{"id":526988,"date":"2026-07-01T04:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T04:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/526988\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T04:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T04:07:12","slug":"former-foreign-affairs-minister-david-andrews-dies-aged-91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/526988\/","title":{"rendered":"Former foreign affairs minister David Andrews dies aged 91"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tributes have been paid to former foreign affairs minister David Andrews, who has died aged 91.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Andrews was first elected to D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann in 1965 and was re-elected in every general election after until his retirement from politics in 2002.<\/p>\n<p>He served as chief whip from 1970 until 1973, and in the 1990s, was minister for the marine, minister for defence, and twice minister for foreign affairs.<\/p>\n<p>As minister for foreign affairs from 1997 \u2013 2000, Mr Andrews played a role in the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n<p>Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said he was sorry to learn about the death of his friend and former Fianna F\u00e1il TD.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"437\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/former-foreign-affairs-minister-david-andrews-dies-aged-91.jpg\" alt=\"David Andrews\" data-title=\"POLITICS Dewar\/Andrews 2\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Archive\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Archive\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Ben Curtis\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>Scotland\u2019s then first Minister Donald Dewar (R) meets with then foreign affairs Minister David Andrews at Bute House in Edinburgh (Ben Curtis\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Mr Martin said: \u201cDavid\u2019s was an extraordinary life of public service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe represented the D\u00fan Laoghaire and Rathdown constituency, later becoming the D\u00fan Laoghaire constituency, with great distinction and ability for 37 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom his early days, as a young TD, it was clear that he was a man of principle, fearless in his views and always seeking to advance the cause of his constituency and country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid\u2019s contribution was significant, and history will record his pivotal role in bringing peace to our country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid was one of a generation of Irish public representatives who were big personalities with a big vision for the development of their country and who left an enormous footprint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was lucky to have served in Government with David, and saw first hand his intelligence, his work rate and commitment to peace, along with his decisiveness, his wit and good humour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOutside of politics, David was a barrister of repute and campaigned for a number of human rights cases, including the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"not-prose no-underline\" data-action=\"click\" data-category=\"Read more article clicked\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/tanaiste-defends-lower-rate-of-vat-for-food-businesses-and-hairdressers-1920660.html\" data-value=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/tanaiste-defends-lower-rate-of-vat-for-food-businesses-and-hairdressers-1920660.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2-84749834-1-e1782837729379.jpg\" class=\"rounded-sm object-contain bg-transparent z-10 w-full h-full not-prose\" alt=\"T\u00e1naiste Defends Lower Rate Of Vat For Food Businesses And Hairdressers\" width=\"278\" height=\"156\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Ireland<\/p>\n<p>T\u00e1naiste defends lower rate of VAT for food businesses and hairdressers<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was warm, engaging and great company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI greatly appreciated his wisdom and advice during our conversations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI offer my deepest sympathy to David\u2019s wife, Annette, his family Barry (MEP), David, Sin\u00e9ad, Mary and Claire, along with the wider Andrews family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes have been paid to former foreign affairs minister David Andrews, who has died aged 91. Mr Andrews&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-526988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}