'An outstanding political leader'

John V Farrelly recalls his former colleague in Dáil Eireann, the late John Bruton

John Bruton provided outstanding political leadership here in Meath, for Ireland and in the international arena over 35 years. I knew John for 50 years, and I spent those 50 years learning from him – from his ideas and from his skill as a politician.

In Meath Fine Gael we were very proud of John Bruton over the years, and glad to support him as our party leader on the national stage, and as Taoiseach.

John, like his wife, Finola, had huge intelligence, total integrity and great humility. Like Finola, John was not materialistic – his passion in life was to make the world a better place. One of my first experiences of John’s humility was when he visited our family home in 1969, a few days after he, my late father Denis Farrelly and Willie Carey from Enfield had been Fine Gael candidates together in the 1969 general election.

John won the seat in that election that my father had held for the previous decade. It was typical of John that one of his first acts as a new TD was to visit my father in our family home in Kilmainhamwood; my family appreciated that very much at the time. He was a decent, thoughtful and loyal person always.

I started working closely with John Bruton in 1975, when I became a Meath County Councillor, aged 20.

He was then a Parliamentary Secretary (Minister of State) in Liam Cosgrave’s government. He was very generous with his advice to me when I was very young and inexperienced. I joined him in the Dáil in 1981 when we won two seats for Fine Gael in Meath and John was appointed as Minister for Finance. I was his running mate in eight successive general election campaigns; he was an energetic campaigner with legendary attention to detail.

John’s achievements as Taoiseach, Minister for Finance and EU Ambassador have been discussed in great detail in recent days. The only thing I would like to add to the assessments of his international involvement is - I served from 1987-1990 with John on the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe was created after World War II, as an Assembly for politicians from different European countries. Its purpose was to get countries to know and understand each other, to prevent another tragic war. John used every second of every Council of Europe meeting to improve his understanding of other countries, other politicians, and the important issues. He was a lifelong learner, listener, reader, writer and debater.

Locally, John delivered a lot for Meath. I recall working with him in the 1980s to secure new schools in Ashbourne, Oldcastle, Nobber, Kells and Navan. The situation in Ashbourne was particularly difficult in the early 1980s – 1,000 children were leaving the town every morning on buses to go to schools in Finglas and other parts of Dublin. The country was close to being broke at the time, but a solution was found, and a school was built. John was at the forefront of that.

He was a unique campaigner – he always believed in canvassing every vote. This was true in Meath, and it was also true in the leadership elections that he contested in the Fine Gael party. One of my fondest memories of John was the 1987 leadership election, following the retirement of Garret FitzGerald. John competed with Alan Dukes from Kildare and Peter Barry from Cork on that occasion. All three were senior ministers in Garret Fitzgerald’s governments. John decided to visit every member of the Fine Gael parliamentary party in their own homes. I volunteered to drive him around the country to visit all of our colleagues. I collected him at Dunboyne and we toured Ireland, both of us had young families and we were gone from home for a full week. He was so absorbed by politics – every morning he’d read three newspapers in the passenger seat, and he’d read the two evening papers also. I recall driving through Skibbereen at 12pm at night, and driving 45 miles of bad road on to Goleen out on the Mizen peninsula, where Paddy Sheehan TD lived. John canvassed Paddy after 1am in the morning, and we were on the road again the next morning at 6m, John stopping at the first open shop to purchase those all-important morning papers.

It was a pleasure to have known John, to have served with him, and to have been his supporter in his many national campaigns and activities. He leaves behind a hugely positive political legacy.