Dennis Morris:DENNIS MORRIS, who has died in Portugal aged 78, was in earlier life one of Ireland's most expert parliamentary draftsmen.
His departure in 1985 to work in Hong Kong was a grave loss to what was then an understaffed office of government. In the succeeding years a lack of draftsmen was the reason often given for the slow pace of law reform.
Born in Blackrock in 1930, the son of the local doctor, Morris went from Blackrock College to read law at Trinity College, Dublin, disregarding archbishop John Charles McQuaid's prohibition on Roman Catholics going there. At King's Inns he was a prizewinning student and was called to the Bar in 1953.
He practised on the northwestern circuit, mainly around Sligo, until 1961 when he joined the parliamentary draftsman's office and found his real metier. He was meticulous without being inflexible, yet strong enough to resist demands sometimes made to produce legislation without due consideration.
He entertained elegantly in a period house he inherited from an aunt on Booterstown Avenue, and kept a garden that was featured in magazines as a showpiece.
He was a pillar of the University Club where he lunched almost every day and of which he was honorary secretary. He had a leading role in negotiating its merger with Kildare Street Club in 1975, so ensuring the survival of both.
His seemed to be a settled bachelor when, in his early 50s, he became upset by an inexcusable failure to provide promotion outlets in the parliamentary draftsman's office and the penal taxation imposed by Garret FitzGerald's government.
His skills were welcome in Hong Kong. As a self-proclaimed Kingstown unionist it gave him some pleasure to be in on the British empire before its end.
He found Hong Kong lonely. But within a few years he married Maria, a widow from neighbouring Macao. It was the happiest of marriages. They retired to Portugal, of which Maria was a citizen, and travelled in Europe. Morris wrote articles on drafting legislation for learned journals in which he made clear his distaste for the intrusions of the European community.
His contented retirement came to an end when Maria died of motor neurone disease in 2007 after several years' illness. He looked after her lovingly but he himself contracted cancer shortly before her death. Last January he visited his old haunts in Dublin to take leave of his friends - or so it seems now.
A constant theme of Morris's conversation was the maintenance of standards. If he was sometimes slow to the point, he had much to say that was well thought out. If his attitudes were somewhat pessimistic, this was a useful corrective to what he thought were foolish enthusiasms. He was, above all, a loyal friend and faithful colleague.
He is survived by his brother Tom and his nephew Gavin, the son of his deceased sister, of whom he had acted as guardian.
Dennis Morris: born 1930; died October 13th 2008