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Seanad Éireann debate -
Thursday, 10 Jul 1997

Vol. 151 No. 14

Death of Former Members: Expression of Sympathy.

I wish to express our sincere sympathy on the deaths of Mr. Flor Crowley, Dr. Noel Browne and Mr. Lionel Booth. Mr. Crowley and Dr. Browne were Members of the Seanad while Mr. Booth was a former distinguished Deputy for Dún Laoghaire.

Mr. Flor Crowley began his active career in national politics in 1965 when he was first elected as a Fianna Fáil Deputy for the mid-Cork constituency. He served that constituency well for his remaining years. He had a distinguished career during which he served in both the Upper and Lower Houses. He was an active Member of the Oireachtas, particularly as a member of the Committee of Public Accounts.

The sad passing of Flor Crowley will leave many memories with those of us who knew him for many years. Flor, as we knew him, was a man who was larger than life. He was a great family man who always had a warm smile and kind word. He was always willing to lend a helping hand. He was a man of the people in every sense of the word. He was a great republican who came from a very strong Fianna Fáil tradition. Nothing in his life gave him greater joy or delight than seeing his son Brian become a Member of this House and then to go on to become a distinguished MEP. I knew him personally and got many pieces of good advice from him over the years. I convey the sympathy of this House to his wife, his son Brian and the rest of his family on their sad loss at such a young age.

I also propose a vote of sympathy to the family of the late Dr. Noel Browne. He will be remembered as a great man for many reasons, and first, for his courage in pursuing his beliefs. He was relentless in taking on great causes and was most impressive in arguing his case with all who dared to disagree with him. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1948 as a Clann na Poblachta Deputy and was immediately appointed Minister for Health. He quickly instigated a campaign to eradicate tuberculosis, a disease that affected thousands of Irish families and that had already devastated his own family, claiming the lives of his father, mother and aunt. Noel himself also suffered from that disease.

Throughout his work on the eradication of tuberculosis and the mother and child scheme, Noel Browne always put the health and welfare of people at the top of the Government agenda. As Minister for Health he planned vigorously and set up a hospital building programme and ensured that the scourge of tuberculosis was eventually banished from our country. However, he should not be remembered only for the many practical arrangements he put in place. He should also be remembered for the challenging vision he possessed of an Ireland of the future which would bring about many innovations in health and social welfare services. These are services we now take too much for granted. Noel Browne lived in Athlone, where his father died, and he was a student at the Marist College there.

I propose a vote of sympathy for the sad passing of a legend of his time, a man who was a Member of both Houses. He was a Senator from 1973 to 1977.

I also sympathise with the Booth family on the sad passing of Lionel Booth, who represented the Cathaoirleach's constituency of Dún Laoghaire in Dáil Éireann for 12 years. An astute businessman, he was a pioneer in the business world. I sympathise with his family on his sad passing.

On behalf of the Fine Gael Party I join with the Leader in expressing sympathy with the families concerned. Dr. Noel Browne has been written and spoken about at great length. He was a man of rare passion and lonely integrity who was always prepared to fight for the unpopular cause. He suffered a great deal in his political career, yet he has left some outstanding monuments behind him, first, in the crusade he led against the scourge of tuberculosis, but more importantly in the example of moral integrity and willingness to stand up and be counted. That inspired many people to go into politics at a time when idealism was very scarce. I extend my party's sympathy to his wife and family.

Flor Crowley was a friend of mine, as he was of many people in this House. As the Leader said, he was a man of great humour, wit and goodness. I disagreed with his political views very strongly but that never prevented us having a genuine friendship. He was a man I liked enormously and had great human attributes. He was proud his son Brian spent some time in this House and is now a distinguished Member of the European Parliament. On behalf of my party, I too would like to extend my sympathy to the Crowley family, as I do to the family of the late Lionel Booth.

As is normal procedure, I will call only the leader of each group and Senators from the counties of the deceased.

With reference to your previous comment, I would like to pay tribute to Dr. Noel Browne while my colleague, Senator Ross, will pay tribute to the other two deceased Members with whom he was more familiar than I. I knew Noel Browne for 30 years. I have no doubt most people feel Noel Browne was the conscience of this country. When I learned of his death, I thought immediately of words used by Richard Ellmann about James Joyce at the beginning of his great biography of the Irish writer when he said we are still learning to be Joyee's contemporaries. In a way we are still learning to be Noel Browne's contemporaries. He made headlines and was well ahead of the majority of people in political life because he had a vision. One thing which is lacking in Irish political life today is that quality of vision which Noel so clearly enshrined in himself. He had passion which sometimes led him to make enemies but he was a forgiving and gentle man as well as a gentlemen.

