THE STATE funeral of Dr Garret FitzGerald will be held this weekend.
The former taoiseach will lie in repose in the Mansion House tomorrow, where the public will be able to file past the coffin and sign a Book of Condolence.
The funeral Mass will take place on Sunday afternoon at the Sacred Heart Church, Donnybrook followed by burial in Shanganagh Cemetry.
Dr FitzGerald died yesterday, aged 85, after 5am in the Mater hospital, Dublin, following a short illness.
Tributes were led by President Mary McAleese, who said Dr FitzGerald “lived his life with total integrity, unrelenting purpose and an unquenchable concern for the welfare of Ireland and its citizens”.
She described Dr FitzGerald as “the Renaissance man of our time. His thoughtful writing, distinctive voice and probing intellect all combined to make him one of our national treasures. Above all, Garret FitzGerald was a true public servant. Steeped in the history of the State, he constantly strove to make Ireland a better place for all its people.”
Queen Elizabeth sent a message of condolence to President McAleese.
In a statement issued from Farmleigh on the third day of her State visit to Ireland, she said she was saddened to hear of Dr FitzGerald’s death. “A true statesman, he made a lasting contribution to peace and will be greatly missed,” the Queen said.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny described Dr FitzGerald as “a truly remarkable man who made a truly remarkable contribution to Ireland”. The former Fine Gael leader had a “towering intellect and enthusiasm for life”.
Speaking in Dublin, the British prime minister David Cameron said Dr FitzGerald struck him as someone “who was a statesman as well as a politician, someone who was in politics for all the right reasons, and someone who made a huge contribution to the peace process in bringing reconciliation for all that had happened in the past.”
Predeceased by his wife, Joan, Dr FitzGerald is survived by his sons, John and Mark, and his daughter, Mary. His family said he was a “much loved and adored father, grandfather and great-grandfather”.
One of the dominant figures in Irish politics for more than two decades, he served two terms as taoiseach. He will be remembered for his “constitutional crusade” to modernise Irish society and also for the Anglo Irish Agreement of 1985. It marked the first step in the process that led to the establishment of a powersharing arrangement in Northern Ireland.
Dr FitzGerald was the son of Desmond FitzGerald, a prominent figure in the independence movement who was minister for external affairs at the time of Garret FitzGerald’s birth in February 1926.
An economics lecturer in UCD, Dr FitzGerald was elected to the Seanad in 1965 and to the Dáil in 1969. He was actively involved in the liberal wing of the party which supported the Just Society programme of Declan Costello.
When Fine Gael and Labour formed a coalition government after the 1973 general election, taoiseach Liam Cosgrave appointed him minister for foreign affairs.
Dr FitzGerald’s appointment coincided with Ireland’s entry to the European Union, then known as the EEC. His commitment to the European cause as well as his energy and fluency in French meant he built up a positive reputation, which helped to propel him to the leadership of Fine Gael when Mr Cosgrave resigned in the aftermath of the 1977 election defeat.
He modernised and revitalised Fine Gael and brought the party to power after the June 1981 general election. He took office in a minority Fine Gael-Labour coalition and was immediately faced with huge problems in the public finances inherited from Fianna Fáil.
His government fell after little more than six months in office, but he was back in power after the election in November of 1982. Fine Gael won 39 per cent of the vote in that election, the highest share it has ever received.
The continuing economic recession and the North were the dominant issues during the term of his second government that lasted from 1982 until 1987.
His “constitutional crusade” had mixed success. Contraception was legalised by minister for health Barry Desmond, but an attempt to have the constitutional ban on divorce lifted was rejected by the electorate.
Dr FitzGerald stepped down as party leader after the 1987 general election defeat, and retired from the Dáil in 1992. He remained active in public affairs, campaigning in referendums on Europe, and writing a weekly column in The Irish Times.