Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On my behalf and on that of the people of Kerry and the members of Fine Gael in Kerry, I express my sympathy to Finola and her family, John's sister Mary and, in particular, to our friend and colleague Richard on John's sad passing.

When we consider the 35 years that John gave to this House and the almost 42 years that Richard has given, we can say that 77 years' service between two brothers is an enormous contribution that will probably never be repeated. That has to be mentioned today. To put it into perspective, when John was first elected to this House in June of 1969, the Beatles were at number one in the Irish charts with "Get Back". That is how long ago it was. What a distinguished career, and what a long career of 35 years' service to the State.

I can say that, as a kid growing up in the early 1990s, John Bruton was the first Fine Gael leader I was conscious of. He was someone I was influenced by and always very impressed by. He was a great orator, a great debater and a man of enormous principle. He was also someone who encouraged me to become involved in politics and to join the party and run as a candidate for it subsequently.

I only ever had two occasions to contact John Bruton's office. The first time was when I was 14 years old, in 1996, when John was Taoiseach. I am sure he was quite a busy man but I contacted his office to protest about Chinese nuclear testing at the time. In hindsight, I do not think there was a hell of a lot the man could have done about it but the matter was important to me at the time. He did write back.

The second was much later and I was still licking my wounds after losing my first council election in 2004. I got a phone call from the litter enforcement officer in Meath County Council to say that one of my election posters was up on a telephone pole on the road out of Trim towards Kinnegad and that I would be fined if I did not take it down immediately. Obviously, some smart Alec had been on holidays in Kerry the previous June and had borrowed one of my posters and had put it up on the pole in question. I did not know Helen or Damien at the time. The only person in Meath that I knew was the former Taoiseach. I contacted his office to kindly ask that they might take it down for me. I was driving an old 1991 Toyota Carina at the time and I did not trust it to make the trip up and down to Meath. I could not afford to put the diesel in it anyway. The poster was taken down, thankfully. Very shortly after that, John accepted the role of EU ambassador to the United States. I often think that it was that less-than-glamourous request that finally forced him out of domestic politics to take up that role in the US.

Years later, John addressed our parliamentary party think-in in Trim in 2021. Coincidentally, just a few days before that meeting, I met a woman in my constituency who was happily in her second marriage. She had spent many years in a very abusive relationship and was able to divorce her first husband and start again. She remarried and is enjoying a very happy and fulfilling life to this day.

I was glad to be able to tell John about that encounter I had coincidentally a few days before meeting him in Trim in 2021. That was just one of the legacies John Bruton left in his lifetime.

The last time I met him was just outside Leinster House in summer 2022. I was with my children, who were very young at the time and still are. I told them who John Bruton was and about his significance. I have no doubt that in future, they will read in the history books that John Bruton was, indeed, a great Irishman.

Finally, to Richard, our friend and colleague, I hope this sitting today, the equivalent of a parliamentary wake hearing all the stories and the kind words about your brother, will bring you some comfort. I offer you strength and comfort in the difficult time ahead.

See this speech in context