I was one of a small number of public representatives who attended his funeral in Connemara among the people he loved so much. I waited for that horrible moment at funerals when one hears the thump of a clod of earth on the lid of the coffin but it never came, and I wondered why. I looked around to see that he was being buried in a small graveyard in the wilds of Connemara and instead of clay sand was used which gently silted over the coffin. Noel had what he deserved, a gentle death in the company of his family, particularly his beloved wife Phyllis to whom I extend my sympathy as well as to the rest of the family.

Senator Cassidy, the Leader of the House, and Senator Manning spoke movingly about Noel's career and, in particular, his wonderful onslaught on the tuberculosis epidemic. There were others involved who should get credit, but there is no doubt Noel Browne cut through the red tape and mobilised the resources of the State to build sanatoria and hospitals and to save lives. Although I was only a peripheral member of Noel Browne's circle, my telephone rang constantly in the days after his death. People told me their stories and asked me for the address of Noel Browne's wife or to pass on to the family their gratitude for the fact that he saved their lives.

One of the most moving things in Noel's book, and which I heard him subsequently relate on television, was the fact that his mother saved the remnants of that family, although she was in the last throes of tuberculosis, by uprooting herself and taking the remaining members of the family to England where they knew they would looked after. There may have been many other anonymous mothers in that terrible period who fled Ireland to places like England to save the lives of their children. On this day of commemoration Noel, in particular, would like his mother, who was a figure of such extraordinary heroism and who died a few days after she brought her remaining children to safety in England, to be remembered.

Noel would also like his brother to be remembered. Noel was taken up by a distinguished medical family, the Chances, who gave him a good education and his life was full of these wonderful lucky coincidences. He had a brother who had a hunchback and was deformed — what they called a cripple in those days. While Noel was taken up and educated, his brother was sent to an orphanage where experimental operations were performed on him and he died under the surgeon's knife. To the end of his days Noel was moved by the fate of his brother and he used to say that he, Noel Browne, was an intelligent, attractive, fit and able young man so he was capable of being the same.

Noel felt passionately for those who were disadvantaged, who had no opportunity and who were disposed of to orphanages and such places.

I doubt if he would appreciate my saying that I was touched and gladdened that the Archbishop of Dublin paid a gracious tribute to him the day after his death. That movement to reconciliation was welcomed by his friends, especially as Noel delighted in controversy. I agreed with many of the issues he raised, especially those concerning Vatican social policy, and he unfailingly challenged the idiocies which occasionally emanate from such sources. On a human level, he would be glad, as I am, by this gracious tribute from a former opponent.

I am honoured to have been allowed speak in memory of Noel Browne. One matter which is very important to me is that he nominated me from the first time I ran for the Seanad as a no-hoper with the illusion I would top the poll. I received 167 votes from the Trinity electorate then with which I was very disappointed, but they have learned to behave better. On this last occasion, I had to go to Tibet and, afraid the Chinese might find out what I was up to, thus delaying my return a little, I sent the nominating papers to Noel asking him to return them. He signed them and I received them the day before he died. It was with great sadness I had to remove his name as I would have liked it to have been on the papers one last time.

I salute him. All people in this House have been improved by the company of Noel Browne. I hope we manage to produce a few more like him because this country certainly needs them.

On behalf of the Labour Party, I pay tribute to the late Dr. Noel Browne for his strong contribution to Irish politics. He was a true radical in the best sense of the word. He had great clarity of thought and great passion for what he believed in. He systematically achieved that which he felt was necessary to change Irish society for the better, for example, his work on the tuberculosis epidemic and the systematic way in which he organised the system to eradicate the disease. Many families owe much to Dr. Noel Browne for the singlemindedness with which he carried out that work. On looking back on the mother and child scheme, it seems extraordinary it was so controversial because it was a basic, simple and straightforward scheme for mothers and children which is now accepted without demur but at the time, he had to fight a battle for it and he did so singlemindedly.

I remember his giving a talk in Limerick on psychology in Ireland. He gave a long, passionate speech on how psychiatry in Ireland should be changed to treat people with respect. I was young at the time and was very impressed that someone could feel so strongly about and speak so eloquently on an issue about which he knew so much. That epitomised what Dr. Noel Browne was about — changing society in areas where he felt strongly it needed change. In that, he did a great service to Irish society and will not be forgotten for it. Neither will he be forgotten for the passion, energy, drive and singlemindedness with which he pursued the issues about which he felt strongly. I convey our sympathy to his wife, Phyllis, and to the rest of his family.

I also convey our sympathy to the families of the late Flor Crowley and Lionel Booth. I did not know either of them personally, but I knew Brian Crowley when he was a Member of this House and I convey our sympathy to him and to the rest of his family.

On behalf of the Progressive Democrats, I join in the vote of sympathy to the families of the late Senators Flor Crowley and Noel Browne and the late Deputy Lionel Booth. Flor Crowley was very much a man of the people and a true patriot who served his country well and left a distinguished political lineage behind him. We had the good fortune of serving in this House with his son, Brian who has gone to the European Parliament where he carries on the family tradition.

