Northern Ireland was a major part of Ashdown's dutiful life

He attended the parliamentary gym each day he was there, maintaining until late in life the sort of military discipline that had earlier in his career seen him admitted to the elite naval Special Boat Squadron.

Lord Ashdown, as he later became, was similarly energetic in political and public life, for the best part of four decades, after first trying to become an MP in the late 1970s.

Ashdown’s life and career took him across the world, but Northern Ireland was a constant theme in his life. Although latterly there was no trace of Ulster in his accent, he grew up in Comber and attended primary school in Bangor – and his Irish link led him to get, then adopt, the nickname Paddy.

Ashdown had a front row place to witness our Troubles, serving as a company commander in Belfast in 1970, as the security situation rapidly worsened, before leaving the military in 1972. In little more than a decade later he became MP for Yeovil, where his knowledge of Northern Ireland led to him becoming the Liberal spokesperson for NI.

It is also why Gordon Brown reportedly considered making him secretary of state for Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, his ability to navigate conflict situations was enhanced by his long involvement in the troubled Balkans region.

Ashdown often visited Northern Ireland, for example campaigning for a Yes vote in the 1998 referendum.

Little is remembered, however, of his 2008 strategic review of the ever thorny issue of parading here.

Ashdown made some hard hitting comments about NI that put him sharply at odds with the editorial position of this newspaper, and the views of many people in the Province.

But he was one of the major political figures of the last 30 years of British life, a big personality who was devoted to public service and commenting bluntly on events up to the end of his life, in his late 70s. He was, insofar as he was linked to this place, a great Ulsterman.