The President, Mrs McAleese, led the tributes to the writer John B. Keane yesterday.
She said his work had a universal appeal that would endure for many years to come. "The most fascinating aspect of John B.'s genius was his ability to observe and reflect so accurately the wonders of life around him," Mrs McAleese said.
"His work portrayed a deep love for his home and country as well as giving such an accurate insight into human strength and frailties."
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said Mr Keane was "a man of immense talent who loved life, language, literature and learning".
"He was a colossus of the Irish theatre whose writing has provided a wealth of material for those who wish to learn about Irish life, or simply have a love of Irish literature," he said.
RTÉ director-general Mr Bob Collins said Mr Keane's work had featured on RTÉ Radio for several decades and that he was "one of Ireland's most prolific and respected figures of the literary world".
Warm tributes were also paid from the world of the arts.
Mr Keane was praised as a giant of Irish theatre, an innovator who broke taboos and a writer who held up a mirror to Irish society.
The artistic director of the Abbey Theatre, Mr Ben Barnes, said the playwright was "a great Kerryman and a great Irishman".
The Abbey Theatre had originally turned down Mr Keane's play Sive in the 1950s before it won acclaim in an amateur drama production.
Mr Barnes said Mr Keane's relationship with the Abbey "was not always a happy one" but the national theatre did come "to recognise his genius in a series of productions in the 1980s which repositioned Sive, The Field and Big Maggie as sovereign classics of the Irish stage.
"His work now has a rightful and proud place in the repertoire of the Abbey Theatre alongside O'Casey, Synge, Friel and Murphy."
Mr Barnes said characters such as Big Maggie and the Bull McCabe were "among the great characters of 20th-century Irish literature". The playwright showed "great personal courage" in standing up for what he believed in at times when it was neither popular or profitable.
Druid Theatre's artistic director Ms Garry Hynes said Mr Keane was "at once a giant and a gentleman of Irish theatre".
"We have all been enriched by his talent and his personality and while his death robs us of the latter, I have no doubt that his writing will endure, at home and abroad, for decades to come."
John B. Keane's career came in two distinct parts, according to Dr Declan Kiberd, professor of Anglo-Irish literature at UCD.
"He gave people an image of themselves in the period just before television took hold," he said. Then he became a national figure and personality in his own right after appearances on programmes such as The Late Late Show and Hall's Pictorial Weekly.
Prof Kiberd said it was interesting that John B.'s writing should focus on the transition from traditional to modern culture while the playwright had made that transition so successfully. Prof Kiberd saw parallels between larger-than-life characters such as Big Maggie and the Bull McCabe and the playwright's own engaging personality.
Mr Noel Pearson, who produced The Field in 1990, first came in contact with Mr Keane in the 1970s, when he produced Many Young Men of Twenty. The play had been a favourite of his since then.
"He was very direct, he was very honest. He was like the wise old man of the village."
He said Mr Keane liked the fact that The Field was turned into a film.
"He may have been disappointed that it was not filmed in Kerry but we could not find a location," he said.
"He came to the set and he only asked one thing, that his brother Eamonn was in the film."
Eamonn Keane played a character attending the dance and became friendly with the actor Richard Harris during the filming.
John B. Keane was a "very influential" figure in the history of Irish theatre, according to Dr Christopher Morash, author of A History of Irish Theatre 1601-2000.
A key moment in 20th-century theatre was when an amateur production group put on the first production of Sive, according to Dr Morash.
"There were near riots in Limerick when people couldn't get into the theatre," he said.
Playwright Frank McGuinness said Mr Keane would be seen as a "very important playwright" and "an extremely important writer" and a personality who was "very deeply loved".
The Arts Council joined with Aosdána in paying tribute to Mr Keane. Arts Council chairman Mr Patrick Murphy said Mr Keane had made "an enormous contribution" to Irish literature with his simple and profound writing.