photopol: MAURICE O'CONNELL

(Click on any image for a larger version)
Launch of the EBRD negotiation process in the
Kléber Conference Centre on 15 January 1990.
[l-r] Seán Connolly: D/Finance Principal at Irish Permanent Representation in Brussels. Pól Ó Duibhir: EIB/EBRD Desk in D/Finance. Jim Flavin: D/Foreign Affairs. Maurice O'Connell: Second Secretary General, D/Finance. Dieter Hartwich: Secretary General, European Investment Bank.

Maurice was my boss for a part of my career (well technically my boss's boss's boss, but that's a story for another day).

To quote a colleague, Maurice was "a very decent, honourable man who never sought favours or publicity." I found him great to work for. He was very demanding and did not suffer fools gladly. But he was straight and up front and worked himself assiduously at all hours of the day and night in the service of the State. He was frequently multi-tasking. I remember him writing a Ministerial speech in the course of an unrelated meeting.

He was particularly skilled at briefing (or to put it less politely, directing) Ministers. That sometimes had its drawbacks. I remember Bertie once saying on radio, in the middle of a currency crisis, that he was just doing what Maurice told him.

And then there was the time when Maurice told it like it was but in referring however obliquely to the "safety valve of emigration" sparked off a major political row.

Anyway, I'd just like to make a few comments below to give a flavour of the man as I saw him.

Our most intensive professional relationship was during the few months at the beginning of 1990 when the establishment of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was being negotiated. This was essentially a French project, in part carried over from the 1989 French EU Presidency but also to be one of François Mitterand's Grands Oeuvres, a sort of enduring monument to Mitterand's Presidency of the French Republic.

However, this negotiation took place during the Irish EU Presidency so we had quite a central role in the process. Michael Somers was our negotiating plenipotentiary but when it came to the subset of EU caucus meetings Michael was sometimes just the chair and Maurice the national delegate.

The photo above is of the lunch break at our first formal negotiating session in the Kléber Conference Centre in the centre of Paris. I subsequently learned that this had been Gestapo HQ during the WWII occupation.

Anyway, this was where I realised that Maurice ran on a fuel called food. He threw himself so enthusiastically into everything he did that by midday he was running out of steam and spent energy had to be replenished with vital packing. Depending on the day's schedule, this could also recur around tea-time.

Maurice, Jim Flavin (D/Foreign Affairs) and myself did a bit of travelling together to Paris and back during the EBRD negotiations. We needed a team as the negotiations sometimes broke up in to subgroups which had to be serviced by national reps or chaired by the EU Presidency. Seán Connolly (Irish Permanent Representation) was also involved in this but didn't travel with us as he was based in Brussels.

The airport in Paris (de Gaulle) was often a rush for a plane home. The Aer Lingus check-in was usually manned by ADP staff (French)

Anyway, this one day when we were charging for the plane, I was challenged by the ADP lady who said my passport and ticket did not match. This was the last thing we needed - delay. Maurice cut straight across her. "That's his name in Irish" and almost grabbed the papers out of her hand. Now Maurice can be very persuasive, particularly when he's in a hurry, and even this French lady buckled under the onslaught and handed me back my ticket and passport.

It was only later, when we were actually boarding the plane that we discovered that I had Jim's ticket and he mine. We must have just pocketed the tickets without looking at them when they were handed back to us in a bundle on the way over.

So much for ADP and French airport security. But surely an illustration of the force of Maurice's personality when motivated.

I nearly didn't meet Mikhail Gorbachev, and it would have all been Maurice's fault.

It happened like this. We had just returned to Dublin after a few day-long sessions in Paris. Jacques Attali, the EBRD project's head bottle washer, then suddenly decided he had to meet Gorbachev in Moscow for some reason or other.

Moreover, he clearly wanted EU Presidency cover and issued an instruction to my boss's boss's boss that he was to accompany him to Moscow. This involved leaving Dublin more or less straight away for Paris and turning up at a military airport on the outskirts of the city at midnight to fly to Moscow.

As it turned out Michael Somers absolutely refused to go. This refusal was clearly in breach of his brief from Charlie Haughey which, I suspect, was to facilitate Attali in every way possible. Charlie and François were very close. At least that was Charlie's perception of the relationship.

So the buck (poisoned chalice) passed to Maurice. Now, Maurice was as fed up with Attali as were the rest of us, and there eventually comes a limit to everyone's brief and the tolerance attached thereto. So, Maurice refused to go.

And the buck passed to me. Fortied by the breaking dam, I too refused to go.

So Attali went alone and, as far as I know, didn't actually succeed in meeting Gorbachev.

And that's how I nearly didn't meet Gorbachev as a result of Maurice finally running out of patience with Attali. For the record, I should just mention that there was absolute astonishment, and I suspect a wee trace of glee, at the French Treasury when I reported back these unanticipated refusals.

Maurice was also Ireland's Director on the Board of the European Investment Bank, and this involved monthly trips to Luxembourg. His boss, Seán Cromien, was not amused by these absences during which he could not call on Maurice.

So, to ensure he escaped safely to the airport, Maurice developed a stall, stack and send technique. On an EIB departure day he would not put any of his normal communications to Seán in his out-tray (stall), rather he would accumulate them on his desk in a separate pile (stack) and then as he was charging out the door would tip them all into his out-tray (send) and if Seán came back with queries he just wasn't around. That way he couldn't be delayed and miss his flight. If Seán then enquired about Maurice's whereabouts we all pleaded the fifth.

As both men are now no longer with us and hopefully reposing in Valhalla, I'll leave it to them to sort out this revelation between them.

Eventually Maurice went as Governor to the Central Bank from 1994 to 2002.

It just now struck me to wonder if he ever got the chance to sign the Irish banknotes before the Euro did away with that for us.

After some intensive googling I managed to come up with the image below. Not the best quality image but the message is clear. That series was issued between 1994 and 2000 so it's possible his signature appears on a few other denominations also.