Haughey, who turned 80 last year, has been tidying up his files at Abbeville and recently came across a letter he received in May 1971 from a 12-year-old schoolboy from Donnycarney in his then Dublin North Central constituency.

"Dear sir, " the boy wrote. "My friend and I are very interested in Irish politics and have started scrapbooks dealing mostly with politics.

Therefore, I would be extremely grateful if you would send me your autographed photograph."

The letter writer was Derek McDowell who, 21 years after contacting Haughey, was elected a Labour Party TD in Dublin North Central.

McDowell's friend and fellow scrapbook-keeper was Alex White, who in 2004 was elected a local councillor and who may be added to the Labour ticket in Dublin South at the next general election.

The handwritten letter came to light last month when Sean Haughey wrote to McDowell enclosing the 1971 letter his father had kept for all these years. "I got a real kick when Sean passed the letter back to me. We all enjoy getting mementoes of our past, " McDowell said this weekend. "When I topped the poll in 1992, the general election in which Charlie Haughey stood down, he said 'from one Donnycarney man to another.' I'm just glad that he didn't come across the letter in 1989, because I stood against him in that year's general election."

In May 1971, McDowell and White were in sixth class at the CBS national school in Marino, the same school Haughey attended as a young boy. "I remember we cast our net fairly wide, writing to loads of politicians in Ireland and abroad, " White recalled this weekend.

US president Richard Nixon was . . . like Haughey . . . impressed enough to respond to the schoolboy pals. "I can still clearly recall a very large limo driving up in front of my parents' house and this man getting out with an envelope marked 'special delivery' which contained a signed photograph of Richard Nixon, " White said.

In May 1971, Haughey . . . who was in disgrace with his career apparently in ruin over the Arms Crisis . . . was about to embark on the 'chicken and chips' circuit which would eventually see him elected taoiseach in late 1979. Despite a trawl of the family attic, McDowell, who is now a senator, has been less successful in locating the reply from Haughey, who did indeed send on a signed photograph.