Members of the House will have learned with deep regret of the death, only a few short hours ago, of Deputy Alfred Byrne. Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a anam.
Deputy Byrne, or Alfie—as he was affectionately called by and known to the citizens of Dublin—was of a kind, courteous and most charitable disposition. He was probably the most popular representative we had in our capital city during the past 50 years. He had a personal charm that endeared him to all who had the pleasure of meeting him, and his old-world courtliness was known far and wide both at home and abroad. His constituents, and especially the poor of Dublin, will mourn his passing as that of a much-loved friend. His loss will be keenly felt by all the members of this House, where he was assiduous in his attendance and devoted in his advocacy of the needs of the poorest section of the community.
The late Deputy first entered public life in 1913, when he was elected to the Dublin Corporation, of which he remained a member up to the time of his death. He was ten times Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1931 to 1939 and again in 1954. From 1915 to 1918 he was a member of the British House of Commons, where he did sterling work on behalf of those executed after the Rising of 1916, as well as for the welfare of the political prisoners who were imprisoned at that time; indeed, his work in connection with the welfare of those imprisoned at that time is not so widely known as it ought to be— and the late Deputy Byrne has hardly received the recognition for this work that was his just due. In 1922 he was elected to Dáil Éireann, and, except for a period from 1928—when he resigned on his election to the Seanad —until 1931, he was continuously a member of this House. In 1934 he was decorated by His Holiness Pope Pius XI with the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sylvester.
I ask you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, to convey to his widow, his son, Deputy Thomas Byrne, and his other children and relatives the sympathy of Dáil Éireann.
Deputies rose in their places.