Death of journalist and former ombudsman

IRELAND'S FIRST ombudsman and former Irish Presspolitical correspondent Michael Mills has died after a short illness in Tallaght hospital. He was 80.

Mr Mills became ombudsman in 1984 having been appointed by the Fine Gael-Labour government.

Prior to that, he had been political correspondent of the Irish Press newspaper through some of the most tumultuous years in Irish politics. He was held in high regard by all parties and at the launch of his memoirs, Hurler on the Ditch, in 2005 broadcaster and academic Brian Farrell described Mr Mills as a man of "great skill and courage, integrity and capacity, coolness and justice".

Mr Mills grew up in Co Laois. After a period of training to be a priest, he joined the staff of the People newspaper group in Wexford as a junior reporter.

After a number of swift promotions he moved to the Press where he was appointed drama critic and later political correspondent in 1964. As political correspondent he won a reputation for fairness and he enjoyed a high profile through his involvement in the RTÉ television current affairs programme The Hurler On the Ditch.

In 1979, he was responsible for a story about the government approving secret concessions to allow British overflights in pursuit of terrorists into Irish territory. The story was seen as hastening the departure of then taoiseach Jack Lynch.

In January 1983, the Irish Press prematurely printed the political obituary of Charles Haughey during one of the heaves when it was seen as inevitable that he would be toppled. The obituary was written by Mr Mills. He maintained that it was published without his consultation.

Like many other commentators at the time, Mr Mills had ambivalent feelings about Haughey describing him as the "most talented politician of his generation" but he gradually grew to mistrust and fear him. In his autobiography, he wrote: "I could never rid myself of the belief that there was a basic flaw in his character. As he went further up the ladder of success, his undesirable traits became all the more obvious, until I became convinced that he was a considerable threat to the democratic process."

Even after leaving journalism, Haughey paid a prominent part in Mr Mills's career. Swinging cuts were made in the ombudsman's budget after Haughey returned to power in 1987 and Mills lost half his staff. The cutbacks were part of an overall reduction in government expenditure because of the state of the public finances.

Mr Mills survived an attempt by Haughey to remove him from the office in 1989. He eventually retired in 1994 having reached the age of 67.

Mr Mills is survived by his wife Bríd and his eight children. He and Bríd were married 50 years last week. Funeral arrangements will be made later today.