Respected accountant with 'think straight, talk straight' mantra

Frank Barrett: WHEN FRANK Barrett became an international partner of Arthur Andersen while head of its Venezuelan office at …

Frank Barrett:WHEN FRANK Barrett became an international partner of Arthur Andersen while head of its Venezuelan office at the age of 34, there were only 189 in that select group of one of the world's big five audit and accountancy firms. By the time he retired in Dublin in 1987, having returned to found and then run the company's Irish operation, there were more than 2,500.

In 1984 he was appointed its director of special services to work with clients from the firm’s 43 offices in Europe and South Africa. He would be one of the first Irish representatives on the International Accounting Standards Committee.

Barrett’s death at age 88 after a number of years of poor health sees the profession lose one of its most respected and significant figures, a former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (1982-83), whose personal mantra “think straight, talk straight” reflected a widely recognised integrity.

“A truly inspirational friend and one of the highest integrity,” former colleague Breffni Byrne told his funeral.

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Barrett was born in Co Clare to a staunchly republican family, second child and eldest son of Frank and Delia (née Costello), brother to Maura, Anna and Sylvie (the late Fianna Fáil minister). The four children were orphaned at a young age by the death of his father and mother within weeks of each other – his father after a protracted illness following a hunger strike in an English jail, and his mother by a stroke. The children were farmed out to relations, and Frank was placed with his father’s eldest brother Joe Barrett in Kilrush. Frank and Sylvie went to school at St Flannan’s in Ennis, while Maura and Anna went to the Ursuline Convent in Thurles.

On moving to Dublin to train as an accountant, he was embraced by another branch of the family, his paternal aunt Pauline and her husband Paddy Mulcahy, based at Beggars Bush Barracks, where he met two young women, Gwen Joyce and Mona Lillis, both of whom he would eventually marry.

After qualifying in 1949 he married Gwen, and the couple moved to Venezuela where they would live for 19 years. Gwen contracted poliomyelitis at the age of 28 and her illness made life in Venezuela particularly difficult, but friends say both bore it with a fortitude that was typical. Frank worked initially for Shell and then Arthur Andersen, quickly becoming its local managing partner.

His journal of the time, Byrne told his funeral, “reads like a Graham Greene novel, with clothes allowance for tropical suits and white tuxedos, pink gin, beach clubs and a post-war colonial culture”. Work took him to pre-Castro Cuba, Trinidad and, among other exotic destinations, a night in a local prison over an argument with a traffic policeman. A Shell executive who bailed him viewed it as part of the normal apprenticeship for a young accountant in Caracas.

Barrett returned in 1968 to Dublin to open Arthur Andersen’s office, recruiting staff such as James Gallagher from Revenue, Lochlann Quinn, Adrian Burke, Roddy Ryan and the late John Kennedy. Colleagues recall that he instilled a “family” atmosphere in the firm, which quickly became a central player on the Irish scene.

Barrett came back with few contacts “but a strong self-belief and vision, deep knowledge of international audit best practice, and an honourable fearlessness”, Byrne recalls.

“He was deeply saddened by the demise of Arthur Andersen in 2002, which resulted from problems on the US side of the firm [post-Enron]. As acknowledged by all, these problems would not have occurred had someone with Frank’s values and integrity been managing the US firm,” Byrne added. The year after Gwen’s death in 1986, just as Frank retired, he married the also recently widowed Mona. They enjoyed 25 years together in their home in Shankill, Co Dublin.

He remained active in business – he sat on board of Coyle Hamilton for many years – in the Irish Heart Foundation and the Cheshire Homes, and continued to enjoy horse racing, poker, fishing, some golf, and outings to the Stephen’s Green Club.

He is survived by Mona, sister Anna, children Mary Lynn, Dick and Francis, stepchildren Terry, Kathryn, Sandra and Rona and grandson Stephen.

Frank Barrett: born October 23rd, 1924; died June 20th, 2012.