Remembering Peter Sutherland: A Personal Tribute

Abstract

Remembering Peter Sutherland: A Personal Tribute Garrett Sheehan Alive, awake, alert, generous, good humoured, warm-hearted, energetic, funny, loyal, reliable, committed and sometimes difficult are all words that come to mind when thinking of Peter Sutherland. I first met him in the autumn of 1954 when we both arrived at Gonzaga College. A shared love of rugby, even at that early stage, was what sparked our friendship. Indeed, this passion of Peter’s was the foundation of many of his life-long friendships, though by no means the only one. His capacity to hold, sustain and develop a wide range of friendships was one of his outstanding qualities. Looking back on those early years, I do not think that even Peter himself could have foreseen the important roles that he would later take on with such distinction. Or then again, perhaps he did.After all, in an interview with UCD Connections in 2010 Peter said that he knew at an early age that he wanted to be a barrister. I do not remember that being discussed by him, but it may help to partly explain why he found it unnecessary to pay too much attention to his school work. It has been suggested that he was a late developer, but this is by no means the full story. It is sometimes forgotten that Peter had a very busy social life to attend to. While he had good friends and rugby in Gonzaga, he also had another life in Monkstown where he grew up. He was a member of the local tennis club, he swam in the baths at Blackrock and at other south-city seaside locations and, during Christmas holidays, he played for the Lansdowne schoolboys team. This last activity helped to cement the very good relationship he had with his father, who was happy as a prominent member of that club to welcome a number of Gonzaga boys, despite our lack of success in schools rugby. Peter was an enthusiastic captain, always ready to encourage the troops and, if he led Gonzaga to many defeats, he did so without ever throwing in the towel. It may be that the constant heartbreak of seemingly endless defeats put a sliver of steel in his backbone, preparing him for the opportunities and tasks that lay ahead. We can understand a little more about the importance of Monkstown Studies • volume 109 • number 434 134 in Peter’s life from a piece he wrote in a booklet marking the 125th year of Monkstown Tennis Club. He began as follows: ‘I do not know what Monkstown LTC is like now, but it cannot possibly hold a candle to the way it was in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Those were the halcyon days. The sun always shone and momentous events occurred only in Monkstown. We had forsaken the Forty-Foot and women had intruded into our lives. Maybe they were related. John Arigho, the Brodericks, Colm Harding, Damien Murphy, and Johnny Kelliher decided somehow on a change of lifestyle’. A feature of our early education was the reading list handed out at the beginning of each term. We were encouraged to read widely. When it came to the Just William and Biggles books, Peter was way ahead of the rest of us. There was not a book in either collection that he had not read. Could it be that Biggles prompted his early interest in European history and politics? By the time we had reached fourth year, Peter had a tremendous grasp of Irish and English politics, which had not been acquired at school. And we also need to remember that when he was in third year his time for study was further limited by the fact that he not only captained the junior rugby team but also played that same year for the senior team in the Leinster Schools Cup. An Comhdháil, the school debating society set up by the late Joe Veale SJ, played an important part in our lives. David Fassbender another friend, class- and team-mate of Peter’s, recently reminded me of the outstanding maiden speech that he gave in fourth year. At the time, the rules dictated...