President Michael D Higgins has paid tribute to the former Czech president Vaclav Havel, hero of the Velvet Revolution that toppled communism in his country in 1989, who has died aged 75.
Michael D Higgins has said that "through the inspiration of Vaclav's words, Czechoslovakia successfully transitioned from an authoritarian state to a free democracy at the heart of Europe."
President Higgins continued, "He also ensured that the later separation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia was achieved peacefully and without compromising democratic
values.
He continued, "even after he stepped down as President, the moral influence of Vaclav's life and words continued to inspire those around the world who struggle for the protection of human rights, care for the maintenance of democratic values and the indispensability of human dignity."
Havel, who served as head of state from 1989 to 2003, died in his sleep at dawn after a lengthy illness.
Despite soaring achievements as a playwright, anti-communist icon, president and most recently film director, he retained a modesty and bashfulness matching his fragile figure to his dying day.
"It's true that I often start rather adventurous projects although I'm no adventurer," the former Czech president said in a magazine interview published in February, 10 months before his death on Sunday aged 75.
A non-conformist playwright in the tradition of the Theatre of the Absurd, rock fan and intellectual, Havel personified the Velvet Revolution which peacefully toppled Czechoslovakia's communist regime in December 1989.
The events turned him into "the star of the Czechoslovak opposition scene," as he himself recounted, and earned him a place in history books worldwide.
Following the collapse of communism he was, in his own words, catapulted from one day to the next into the position of head of the state - just a few months after being released from a communist prison.
But, as president of post-communist Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992 and then of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003, Havel refuted all pretensions to power.
Born in Prague on 5 October, 1936, into a family that owned film studios and a large chunk of prime real estate in the capital, he was labelled a bourgeois capitalist and banned from studying by communist authorities in power since 1948.
With the family's properties gradually confiscated by the state, he took up a series of odd jobs, passed his high school exams thanks to evening courses, wrote, and finally launched himself in the theatre as a stagehand, lighting technician, administrator and finally an author and director.
Banned from theatres following the communist crackdown on the Prague Spring in 1968, Havel refused to emigrate, instead taking up another series of odd jobs.
During that time he penned his "Letters to Olga," dedicated to his wife, which became an international bestseller.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Czechoslovakia became the last country in Central Europe to sweep the communists from total power.
Propelled into power on a wave of popular fervour following the peaceful 1989 transition, Havel was then forced to accept the breakup of Czechoslovakia, which took effect 1 January, 1993.
He resigned as head of state in July 1992 to become president of the newly created Czech Republic.
Reduced by the constitution to play a largely honorary figurehead role, Havel supervised his country's democratic and economic transition including its membership of NATO in 1999 and entry into the European Union in 2004.
After his wife Olga died, Havel, who once described him as "a dreamer, romantic, and a big mouth," married actress Dagmar Veskrnova, 20 years his junior.
When his mandate expired in 2003, Havel, more popular abroad than at home, devoted himself to human rights.
He frequently supported Cuban and Chinese dissidents as well as the democratic opposition in Belarus, the fight against the Myanmar military junta and the opposition to Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Elsewhere, Former President Mary Robinson has said that "It is with deep sadness that I have learned of the death of Vaclav Havel; the last President of Czechoslovakia (1989 - 1992) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993 - 2003)."
She continued, "It was always a joy to interact with Vaclav Havel and I was honoured to do so in many ways over many years."
Mrs Robinson said "It was a particular honour to welcome him on a State Visit to Ireland and remember with special warmth the evening we spent enjoying Irish music and song in Johnnie Fox's pub - perhaps not the usual sort of state visit venue but absolutely right on that occasion!"
