President Michael D Higgins has led the tributes to child sexual abuse survivor Michael O'Brien, who died yesterday.
Mr O'Brien spoke powerfully of his experiences of sexual abuse as a child on RTÉ's Questions and Answers in 2009.
President Higgins said Mr O'Brien's "sense of citizenship and courageous personal testimony was such a powerful act of public service".
Mr O'Brien was a former mayor of Clonmel in Co Tipperary.
He appeared on RTÉ’s Questions and Answers programme in May 2009 where he outlined in detail his experiences of being abused as a child in St Joseph's Industrial School in Co Tipperary.
Mr O'Brien was addressing then-government minister Noel Dempsey, following the publication of the Ryan Report into clerical abuse.
The report had been published the week before the programme was broadcast, and came a decade after the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was set up by the then government.
The commission heard thousands of complaints from former residents of predominantly Catholic institutions.
It found that sexual abuse was endemic in boys' institutions, and a chronic problem in some residential institutions.
In the programme, Mr O'Brien talked about his own experiences with the commission.
He said he tried to take his own life after spending five days at the commission.
"They brought a man over from Rome, ninety-odd years of age to tell me I was telling lies, that I wasn’t beaten for an hour, non-stop, by two of them," Mr O’Brien told the programme.
Local councillor Richie Molloy paid tribute to Mr O'Brien for being so outspoken at the time.
He said Mr O'Brien came across so passionately on the Questions and Answers programme and people really identified with that.
He also praised him for his work in assisting people in the area with the redress system over the years and offered his sympathies to Mr O'Brien's family.
Mr O'Brien is predeceased by his wife Mary and survived by his family Geraldine, Peter, Martin and Catriona.
His funeral will take place on Thursday morning at St Mary's Church in Irishtown, Co Tipperary.
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