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Niamh Bhreathnach Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Tributes paid following death of former Education Minister Niamh Bhreathnach

Bhreathnach worked as a Labour party Councillor in Blackrock, Dublin and later as a TD for Dún Laoghaire.

TRIBUTES HAVE BEEN paid following the death of former Minister for Education Niamh Bhreathnach at the age of 77.

Bhreathnach worked as a Labour party Councillor in Blackrock, Dublin and later as a TD for Dún Laoghaire. 

Her first appointment to Cabinet was in 1993 when she became Minister for Education.

She is well known for the abolition of tuition fees for third level education.  

Paying tribute to her, President Michael D Higgins said Bhreathnach was appointed as Minister for Education on the same day he became Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. 

“I can recall that we were all possessed of a great sense of anxiety that we must take our opportunity to get changes done and Niamh set about that task with gusto,” Higgins said. 

“She remained deeply interested in the education sector and broader public affairs up to recent weeks. She will be deeply missed,” the President added. 

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he was “deeply saddened” to learn of Bhreathnach’s passing.

“Throughout her political life, Niamh was dedicated and committed to education, particularly in the area of reform. She had a focus on addressing disadvantage through the Breaking The Cycle scheme, and the Leaving Cert Applied programme,” Martin said.

“Niamh was a committed Labour party member, and as shadow spokesman on education, I enjoyed our many exchanges in the Dáil. Niamh was always courteous and kind, and thoroughly committed to public service.

“My sympathies to her husband Tom, her children, family and friends.”

Labour leader Ivana Bacik has also paid tribute to Bhreathnach, calling her a “true feminist and socialist, and an unstoppable campaigner for equality”.

“Niamh was always a wonderful personal friend and it was my great pleasure to work with her over many years,” Bacik said. 

“She played a critical internal role in the growth and transformation of the Labour Party through the 1980s and 1990s serving as party chairperson in the early 1990s. Further, she played a vital role with Labour Women and was a passionate advocate for gender equality in our politics,” she said. 

Bacik added that Bhreathnach’s “vision for education was the central role of the child and ensuring an accessible and high quality education system to allow children to develop and reach their full potential”.

“Our hearts are broken to hear of her death, but her legacy of achievement will be remembered by all who knew her,” she said. 

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    Mute Chris O Neill Cabra
    Favourite Chris O Neill Cabra
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    Aug 17th 2015, 12:12 PM

    ”That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

    The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

    Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

    The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

    It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

    Carl Sagan

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Aug 17th 2015, 3:28 PM

    Amazing quote.

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    Mute Rehabmeerkat
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    Aug 17th 2015, 6:13 PM

    that’s not a quote it’s a short story

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    Mute Norman Hunter
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    Aug 17th 2015, 11:45 AM

    Amazing picture.

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    Mute luke frankus
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    Aug 17th 2015, 12:00 PM

    it makes us look like a giant marble…

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    Mute Gary
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    Aug 17th 2015, 12:30 PM

    Luke, you mean like a giant ellipsoid or an oblate spheroid.

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    Mute luke frankus
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    Aug 17th 2015, 12:32 PM

    that’s exactly what I mean, Gary.

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    Mute Bobby Neary
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    Aug 17th 2015, 11:53 AM

    I’d say he wished he brought some LSD….that would be some light show then ..

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    Mute Lindsay Price
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    Aug 17th 2015, 11:55 AM

    Yeah cause it’s not like he’s working or anything.

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    Mute Brendan
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    Aug 17th 2015, 11:50 AM

    Seen these for real and magical is the way I would describe them

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