Jimmy Deenihan TD Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht expressed
his deep sadness at the passing of his former Taoiseach and leader of Fine
Gael Dr. Garret Fitzgerald.
Speaking in Kerry this morning Minister Deenihan said: “It is with great
regret that I learned early this morning of the death of Garret. While we
had heard of his sickness over the last few weeks it still came as a shock
to hear of his death. I have many personal memories of Garret down through
the years. More recently on celebrating my own 25 years in politics Garret
having promised to officiate in Listowel, kept that personal promise by
travelling from Turkmenistan in Central Asia, a journey that took over 24
hours to complete. It was this deep rooted sense of loyalty that was at the
core of Garret.
While Garret was very much a public figure in Irish life he never lost
sight of the importance of family, his relationship with his late wife Joan
was often a topic of favourable public comment and his love for his
children and later his grand children all combined to make this unique
intellectual giant an iconic figure in recent Irish history. Indeed,
coming as he did from a marriage of a northern Protestant mother and a
southern Catholic father provided the impetus to merge these two very
different traditions. The highlight of his political career was the
signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 which gave the Irish
government a role in Northern Ireland.
I want to offer my sympathy to his three children, grand children and great
grandchildren.
Ní bheith a leithid arís ann.