryden  Edited by Steven N  Zwicker  Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004 
Passage 8:
Gwyn Avenue–Bridge Street Historic District
Gwyn Avenue–Bridge Street Historic District is a national historic district located at Elkin, Surry County, North Carolina  The district encompasses 124 contributing buildings and 1 contributing site in a predominantly residential section of Elkin   They were primarily built between about 1891 and 1955 and include notable examples of Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Bungalow / American Craftsman architecture  Notable buildings include the Elkin Presbyterian Church (1937, 1944, 1950, 1955, 1961), First Baptist Church (1955, 1968), Alexander Martin Smith House (1893–1897) designed by George Franklin Barber, the Gwyn-Chatham-Gwyn House (c  1872, 1911, 1936), Richard Gwyn Smith House (c  1918), and Mason Lillard House (c  1910) It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 
Passage 9:
Mrs  Ted Bliss
Mrs  Ted Bliss is a 1995 novel by American author Stanley Elkin, published by Hyperion Books  It concerns the last eventful years in the life of an old widow  Elkin won the 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award in the fiction category for this work 

Plot
Mrs  Dorothy Bliss is an old woman in her early 80s living alone in a retirement community near Miami Beach, Florida, after her husband's death due to cancer  She was born in Russia and is Jewish  Her mother bribed an immigration officer and added three years to her age on legal documents in order that she could start working in Manhattan's Lower East Side after their immigration  Her husband, Ted Bliss, had a butcher shop in Chicago and together they had three kids  Her oldest son dies of cancer at a young age and after her husband's retirement, the couple moved to Florida  She is obsessed with cleaning and also keeps records of the gifts given to her grandchildren in order to keep track and stay impartial with everyone The single life of Mrs  Bliss is now filled with expectations of finding a romance or a partner but eventually she is disappointed and heartbroken  She gets involved with Alcibiades Chitral, a drug lord who operates in her neighborhood, and starts using her and her husband's car as a front for his activities  The story keeps introducing various new men in her life, such as Hector Camerando, a jai alai pro who helps Mrs  Bliss with some tips on dogs, and Tommy Auveristas, an imposter  Junior Yellin, a once upon a time lover with whom Mrs  Bliss had had a passionate encounter in her husband's butcher shop, also makes a re-entry into her life  She eventually dies when Hurricane Andrew hits Miami and brings massive destruction 

Publication
Following Elkin's death on 31 May 1995 at age 65, the novel was released posthumously on 7 September 1995  Elkin had published ten novels, five short-story collections, and various novellas and non-fiction articles in various magazines and papers during the course of his writing career, which began in the 1950s 

Review and reception
Kirkus Reviews writes that Elkin makes readers believe that the novel has a plot when drug dealers are introduced in it  However, "there isn't so much a plot as an accumulation of detail about Mrs  Bliss"  Elkin's "long poetic sentences about seemingly mundane minutiae" later bring substance to the character of Mrs  Bliss  Walter Goodman, a television critic for The New York Times, mentions in his review that "[the book] may not be Stanley Elkin's best, but it is a smart, generous, melancholy, funny, even elegiac work by a prodigious practitioner"  Publishers Weekly writes that "Elkin is at his best here, blessed with the gift of one-liner insight and a definite, if reluctantly exercised, ability to tug on a reader's heartstrings" 

Awards
Elkin won the 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award in the fiction category for the novel  The book was nominated along with Independence Day (by Richard Ford),  Galatea 2 2 (by Richard Powers), Moo (by Jane Smiley), and The Tent of Orange Mist (by Paul West)  Elkin had earlier won in the same category for his 1982 novel George Mills 
Passage 10:
George Mills (novel)
George Mills is a 1982 novel by American author Stanley Elkin, published by E  P  Dutton  The novel, set in five parts, tells the family history of succeeding generations of characters named George Mills  The story covers more than 1,000 years from the First Crusade in Europe to the Ottoman Empire to present-day America  Elkin won the 1982 National Book Critics Circle Award in the fiction category for the novel  Elkin mentioned George Mills as one of his favorite novels  The novel is considered Elkin's "longest and most complexly organized work" : 189

Plot
The first George Mills sets out on a journey with his lord on the First Crusade  But he eventually gets lost in the Netherlands and reaches a salt mine in Poland  His lord at the mines is Guillalume, who teaches him some life lessons  Mills becomes aware of what is written in his fate and this helps him understand the walks of life in this world in a better manner  Despite having the knowledge of what would happen in the future, his timidity and powerlessness does not bring out any situation-changing effects  
The novel covers the history of succeeding family members named George Mills and all of them are aware of their fates and equally feeble and ineffective in changing their circumstances  The 43rd Mills encounters King George IV and is assigned on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople, where he first joins the Janissaries but later ends up in the Ottoman Sultan's harem doing household chores  He escapes from there and reaches America  The present-day Mills in America is a caretaker of an old woman named Judith Glazer in St  Louis, who is in the final stages of terminal cancer  Mills accompanies Glazer to Mexico and upon her death participates in her funeral together with her family 

Publication
Elkin worked for over seven years writing George Mills and by the end of its completion, he felt exhausted and insisted this would be his last fictional work  But after watching a British news report of how terminally ill children had a memorable experience at Disneyland, he wrote his next novel, The Magic Kingdom (1985), and dedicated it to his son who had died young from a medical ailment after lengthy treatments George Mills was published on 25 October 1982  In 1989, Elkin mentioned that several sections of George Mills had been adapted from the 1936 novel Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner  He also mentioned that in writing the novel, he came to realise "that I was a novelist, that anything I say is a part of this novel is a part of this novel" : 194

Review and reception
Kirkus Reviews called the novel "a leaky collection of parts rather than one whole strong book" but said it was required reading for connoisseurs of comic fiction  The New York Times reviewer Leslie Epstein complimented "the novel's fine writing, flashes of humor and memorable heroine", but felt that the plot was "out of control"  Brad Owens of The Christian Science Monitor praised the novel for its "energetic entertainment" and said that it "sometimes overpowers its more serious intentions" 

Awards
Elkin won the 1982 National Book Critics Circle Award in the fiction category for the novel   The novel was nominated along with Levitation: Five Fictions (by Cynthia Ozick), Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (by Anne Tyler),  The Color Purple (by Alice Walker), and Shiloh and Other Stories (by Bobbie Ann Mason)  Elkin also won the award in 1995 for his novel Mrs  Ted Bliss 



ground_truth: yes