Tributes have been pouring in for former South African President Nelson Mandela who died tonight aged 95.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that with Mandela’s passing “a great light has been extinguished”.
He added that Mr. Mandela was a freeman of Dublin – awarded to him in 1988 during the city’s Millenium celebrations.
While President Michael D. Higgins said, “Nelson Mandela is one of history's greatest leaders; a man whose unprecedented courage and dedication broke down the cruel barriers of apartheid in South Africa and led the nation into a new and democratic age.”
Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has also paid tribute saying "No few words can express the debt of gratitude that is due to Mr. Mandela for all that he achieved and stood for. He added quite simply, he transformed South Africa, and he changed the world.
US President Barack Obama said Mandela was a man "who took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice."
The South African President Jacob Zuma has ordered all flags in South Africa to fly at half mast tomorrow.
They will remain like that until after Nelson Mandela's funeral.
