DUBLIN (AFP) – Ireland's former finance minister Brian Lenihan died Friday of pancreatic cancer age of 52, just months after securing an international bailout for the country even as he battled the disease.
Political figures and colleagues praised Lenihan, a member of one of Ireland's top political dynasties, who fought cancer for 18 months but carried on working to save the one-time "Celtic Tiger" economy from bankruptcy.
Leading the tributes, Irish President Mary McAleese said: "Brian had to confront challenges, the scale and gravity of which were unprecedented in the history of the state.
"Despite his illness, he faced up to those challenges with extraordinary but characteristic dignity, courage and good humour."
Lenihan's family said in a statement that he "died at home in the early hours of this morning", adding that he is survived by his wife and two children, his mother, his three brothers and a sister.
Funeral arrangements would be announced later, it said.
Lenihan, a lawmaker for the Fianna Fail party which is now in opposition, negotiated and signed Ireland's 85-billion-euro ($121-billion) financial rescue deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union.
He became finance minister in then-premier Brian Cowen's government in mid-2008, just as massive debt and deficit problems left the economy teetering, and he introduced a series of austerity budgets to keep the country afloat.
In January 2010 he announced he would keep on working despite the fact that tests had revealed the cancer -- and it turned out to be a frenetic political year as Ireland struggled to avoid financial meltdown.
In one of his last interviews, he told the Irish Times in April that the pressure at the time was as if "hell was at the gates."
"I've a very vivid memory of going to Brussels on the final Monday to sign the agreement and being on my own at the airport and looking at the snow gradually thawing and thinking to myself, this is terrible," he said.
"No Irish minister has ever had to do this before."
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, from the rival Fine Gael party which beat Fianna Fail in elections in February, hailed Lenihan's courage for continuing to represent Ireland even when he was fighting cancer.
"During his illness, which he fought with serenity, he courageously continued to fully perform his ministerial responsibilities in the most challenging and difficult circumstances," Kenny said.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he was "deeply saddened" by Lenihan's death.
"In all of this time, Brian never once flinched from his public duties and he showed an unceasing and untiring commitment to tackling the economic crisis facing this country," he said.
Lenihan was first elected to parliament in 1966 in a by-election following the death of his father, Brian senior, who had been deputy prime minister. His grandfather, aunt and brother were also lawmakers.
His aunt Mary O'Rourke, herself a former Fianna Fail minister and deputy leader of the party, said his death was "unreal."
"We thought he was on the last lap but that he would get some months from that last lap, but it wasn't to be," she told RTE state radio.
A barrister and law lecturer, Lenihan had previously been minister for justice, equality and law reform and junior minister for health and children.
In January he was an unsuccessful candidate for the leadership of Fianna Fail following Cowen's resignation but he was re-elected to parliament in February and remained party finance spokesman.
"He made an immense contribution to dealing with the problems the country has faced and I believe that this will be appreciated all the more in time," Cowen said.
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