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PJ MARA, THE long-serving Fianna Fáil political advisor, has died aged 73 following a long illness.
He was known for his close political relationship with Charlie Haughey, and returned to serve as the party’s director of elections up till the 2000s.
A well-known figure in Irish politics for decades, he also served briefly in the Seanad on two separate occasions between 1981 and 1982.
He was press secretary to Fianna Fáil in opposition from 1982 to 87 and fulfilled the same role in government from 1987-1992.
Mara returned to helm successful election campaigns during Bertie Ahern’s term in charge from 1997 to 2007.
As part of his private business career, he served as non-executive director of mobile phone and communications company Digicel and director of subsidiary Digicel PNG. He was also media relations adviser to Guinness Peat Aviation, the aircraft-leasing company.
Mara was a board member of UNICEF Ireland and of the NUI Galway Foundation, and served on the board of the Special Olympics World Games, which was held in Ireland in 2003.
Between 2003 and 2008 he acted as an advisor to the prime minister and government of Croatia.
(Above: In one of his last headline-generating appearances as Fianna Fáil advisor, Mara stepped in to defend Bertie Ahern at the party’s 2007 manifesto launch)
‘A true original’
His high profile role as government advisor inspired countless sketches on the radio comedy Scrap Saturday in the late 80s and early 90s, where he was mercilessly lampooned by Dermot Morgan.
He was also portrayed by Tom Vaughan Lawlor in the 2015 RTÉ Charlie Haughey drama Charlie.
A native of Drumcondra on the northside of Dublin, the Fianna Fáil stalwart had been living in Ballsbridge in recent years.
A decade after his wife Breda’s death he became a father again in 2013 at the age of 71, describing his daughter as a “beautiful child”.
His son John is involved in the property business.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke programme today former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said:
PJ was a wonderful person… able to handle almost any situation. The tensest of battles in Leinster House. The toughest of days. PJ would be at the heart of it. Never one to dodge. Wouldn’t go missing, like some people do in political life when it gets tough.
In a statement, Special Olympics Ireland said Mara used his “considerable experience and insight of media relations” to allow Ireland’s hosting of the summer games in 2003 to be the success that it was.
“It was with great sadness that I learned this morning of the passing of PJ Mara,” Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said in a statement.
“On behalf of the Fianna Fáil party I wish to extend our condolences to his family.
“In a series of general elections as well as the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement PJ proved himself to be the most effective campaign director in Irish political history. He brought immense humour, judgement and commitment to the role.
“As Government Press Secretary for five years he brought a new energy and professionalism to the role which was recognised throughout Europe during the 1990 Presidency of the European Council.
“Whether it was international statesmen or a local party stalwart PJ was always available to encourage and support.
“PJ was a true original who it was an honour and a pleasure to know and to work with.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
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Awful sad. Thoughts with the families.
A good few Irish lads out in Dubai working for their engineering and maintenance department. Thinking of Ye lads. For all the armchair crash investigators, no pilot takes off with the thought that his actions will kill all on board. I’ll keep my opinions until after we have an crash investigation report. RIP.
@tom burke, my connection with the ‘manx2′ crash was budget airline & it says the plane was ‘circling’ for 2hrs when other planes had diverted but obviously this crew were under pressure to land at that airport as were the crew of ‘manx2′ flight
Sounds like a similar chain of events that caused the ‘manx2′ flight to crash in cork a few years ago,
Manx crashed in poor visibility, not stormy conditions. Indeed when it is foggy it is rarely windy.
Not that similar.
Ahh tom the aviation expert is back ..
Ah Chris
I’m merely stating facts.
In fact I’m one of the few who is not speculating.
Sorry for pointing out the obvious Tom, but in stating that this crash is not that similar to the manx crash, you’re speculating on the precise cause(s) of this crash.
Avina
You are making this painful.
I never speculated anything about the cause of the crash. All I’m doing is pointing out the facts that the weather in this incident and the weather in the Cork incident were very different.
I’m not speculating. I’m dealing with facts. There is a big difference.
Lubitz was a co-pilot. I am aware of this incident and others where members of the flight crew flew the aircraft into terrain. Hope that made your day pointing that out
There’s a video out there purporting to be of this plane crash. Doesn’t look like any accidental crash in bad weather I’ve ever seen. Plane comes down hard and fast on an almost 90 degree angle.
Sounds like poor judgement alright. Pressure to land instead of divert. If bad weather then should have diverted to airport with ILS. The mistake was the 2 hours circling…ate up the divert allowance.
But we do know its rarely foggy and windy at the same time …lol….but that is correct
There is footage of it from cctv and it looks like it nose dived into the ground? It looks nothing like a plane missing the runway. Rip to all souls lost.
Shocking. Know a few pilots down there.
6h30m flying a 738 with one confirmed and a possible second go around? Fuel?
Could of course be off the mark but if you listen to communication with ATC there’s no mention of fuel. All conversations relate to weather. That said bigger and better airlines cut it fine with fuel so hardly out of the question. It’s saying the wing hit the ground which could mean wind but it’s coming in very steep and very fast. So I could be pilot error. I’d say it’s best to leave it to the experts.
Magoo he meant anyone in their right mind you clown
The speculation police are out in force today.
Ya watch one series of air crash investigator and people become experts!!!
@quiggers im not trying to be an aviation expert nor an air crash investigation expert but like yourself i do have friends in that field & i do read all these reports from accidents so i do have to a ‘certain extent’ & i use that very carefully understand the reasons behind these incidents
How do you know the captain made any “fatal decision” ?
@ Helena…
I wish the journal got their facts right! Poor journalism, that’s what it’s called. Not ALL passengers were Russian: 44 were Russian, 2 Indians, 8 Ukranians & 1 Uzbek. The crew consisted of a captain from Cyprus (who made the fatal decision to land instead of diverting, did he think he was invisible and will be able to land when many other planes decided to divert?!), co-pilot from Spain, air hostess from Colombia and the rest of the crew from the Seychelles. More accurate info is here: http://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/how-is-the-weather-sir-audio-of-final-cockpit-conversation-of-doomed-flydubai-738-jet-before-crash-in-poor-visibility/ar-BBqGnJX?li=AAaxjhv
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