Tributes were tonight paid to eminent heart surgeon and a son-in-law of assassinated Justice Minister Kevin O'Higgins.
Eoin O'Malley, who was 88, was a former president of the Royal College of Surgeons and served as Professor of Surgery in UCD for 30 years.
Mr O'Malley's late wife, Una O'Higgins-O'Malley was a writer and founder member of the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation in Co Wicklow.
Paying tribute, retired cardiac surgeon Maurice Nelligan said: "Eoin was one of the pioneers of cardiac surgery in Ireland. He was a quiet and dignified man, an excellent surgeon and a great teacher." Mr O'Malley was born in Galway in 1919 and studied at UCG.
He joined the Mater Hospital as surgeon in 1950 and later became Professor of Surgery in UCD in 1958. He was subsequently appointed as the first director of the National Cardiac Surgical Unit at the Mater Hospital.
He had honorary fellowships from the Colleges of Surgeons in Edinburgh, Australasia, London and the United States. Mr O'Brien is survived by his children Kevin, Eoin, Arthur, Christopher, Finbar and Iseult.
A Justice Minister in the first government of the state, Kevin O'Higgins was assassinated in Dublin in 1927 by three anti-Treaty members of the IRA. He was given a state funeral and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.