John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of myself, my family and Fine Gael members in Carlow-Kilkenny, I extend my sympathy to Finola, a formidable woman in her own right, and John's children, his sister, our dear friend, Richard, and the wider Bruton family on their loss. The age of 76 is young nowadays. We would have hoped to have had John for much longer.

They say you should not meet your heroes. Just as that might be true, equally when you do meet your heroes and they turn out to be really nice people, it certainly gives a lift to the spirit of any young person. I was, believe it or not, a timid enough young fellow when Leo Varadkar and others used to dominate Young Fine Gael conferences and debates. I tended to be in the background. I remember meeting John Bruton for the first time and I remember the support, which I am glad Deputy Brophy mentioned, that John gave throughout his life to younger people in politics. It was something he kept up right to the end. I was honoured to serve with him in the Oireachtas when I was elected in that famous Seanad election in 2002. I do not know whether John voted for me. We did not get down to that. He was a man who did not at that stage speak a lot at parliamentary party meetings, but when he spoke, people listened and he had something to say.

He was the leader of Fine Gael in 1999 when I was elected to Kilkenny County Council. In advance of local elections he used to ring the candidates. Indeed, he used to ring them after the election, whether they won or lost, which is the more difficult call to make. I remember the call before the election. I must have been celebrating still after the election when he phoned and he spoke to my father. My late father was one of those silent majority people mentioned earlier, who did not join Fine Gael until I was elected but was a true Redmondite tradition member and supporter of Fine Gael. I can still remember coming home and into the kitchen that day. My father was shouting, "I was always a Bruton man", as he regaled my siblings about the chat he had with John Bruton expressing his congratulations on my election to the county council.

Others have mentioned his enthusiasm. As somebody who is often not that enthusiastic myself, I recognise enthusiasm when I see it, and John Bruton, to the end, over small things, had boundless energy and enthusiasm and was full of ideas. I rarely have met somebody in political life who, long after he had left political office, was still so engaged with what was going on. Others have mentioned the lack of bitterness. Sometimes I got a sense of innocence from John. He did not see the darker elements of the machinations that sometimes go on in politics. He might have been a good ground operator in County Meath. I remember the phone calls and his letters, even the last letter from him just before Christmas, in which he spoke briefly about his illness. Self-effacing to the end, he said at least he was not in any pain. It was then I realised the seriousness of the situation.

I will finish with two other recollections of John Bruton. The laugh has been mentioned. It was often heard and people would probably replay it in media clips, but experiencing it at first hand, it literally caused vibrations if you were the receiver or in the room. There was also the slap. That was a John Bruton thing, if he lost where he was in thought. I can remember being in a Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meeting, and he hit himself with such ferocity that I thought he would knock himself over, and just because he lost his train of thought during a discussion.

Finally, my father-in-law, John McTernan, was for many years a member of Leitrim County Council, having been elected in 1991, and he too was the recipient of a phone call afterwards which has gone down somewhat in family lore.

John was a mason with the OPW in Dromahair. Shortly after the election, his son, my late brother-in-law, Gary McTernan, answered the phone and had a long conversation with a very interesting man who, at the end of the chat, said he wanted to talk to his father to congratulate him and that he was John Bruton. Gary handed over the phone and John McTernan, assuming that the caller was some of the other masons in the OPW pulling his leg, immediately slammed down the receiver as it could not possibly be that John Bruton was going to ring him in Dromahair to congratulate him. John rang him back immediately assuming that the call had been just dropped and congratulated my father-in-law on his election.

That was the mark of the type person John Bruton was on a personal level. We often hear talk about the politics of it but he was really a lovable man. To his family and close friends, I extend my sympathy again.

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