The Last Post

Matt Cooper: John Bruton was a misunderstood patriot who defied his caricature

Matt Cooper was editor of the Sunday Tribune when Bruton was Taoiseach and chronicled the ups and downs of his time in office

John Bruton said politics deals with the really difficult questions, questions that are too difficult to be left to scientists, to administrators or to courts

John Bruton’s excitement at Prince Charles attending a state dinner in Dublin in 1995 was such that the nickname “John Unionist”, given to him after a comment in the Dáil by Albert Reynolds, his predecessor as Taoiseach, stuck with some not well disposed towards him. This was more than misleading and unfair.

It has gone down in folklore that a gushing Bruton told Charles that his visit was the “greatest day of my life”, prompting ...