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Updated 4.23pm
IRELAND’S FORMER ATTORNEY general Peter Sutherland has died at the age of 71.
Sutherland was Ireland’s youngest attorney general and had a distinguished legal career and also a highly successful business career.
Sutherland was also a European Commissioner and the director general of GATT, the forerunner of the World Trade Organisation.
More recently he was United Nations Special Representative for International Migration.
Sutherland was chairman and managing director of Goldman Sachs International and also served on numerous multinational boards including BP, Volvo and Ericsson.
His various Irish, European and International jobs saw him play a role in some significant events of the past few decades, including 1983′s abortion referendum as Attorney General, and opening the door for low-fare airlines like Ryanair and creating the Erasmus university programme while EU Commissioner in the 1980s.
In recent years, he had taken on a very active role in issues around migration and was an advocate of compassion on the issue.
His passing today was greeted with sadness by numerous members of the legal profession with Chairman of the Bar of Ireland Paul McGarry SC saying that he had lost a “great former colleague”.
Tributes also came from Irish political life.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called Sutherland a “statesman in every sense of the word” who played “a very important role in Irish political life throughout the 1980s”.
In recent years he dedicated his skills and extensive experience to serving for the United Nations where he was tireless in highlighting the plight of migrants. Throughout his life, he was a champion for individual and economic freedoms.
President Michael D Higgins paid tribute to Sutherland’s “lifetime of contributions at home and abroad”.
He said: “Tirelessly campaigning for global solutions to human trafficking and forced migration, he became a passionate and influential voice for the rights of the 65 million people who have been forced to flee their homes and homelands.”
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin praised Sutherland’s “outstanding and distinguished contribution to public life” while Labour Leader Brendan Howlin called him an “Irish giant on the international stage but a man who never forgot where he came from”.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said Sutherland’s “intellect was extraordinary” and that he “used his talents to be one of Ireland’s most influential people”.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s This Week programme, former Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader John Bruton paid tribute to Sutherland, and said he had a “personal generosity that he carried through to public life”.
Bruton said his work in migration was an “expression of the real Peter Sutherland”.
“He was disappointed at the tendency in some states to ignore the humanity of migrants and refugees,” he said.
Sutherland also had a “consistent passion for greater harmony in the world”, Bruton said.
Former Minister for Education Gemma Hussey called Sutherland a “truly great man” who “shone on the international stage”.
Labour Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said that Sutherland’s voice throughout the “recent refugee crisis was raw humanity with an Irish accent”.
Sutherland was born in April 1946, and studied law at UCD. After working as senior counsel he first became Attorney General in 1981.
It is understood that Sutherland may have been ill for some time. He survived by his wife and three children.
With reporting from Sean Murray
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The Sikh’s delivering aid….great people.
This is a glimpse of what’s to come after Britain voted to leave the EU. They wanted boarders & separation… then they got to deal with the consequences! Be careful what you vote for, you might get it!
God Damn British Immigrants
…UK better get used to this: the days of fast passage are over..
There’s a lot more ports on the south/south-east coasts – and the Tunnel.
karma is a bitch…
Karma is a kameleon…
What do they expect! This is a glimpse of what’s to come after Britain voted to leave the EU. They wanted boarders & separation… then they got to deal with the consequences! Be careful what you vote for, you might get it!
Many think this French slowdown is because of the UK’s decision to leave the EU – payback…
The French are being childish and petulant about the British making a decision they don’t agree with?
Stevie Wonder saw that one coming.
That’s just superstition
Writing on the wall
Blame, blame, blame…..but not a word about the lack of police and border staff in France and in England being due to cuts in staffing due to the neoliberal policies pursued by both governments in recent years. The beneficiaries are of course the city of London financial services parasites who have their private jets….no worries there then. How long before police and customs people are on zero hours contracts??
This is not caused by cuts – but by the French reaction to Brexit. Thejournal showed the negative feelings here, also.
@mmz
Is that you Wally?
Went from UK to France a few weeks ago and noone checked my boot.
Get used to it Britain. This is what you voted for, you 52%
Shocking levels of incompetence on both sides in the failure to have adequate staffing levels after brexit Nightmare scenario for poor families with kids especially and people with medical issues
Opening gambit of brexit negotiations by EU.
“People were very, very frustrated and pulling their hair out.’
It would the average Sikh about 50 years to pull his hair out.
Now can they tell us if they found anything at all. France are always holding us to ransom
The terrorist are winning
Again, once the tourists get caught up in a queue there is uproar, freight traffic goes through this every week, the ports of Dover and Calais are not fit for use, hasn’t been for a long time, the delays we have to endure are crazy but no one gives a damn
have your say