I propose to call on the Leader of the House, Senator Lanigan, to make a statement in connection with the expression of sympathy to the family and relatives of the late Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich. It is the usual practice that the leaders of the individual groups follow.
Death of Cardinal Ó Fiaich: Expression of Sympathy.
In line with the tradition of the House I would like to ask the permission of the House to raise the matter of the passing of a vote of sympathy to the people of Ireland on the death of Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich. It is necessary from a procedural point of view that the permission of the House be obtained to raise this matter. I agree with the Cathaoirleach, if the House agrees, that statements should be made by the leaders of the groups in the House.
Senators
Agreed.
It is with deep regret that I rise here today to propose a vote of sympathy first to the family of Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich who died very suddenly on a pilgrimage to Lourdes last evening. When I say to the family of Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, I think we would include in that everybody who lives on this island and not just his own immediate family, because his influence has extended into every family in Ireland, not alone since he became Cardinal but since he became a public figure.
His death at the early age of 66 years is a tremendous blow to those of us in Ireland who have criticised the spiral of violence that has invaded this island over the past years. He will be deeply missed by the people who espoused the cause of peace and reconciliation in this island. He will be tremendously missed by the Church he loved so well and for which he worked so unstintingly over the past number of years. It is ironic — but perhaps not so ironic — that he died in the middle of his duties as pastor in accompanying the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes. He was a supporter of that pilgrimage and he accompanied it as a matter of love over many, many years.
As a person who was born in Cullyhanna, near Crossmaglen, 66 years ago, he was very well aware of the difficulties anybody in his position would have if selected within the politics of Ireland or the politics of the Church. I know some of his colleagues who went to school with him in Maynooth. They are some friends of mine who studied with him and they spoke throughout the years with nothing but the greatest of friendship towards him. Indeed, they also suggested he was a man of extremely high intellect which at times seemed to be hidden because he seemed to be a man who was bluff and who spoke in a very forthright way. However, he got his message across.
He had a deep love of the Irish language and indeed of Irish history. He served as chairman of the Government commission on the restoration of the Irish language, on Comhairle na Ghaeilge, he was a member of the Senate of the National University of Ireland, was President of Cumann na Sagart and was a member of the Higher Education Authority.
He was ordained Cardinal in St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1977 and since then he has not neglected at any stage to come out in public against the spiral of violence. He believed in a peaceful withdrawal by Britain from Ireland. He stated in an interview, "I believe there should be a declaration of intent. I know it is a coloured phrase but it is the only thing that will get things moving." However, it is in his pastoral role that he will be missed by the bishops and priests of Ireland and, indeed, by the Church which is made up of bishops, priests and the people.
We cannot but reiterate the sentiments he always expressed that it did not matter from which side violence came within these islands it should be condemned out of hand. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
The sudden death of the Cardinal has come as a great and genuine shock to all of us. He was a man of enormous vitality and zest, a man who loved life. He was human, approachable, compassionate and unpretentious. He had very strong views, which he vigorously expressed. There was no doubt about his enthusiasm whether it was for the Irish language, football or his love of the traditional values of his own native Armagh. His ideal Ireland was one which, again, is fairly easy to piece together from his writings and his talking. It was an Ireland which was Gaelic, Catholic and Republican. In recent years, especially since becoming Cardinal, he was increasingly a great conciliator, a man who saw the complexity of things. He had, in recent times especially, an awareness of and respect for the other traditions in this island.
For me, the most striking aspect of the tributes that have been pouring in over the last hours have been those from the other Churches, from Church leaders and from ordinary churchmen, praising his ecumenism, his hatred of injustice and his genuine wish for reconciliation. Also, what comes across in the tributes — and I was especially struck by the tribute on the BBC early this morning from the Minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Lisburn — was the sense of the personal impact the Cardinal made through sheer force of personality on members of other Churches. His generosity, his courtesy, his friendship and his openness were the characteristics which most impressed themselves on the leaders of other Churches, who saw in him somebody with whom they could disagree, but somebody whose good faith they could not, in any circumstances, doubt.
He was an honest, open and a good man and on behalf of the Fine Gael Party, I would like to convey our sympathy to his family, to the priests an the people of the Archdiocese of Armagh.
On behalf of the Labour Party, I would like to extend our sincere sympathy to the family of Cardinal Ó Fiaich, to his fellow bishops and priests and to the laity of the Archdiocese of Armagh and, indeed, the whole country.
