Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I really want to mention the late Mr. Alan Gillis. I am sure everyone knows him but for those who do not, Alan Gillis was the former president of the IFA. He was someone I knew well. I told this story during an interview yesterday with the Wicklow People. When I was first elected to the Seanad, I received a letter from Alan wishing me well. He said he was not going to give me advice and then proceeded to write 12 foolscap pages of a book on how we could have progressive agriculture in Ireland and how we needed to reform it. I thought that was strange and wondered whether that was advice or the introduction. On the very last line in the correspondence, he said that in summary he would give me one bit of advice, which was that better farming practices, better animal husbandry and better cultivation will yield better results for us all. That was his real caption and his simple message.

He was a remarkable man. He was an engineer who then went on to own a 30 acre farm in Kill. He clearly got ambitious and realised that he wanted to be a farmer by choice. He always said that he was an engineer by profession but a farmer by choice. He gave it up and he accumulated a 375 acre farm next door to my grandfather, actually, in Grangecon in County Wicklow, which is on the Wicklow-Kildare border. It is a truly beautiful part of the world, and he set up there. I did not want to let the opportunity go without saying a few words about him.

He was in many ways a combination of three things. He was political and he was a proud Church of Ireland man. He was on the board of Adelaide Hospital and the Government subsequently appointed him to the board of Tallaght Hospital. He was a major advocate for choice in education and in health. He was pioneering in many ways and naturally, Fine Gael picked up on all of that. Of course, then he ran for Fine Gael and became a successful MEP. I would just like to say sorry, particularly to the Fine Gael community, of which he was a very strong and active member, and to the farming and agricultural community. They have lost a wonderful advocate. The Church of Ireland has lost a wonderful church man who was faithful to its tradition and proud of its heritage. As I said, it was that mix of politics and the church, although he was clearly very much in favour of the separation of church and State and always respected that line. He will be greatly missed by his family, his community in counties Wicklow and Kildare and the agricultural community. May he rest in peace.