John Bruton RIP

Very sad. RIP.

RIP

On a personal level a very friendly nice man.

RIP seemed like a good man!

rip

A decent man and one of our most honourable politicians.

Head and shoulders above our present party leaders. R.I.P. to him.

He was the brightest leader we have had since Garret in the 80s IMO. RIP.

You'd wonder how the country would have turned out if he won the 1997 election? From memory, FG/Labour were viewed as fiscally conservative, whereas Bertie and FF were willing to throw the dosh around. But I don't think it can be doubted that FG/Labour managed to steady the ship and lay solid economic foundations for the future.

I could be wrong on a few of these, but his governments major achievements were launching TG4, deregulation of national radio, opening of LUAS, fiscal stability and some key moves on the North which brought about a ceasefire, although that ended. There was controversy too, clearing of FG debts, handing out of mobile phone licence, and probably one or two others.

Overall not a bad government though.

As a staunch Fine Gaeler, I'm saddened to hear of John Bruton's passing.

I wouldn't have had a huge respect for him in my youth, when he was Opposition leader to Albert Reynolds. I thought he was out of his depth somewhat, but I acknowledge and believe he grew into leadership and became an important Taoiseach, in a tumultuous enough time on this island and in Europe.

May he Rest in Peace

Head and shoulders above our present party leaders. Politics aside, he always came across as a decent man. R.I.P.

RIP. He was perhaps the political wing of Conor Cruise O'Brien.

I don't think the Good Friday agreement would have happened if he was still in power in 1998. He was too against SF and too close to the Unionists.

On the other hand, I don't think the financial crash would have been as severe for the country if he was still Taoiseach in 2008.

Very sad. Deserves great credit for the work he did having to go around Europe trying to help repair the country's reputation after the financial crash as a result of Fianna Fáil's handywork.

It would been considerably less likely the country would have gotten itself in to that mess had FG/Lab gone another couple of terms.

RIP.

I think John Burton was an honest man. I echo what others have said, he's far better than the shower in charge at the moment. He helped lay the foundations for the Good Friday agreement. He helped start the Celtic Tiger by lowering our corporate tax rate to one of the lowest in Europe. Latterly, he was the European Union's ambassador to Washington. He was a good servant to the country. RIP.

One thing he should have done when in power was to reel in the banks and legislate for them to cut their cloth to their actual size when giving out loans to developers.

He didn't but neither did Reynolds or Bertie.

One of our better Taoiseach, and presented a more realistic view of what it was to be Irish than the 'Oh ah up the Ra' that constituted Irishish with some today.

If they won the 97 election, we would have escaped the worst of the crash ten years later.

Didn't have a cult of personalities like Ahern or Haughey but that is a good thing, considering the disasters they left behind.

Ok on the day that's in it, perhaps it was a bit insensitive on rover_runner's part. But I remember Prince Charles first visit to Ireland and John fawning over him like a lost gosling.

I remember feeling embarrassed and bewildered as an Irishman.

I think I remember him saying at the time "it was the best day of my life".