I had been 18 for 10 days when mine died.

He was a good guy.

He was known to his friends as Jim.

I never had a particularly communictive relationship with him, but the reason was that he believed it was his duty to sacrifice everything for his families welfare and therefore to dedicate himself to his work.

He grew up in the west of Ireland in the 40's and 50's so he knew about poverty and his conversation consistently rated 0 on the bullshittometer.

Having said that, he also had the charm and the lightining dry wit of the Irish west, which was always both sharp and subtle so that those who got him were in stitches while those who didn't were led willingly up garden path after garden path.

And his greatest attribute in this respect is that his wit, often observational and often about people, was never malicious despite it's sharpness, but full of affection.

His Hero was Dan O'Connell, the Irish Lawyer responsible for catholic emancipation in Ireland. And in true western tradition he too was a republican and like the great Dan he too became a lawyer.

He grew up with a dream to explore the world and the name "Hong Kong" summed up his idea of far off exotica. So he joined the British colonial service and asked to be sent there.

The British colonial service in those days didn't have much room for thick paddies from the west of Ireland, much less in accomodating their fantasies of discovery. After all, the Irish had been colonial subjects, so how could they possibly function as colonial masters.

So they sent him to Zambia where he was instrumental in dismantling the colonial structures there in order to facilitate independance. (rather more succesfully than in Zimbabwe). Unlike his british colleagues, he was encouraged to stay and work under Kaunda, but his dream was still Hong Kong, so he came back and waited for his next posting.

My Brother and I were born in Dublin and we were whisked off to live in the seychelles where I spent the first two years of my life.

While we were there, it was my dads job to prepare the seychelles for ... you guessed it ... independance. by the time he had finished there he had been appointed acting attorney general.

We left in 1975 to go back to Ireland, and it looked like we would be remaiining there as the travel and having 4 kids was proving to be a strain on my parents relationship.

When suddenly the dream ticket came up ... the job in Hong Kong.

So at the age of 3 I was brought to live in what became my home town.

Being the thick paddy, he had to be given a job at the bottom of the heap for the third time despite his extensive and deep knowledge and experience of British Law and it's colonial permutations.

But it wasn't long before he began to rocket through the ranks and became involved in the process of preparing for the handover of Hong Kong from the British to the Chinese.

China has never had a sytem of law as we know it. China has always been ruled by people whereas we in th west have a long tradition of being ruled by the law and being accoutable to it.

He not only had the job of explaining to China what this meant, but also persuading them to give a shit.

He died out there in november 1990, wholly committed to his work and his family. He put his head down like a heavyweight boxer and overcame insurmountable obstacle after insurmountable obstacle.

He always fought for the little guy and was respected amongst local people wherever he worked.

After the funeral, his four naughty kids (me included) were driven to the crematorium through empty streets. Anyone who has ever been to Hong Kong knows that the streets are never empty there, yet the dual carriageway was like a runway at an airport.

And as for his hero Dan O'Connell, well Ireland was already independant and didn't need emancipating, but there is no doubt that O'Connells Jaw would have dropped to the floor and he would have laughed long and heartily had anyone suggested to him that a tough lad born in the county clare and raised in Tralee in county Kerry, would end up presiding over the dismantling of the British empire over two continents, entrusted by the British with the with the job of making sure that it was done properly.

I wish I'd known him better, but I know he was doing his best and by example he passed on his tenacious indomitable spirit, something without which I would never have made it through the last couple of years quite as well as I have.

He also gave me my refusal to accept anything less than the best for my daughter and the will to go through hell and high water for her if necessary.

A Humble Honest Man.