Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 30 Jan 1991

Vol. 404 No. 4

Death of Former Member: Expression of Sympathy.

The Taoiseach

Members of the House learned with great sadness last week of the untimely death of John Kelly.

His retirement from politics in 1989 cut short a distinguished career, which began 20 years earlier when he was elected to the Seanad. In 1973, he was elected to the Dáil for the first time and was immediately appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach and Government Chief Whip. In the same administration, he also held the post of Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, as well as serving briefly as Attorney General.

Between 1977 and 1979 he was Opposition Spokesman on Industry and Commerce, while from 1979 to 1981 he was Spokesman on Economic Planning and Development and Energy.

In 1981, John Kelly was appointed Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism. He also briefly held the post of Minister for Foreign Affairs.

An incisive wit and picturesque turn of phrase made him a most effective and formidable parliamentary debater. Even when he retired to the backbenches in 1982, he continued to express his opinions trenchantly and it was perhaps from the backbenches that he dispensed some of his most effective broadsides.

John Kelly was also a distinguished academic. Educated at Glenstal Abbey; University College, Dublin; Heidelberg University; Oxford University and the King's Inns, Dublin, he practised at the Irish Bar from 1957 to 1962. He was a fellow and lecturer in law at Trinity College, Oxford between 1961 and 1965 and was a Professor of Jurisprudence and Roman Law at University College, Dublin, from 1965 until his death. A senior counsel, he published several books on law, including Fundamental Rights in the Irish Law and Constitution, Roman Litigation, Studies in the Civil Judicature of the Roman Republic, and perhaps his most famous work, The Irish Constitution.

A distinguished scholar and a dedicated politician, John Kelly will be greatly missed on all sides of the House.

On my own behalf and on behalf of the Government, I would ask you, a Cheann Comhairle, to offer our deepest condolences to his wife, Delphine, his sons Nicholas, David and Bernard, and his daughters Alexia and Julia.

Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Mr. J. Bruton

On behalf of the Fine Gael Party I express our gratitude to the House for the opportunity that has been afforded to pay tribute to the late John Kelly. John Kelly will be missed in a very deep sense by all Members of the House but particularly by his closest colleagues in the Fine Gael Party. He was a politician who was able to give voice — and it was a very eloquent voice — to the common values that represent the party of which he was a member. John was a person who showed tremendous loyalty: loyalty to his friends, loyalty to his colleagues and, indeed, loyalty to his party. I suppose the greatest test of loyalty is to remain loyal even when things are being done with which you do not necessarily fully agree. John Kelly demonstrated that loyalty in the most expressive way of all during his period as a backbench member of our party.

He was, however, also a very distinguished member of successive Governments. As Government Whip he was responsible for organising the business of the first Coalition Government to take office at that time for 16 years. Being a Whip is never an easy task but that was obviously a particularly difficult one and John Kelly took on the task with tremendous fortitude, dedication and personal concern for each and every member of the then Government parties. He was responsible also, as he had said, for initiating improvements in the way we do our business in this House, allowing us to have more civilised sitting hours and thereby making the life of successive generations of Deputies that little bit easier — something for which we owe John Kelly thanks. He was, as has been said on a number of occasions, a truly devastating orator. In my view he was the best parliamentary speaker of his generation and possibly of any generation this century. He was able to harness wit to illustrate difficult political concepts, which sometimes could not be illustrated otherwise. He was able to use humour and his sense of acute personal observation not only to expose humbug and hypocritical policies where he had occasion to criticise them but also to show the way forward.

Some will ask the question, and it is a just question: what was the particular political achievement of John Kelly? In my view it was that of giving us a respect in this country for our own laws made in this House by our own elected representatives. He was always a consistent critic of the idea that we should adopt legislation from Britain or from any other jurisdiction. He held the view that this House as a sovereign assembly should make its own policies and its own laws in its own distinctive way; that we should feel no sense of inferiority about what we are capable of doing here in this House in comparison with what might be done in legislatures elsewhere, either in London or other parts of the world. He, in a true sense, was a tribune of this, a mature democracy and a mature State.

He conveyed that sense to his generation in Dáil Éireann and has conveyed to coming generations of politicians a sense of the worth of our work in this House.

As the Taoiseach has correctly said, in addition to being a politician, John Kelly was a distinguished scholar. As an academic dealing with Roman law he earned a worldwide reputation; he was one of the few scholars with a truly worldwide reputation in that particular discipline. His work on the Irish Constitution made that fundamental document — upon which all our freedoms are based — accessible to thousands of people who might not otherwise have fully understood it. Laws that are not properly understood are not laws that protect us. Law is designed to protect. So, in a sense, by writing as he did about our Constitution in a highly distinguished way, John Kelly enhanced the civil rights of our people by making the laws which protect them more accessible to them than they would otherwise be.

We all feel a deep sense of loss, the loss, in particular, of a friend to many of us in this House. I wish to join with the Taoiseach in conveying to his wife, Delphine, and to his sons and daughters the sympathy of my party and the sympathy of this House.

Mr. Spring

I rise on behalf of the Labour Party to pay our respects to the memory of the late Deputy John Kelly. John Kelly was a unique man, a scholar, a writer and a politician. I would not have agreed with many of the views expressed by Deputy Kelly down through the years and, indeed, he would not have agreed with many of the views expressed by me or by the Labour Party. Nevertheless, one could respect his views which were always delivered in this House with unique style and expressed without fear or favour. He was a remarkable man in that he combined a fine academic career and his substantial political career for many years. He will be missed in many aspects of Irish society, in politics and in university life, but he will never be forgotten. His tremendous work on the Irish Constitution ensures that the name of John Kelly will be revered by students of our Constitution, by practitioners and by politicians.

On behalf of the Labour Party I wish to express our deepest sympathy to his wife and family on their sad loss.

Proinsias De Rossa

I, too, on behalf of The Workers' Party, would like to be associated with the expression of sympathy of this House with the family of John Kelly. John Kelly and I and my party differed on very fundamental issues and, indeed, he never failed to challenge us in this House to justify our position which we always sought do do. He always expressed his views frankly and honestly and with a degree of wit, sometimes barbed, but I do not recall him ever being cruel in his expression of his disagreements with us or anybody else in this House. His political skills, his eloquence and his honesty will be missed by us all, but, most of all, he will be missed by his family. I want to convey my sympathy and the sympathy of my party to his wife and family.

Minister for Industry and Commerce (Mr. O'Malley)

On behalf of the Progressive Democrats, and on my own behalf, I want to express my deep sympathy on the untimely death of John Kelly. John Kelly was a brilliant academic, the country's foremost constitutional expert and, representing a rare combination, he was also one of the finest politicians to grace this Chamber. He was an intelligent, incisive politician who brought rapier-like wit and delightful and creative use of the English language to explode and expose humbug, pomposity and sheer incompetence when he believed he detected it in the political arena. I came to know him first in 1960 when he lectured on Roman law in UCD, and ever since I have admired his many fine qualities. He will be sorely missed from Leinster House and from public life, and he will be sadly missed by his family and his friends. To his wife, Delphine, and his family I express my very deepest sympathy.

Members rose