death_date death_place birth_place nationality birth_date alt image article_title name occupation
13 april 2008 dublin , ireland mountmellick , ireland irish 31 october 1927 picture of michael mills michael mills.jpg michael mills
 michael mills ombudsman journalist
michael mills

michael mills -lrb- 31 october 1927 -- 13 april 2008 -rrb- was an irish journalist who served as ireland 's first ombudsman for two terms beginning in 1984 .
he retired from the office in 1994 .
mills grew up in mountmellick , county laois .
he initially trained to become a passionist priest .
however , he abandoned that calling after catching tuberculosis in order to take a junior reporter job with the people newspaper group in wexford .
he turned journalism into a full-time career and worked from 1964 as a reporter for `` the irish press '' for over twenty years .
when he corrected a mistake in a dáil speech by Éamon de valera he was not allowed to report again from the dáil for seven years .
instead , he practiced drama criticism .
then he was appointed by de valera 's son , vivion , as political correspondent of the newspaper , and went on to become its political editor .
former taoiseach garret fitzgerald appointed mills as ireland 's first ombudsman in 1984 .
during his two terms in office , mills investigated complaints from the public about local authorities , government departments and health boards .
he retired in 1994 at the age of 67 .
he published his memoirs `` hurler on the ditch '' in 2005 , which was also the name of a teilifís Éireann programme on which he was one of the first panelists in the mid-1960s .
mills , who lived in templeogue , died at the age of 80 on 13 april 2008 , after a short illness .
he was survived by his wife , bríd , and eight children .
tributes poured in from across ireland on the news of his death .
former taoiseach bertie ahern called him a respected public servant and one of ireland 's finest journalists .
ombudsman emily o'reilly said that mills laid the groundwork for the future and growth of the office she then occupied .
tributes were also paid by the irish human rights commission and the children 's rights alliance .
