Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join with others and would like to be associated with the many tributes to John Bruton, the TD, Taoiseach, father, friend, brother, supporter and encourager. What a wonderful man he was. I knew John Bruton personally. I had many reasons to be with him in County Meath. I was down in Meath yesterday and spoke to a number of people in Navan and in a lovely little place called Kilcloon. For those who do not know, that was the parish of John Bruton. While he lived in Dunboyne, he always went to the parish of Kilcloon. Fr. Gerry Rice was his parish priest. For those who know Navan in that part of County Meath, Kilcloon is in a little tripartite of three parishes of Kilcloon, Kilcock - the side in Meath rather than in Kildare - and, of course, Batterstown. John liked the idea, as he said to me many times, because it gave him many opportunities to go to three churches within his own parish, which was part of his networking. That is the extent he went to. He also said he liked the intimacy of this little church, which I would say was built in the 1970s.It is a very modern angular church at the crossroads in Kilcloon. There is nothing more in Kilcloon other than the parish priest's house and a few sprawling bungalows but it was very interesting. Fr. Gerry Rice, who has moved on and I met John at his funeral, said to me, "Bruton now has been elected the Taoiseach of Fine Gael. He will hardly be standing at the gate with Finola with a biscuit tin collecting for Fine Gael or he will hardly be standing on the box making political speeches." The Deputy Leader talked about her experience of meeting John, but, no, that was not to be. Typical of John, his style, his connections with people and his community, and his huge connection with his parish church, which was very much part of his extended family and what he believed in, what he supported and was very much a value that he had, he was out there in his typical short cream Crombie coat wearing a waxed hat upside down in the pouring rain as it was on that particular Sunday. There was John slowly crossing the traffic because on a wet day people got into their cars and drove away fast but he was determined to engage with them, say "Hello" and "Fine Gael is here and we are doing a church gate collection". I do not think too many people do church gate collections but that was typical of John.

As others have said, John identified with the European Christian democratic tradition. He was proud of that and never ashamed of that. He was very much a Catholic. He believed in the principles of that Christian democratic ethos. He weaved that, carried that out and activated that through dialogue and political engagement. That is what I liked about John more than anything. He did not compromise. He did not dull down his own fundamental beliefs in who he was. He was truly an authentic man. He also believed deeply, and I have to say this because it can sometimes get lost in the narrative, but Bruton absolutely supported deeply the dignity of people regardless of their race, gender, orientation or stature in life. Sometimes that aspect gets lost when we talk of people who are possibly to the right or, possibly, with a heavy emphasis on Catholicism, and that was not the case. John mastered many things in politics but he had that great art of being a pragmatist and of working with people with whom he disagreed or belonged to another party. That is a skill which few politicians have.

I mentioned the experience with Fr. Gerry Rice and that is typical of the man. It is strange when we look back on the life of John Bruton but he was the Minister for agriculture that we never had. He never served as Minister for agriculture. He had a love of the land, the soil and animals. His father was hugely involved as a land agent. That was not a nice place to be, and to be in a family and reared around people who acted as land agents, particularly for absentee landlords, in County Meath and beyond was sometimes a challenge but they did it and they were greatly respected in terms of business and economics but the one area that John never touched on was agriculture. When I first sought to be elected to the agricultural panel in Seanad Éireann, I sought him out. I met him in County Meath and I asked him for advice and he asked me what was I doing and how was I engaging. I replied that I operate the very simple principle of going to the kitchen table, breaking bread with people, looking people in the eye and making the ask of them and he said, "Don't go away from that, tick with that and engage with people. You will have to convince people. You will get one opportunity. If you do not deliver on it then you will not get a second opportunity." I always took his advice with me.

Today, as I walked up the stairs I met the British ambassador who was on a visit here to Leinster House to pay his respects to John Bruton. The British ambassador decided to go to Dáil Éireann to sit and listen to the tributes in Dáil Éireann. I thought that was very significant and welcome. While the ambassador cannot be in both Houses, his visit is an indication of John Bruton's commitment. The fact that the British ambassador to Ireland decided to come to Leinster House and listen to the tributes being paid to John Bruton says so much about our new, mature relationship and our engagement with our nearest citizens. I also thought how chuffed John Bruton would be today, wherever he is looking in and seeing the progress that has been made on the island of Ireland in the past few days. John played a significant role in that.He was clearly committed to building stronger and more robust Anglo-Irish relationships. When Paul Johnston came here today, we talked briefly on that and that says so much. I do not need to say any more about that. It is really important.

John was the Fine Gael opposition spokesperson on agriculture but he was never the Minister for agriculture. There is no doubt that he and Ivan Yates had many an old banter about agriculture there - and he truly was a great agricultural Minister himself.

I also think of Roy Dooney today. Many in Fine Gael will know of him. Roy was John Bruton's special adviser when he was Taoiseach. He was well known around these Houses. He went on to other things. He went to America with John and he always said one thing about John: that John was boundless energy. I remember meeting John in Dún Laoghaire on the fringes of a Fine Gael selection convention for just a small council seat and there was John Bruton in the middle of it. I will not say he micromanaged but he was usually interested in the finer details of the Fine Gael political family and the successes of it. Someone said to me today that John was very much involved in the intrigue. He liked to shape and determine, as we all do, outcomes. He certainly had his finger on the pulse in the selection of many Fine Gael people who went forward into local and national politics. He was an "encourager" and a motivator. He was generous with his experience and he shared that experience and encouraged young people into Fine Gael. While much credit is given to Enda Kenny, John Bruton had a huge significance in recruiting and bringing people into Fine Gael too. We see the success of all of that in Leinster House. We see it in the success of the many Fine Gael Ministers here today who learned and gleaned information and experiences from them. That is a tribute to himself. Roy Dooney said that John was a man in a hurry, he had so many ideas and wanted to do so much. I believe that he did this in many ways.

Yesterday I had a look in the Oireachtas archive at the first and last speech John Bruton made in Dáil Éireann. I then went over to look at the archive of the Seanad. Two things were obvious to me. One was that he wanted Oireachtas parliamentary reform. Reference has been made to the Oireachtas joint committees and to pre-legislative scrutiny. John Bruton had his hands all over that. He had travelled around and he was familiar with other parliamentary democracies. He valued the pre-legislative engagement and he valued discussion. He believed that people do not all have to be sitting at Cabinet to be working on policy. He was really in instrumental in that and he also made very significant inroads on reform of these Houses.

More importantly, he spoke passionately in Seanad Éireann about Irish emigrants and the right of Irish emigrants to have a vote in Seanad Éireann. That was the thing I gleaned most from the archives. In these Houses, he talked about the need to extend the franchise to our diaspora, our people that we grow up with, and generations of our people from all over this country. He spoke of the need to give them a voice in the ambition and the future for Ireland. Hopefully at some stage in the future, we might revisit some of those links to some of those speeches. Hopefully, we might take guidance and look again to renew that commitment to how we in the Seanad can reform ourselves and, more importantly, how we can extend the franchise for votes to Irish emigrants.

He was truly a unique man but most of all he was a decent man. That is a nice thing to say about anyone. He was liked, he was popular, he engaged and he was pragmatic. To the Fine Gael family political group, I extend my sympathy. I know that when you have someone so close in any party you become entwined with friendships and family and support. You can be proud of his achievements as one of your great leaders in your party. To his family, to Finola, and to the people of Meath the county that he loved, the country life that he loved and the place he will now go back and rest in, you have lost a wonderful public servant. He will be there and he will be remembered. His legacy will live on in many other Fine Gael people who will stand for that party in the constituencies in County Meath.