David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh míle maith agat. Is onóir dom cúpla focal a rá tar éis bháis an iar-Seanadóir, Eamon de Buitléar. It is appropriate that I commence with a few words of Irish even if I stumble over them because Eamon de Buitléar was raised in an Irish speaking family. His father had a very distinguished career. He was a colonel in the Irish Army and was an aide-de-camp to Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland - Dubhghlas de hÍde, known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn.

Eamon continued to demonstrate a love of the Irish language throughout his life and on numerous occasions spoke Irish in the Seanad. I am about the only survivor of that period. I was elected on the same day that he was nominated and we became very good friends. To my mind, he was a perfect example of what is absolutely the best in Irish people. He was positive and I never heard him make a nasty or unpleasant comment about another person.

He was committed to celebrating the beauty of the Irish landscape. We all remember those wonderful films every week, on "Amuigh Faoin Spéir", which illustrated this. I completely agree with Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú; that team must have had the most immense patience. I remember trying to get one photograph of a fox in a Roscommon bog which took days and we never got the damn thing because it would not do what we wanted. Animals have an independent life of their own. The team of Gerrit van Gelderen and Eamon de Buitléar was superb. They were made for each other. I do not diminish in any sense the contribution of Gerrit van Gelderen, but the vision was Eamon de Buitléar’s and Gerrit van Gelderen was able to realise it in film form. They were a perfect team. In some ways, that was the first real nature programme that I remember on RTE. I do not remember anything either on radio or television before that. There may have been other programmes, but they did not make a very big impact. Eamon de Buitléar is our equivalent of David Attenborough. As most people in the early days of Irish television did not receive the BBC, they did not see David Attenborough, but they received RTE with “Amuigh Faoin Spéir”.

Eamon de Buitléar’s work in this House was distinguished, but he had so many other aspects to his life. He was a most engaging raconteur, as anybody who listened to him on radio is aware. He was very funny, for example, about his experiences in the pet shop. There was a curious coincidence. He was naturally musical and as far as I recall, he had three instruments – what we call the box, the bodhrán and the mouth organ – but it was in the pet shop that he bumped into Seán Ó Riada and the two became lasting friends. Eamon assisted in the foundation of Ceoltóirí Chualann, which laid the basis for a revival of what is best and purest in Irish traditional music.

Eamon de Buitléar donated his extensive archive which includes some material by his father who was also an Irish language enthusiast, that lists the names of all the Irish birds in the Irish language and gives background information on them. It is important material. I say in a positive way that I blame the distinguished lady sitting in the Visitors Gallery for that information because if I am correct, Mrs. de Buitléar is a daughter of the celebrated artist Charles Lamb who was noted for celebrating the landscape of Connemara. That was what drew Eamon to Connemara. Although a Wicklow man, he fell in love with the landscape of Connemara. It is highly appropriate that towards the end of his life he made a generous donation of wonderful material to the National University of Ireland, Galway, NUIG.

We recently had debates on the Seanad and its usefulness, or lack of, and the people, by a narrow majority, decided the Seanad was worthwhile. That is because of the existence of people such as Eamon de Buitléar. It might not be popular to say it because Mr. Charles Haughey was not a popular figure in Irish public life, but he had a good sense of humour which he could deploy at his own expense on certain occasions. He had imagination and understood artists. It was a most imaginative appointment to put somebody such as Eamon de Buitléar in the Seanad which was enriched and ennobled by his presence. I am very sorry that he has met the fate that awaits us all, but at least it was with a loving and talented family and the knowledge he must have had that he had accomplished a great deal for the land he loved.