With politicians in Ireland generally feted for their perceived adherence to progressive values and grandiose speeches that garner the affection and appreciation of an avowedly liberal establishment, the death of John Bruton offers a reminder that there used to be a type of politician cut from a different cloth who did not bend his knee to the zeitgeist.
To many, John Bruton was Ireland’s last statesman. Following the death of this former Taoiseach – the title for the Prime Minister of Ireland – at the age of 76 after a long illness, and which arrived unexpectedly for the public, Bruton has been repeatedly described as a someone of decency and integrity. Adjectives not normally associated with descriptions of politicians in Ireland.
Admittedly, his passing will not be marked by the type of national mourning reserved for the flawed genius of Sinead O’Connor or Shane MacGowan, nor by the partisan eulogising reserved for the likes of Noel Browne, the former Minister of Health, who is perceived to have taken on the might of the Catholic Establishment in the 1960s.
