Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus to retire from local politics after 25 years

One of Dublin's most colourful councillors, Alderman Sean D. Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus, is to retire after 25 years.

The enthusiastic environmental campaigner will attend his last council meeting on Monday.

First elected as a local representative in 1974 and as a TD in 1981 he contributed to the end of his Dail career when he voted against John Bruton's 1982 Budget.

He was born in 1927 and was a lecturer in law for 26 years. He qualified as a barrister in 1958, and subsequently lectured in the US, before coming home permanently and entering politics in 1961. Alderman Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus spent much of his political career fighting against an oil refinery in Dublin Bay. He also argued that Ireland should claim the oil reserves off Rockall. In successive election campaigns, he portrayed himself as an independent campaigner for the rights of the ordinary citizen.

A committed Christian, he said during his time as a TD that his reason for being a politician was "to apply morality and ethics as it is in the social encyclicals of the Pope".

Alderman Loftus says his last act as a local representative will be to table a section 4 motion on the causeway at Bull Island.