David Norris (Independent)

I did not have the pleasure of being in the House when Ms Ahern was a Member and subsequently Cathaoirleach, but I met her on three occasions, widely separated by years. The first was when, as Cathaoirleach, she chaired a debate organised by one of the major debating societies in Trinity College. At this debate, one of my friends who had not only a double but a triple personality, being variously a strong republican from the midlands, an Orangeman from the shipyards of Belfast or a relic of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, decided to make lurid comments and vulgarly abusive remarks about the appointment of a Roman Catholic clergyman as chaplain to Trinity College. Ms Ahern took these comments seriously and remarked that this person must be a Protestant guttersnipe from Ballymena. She was terribly entertained when the joke was explained to her.

I met her subsequently at Listowel writers' week where I discovered she had a grip almost as good her successor, Tras Honan. Ms Ahern was devoted to Kerry, knew its literature intimately and had that wonderful way with words that Kerry people have. The final time I met her was some two years ago when I spoke at the Brendan Kennelly summer school in Kerry. She was as vigorous as ever even though a woman of considerable age. I listened with great interest to what she had to say. Senator O'Sullivan said she liked to remark that the important thing is not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog. This accurately reflects my occasional experiences of the late Senator Ahern.