It is a grim irony that Liam de Paor's funeral took place on the morning of the Omagh massacre. At his funeral Mass on Saturday, celebrated with the liturgy of the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, tributes were paid to his humanity as well as to his scholarship. The poet Thomas Kinsella described him as a custodian of humane values.
De Paor's generosity of spirit made him ready to commit himself in defence of justice and tolerance. He was present in Derry in October 1968 when the batoning of Civil Rights campaigners deflected the course of Irish history. Proinsias Mac Aonghusa recalled yesterday they were accompanied by the late Prof David Greene.
Mac Aonghusa said de Paor was "one of the best-informed academics and writers of his generation". His book, Divided Ulster, first published in 1970 and distributed world-wide by Pelican, was immensely influential. It provided a key statement on Ireland when sloganising was the norm.
He defined the Northern Ireland problem as a colonial one: "The process begun by Protestant Ulster in 1911, the process of disregard for established institutions and resort to force, is still working itself out, and must continue inevitably to work itself out in violence and turmoil until the way is opened to negotiation.
"This will involve a recognition on the one hand that the Dublin government has a legitimate interest in Northern Ireland, and on the other hand that the 900,000 or so of Ulster's population who reject Dublin rule are entitled to a special political provision. These are the two parties to solve the problem. A British solution, imposed by British guns, has failed, is failing and will continue to fail."
Lecturer, broadcaster and writer, de Paor shared his knowledge of archaeology and history with a wide audience. Born in Dublin 1926, he wrote Early Christian Ireland with his first wife, the late Maire MacDermott.
The Roots column which he contributed to The Irish Times for the greater part of the 1970s formed the basis of his book, Portrait of Ireland: Ireland - Past and Present (1985). This was followed by The Peoples of Ireland from Prehistory to Modern Times (1986).
Saint Patrick's World, perhaps his most attractive book, appeared in 1993 with line drawings by the author. This Patrician florilegium, quarried from the earliest records of Irish civilisation, was freshly translated and lovingly annotated. It contains the main evidence for the transformation of a pagan tribal society into a Christian kingdom which soon entered its Golden Age.
According to de Paor, the crowds which march down Fifth Avenue annually - "and down a thousands other avenues around the world" - may not know much about St Patrick, but in honouring his memory they uphold a venerable tradition. From the 7th century he was regarded as pre-eminent among Irish saints.
De Paor dismissed the year 432 for Patrick starting his Irish mission as a pious fiction. He estimated Patrick was born on the northern frontier of Roman Britain about 415 and died in 493.
Michael Adams of Four Courts Press, who will also publish de Paor's Dictionary of Irish Saints, spoke of him as a perfectionist.
In his essay on the 1916 Proclamation, de Paor concluded: "There are, in the final analysis, only two political parties in the Western world: those who take sides with the weak and the poor, and those who take sides with the rich and the powerful."
In the tradition of John O'Leary, Liam de Paor, MA, MRIA, enriched the national imagination. He agreed with O'Leary: "There are some things a man must not do, even for his country."