David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is not a funeral - it is a celebration. That is clear from what everyone has said. We are celebrating a colleague whom we held in high esteem and affection.

It is great to see the extended O'Toole clan overwhelming the Visitors Gallery. Its members are great people. Martin J. used to be over there and I was very glad to serve with him, but on our side we had Joe O'Toole. They were second cousins. I do not know whether the family heard the wonderful broadcast that Joe did about the O'Toole clan on "Sunday Miscellany", when he went through the enormously distinguished ancestry, The Book of the Dun Cow, the Annals of the Four Masters and so on back to the Battle of Clontarf when he encountered a bit of a hiccup. He said that, yes, they had fought gloriously and valiantly but, unfortunately, on the wrong side. My own Gaelic ancestors were much wiser - they fought on both sides so they could claim victory no matter what happened.

I remember Martin J. as a quiet man with a wonderful sense of humour and someone who I would call, without any disrespect, a wise old bird, but one had to go to him to get advice. He would not spread it around all over the place. A bit like our own Joe here, he played his cards close to his chest, but if one approached him, he had an innate political wisdom, courtesy and decency. He was part of the old school of politics. Although some aspects of that life have been criticised, there was a great deal that was good about it. He represented that goodness.

He was a voice for the west and a voice for Mayo. I remember when it was neither popular nor profitable to support Knock Airport. "Dublin 4-ites", as I was at that stage, were heaping scorn on it as hard as we possibly could, but he and the Monsignor, whose name I forget-----