The former minister Mr Bobby Molloy was to Galway what Fianna Fáil's Mr Jack Lynch was to Cork and the PDs' Mr Des O'Malley was to Limerick, the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, said at the weekend.
No other politician in Galway had shaped national politics in the way Mr Molloy had done, and he had made an "outstanding contribution" over the last 40 years, the PD leader said. However, it was his role in helping to found and build the PDs from January 1986 which "guarantees his place in political history", she told a tribute function on Saturday night to mark Mr Molloy's retirement.
An estimated 600 people attended the dinner in the Galway Bay Hotel, which was hosted by the local branch of the PDs. Mr Molloy resigned from his position as junior environment minister last April following the controversy over his office's approach to a judge who was involved in a rape case.
Although he announced his retirement from politics, he ran the PD campaign in Galway West which secured a seat for Mr Noel Grealish TD in the General Election. Mr Molloy, who admitted that he wished the circumstances surrounding his retirement had been different, was accompanied by his wife, Phyllis, and family at the function.
In her address, the Tánaiste reminisced on his distinguished career which dated back to 1965 when he was elected TD for Fianna Fáil. His first vote in the Dáil had been in favour of a motion nominating Mr Seán Lemass for Taoiseach, and his first parliamentary questions were on the date for sewerage works for Knocknacarra and the trout hatchery at Oughterard, she said.
In his maiden speech of May 5th, 1965, Mr Molloy had expressed the view that Gaeltarra Éireann would not on its own solve the problems of the Gaeltacht - nor would the deontas (grant).
He went on to say that if Gaeltacht people were deprived of dancing, "we shall leave them with nothing but the hills, the muck, the wet and the rain". Dancing was "one of the things which serves to make life a little more interesting" for people in such communities.
Mr Molloy had never let his parliamentary duties take him too far from Galway, and he was a founder of the Galway regatta.
Mr Molloy had "seen the heroes, the villains and the jesters of political life", the Tánaiste concluded. "He has witnessed the cameo appearances, all the sub-plots and the choreography. He knows about the drama, the tragedy and the comedy, and the poetic justice that can come too." He had "been through it all" and had always acted with "principle and decency", especially when decisions were tough, she said to rapturous applause.
Among the guests at the function was former PD leader, Mr Des O'Malley. "The sad part was the way it ended, which I thought was very unfair," Mr O'Malley said of Mr Molloy's career. "I've seen some very unfair things in politics but quite honestly one of the worst of all, and the most unfair of all, was what happened to Bobby earlier this year."
