Death of Tomás Mac Giolla

[Pauli]

I am greatly saddened to hear about the death of Tom Gill.
My father and Gill shared a flat with two others as they worked their way through a B.Comm degree in the years immediately after the war. While they were at UCD, my father saw a notice giving details of a talk being given by the author Sean Og O'Tuama about, primarily, the Irish language. My father wanted to hear what O'Tuama had to say on the subject and persuaded a very reluctant Gill to join him since at the time Gill had not the slightest interest in the Irish language. In the event, my father was somewhat undewhelmed at what O'Tuama had to say. Gill, on the other hand, sat transfixed through the talk and his political development and interest in Irish got a massive boost on that night and it basically kick-started his interest in the political path he followed for decades afterwards.
In time, he became godfather to my brother. We saw less and less of him over the years, yet when he and my father met, it always seemed like they saw each other the day before and were merely continuing a conversation. My father never shared Tom's politics. But they were always friends.
In a previous employment, I had occasion to be in Leinster House from time to time and it gave me great pleasure to shake the mans hand on his first day in the Dail. If there was ever a man who deserved to spend a lot more time there than he did, it was Tom.

I will always remember him as a friend of my father, a friend to my family and one of the most decent men it has been my pleasure to know.

Tom, RIP.

[macdarawhitfield]

He was devs Love Child by all accounts

Aren't we all?

[Lao-Tse]

wouldnt share his politics but he was a good man who did his best for the state, which puts him ahead of many of his contemproaraies

I agree with you there. RIP Tomás Mac Giolla.

[SevenStars]

R.I.P. No one could doubt his honesty and sincerity. Glad that he had the honour of becoming Lord Mayor of Dublin. It meant an awful lot to him.

I doubt it. Turning guns on former comrades, approving of touting to the occupation forces, adopting un-digested the characture of socialism made by the Soviet hierarchs, abandoning the national liberation struggle to the provos...The list could go on and on.

[Lomansney]

May he rest in peace. Sympathy extended to May and his comrades in WP.

[turdsl]

I just cant believe the thread went this far without some clown spewing venom all over the place.May he Rest In Peace, he ment well.

[Podolski1.5]

He supported the Soviet Union and all its works and all its empty promises.

He and his cadre of communist goons took orders direct from Moscow.

I put him in the same box as Sean Russell, Lord Haw Haw and other traitors who kowtowed to Nazism.

Tomás Mac Giolla despised facsicm in all its manifestations. He never took any orders from Moscow (or anywhere else).

[Greener]

RIP.

Met him in February 1994, and he was a gentleman. His longevity reflects his fortitude. I am also reading the Lost Revolution, and one cannot be moved by his activism. A key part of the virtually defuncy Workers Party has just died today.

[Catalpa]

TBH I found his analysis of National Irish Politics to be seriously flawed pretty well from when I first heard of him.

He used to be a TD for Dublin West but IIRC his base was Lucan/Palmerston on the other side of the Liffey to Blanch.

While he was a National figure at his height he came to prominence relatively late in life and was from a reasonably prosperous background.

I think at one stage his home was in North Avenue, Mount Merrion from where he planned to bring about a Workers Republic.

He was moderately successful in building up a core vote for his brand of politics in the 1980s when things were pretty bad economically

- but it all fell apart for him when the Soviet Union collapsed and his comrades at home decided they needed a facelift.

It should be quite interesting to read what will now emerge in the wake of his demise as he certainly had an interesting career.

I think I met him once at a local meeting and he was a decent enough skin.

At least unlike so many other of our politicians he stuck with his beliefs right to the end.

A man with a good heart and a noble commitment to social justice in our Country

- but I could not agree with analysis of the National Question.

RIP Mr McGiolla

[factual]

This is a sad day.

Ireland has today lost one of its foremost leaders. A former leader of Sinn Féin, he had a great concern for the least well off, for equality, and brought labour values to everything he did. His contributions to his party were majo, if ultimately his political career was to end in frustration, it was not for lack of effort, or good values, on his part. He was further more a man of the utmost decency and high integrity.

I wish his family and all who mourn his passing all condolances at this difficult and sad time for them.