SEÁN LOFTUS, who died in Dublin on Saturday aged 82, was a colourful environmental campaigner and a former TD and lord mayor of Dublin.
His lifelong commitment to the environment was unwavering, and at one time he changed his name to Seán Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus.
This was to highlight his opposition to an oil refinery in Dublin Bay and his belief that Ireland should claim the oil reserves off Rockall.
He was active in the campaign against the controversial Wood Quay development in Dublin City Centre in the 1970s.
He stood in every general election from 1961 until he finally secured a seat in Dublin North East in 1981.
It was a turbulent time in politics, with the Fine Gael-Labour government relying on the support of Mr Loftus and fellow Independent, the late Jim Kemmy, who represented Limerick East.
Matters came to a head in January 1982 when the then minister for finance, John Bruton, extended VAT to clothing and footwear to help fund a 25 per cent increase in social welfare payments.
Unhappy with the VAT measure, Mr Loftus and Mr Kemmy voted against the budget and the government fell. It marked the end of Mr Loftus’s Dáil career, as he failed to get re-elected.
Mr Loftus qualified as a barrister in 1958, and spent some time in the United States before returning to Ireland where his environmental campaigning began.
He worked for many years as a law lecturer in the Dublin Institute of Technology. In the early 1960s he was a founder-member of the now defunct Christian Democratic Party.
Elected to Dublin City Council in 1974, he served as lord mayor of Dublin in 1995/96.
During his term in the Mansion House, he hosted a lunch for Cllr Eric Smyth, the first DUP lord mayor of Belfast to visit his Dublin counterpart.
He retired from the council in 1999 but remained an active environmentalist.
Current lord mayor of Dublin Gerry Breen, a colleague on the Dublin Bay Watch committee, said he met Mr Loftus only a few weeks ago to celebrate their successful opposition to Dublin Port Company’s plans to fill in 52 acres of the bay.
“Although sick, he was delighted,” said Mr Breen. “Seán’s life was his family and Dublin Bay.”
Taoiseach Brian Cowen described Mr Loftus as “a proud Dubliner who devoted a large part of his life to preserving the natural heritage of our capital city”. He was, he added, “a deep-seated conviction politician”.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley said he was “a true environmental pioneer”. Independent TD Finian McGrath said he was “an honest politician and Ireland’s first environmentalist’’.
Mr Loftus is survived by his wife Úna, and his children Muireann, Rúairí and Fiona.
His remains will be removed today from his home in Clontarf, Dublin, arriving at St Gabriel’s Church, Dollymount, at 6pm. He will be buried in St Fintan’s cemetery, Sutton, tomorrow after 11am Mass.
