Warm tributes paid as Norris retires
THE President and Taoiseach have led the tributes to Senator David Norris as he formally announced his retirement from political life after 36 years.
Mr Norris, 79, a colourful activist for decades, campaigned to abolish anti-homosexuality laws in the 1980s and pushed for progress on LGBT rights.
He was first elected to the Seanad in 1987 and has been returned in each of the nine elections since, making him Ireland’s longest-serving senator. The Independent senator for Trinity also holds the longest continuous period of service in the Upper House of the Oireachtas.
Yesterday in the Seanad chamber, his fellow senators described him as ‘the lily amongst the briars’, one of Ireland’s finest debaters and ‘a champion for the under-privileged’.
His knowledge of and love for the works of James Joyce were also praised.
In his final address in the Seanad chamber, Mr Norris said he wished to use the time to call for peace for Palestinians. The senator, who speaks Hebrew, said: ‘What is happening to the inhabitants of Gaza is appalling and cannot be allowed to continue.’
He thanked his parliamentary assistant Miriam Smith, his election agent Brian Murray, the graduates who voted for him over the years, and his fellow colleagues in the Seanad.
Cathaoirleach Jerry Buttimer said that President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had conveyed their appreciation to Mr Norris.
President Higgins said the senator had an ‘illustrious career’ and ‘a courage beyond the ordinary’, describing him as ‘a champion of equality, diversity that will continue to inspire future generations’.
Mr Varadkar praised Mr Norris’s campaigning, and said he showed ‘true leadership’, standing up for causes that were ‘unpopular, poorly understood, but above all appealing to our best instincts as human beings’.