As the final tributes to Irish rugby international and businessman Tony O’Reilly were paid at his funeral in Dublin yesterday, it was hard to make sense of a life that was so rich, so diverse, so colourful, and, ultimately, so shrouded in pathos.

Was it a cautionary tale of a charismatic and unorthodox businessman, one of the last great buccaneers, who over-extended himself to the point of financial ruin? Or will he be remembered as a true Irish patriot, a sporting hero who wrote himself into rugby history, a Celtic Tiger ahead of his time, who enriched the lives of those fortunate enough to bask in his once dazzling glow?

I prefer to think of him in the latter terms, and certainly my life would have been much diminished had I not been in his orbit for more than a decade. Tony appointed me as editor of The Independent in the spring of 1998, and, in a letter he sent me a year later, he began by saying: “I have not thought to share my views (apart from being your unpaid rugby pundit!).”

This was at the heart of Tony’s articles of faith as a newspaper proprietor, particularly that........

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