Former taoisigh: Three former Fine Gael taoisigh offered sympathy yesterday to Charles Haughey's family. Dr Garret FitzGerald said he had known Mr Haughey since they were students together at UCD more than 60 years ago.
"He was a man of great administrative ability and formidable political skills. As I often made clear in the past, despite our public political differences, which I do not wish to dwell on at this time, our relationship was always marked by courtesy and absence of personal antagonism."
Dr FitzGerald, who was taoiseach from June 1981 to February 1982, and again from November 1982 to February 1987, said he had been glad to have the opportunity to meet Mr Haughey last October when he visited him at Abbeville.
"He faced his long and debilitating illness with great courage. I offer my sympathies to his wife Maureen and to his four children."
John Bruton, who was taoiseach from 1994 to 1997 and is now EU representative in Washington, also expressed his sympathy to the Haughey family. "A politician of erudition and imagination, he projected his ideas very effectively," Mr Bruton said. "He also, to my knowledge, showed great personal kindness to many individuals."
Liam Cosgrave, taoiseach from 1973 to 1977, said he and his wife Vera offered sympathy to Mr Haughey's family.
"De mortuis nil nisi bonum [ Let nothing be said of the dead but what is good]," he said. "Beannacht Dé lena anam."
Former Fianna Fáil taoiseach Albert Reynolds was undergoing routine medical tests yesterday and was not in a position to give a detailed tribute at the moment, his wife, Kathleen Reynolds, said last night.
"On behalf of myself and Albert I would like to express our deepest sympathies to Mrs Haughey and her children, Éimear, Ciarán, Conor and Seán, and we hope to attend Mr Haughey's funeral service, where we can pay our respects personally," Mrs Reynolds said.