Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

I pay tribute to Kieran in a way that celebrates his life rather than sorrowfully, as sorrow passed in the beautiful ceremony on the day of his funeral and in the proceedings before it such as at his removal from Dublin and so on.

My first memory of Kieran is while we were canvassing in County Tipperary during the 1997 Seanad election campaign. We were on the same panel and while it is unusual to be good friends with someone on the same panel, we took the view that I was deep in Munster in west Cork, while he was in the midlands. Everyone present who has been on the Seanad trail will be familiar with the experience of covering south Tipperary early in the day and then moving on to north Tipperary. On the day in question, having made 11 calls, like the parable of our Lord and the fish, I only caught two and was not even sure whether they were my own. I met Kieran that night-----