Hong Kong’s record-breaking Olympic swimmer Siobhan Haughey making waves in Ireland as they discover she is related to former prime minister

Charles James ‘Charlie’ Haughey is a huge figure in modern Irish history. He was taoiseach (prime minister) three times from 1979 to 1992 and leader of Fianna Fail, one of the country’s main political parties, for that period.

I was born in 1979 and grew up in Ireland; his voice, image and something of his reputation were well known to me even as a child.

He was married to the daughter of the previous taoiseach and his father fought during the Irish War of Independence. And he earned a magnificent reputation for being able to shrug off all manner of scandal, earning the nickname ‘the great houdini’.

So when Irish Olympics fans tuned in to Rio de Janeiro to see a young woman called Siobhan Bernadette Haughey representing Hong Kong of all places, their thoughts turned to the former leader, with off-colour gags like “Charlie must have been on tour over there back in the day” doing the rounds on social media.

Actually it turns out the internet japesters weren’t too far off – apparently Haughey is related.

Dublin TD (member of parliament) Sean Haughey was cheering Siobhan on as she raced in the 200 metres freestyle heats and semi-final.