Martin Mansergh, an adviser on Northern Ireland to three Fianna Fáil taoisigh who went on to serve as a senator, TD and minister of State, has died.
Mr Mansergh is understood to have died while in Western Sahara with a group of other former Irish parliamentarians. He was 78.
Having served in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Mansergh left the Civil Service to join Charles Haughey as an adviser on Northern Ireland and Anglo-Irish matters when Haughey was taoiseach.
He remained with Haughey during his years in opposition, serving as Fianna Fáil’s director of research and policy. During this time, he edited a book of Haughey speeches, entitled Spirit of the Nation.
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He returned to government with Haughey in 1987 and served in a similar capacity for Albert Reynolds and later Bertie Ahern. He was a key figure in the peace process that eventually led to the IRA ceasefires and the Belfast Agreement.
In 2002, after more than two decades as a backroom adviser, he entered electoral politics for Fianna Fáil, standing for the Dáil in his ancestral home of Tipperary South. He was unsuccessful but was later elected to the Seanad, and in 2007, took a Dáil seat for the party.
He was appointed a minister of State in 2008 and served in several departments until Fianna Fáil was ejected from office in 2011, when he lost his seat.
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From a Protestant Anglo-Irish family with farmland outside Tipperary town, and educated in Oxford University – his father was the distinguished historian Nicholas Mansergh – Mr Mansergh was a singular figure in Irish politics.
He was a man of many parts: dotty professor, a razor-sharp political strategist, a rural TD, and a highbrow intellectual. Mr Mansergh was popular and respected not just in his own party but across the political divide. His contribution to achieving peace in Northern Ireland is recognised as pivotal by all sides.
Paying tribute to Mr Mansergh on Friday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said it was “with deep sadness that I learned this morning about the passing of Martin Mansergh during a trip to the Sahara with other retired parliamentarians.
“I had the honour of knowing Martin for over four decades. He was unquestionably one of the most important public servants in our recent history, filling many different roles and having a profound impact on issues deeply important to the Irish people.
“Of course, his contribution to securing peace on this island marks him as a figure who will always be honoured. His early, secret negotiations in Belfast on behalf of taoisigh and his work through more than a decade were essential in securing the peace settlement and the overcoming of many later hurdles.
“Personally, and on behalf of the government he served so well, and the Fianna Fáil Party which was so proud of him, I extend my sympathies to his beloved Liz and their family.”
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who Mr Mansergh advised on the peace process, described him as “an extraordinary person with a towering intellect with the ability to see so many angles of a problem or equally an opportunity”.
Gerry Adams said Mr Mansergh had been “a key figure in the efforts to build the peace process and the success of the negotiation leading to the Good Friday Agreement”.
Mr Mansergh is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and by his five children.