My knowledge of Noel Browne arises, particularly, from his autobiography Against the Tide. It is one of the most compelling pieces of political reading one could find. Having read the book Noel Browne's determination and tenacity would not be in question but what was surprising was that he was not as bitter as he should have been when one considers his family circumstances and the devastation which tuberculosis wreaked on his family. He fought against TB with great tenacity. It is part of political mythology that the Government fell as a result of the mother and child scheme but that is not the case and Senator Manning is one of those who corrected that myth in the recent past.

Noel Browne was a man of immense courage and was greatly admired. I had the good fortune to know Neville Chance quite well. He told me some of the stories about the role the Chance family played in Noel Browne's early days and his education in England and Trinity College. Had it not been for that, Noel Browne would not have gone on to do many of the things he did. He was a man of immense courage, who had a tremendous determination and could be greatly admired. For that we mourn his passing, along with those of Flor Crowley and Lionel Booth.

On behalf of Democratic Left I join with the Leader and others in paying tribute to and sympathising with the family of Flor Crowley, whom I knew on Cork County Council in 1974. I always remember him as being very precise in his pronouncements. He was very dignified as he went about his business and his untimely death was a great shock.

I also sympathise with the widow of the late Dr. Noel Browne. People in Cork city remember that St. Stephen's Hospital, Glanmire, was built under the leadership of Noel Browne in his efforts to eradicate tuberculosis. Between June 1981 and February 1982, Dr. Noel Browne and I were Members of the other House and with others we formed a group and got recognition. After a meeting Noel said to me "Joe, we get on very well but you smoke too much". I remembered that advice given to me by the late Dr. Noel Browne. I also wish to be associated with the sympathy to the family of the late Lionel Booth.

I extend my condolences to the Crowley family in west Cork. The Leader is right when he said that Flor stood alone for his party in west Cork for many years. He would speak of himself and the region very strongly. I had the privilege of serving with Flor and Brian, although I did not serve with father and son in the Seanad. His loss was untimely and came as a shock to many in west Cork, particularly his family. On behalf of my party in the region I extend my deepest condolences to his wife and family. I wish them well.

I would like to be associated with the remarks about Dr. Noel Browne. As I did not know him I think I should say no more. On behalf of the Independents I would like to pay tribute to two people whom I did know.

I knew Lionel Booth extremely well since I was a child. He was as sincere as Dr. Browne but perhaps less dramatic in the views he put forward in the Dáil and in public life. He was a very quiet decent man who was sincerely devoted to those causes which he took up. He was a Deputy for many years. When he retired from Dáil Éireann at 53 years of age he miraculously began to practise law again and took up a partnership with the well known Dublin firm of Matheson, Ormsby, Prentice. He practised with them as a consultant until his death. He continued to visit here and use the Oireachtas Library until his last illness. He was a magnificent man but was not fully appreciated because he did not seek the limelight as other people do.

I wish to also pay tribute to Flor Crowley. Some Members may remember him because he was last in this House in 1982. I had many heated debates with him especially on Northern Ireland, an issue on which I and many others held differing views. One of the great hallmarks of these debates was that he never took a difference of opinion outside the House and so became a firm friend to many of us. We also shared an interest in Arcon resources, or Conroy as it was known then. His interest was greater than mine but it gave us a mutual interest. I was in contact with him just before he died. I shall miss both men and I pay tribute to them today.

I wish to join in paying tribute to Flor Crowley. I knew him very well because, like myself, he was a Corkman. He was a Fianna Fáil man, not a party or national movement man. He was a very affable man whom I liked a great deal.

I worked many years with Dr. Browne. Before I became a gamekeeper I was a very successful poacher as a member of the liaison group of the left of the Labour Party. At that time it was a very small group and led by Dr. Browne. While travelling from Cork to Dublin we plotted and planned. Eventually we succeeded in electing Dr. Browne vice-chairman of the Labour Party. We thought the new Jerusalem had arrived and celebrated for weeks after but within six months Dr. Browne resigned and went to Libya. He was a terrific but frustrating man. Like all visionaries Dr. Browne did not march to anybody else's drum. I thought we had fought and won the biggest battle of our young lives and then Dr. Browne left, as we thought, to waste his time in the sands of Libya. We became disillusioned but we had a rapprochement between us at the end.

As people have said Dr. Browne was an extraordinary man. He was an uncomfortable man for the Labour Party for a very long time. I was at the administrative council that readmitted Dr. Browne as a member of the Labour Party in the latter years of his life. I join with all the tributes paid to Dr. Browne, Senator Flor Crowley and Deputy Lionel Booth today. Like everybody else we mourn their passing.

I wish to join with all the tributes.

Members rose in their places.

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