SENIOR POLITICIANS past and present have paid tribute to Dr Garret FitzGerald.
Former taoiseach and Fine Gael leader John Bruton said Dr FitzGerald’s “vivid intellectual engagement” combined with practical political involvement was unequalled.
“There’s no one really like him. He was a thinker in politics, a man of reflection followed by action, someone who was enthusiastic and optimistic right to the end.”
Mr Bruton said Dr FitzGerald used his lucidity as a statistician to analyse the country’s problems in depth. With regard to the conflict in Northern Ireland “he looked at the problem as one of people and allegiances rather than a zero-sum game about territory.”
Mr Bruton said the former taoiseach greatly broadened the support base of Fine Gael, especially in urban areas.
Former taoiseach Brian Cowen said Dr FitzGerald was “a much loved and respected figure” who was “rightly held in high regard and affection by all who knew him”.
“Garret FitzGerald was a person who never sat on the sidelines and he was always willing to take the risks and sacrifice that go with an active life in politics and decision-making in public affairs,” Mr Cowen said.
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern said Dr FitzGerald “was never partisan or tribal. He truly did put people before politics. Fine Gael were his party, but he recognised that no group or individual had a monopoly of wisdom.”
He said he wanted to acknowledge Dr FitzGerald’s support on the Northern Ireland issue.
“He was generous in his advice and vocal in his encouragement of my efforts to secure what became the Good Friday agreement and then to get it implemented.”
They also campaigned together for the Nice Treaty: “I remember Garret accepting an invitation to address a Fianna Fáil press conference and getting a very warm reception.”
Former Fine Gael taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, who appointed Dr FitzGerald as minister for foreign affairs, said his important work in Europe was “reflected in benefits to the Irish economy”.
“After he retired from politics he wrote and talked about current and past events with an idiosyncratic fluency which he enjoyed to his satisfaction.
“He showed exemplary care and kindness to his wife, Joan, by his continuing solicitude over a long period while she was in indifferent health.
“Vera joins me in offering our sympathy to his family and relatives,” Mr Cosgrave said in a statement.
Former President Mary Robinson said Dr FitzGerald “was a moral as well as a political leader of great integrity. A deeply spiritual man he lived his values and gave of his time and boundless energies in high political office.
“Garret had a great capacity for love and friendship, of his wife Joan and his large immediate family but also of a wide circle of friends, including children who delighted in his company.”
Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn said he had known and admired his “friend and constituency colleague” since 1966 and paid tribute to Dr FitzGerald’s “tremendous warmth and generosity”.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the former taoiseach had “made an enormous contribution to Irish politics and to our wider society”.
“He has served the Irish people with great intelligence, decency and commitment in a lifetime devoted to public service,” Mr Martin said.
Dr FitzGerald was also “an implacable opponent of those who espoused violence.
“Though my party did not necessarily agree with Garret on every political issue, I greatly admired his integrity, his abilities and his unfailing politeness and courtesy.”
Tánaiste and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said Dr FitzGerald’s career was “quite simply a shining model of citizenship”.
“His enormous sense of duty, of service to the Republic, compelled him to turn analysis into action,” Mr Gilmore said. “A great citizen of our Republic is lost to us.”
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams extended “sympathy and condolences to the family and friends of Dr Garret FitzGerald at this time”.
Former Fine Gael education minister Gemma Hussey said: “His outstanding feature was that he brought an incredible level of integrity to politics.
“When he won the November 1982 general election, I believe he saved the country in a very murky moment of its history.”
Green Party leader John Gormley said Dr FitzGerald was “a true republican and a proud European”.
Senator David Norris said Dr FitzGerald was “a man of the highest principle and integrity who also valued diversity and openness in Irish life”.