Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

I had to share an office with Kieran, or he had to put up with me, for a while. I am sure he gave his family some reports on that, on how a Kerry fellow had piles of paper on his desk and did not seem to be getting much achieved, but he did give me some great advice.

We had a common interest in the GAA because we both served on GAA committees together. He used tell me, and I agreed, that GAA committees can often be more political than politics itself. Of course, he had hurling. Mary might remember that once upon a time we gave him a Kerry sliotar, which is probably the rarest artifact one could give anybody. He talked about hurling which, to a Kerryman, would be the equivalent of talking to a nomad in the Sahara desert about deep sea diving, but I tried to empathise with the trials and tribulations of Laois hurling and, of course, cattle dealing and negotiations on fair days. We discussed how the art of negotiation, like politics itself, can be learnt, and fair days, whether in Kenmare or in Laois.

I offer my sympathy to all his family, to his wife Mary and to his darling daughters and his son, his grandson and all the members of his family, his brothers and sisters, and to his mother and to his many friends who, I suppose, would say the words of W. B. Yeats:

Think where man's glory most begins and endsAnd say my glory was I had such friends.