Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, I join the tributes to the late former Senator, Sam McAughtry, and endorse the welcome extended to his daughters, Marion, Elaine and Angela.
The Leader gave a comprehensive overview of Sam's life. When one considers the remarkable contribution he made over a long period, it would take much longer than the time available today to go into his life in detail. Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, former Senator Maurice Hayes described Sam as "a really remarkable man – a writer and a political activist who had learned both trades in the hard school of life, a seafarer at heart who had survived many a stormy passage to reach serene old age as a dispenser of wit and wisdom, an advocate of civility and decency in public discourse, and a charitable concern for the underdog and the casualties of society".
Senator Cummins outlined Sam's life. During the war, he joined the Royal Air Force and rose to the position of flying officer. Returning to Belfast, he joined the Ministry of Agriculture as a temporary civil servant which led, in turn, to writing in a trade union magazine and newspaper columns and broadcasting on local radio. He became involved in politics through the Northern Ireland Labour Party. His first book was published in 1970 and was followed by a further nine works, of which the final one was published in 2003. He helped to establish the peace train movement, which campaigned against the IRA's regular disruption of the rail link between Dublin and Belfast. While these events seem a long time ago, they were real obstacles to peace at the time and there appears to be a form of collective amnesia about them. Sam castigated and challenged the IRA for its negative mindset and the barriers it created between the two traditions on the island. I believe most people will subscribe to that view.
Sam was a lifelong trade unionist. He became a member of the Northern Ireland Labour Party and railed against sectarianism throughout his life. Dr. Brigitte Anton of the Labour Party described McAughtry's contribution to the arts and development of non-sectarian labour politics in Northern Ireland as "immeasurable". Damien Smith, head of literature and drama at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland stated: "To describe McAughtry as a much-loved chronicler of Belfast working-class life is to state an obvious truth - he was among the most rigorous, charming, eloquent and visible champions of the old Belfast of two-up/two-down values and the solidarity of the poor."
TheBelfast Telegraph, in an obituary notice, referred to Sam as a "rare, articulate Protestant voice". With his passing, it added, "the memory of almost a century of Belfast life disappeared from reach". In his many newspaper articles, broadcasts, memoirs, interviews and volumes of stories, Sam gave voice to a version of the Ulster Protestant which remains rarely expressed. He was, in his own words, "a hybrid Unionist" who came from a stock which had a more complex relationship with Ireland and Britain than nowadays we would be given to believe existed. I am pleased Senator Cummins repeated the remarks Sam made in the House on his dearest wish.
Sam declared himself happy to live in the United Kingdom and happier still to be Irish and proclaim his Irishness. This is, in a way, the direction in which we are moving, namely, a position in which there is a recognition and acceptance of separate identities on this island. Ultimately, Sam McAughtry's aspiration was for peaceful co-existence between, to use the words of Wolfe Tone, Catholic, Protestant and dissenter. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.