Peter Sutherland, the former European commissioner, attorney general and chairman of Goldman Sachs International, has died. He was 71.

Mr Sutherland served in a number of senior positions in the worlds of law, business and government during his career. Most recently, he was the United Nations special representative for international migration.

In a long career, he also held the positions of director general of the World Trade Organisation; chairman of the London School of Economics; a member of the UN commission on human security; chairman of the European Institute of Public Administration and chairman of British Petroleum.

Born in Dublin in April 1946, Mr Sutherland was educated at Gonzaga College in Ranelagh before going on to study law at University College Dublin. He worked as a senior counsel for more than a decade before being appointed attorney general in 1981 by the Fine Gael-Labour coalition, the first of two spells in the role.

Mr Sutherland, who had been ill for some time, passed away on Sunday morning in St James’s Hospital in Dublin. He is survived by his wife Maruja (née Cabria Valcarcel) and his children Shane, Natalia and Ian, 10 grandchildren, his sisters Jill and Karen, his brother-in-law David Brennan and his wider family and friends.