Always the fighter, he kept the focus on work

“AMBITIONS somewhat fade when you are in a position like this. You focus on survival yourself and doing your job right.”

Brian Lenihan’s words in January 2010, days after news broke of his cancer, demonstrated an instinct to fight through his most difficult personal battle while attempting to steer the economy through its toughest period in recent history.

Meeting the press days before starting six months of treatment, the then finance minister was defiant.

“It’s a growth I intend to defeat or it will defeat me.”

The news had broken a week earlier with a TV3 news broadcast on St Stephen’s Day, not long after his own family had learnt of it.

He received the diagnosis, which he described as a “great shock”, the Tuesday before Christmas.

Then taoiseach Brian Cowen offered any support he could to Mr Lenihan and told him he could continue in the job if he felt it was the best thing to do.

Publicly he insisted he would “surmount this challenge”, could “give this job the full attention it requires” and was determined that “there will be no sub-finance minister.”

Mr Lenihan asked his medical team if his job contributed to his diagnosis but concluded “it’s difficult to know”.

A number of Dáil debates during the previous year, including that on the NAMA legislation, ran into the early hours of the morning. He said “getting up at half seven and going to bed at one would have been a typical day for a while”.

He said: “Strain and stress can play a part, but I have to say I have enjoyed my time in the Department of Finance and haven’t felt under particular stress.”

He began chemotherapy in January 2010 “with regular doses every fortnight” to treat cancerous tissue at the entrance of his pancreas.

It was hoped it could be surgically removed once it had been reduced in size.

Doctors did warn him that there should be no more 14-hour days.

But within weeks, he was working on the Finance Bill, giving legal effect to the budget he had delivered just days before he found out about his illness.

They were some of the most controversial of all time, including cuts to public sector wages and social welfare benefits.

That year brought a number of other challenges.

At the start of February he announced plans for an inquiry into the banking crisis — something decided after an eight-hour cabinet meeting largely controlled by Mr Lenihan.

He was forced to publicly defend the probe against strong criticism about its lack of transparency and failure to question the taoiseach.

That week, less than a month into his chemotherapy treatment, he came under attack from Fianna Fail backbenchers over higher-paid public servants escaping the full pay cuts announced in the budget.

During that summer there were further revelations about Anglo and a no-confidence motion in the taoiseach following a drinking session at a Fianna Fáil conference in Galway.

But Mr Lenihan finished his radiotherapy and chemotherapy in June and got on with the job.

In September he spoke for the first time in months about his cancer, saying tests had shown his condition had stabilised, but “like all cancers it’s still there, it hasn’t gone away”.

He said he didn’t envisage any more treatment and once again, attention turned away from his health and towards the economic crisis.

In the second week of May, Mr Lenihan was absent from the Dáil when the jobs initiative was unveiled. He was in hospital as his treatment was stepped up and was due to be released on the Friday but stayed in over the weekend.

Always the fighter, he turned up to work the following day and made sure that word went around that he was at his desk.

But colleagues expressed concern that he was not looking well, and it became clear that his condition was indeed deteriorating.

Funeral Arrangements

Brian Lenihan’s removal will take place on Monday night and the funeral on Tuesday.

Mr Lenihan will lie in repose at Jennings Funeral Home, Blanchardstown, on Monday before the removal to St Mochta’s Church, Porterstown.

While it will not be a formal state funeral, it is understood the Department of the Taoiseach has offered protocol assistance to the Lenihan family.

It is thought likely that ushers at Leinster House may serve as pallbearers in tribute to Mr Lenihan.