Though John Bruton was taoiseach, Ireland’s prime minister, for only three years in the mid-1990s, his contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process – forging closer Anglo-Irish ties during the final phase of the Troubles – was substantial.
Bruton, who has died aged 76 after a long illness, advanced political negotiations through the carefully drafted joint framework agreement of 1995 and was candid in expressing his views even when he and his British counterpart disagreed.
