Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am honoured to have this opportunity to reflect on the life and times of the former Senator, Des Hanafin. He was a truly remarkable gentleman and a man of great integrity, fortitude and spirit. His legacy can perhaps be best summed up by The Irish Timesheadline "Des Hanafin: conviction politician who opposed the liberal agenda" over a piece by Stephen Collins on Thursday, 22 June 2017.

Des was a member of Seanad Éireann for more than 30 years. Perhaps his greatest legacy was the championing and promoting of the constitutional ban on abortion, which was passed in a 1983 referendum. The eighth amendment of the Constitution is Ireland's original life equality amendment. Notwithstanding the abortion legislation of 2013, the eighth amendment provides the last remaining protection for the unborn child in Ireland.

Des Hanafin was born in Thurles in 1930 to John, or Johnny, Hanafin, a draper and newsagent, who served for many years as a Fianna Fáil councillor. Des married Mona Brady on 28 August 1958. Remarkably, their two children, Mary and John, went on to serve in the Oireachtas as a Deputy and Senator, respectively. Mary, a current councillor in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, is a former Cabinet Minister. Today, I wish to use this opportunity, to again sympathise with Mona, Mary and John on their loss.

Des had a strong connection with my own county of Donegal. That connection began in 1970, when he acted as Fianna Fáil director of elections for the Donegal town area during the bye-election in the Donegal–Leitrim constituency that year. Des forged lifelong friendships during the course of that campaign with many of the people in the Donegal town area. Interestingly, that bye-election was won by the Fianna Fáil candidate, Dr. Paddy Delap, 47 years ago last weekend.

Des Hanafin had a vision which recognised that if western civilisation collapsed, a brutal and pitiless world would replace it. He also recognised that this civilisation's very survival now hangs on its ability to rediscover Christian truths and the values on which it was founded. He was a man of immense integrity who totally disregarded self-interest and self-gain and who always served the nation and the common good. His courageous work both within the Oireachtas and beyond it provided a beacon of light, hope and courage not only for his generation but also for the generations that followed. The renowned Irish statesman, Edmund Burke, laid great emphasis on the transmission of values from one generation to the next and referred to a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead and those who are yet to be born. One often wonders how many of us feel part of such a partnership? Clearly, Des Hanafin did. His work illustrated that fact. Indeed, the work carried out by Des is perhaps best encapsulated by the words of Edmund Burke to the effect that all tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

Today, with western values and western civilisation caught in a pincer movement between radical Islam and hollowed-out secular liberalism, the ideals and courage of people such as Des Hanafin have never been more required. However, while Des may have gone to his heavenly reward, it is up to us to carry on his legacy and work and to ensure that we can live in a country and world where the foundation of our beliefs should not be diluted into some form of empty, secular, liberal narrative in a world where things disintegrate and where the centre cannot remain intact. The hollowing out of our institutions and our loss of identity are leading to a crisis of civilisation. All around us we hear the distress calls but too often, we remain silent to avoid jeopardising our economic or political interests. Des Hanafin did not take the silent path.

Des Hanafin's courage, determination, honesty and significant contribution to Irish public life can be summed up by a quote from the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, when he said "In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principal, stand like a rock." Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasail.