Irish Stew Podcast1) Peter Sutherland (1946 - 2018), barrister, businessman and internationalist was born #OnThisDay in #Dublin
2) Sutherland first came to public attention when successfully defending Captain James Kelly during the 1970s Arms Trial
3) In the early 1980s, while still in his 30s, Sutherland served two stints as Attorney General in the Governments of Garret Fitzgerald
4) In 1985, Sutherland was appointed to the EU Commission and at the time was the youngest commissioner ever appointed and was assigned to work on competition policy in an increasingly open market place. He was also instrumental in establishing the Erasmus Program
5) After 4 years of service at the EU Commission, Sutherland turned to the private sector where he served as chairman of Allied Irish Bank. However in 1993 an opportunity opened up to serve as Director General at GATT and he returned to the public sector
6) Sutherland steered the GATT Uruguay round negotiations to successful completion, harmonizing the 123 country trade protocols on the sensitive agriculture and textile sectors. The negotiations also established the World Trade Organization n 1993 and Sutherland served 2 years as Director General
7) Following the WTO, Sutherland returned to the private sector serving as Chairman to both British Petroleum and Goldman Sachs International
8) Sutherland would continue his public sector involvement maintaining a significant role in the Global Forum on Migration & Development. His views on migration would be abhorred by current day nationalists and had expansive views about the benefits of #migration for host countries
9) Sutherland passed in 2018. To the end he was an Internationalist, a #Europhile and a champion of trans national organizations which he believed bound nations more closely together and thus decreased the likelihood of military conflict
