John Wilson,who has died aged 84, was a former tánaiste and government minister who regularly topped the poll during almost 20 years as TD for Cavan-Monaghan. A classics scholar, teacher and accomplished public speaker, with a knowledge of several languages, including Irish, Greek, Latin, Spanish and French, he was tipped at one time to be a future president or a candidate in any election for that office.
In 1983, when it was unclear if Dr Patrick Hillery would serve a second term, he was favoured by many as the Fianna Fáil nominee.
However, in 1990, when he sought his party's nomination in that year's presidential election, he lost out to Brian Lenihan. If he had been picked, he said after Lenihan's unsuccessful bid for the presidency, he would have won the election. "I'm absolutely positive of that." In the fall-out from the election campaign he was appointed tánaiste to succeed Lenihan who was dismissed over the "phone calls to the Park" affair.
Civil servants found him easy to work with, but he was not methodical, one senior official said. "There was no plan and since he was not a bureaucrat, it was difficult to see him organised." Pinning him down was like trying to "harness the whirlwind".
Michael McDowell, a former pupil and later minister for justice, said in 1990: "He never made as much of himself as he might have done; maybe it was due to the fact that he was concerned never to make a mistake."
Wilson first made his name as a Gaelic footballer with Cavan, winning five Ulster championships, two all-Irelands and a national league medal. He played in the famous championship final against Kerry held at the Polo Grounds in New York in 1947, the only time the title was decided outside Ireland, and was among the survivors from both teams who returned to the Big Apple in 1997 to celebrate the match's 50th anniversary.
A former team-mate, Mick Higgins, recalled him as being "tenacious"; he would "stick with the game to the end". His efforts on the pitch, according to Higgins, "made him a little god" among his own community. It was a record that stood to him when he embarked on a political career.
The Troubles prompted him to enter politics. "Quite bluntly, the political division of the country doesn't make sense," he said in 1991. "I was reared in that tradition and it makes me laugh if I drop into Belcoo [in Co Fermanagh] from Blacklion [a short distance away in Co Cavan] to hear people say I'm in a foreign country."
The dismantling of barriers in the European Community made the Border even more ridiculous, in his view, and he saw its disappearance as inevitable.
Born in 1923 at Kilcogy, Co Cavan, he was the son of John Wilson and his wife, Brigid (née Comaskey). He attended Cloncovid national school and received his secondary education at St Mel's College, Longford. A seminarian at Maynooth for four years, he decided that the priesthood was not for him.
He later studied at University College Galway and at the University of London, where he secured a post-graduate classics degree.
He became a secondary school teacher and taught in Finchley, London, at St Eunan's College in Letterkenny and in Dublin at Gonzaga. In 1959 he became president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland. Dr Hillery was then minister for education and Wilson found himself confronting the department over the payment of exam superintendents.
Colleagues in the ASTI remembered him as a "good trade unionist". Later he lectured at University College Dublin and at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra.
He joined Fianna Fáil in the early 1970s and was elected to the Committee of 15. Setting his sights on a Dáil seat, he returned to Cavan and was elected in 1973.
Now a full-time public representative, he served as the opposition spokesman on the arts and education.
In 1977, when Fianna Fáil was returned to power, he became minister for education. He was widely perceived as a man of vision who knew the system inside out and who was ready to implement ideas. Great things were expected of him.
He got off to a good start, ushering in a peaceful era after the stormy tenure of his predecessor, Dick Burke, a man constantly confronted by protest. But, his critics argued, while he kept the money flowing into primary and post-primary education, removed much student grievance and pleased the teacher unions, he defused problems rather than solved them.
Wilson disputed this assessment and pointed to the many improvements, reforms and other measures he had introduced.
In response to the accusation that schools in his constituency benefited disproportionately from departmental spending, he said: "If you don't look after your constituency, your constituency won't look after you."
In 1981 he took over the posts and telegraphs portfolio and in 1982 became opposition spokesman on communications. Straying from his brief in 1984, he caused a Dáil row when he complained of "sectarian advice from outside the Civil Service being brought into the Department of Education".
The then minister for education, Gemma Hussey, condemned an "odious slur" on her principal adviser. The implication of Wilson's remark, she said, was that an adviser who belonged to a minority religion (in this instance, a Methodist) must necessarily provide sectarian advice. The then Fianna Fáil leader, Charles Haughey, denied that there was any sectarian implication.
He was appointed minister for tourism and transport in 1987 and two years later took over at the department of the marine.
He immediately set about finding a solution to the rod licence dispute that had dragged on for two years. Credited with demonstrating exceptional negotiating skills in his dealings with the anti-rod licence campaigners, he put forward proposals that formed the basis of a settlement.
There was some public disquiet about concessions made in response to a campaign that was far from peaceful, and he subsequently admitted that some aspects of the protest appalled him. "There's a dark side to our character," he said. "There was some terrible viciousness involved."
In the run-up to the review of the EC's Common Fisheries Policy in 1992, he dismissed suggestions that Ireland was at a disadvantage because of a lack of voting power. "They say it's not the size of the dog in the fight that's important but the size of the fight in the dog."
In 1992 he led the Irish delegation in talks with the British government on the future of Northern Ireland and in 1998 he was appointed chairman of the Victims Commission.
Listing his influences for an Irish Times survey in 1987, he mentioned his grandfather, who was a Fenian, his father, who was a great de Valera supporter ("more de Valera than Fianna Fáil even"), Éamon de Valera himself, Terence MacSwiney and Cathal Brugha. Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch also impressed him, he said in an interview a few years later, and he stated his belief that history would be kind to Charles Haughey.
He had a lifelong interest in the theatre and was a former chairman of and actor with the Letterkenny Players. He was a founder member and chairman of the National Committee of the European Association of Teachers, and in 2001 an honorary degree was conferred on him by the senate of the National University of Ireland.
He is survived by his wife, Ita (née Ward), daughters Siobhán, Clare, Lucy and Maria, and son John.
John Wilson: born July 8th, 1923; died July 9th, 2007