Five taoisigh knew they could rely on Dermot Nally’s experience, wisdom and loyalty
DERMOT NALLY, of whose tragic death following a fall I have just learned, served for 20 crucial years in the Cabinet Office under five very different taoisigh – for most of that time as cabinet secretary.
He was an outstanding civil servant, with exceptional talents, ideally suited to that key role in our public administration – and a person of warmth and humanity.
When I first met him he was in the department of local government, where in 1958/9 he acted as secretary to the Senate electoral law commission, of which I was a member. At a luncheon to celebrate the completion of the work of this body, he showed considerable acuteness in asking me if I might enter politics, which I had to admit was a possibility.
When 15 years later, in March 1973, I became minister for foreign affairs, I was delighted to find that he had recently been appointed by Jack Lynch as assistant secretary to the government, becoming cabinet secretary six years later. I worked closely with him in that administration.
As well as preparing domestic business for the cabinet, he was responsible for all external aspects of the taoiseach’s responsibilities, attending almost every meeting of successive taoisigh with other heads of government.
A loyal servant of 10 successive governments, his wisdom and fine judgment, together with his experience in that key external role, made him an extraordinarily valuable resource upon which five successive holders of the office of taoiseach could rely.
When in 1984 I initiated the negotiations with the British government that led to the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, I appointed Dermot Nally to lead our delegation of Foreign Affairs officials, which he did with great skill and distinction. The success of this marathon 18-month negotiation owed a huge amount to the quality both of our united team and of that appointed by Margaret Thatcher under the leadership of Sir Robert Armstrong, who had also dealt with Irish affairs in the British cabinet office under a number of earlier prime ministers.
Their friendship transformed the previously prickly British-Irish relationship at official level and the bond formed proved to be enduring. For years thereafter the two civil service teams continued to meet annually, sporting ties with “AN” (Armstrong/Nally) emblazoned on them!
There is always some danger of sycophancy in the civil servant-politician relationship, but Dermot Nally knew how to avoid that trap. If I was contemplating an incautious move, he would say to me: “I wonder, taoiseach, have you considered the full implications of what you are contemplating?” That was the moment at which to reflect further! But if I still persisted, I knew he would nevertheless help me to see my scheme through.
It was a measure of the value attached to his services that, even after his formal retirement, his last taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, asked him to continue to assist him with the negotiation of the seminal Downing Street declaration of December 1993 which launched the final stage of the Northern Ireland settlement.
In recent years I always knew that if I needed to remind myself of some past event in government, I could rely on Dermot.
I shall miss him greatly.