Garret FitzGerald, Ireland's most popular elder statesman who twice served as prime minister and played a crucial role in paving the way for peace in Northern Ireland, has died at the age of 85, his family said on Thursday. Known universally as Garret and much loved for his dotty professor persona, the erudite economist played an important role in shaping modern Ireland.
His death, after a short illness, prompted tributes from around the world, including Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission. As prime minister in the 1980s, FitzGerald persuaded British Margaret Thatcher to give Dublin an official toehold in Northern Ireland, creating a channel for the two governments to overcome decades of mistrust which led to a historic peace deal in 1998.
That groundwork was crowned in stunning fashion on the eve of FitzGerald's death when the British monarch delivered a landmark speech of reconciliation in Dublin. President Mary McAleese told the state broadcaster RTE: "While I am so desperately sorry that he did not get to any of the events this week, I'm so glad he lived long enough to see a time when Her Majesty the Queen came to Ireland and made so many wonderful gestures of reconciliation." Ireland's parliament suspended normal business so deputies could pay tribute to FitzGerald and the Irish tricolour flew at half-mast on all government buildings.