Dr Paddy Leahy, the general practitioner who for decades fought the medical establishment over his views on the availability of contraceptives, women's right to choose, and euthanasia, has died aged 81.
The controversial campaigner was forthright in his beliefs on traditionally taboo subjects and defied the law for them on many occasions.
Yesterday, family sources said Dr Leahy died in his sleep at home in Dublin.
Dr Leahy first came to public attention when he worked at the Ballyfermot Health Clinic. At a time when contraception was hardly discussed, he was a vigorous campaigner for the availability of contraceptives. In 1980, he continued distributing condoms and other contraceptives in defiance of the new Family Planning Act and vowed to go to jail rather than stop. He worked at the clinic from 1960 until his retirement in 1988.
Even in his later years, he was outspoken. In March 1995, Dr Leahy admitted administering a lethal injection to a friend in England in 1945, when he was in practice there. It was given after Mr Gordon McKelvie had a massive stroke and confirmed he wanted Dr Leahy to help him die.
Dr Leahy subsequently said he took part in as many as 50 cases involving euthanasia during his career. Many took place in Coventry during the war and involved people injured by bombs.
The revelation led to a formal complaint against him by Dr Bill Tormey, a consultant chemical pathologist at Blanchardstown and Beaumont Hospitals, Dublin. However, the Medical Council decided not to proceed with an investigation.
Dr Leahy subsequently asked to be called before the Fitness to Practise Committee to defend his stance.
In April 1996, he told The Irish Times: "I had hoped to go before them and tell them of what I had done time and time again. What do you do with a man or woman in extreme suffering with a couple of hours to live? What do you do? I can tell you a couple of hours is an eternity if you are in distress."
He also revealed he got at least 50 calls a year from people who wanted him to help them die. "A week hasn't gone by in the last 12 months when I haven't had a letter or phone call or request for me to come and help so-and-so. I have helped them."
In December 1997, he again caused controversy when he went to Thailand, planning, he said, to end his own life there by euthanasia. He then said he would reconsider after the Thai Medical Council urged him to go home. He was suffering from cancer of the bladder which returned despite major surgery.
Dr Leahy was married and had a son and daughter. He is also survived by three sisters, two living in Dublin and one in the US.
Born in Thurles, Co Tipperary in 1917, he was one of a family of eight. He was educated by the Christian Brothers in Thurles and went on to the Cistercians at St Joseph's in Roscrea and then to the College of Surgeons. He hurled many times for the Tipperary minor team.
During the second World War, he worked in Coventry and later in the Manchester Royal and Hankey Park hospitals in Manchester, returning to Ireland in 1960.