Gibraltar stunned by two prominent deaths

Mr. J.E.Triay, QC

GIBRALTAR (GibChronicle) Gibraltar was yesterday morning just absorbing the news that one of its most eminent and respected lawyers and politically controversially figures JE Triay, QC, had passed away when further news broke in the afternoon that his former legal partner and one time Speaker of the House Sir Alfred Vasquez, QC, left us too. The news that Mr Triay, the Opposition leader Peter Caruana’s father-in-law, had died prompted a swift announcement by Government that the Budget session of Parliament, due tomorrow, was to be postponed to Monday at 9.30am. No 6 expressed its condolences to the families of both men.>>>

J.E. Triay, apart from being a leading QC, came to the headlines in the build-up to the border closure of 1969 when he was part of the group calling itself The Doves which wrote a letter to this newspaper in March 1968 urging Gibraltar to seek settlement with Spain. The response was violent rioting. Mr. Triay’s funeral is being held tomorrow Thursday from St Theresa’s Church at 1pm. Sir Alfred is to be buried today. The arrangements are that the Chief Minister and former chief ministers as well as MPs and former elected members are to gather in the Lobby of Parliament for 3.45 pm before accompanying the hearse to the Cathedral of St Mary the Crowned for the service at 4pm. No 6 noted that apart from being a prominent member of the legal profession for many years, Sir Alfred was Speaker of the Parliament from 1970 to 1992, giving him the distinction of having held the office for longer than anyone else to date.