FORMER TAOISEACH Dr Garret FitzGerald “left Ireland a better place than he found it”, said UCD historian Prof Ronan Fanning last night, writes Genevieve Carbery.
He was speaking at the National University of Ireland’s inaugural memorial lecture to honour FitzGerald.
Historians would see the age of FitzGerald as one of “political integrity” in contrast to the age of tribunals, the Celtic Tiger and the Haughey era, he said.
His nickname Garret the Good, first used by sneering opponents, became a badge of honour by the time of his death and “100 years from now may stand as his accolade”.
His claim to fame would be that “unlike so many leading politicians he never resisted change but embraced it”, said Prof Fanning.
Dr FitzGerald largely began the Irish social revolution in attitude and policy, Prof Fanning said.
He was possessed of an “unblinking ferocity” disguised beneath “genial amiability”.
He was never passionate about politics as a vocation but was passionate about “changing Irish society”.
The Anglo-Irish Agreement was his “greatest achievement” and there was a poignancy to his death during Queen Elizabeth’s visit, to which his life’s work comprised such a major contribution.