Justin Carroll:JUSTIN CARROLL, who has died aged 68, was an Irish diplomat who held a number of positions in the diplomatic service during a lengthy career.
Born in Dublin in 1942, he attended Gonzaga College in Ranelagh and entered Trinity College Dublin in October 1960.
After initially studying legal science, he switched to an arts course in which his interests in languages and the arts could find broader expression. At the same time, he read for the Bar and after graduating from Trinity in 1964, qualified as a barrister in 1965, although he never practised.
During his time at Trinity he was not part of the “swinging 1960s” scene. Instead, he pursued his wide linguistic and cultural interests through voluntary work and travelled on a shoestring throughout Ireland and Europe, often undergoing physical hardship in the process.
In 1965, he had a formative experience working with the Donegal priest Fr James McDyer of Glencolmcille. The principles of local development, resilience and social justice in small rural villages promulgated by McDyer would in later years resonate through Carroll’s work with the Village Reconstruction Organisation non-governmental organisation in India.
After graduating from Trinity he worked briefly with An Bórd Bainne before undertaking voluntary work in Tunisia with the UN.
Arab and Middle Eastern affairs would remain of constant interest to him and he read avidly of the recent events in Tunisia and the region right up until his death.
It was in Tunisia that, in 1967, he met his Australian-born future wife Penny beginning a long and happy partnership.
He joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in the early 1970s and in 1975 was posted as first secretary to the Irish Embassy in Canberra where he stayed until 1980. In the mid-1980s, he spent a further four years in New Delhi, India. His later postings were all to Africa – to Cairo in the early 1990s, and Maputo, Mozambique, later that decade.
He spent two years working in India with the Village Reconstruction Organisation, established by Belgian Jesuit priest Fr Windey based around Gandhian principles. After this, he was appointed head of Irish Aid in Pretoria, South Africa, where he and Penny lived from 2001 until his retirement in 2004. He spent more time in India with Village Reconstruction, returning to Dublin in 2006 as a result of his wife’s illness. In retirement, he worked for the Samaritans and also did voluntary work in Dublin for SPIRASI, the humanitarian non-governmental organisation that works with asylum seekers, refugees and other disadvantaged migrant groups, with special concern for survivors of torture.
Justin was a man of great humility, humour and kindness. He was highly regarded by his colleagues, friends and staff. He continued with his voluntary work with SPIRASI throughout his final illness, dying peacefully surrounded by his children, MacDara, Eileen, Patrick and Eoghan. His wife predeceased him in 2007.
Justin Carroll: born December 28th, 1942; died February 25th, 2011