Joe Sherlock, who has died aged 71, was a former Labour Party TD for Cork East, and served as the party's defence spokesman from 2002 until 2006 when he announced his intention not to seek re-election.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern this week paid tribute to his life of public service, describing him as a "true gentleman of Irish politics".
The Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore praised his dedication and commitment, citing the successful battle he fought to retain Mallow General Hospital.
Proinsias De Rossa MEP said: "Joe Sherlock never lost sight of why he was in politics, which he saw as a means of bettering peoples' lives and peacefully healing the divisions on the island of Ireland."
He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1981 when he stood as a candidate for Sinn Féin the Workers' Party (SFWP), and was the first Sinn Féin-affiliated TD to take his seat in the Dáil. This was 11 years after a party ardfheis had voted to end the policy of abstention, whereby republicans refused to sit in Leinster House because they considered the Dáil to be a "partitionist" assembly.
Interviewed shortly after his election he said he looked forward to the day when "perhaps" Labour and SFWP would be very closely aligned.
He held his seat in the February 1982 election but lost it in November that year. Joe regained his seat in 1987, and in 1988 he contested the presidency of what had become the Workers' Party, but lost to Proinsias De Rossa.
He retained his seat in 1989 when seven Workers' Party deputies were returned, thus qualifying the party for Dáil group status.
Within three years, however, the party had split after attempts to reform it failed. Joe Sherlock was one of six deputies who departed to form Democratic Left.
He lost his seat in the 1992 election but was in 1993 elected to Seanad Éireann on the Labour panel, serving as a senator for four years. An unsuccessful Dáil candidate in 1997, he was elected on the Labour ticket in 2002, Democratic Left having merged with the Labour Party in 1998. He was proud to see his son Seán succeed him in this year's election.
The son of a farm labourer, Joe Sherlock was born in Kildorrey, Co Cork, in 1935. He received a "good, basic education" at Graigue National School, and developed an interest in Gaelic games and the Irish language. Having worked for some years as a farm labourer, he later worked for the Irish Sugar Company and became secretary of the Siptu Mallow No 2 branch.
A lifelong republican, he took part in the 1950s' IRA Border campaign, as a result of which he was jailed for six months in Mountjoy Prison. He backed the 1962 ceasefire that ended the campaign, and enthusiastically supported greater republican engagement on social and economic issues that faced working people.
Elected to Mallow Urban District Council in 1967, he was re-elected in 1974, when he also won a seat on Cork County Council. He was elected to the Dáil at his fifth attempt.
An election worker on that occasion recalled the night of the count when an elderly woman hoisted a banner embroidered with the words "Sherlock Victorious". The newly-elected TD promised followers that he would justify their confidence in him, adding, "let there be no doubt about it".
An Irish Times constituency profile in November 1982 suggests that he was true to his word: "He has served his constituents well and has even crossed constituency boundaries, ignoring the rules of political etiquette and drawing icy blasts from political opponents. None of this has harmed Sherlock, indeed it has confirmed for many the view that he cares more about people than politics."
A former member of the southern health board and Cork County Vocational Education Committee, he was also a member of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body.
His wife Ellen (née Spillane), sons, Joseph and Seán, and daughter Una survive him.
Joe Sherlock: born September 26th, 1935; died September 10th, 2007