Cardinal ÓFiaich will be missed, in particular, because of his anxiety and efforts to bring peace ad reconciliation to this country. We will be missed because of his great concern about the problems and difficulties that afflict Northern Ireland. He will be missed particularly because of his concern for those who suffered or were compromised as a result of those difficulties. He will also be missed by those who have knowledge and understanding of Irish history and culture. In the torrent of tributes perhaps this aspect of his work has not been given as much attention as it may deserve.
He was, of course, unmistakably Irish. He embodied many of the finest characteristics which make Irish people interesting and different. The respect and affection in which he was held by the ordinary people of the Archdiocese of Armagh and in particular, by people in the Crossmaglen area in Armagh are a great tribute to him. To the extent that one could judge, he seemed to be happiest and most relaxed when he was among those people, talking to them and, in the fullest sense, being part of their whole existence, sharing in it and indeed contributing to it. He was a man of his own people. He will be missed by the people in the Archdiocese of Armagh. He will be missed by the Irish Catholic Church and by Catholics worldwide. He will be missed by all people who have a respect and appreciation for and who are at peace with their Irishness. He was an Irishman who, as far as I could judge, seemed to be happy and relaxed. He was a very worthy figure who represented in the finest ways the very best aspects of what it is to be Irish. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
Thar ceann na Seanadóirí Ollscoile, is mian liomsa mo chomhbhrón a chur in iúl chomh maith. Ó mo thaobh féin de, cuimhneoidh mé ar Tomás Ó Fiaich mar scoláire agus mar staraí. Is báúil iad lucht aon cheirde, mar a deirtear, agus bhí aithne agam ar an staraí le fada an lá agus meas agam air dá réir. Bhí cáilíocht aige mar staraí nach raibh ag mórán, is é sin bhí tíriúlacht a phearsantachta le tabhairt faoi ndeara ina chuid saothair. Bhí féith na samhlaíochta stairiúla go láidir ann, agus, mar scoláire, bhí sé préamhaithe go daingean ina dhúiche féin agus go forleathan san Eoraip chomh maith.
I am speaking on behalf of the group of University Senators. We associate ourselves very sincerely with the vote of sympathy. I would just like to say I have known the late Cardinal perhaps longer than most people in this House because our common interests as scholars and historians go back quite a distance. He brought to his scholarship qualities which every historian is not fortunate enough to possess in that in addition to his professionalism and his precision, he brought imagination and a passion for the past — and for his own Gaelic past — which illumined the material he worked upon. That sympathetic imagination extended from his own locality and from his own Ulster, so rich in history, to Europe as a whole where he pursued, indeed, casán na naomh, the pathway of the saints. As a Gaeilgeoir, a lover of the games, of the language, and the culture, he was generous in that while he cherished these things dearly he did not attempt to impose them as a criterion of Irishness.
As a nationalist and as a south Armagh man, it was natural he should have had strong feelings about a united Ireland. Predictably, he was maligned for this in predictable quarters and, predictably, it did not bother him. It was also unfair in my view and inaccurate to have depicted him, as some people did, as a kind of an Irish Makarios, a kind of politicoreligious ethnarch.
One has to say nonetheless, that his interests as a Catholic prelate did not always sit easily with his interests as an Irishman. As an historian, he understood and admired the ideals of the United Irishman, but he did not find it possible to promote them in his own contemporary Ireland. Regrettably, he supported, albeit with moderate enthusiasm, the Catholic ethos in education and sexual morality. He apparently failed to see the incompatibility of that with the ideals of a united Ireland and a Protestant-Catholic reconciliation which he so warmly cherished, ideals which will be achieved, if at all, only through our acceptance of a secular, political framework in the whole of this island.
I would like to join in the expressions of regret at the unexpected and untimely death of Cardinal Ó Fiaich. The many tributes we have heard here today and heard through the media have attested to the admiration and affection in which the Cardinal was held by the people of Ireland and people from across the divide in Northern Ireland. He is a great loss to the Catholic Church, of course, but he is a great loss to all the people of Ireland.
He was his own man. He was a noted scholar and historian. He was a man of great humanity. We must remember that although he looked forward to the day of a united Ireland he totally rejected the use of violence as a means to that end. I can think of his great humour and humanity that attested to the fact he was a man of his people and that is the way we should remember him. We express our sympathy particularly to his family, to his many friends and the priests and bishops of the diocese.
I would like to be associated with Members of the House in conveying sympathy to the family and relatives of the late Cardinal. The House will stand in silence for one minute.
Members rose in their places.