Dr Garret FitzGerald, 1926 - 2011

The passing of former Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald reminds us of an era in Irish politics that looks very different from today’s tribunals and their bottomless digs into the sordid details of corruption in public life. The Troubles in the north were constantly on the brink of spiraling out of control, emigration was the favored pathway to a better life, and contraceptives could only be obtained in the north. There was plenty for an ambitious and liberal-minded Taoiseach to get his teeth into.

Any discussion of a national leader should put him in the context of his relationships with contemporary world leaders of the time, particularly that of Ireland's closest neighbor.

If there was a limit of one adjective to describe Margaret Thatcher, “uncompromising” would be the most apt. In the face of a military dictator who forcibly seized a piece of British territory in the South Atlantic, Thatcher refused to compromise and used brute force to take the Falkland Islands back. In the face of a powerful coal miners' union mounting a strike that threatened to cripple the country's economy, Thatcher refused to compromise, broke the strike and obliterated the power of the entire trade union movement while she was at it. In the face of demands for Irish republican prisoners to be granted the status of political prisoners, Thatcher refused to compromise and allowed them to die on hunger strike, consequences be damned.

It was against this daunting backdrop that FitzGerald convened the New Ireland Forum in 1983, seeking to distill the best ideas from Irish nationalism on how to make progress in the north. Critics who had yet to wake up to the value of dialogue dismissed the forum as a “talking shop”, but nonetheless it produced a report which highlighted the negative effects of partition. It also outlined three possible solutions to the northern problem, namely a united Ireland, a federal Ireland, and joint authority. Thatcher refused to compromise and dismissed this year's work in a few seconds in an infamous short speech at a press conference in which she brusquely dismissed each solution in turn as "out".

Nonetheless, the Forum refined the essential elements of constitutional nationalism, explained the nationalist position in clear terms to the British, and within three years the Anglo Irish Agreement was signed by Thatcher and FitzGerald giving the Dublin government an active say in the running of the north for the first time since partition. British sovereignty was compromised despite bitter opposition from unionists. Garret FitzGerald had secured a north-south dimension to politics which eventually became a core component of the Good Friday Agreement. In the process he had gotten Thatcher to compromise on her unionist principles, a feat that not many world leaders could boast.

On the domestic front, Dr FitzGerald used his time as Taoiseach to push a modernizing agenda on social issues. Unbelievably, contraceptives could not be legally imported into or sold in the Irish Republic as recently as 1979, and even then their sale was heavily restricted as recently as 1985. This was almost exclusively due to the influence of the Catholic church in shaping social attitudes and thwarting numerous attempts at reform. While Dr FitzGerald is widely credited with liberalizing contraceptive laws, it was actually under Charles Haughey’s first tenure as Taoiseach that legislation in 1979 got as far as allowing their sale with a prescription. It was under FitzGerald's subsequent leadership that the necessary legislation passed in 1985 lifting the prescription requirement.

FitzGerald was less successful on another social matter. A ban on divorce had been written into the constitution at the foundation of the state. It should be noted that this restriction reflected the values of one particular religious denomination, quite different from the more secular vision espoused in the 1916 Proclamation of Independence which guaranteed religious and civil liberty for all. Since the ban on divorce was carved into the constitution rather than etched into legislation, it required a referendum to remove it. In the mid 1980s the Catholic church's political stock was still trading high. It used its considerable influence mercilessly, the campaign to allow divorce was defeated, and people trapped in loveless or abusive marriages had to stick it out for another ten years until a second attempt to reform this draconian restriction succeeded.

In striking contrast to his rival, Charles Haughey, FitzGerald was a man who shunned the trappings of wealth. With his history as an academic and his analytical mind always noticeable, he seemed more interested in going into every political decision armed with as much knowledge and background information as possible to help him make the right decision.

In these cynical times it is sometimes fashionable to speak of the shortcomings of the dead, but this is one politician who deserves the benefit of the doubt. FitzGerald certainly had his critics in Irish republican circles who resented his claims of powerlessness in the face of the hunger strike situation. However in the absence of any formal arrangements that could give southern politicians a say in the north at the time it is difficult to see what he could have done.

It does seem like he did his best to make the right choice based on the merits of the situation, even if it meant doing what would not become politically fashionable until many years later. One cannot ask for much more from any public servant.