I knew Barry for quite a number of years. In addition to his political shrewdness he also enjoyed dancing and I often chatted with him during breaks in the revelry at the disco in the Hirschfeld Centre. These brief conversations were for me oases of sanity and refreshment in a hectic programme and I remember them with gratitude. I recall also with gratitude Barry's quietly practical assistance during my various campaigns to take a seat in Seanad Eireann. He would turn up often with Oliver and settle down without complaint to a few hours drudgery folding letters o r manifestoes and putting them into envelopes. It was the unselfish and cheerfully given help of people like Barry that eventually got me the seat we all worked so hard for.

We all felt enriched by our friendship with Barry - but the most remarkable thing about his brief experience was not just how he shared his life with us, but how he shared his experience of dying. As always he was both honest and intelligent in his response to the tragic discovery that he had contracted AIDS. He was in a real sense not "a victim of AIDS" but "A person living with AIDS".

He demonstrated that it was possible to pass through this experience with dignity and love. In this he was aided to a remarkable degree by his family and his friends in the gay community. I visited Barry on the last day of his life and came away enriched by the cheerful and caring atmosphere surrounding him and the tranquility and graciousness of his mother, sister and brother. I may also say that I was humbled by the devotion shown by members of the gay community. Years ago in quite a different context we used to debate as to whether there was or was not, anything that could be described as a "gay community". The manner of Barry's passing has proved definitely to me at least that there is a gay community and I am proud to be a member of it.

Senator David Norris