Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar were among the mourners at the funeral of former attorney general and European Commissioner Peter Sutherland today.
Sutherland, who also served as director general of GATT, the forerunner of the World Trade Organisation, passed away aged 71 on Sunday.
His funeral was held at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook in Dublin this morning.
Father Noel Barber, who gave the homily, told the congregation how “acres of newsprint” had chronicled Sutherland’s journey to the top, adding that that coverage had …
… perhaps not underlined a most significant event that occurred in the Old Belvedere pavilion on Anglesea Road. There Peter met Maruja and a friendship blossomed into a romance and the romance into the happiest of marriages of two people of different temperaments and character but absolutely united in their devotion to one another and to the children.
Her support was writ large over his success in the balance and calm she brought to union. Of course, his long illness showed her in her finest colours.
Barber recalled Sutherland’s “countless acts of generosity that were and remain hidden” and his “passionate devotion to the cause of refugees”.
Sutherland served as United Nations Special Representative for International Migration for more than eleven years from the start of 2006.
“He promoted globalisation because he saw it was a means of lifting billions out of grim poverty and of countering a narrow nationalism, which avoids global responsibility,” Fr Barber said.
His enthusiasm for the real benefits of globalisation may indeed have blurred his view of its downside but he rightly emphasised its benefit to the poorer countries of the world.
Sutherland had a distinguished legal career and a highly successful business career. He 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 the creation the Erasmus university programme while EU Commissioner in the 1980s.
The Taoiseach, paying tribute at the weekend, called Sutherland a “statesman in every sense of the word”. President Higgins paid tribute to his “lifetime of contributions at home and abroad”.
Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, and businessmen Denis O’Brien and Harry Crosbie also attended today’s funeral.
Peter Sutherland was laid to rest at Kilternan Cemetery Park in south Dublin.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Name them. I bet there’s a few there either
A. Related to someone
B. Party hacks
C. Incompetents who failed miserably everywhere else.
D. Someone with 3 state pension already
I heard there are bondholders in it also
The legend Gerald Fleming is in the pic – giving the V sign to camera – He knows the sea and wind and arrows and fronts and stuff. Wink. Goodnight.
Gerard Fleming & Co are using the equipment that Michael Fish was using back in 1987
Give them time the floods only started a month ago
They are a bit late coming together at this point. It is a pity we have a habit of been re active rather than pro acrive.
Minister Hayes during the week as an example thinking he great announcing better protection against floods. Hello minister nothing has changed in the ladt few hundred yeara all the places that flooded always were prone to floods.
Declan the limerick flood never happened before. Came from a totally different direction. Never happened in living memory.
What is the national emergency group anyway? ????….. No idea. .. Never heard of them but probably a shower of overpayed, overindulged “experts” feeding at the national troff
I may be wrong but I’ve yet to see any Civil Defence or Army Reserves out helping!
Civil defence were deployed in Cork City last night, including river rescue units.
Defence forces troops were out in limerick the other day as was the civil defence
Civil defence are deployed at a local level. My mother volunteers with them and they’ve been called out on various occasion throughout the year for flooding etc.
They don’t get nearly enough credit. Majority of them my mam works with are volunteers.
Don’t mind sitting around talking about what might happen. Go to Holland and ask the Dutch how they dealt with coastal erosion and flooding…take a shortcut and ask somebody who has already dealt with the problem and has the solution…saves money …gets results faster
I smell oodles of overtime here.
I’d say the expenses are pretty good as well.
They will reconvene in the summer
What summer?
2013
A talking shop…..
god help us if we do get a real natural disaster. There isn’t one person in kildare street with leadershio skills.
No help from the army in clonmel as shatter closed the army barracks and posted the soldiers to kilkenny Bks.just to keep big mouth Hogan happy .
Rumour has it that they reckon stricter internet controls and more pylons will greatly reduce the number of floods we are experiencing.
The piss and wind brigade!
The response, or rather lack of, by the Irish authorities to the continued bad weather and flooding is severely lacking.
A few sandbags isn’t going to be any good in situations like this and measures that will divert floodwaters and limit damage will need to be taken.
Another example of the complete lack of response is that the main online Irish data on flooding is on the OPW website and hasn’t been updated since 2009.
There is no attempt to crowdsource flooding data in realtime, a methodology which has been successfully used in other countries.
Is it not a bit illogical to have the National Emergency Coordination Centre right in the centre of Dublin? If the emergency were anything besides weather, the centre of the capital might not be the best place to be.
It’s about time national fire ambulance. Service. Mr sean hogan against this if look at fire service some refuse to Ture out flooding.
Alot of county’s, I’d say most, (retained anyways), don’t turn out to flooding. It’s crazy. They’d rather send the civil defence cos it’s free. I’d love to see the chaos in the country if the gardai was run like the fire service. In this country they under-react to everything, and when something goes tits up they cover there arses till it’s forgotten about.
Irelands Justice League?
Nothing
have your say