Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Rural Independent Group, I too am pleased to be able to say a few words and to welcome Austin Currie's wife, Annita, his children, Estelle, Caitríona, Dualta, Austin and Emer, and the former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. Austin Currie was one of the leading figures in the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland and, as we know, co-founded the SDLP. He became a poster boy for the Northern Ireland civil rights movement in June 1968 when he bravely squatted in a house in Caledon in his home county of Tyrone. I have often visited that village and stood on the big wall that surrounds the estate, dividing it from Glaslough in County Monaghan where my wife worked in the early 1980s. They had enormous bravery and courage. As the late Canon Hayes said, it is better to light one candle than to curse the dark. They lit that candle and that spark eventually ended up in some modicum of fairness for the minority of Catholics and nationalists in Northern Ireland with regard to housing and many other issues. I am delighted that I got to know him when he was here as a junior Minister. I met him at a function or two in Tiobraid Árann. It was fortuitous that he got elected in Dublin and became an Aire Stáit. I also remember meeting him during his presidential campaign. I offer the Rural Independent Group's sympathies and, indeed, our thanks and gratitude for the obair stairiúil a rinne sé. He worked very hard with the other co-founders of the SDLP, Gerry Fitt and John Hume. His autobiography says a lot more but I will not go into that today. It is a momentous day, although tinged with sadness for his wife and family. These expressions of sympathy show the respect in which he was held in this House and by the people of the Republic of Ireland. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

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