John Gallagher, Director General of the Institute of Public Administration, died on October 30th aged 58. He was born in Ennis, Co Clare on February 9th 1943.
His unexpected death came just over a year after the death of the man who promoted him to high office in the public service. John Boland, as Minister for the Public Service, defied the seniority tradition in the Civil Service when, in October 1983, he promoted a relatively young John Gallagher to assistant secretary. He served in that position for four years, where he had responsibility for all non-pay personnel matters, including recruitment, training, mobility, discipline, equality, promotions, welfare, Irish language policy and conditions of service. In May 1987 he moved to the Institute of Public Administration.
After taking the Leaving Certificate examination in St Flannan's, Ennis, in 1960, John Gallagher joined the Civil Service as a junior executive officer and was appointed to the Labour Division of the Department of Industry and Commerce. He immediately registered for the Diploma in Public Administration in UCD, which he completed in 1962. Two years later, he won a place in the full-time school of the Institute of Public Administration, a coveted career option for young, ambitious civil servants. Thus began a relationship with the IPA which culminated in his appointment as its director general in May 1987.
He completed the full-time course at the IPA school in 1965 and was appointed administrative officer in the trade section of the Department of Finance. In 1967 he transferred to the staff section, and started his career in personnel, the area of work in which he specialised for the remainder of his career. He was later to become a Fellow of the Institute of Personnel Management.
When he reached the ranks of the senior Civil Service, at principal officer level, he was appointed head of the restructuring team for the Departments of Education, Transport and Power and Labour. But, it was when he was made head of the Civil Service Training Centre in 1980 that he found his true niche. As the 1980s impetus to restructure the Civil Service took off, John Gallagher spearheaded the training conferences that were devised for senior civil servants, at principal, assistant secretary and secretary levels. It was therefore perhaps fitting that his final career move was to the Institute of Public Administration as director general. In the institute he happened upon a public service renewal agenda that went beyond the central Civil Service.
Somehow, he contrived to be both a leader and an observer of institute happenings during his 14 years as director general. He was a critical observer inasmuch as he retained a Civil Service perspective, always looking at what the institute could do for the public service and measuring it against his Civil Service standards. But, as leader, he took personal satisfaction and pride in the institute's achievements and particularly in the modern, purpose-built education and training facility completed at the institute's headquarters in Lansdowne Road in February 2000. His capacity for networking and for selling his ideas were the qualities that enabled him put together the financial package to build the new IPA headquarters. He believed, and was proud to claim, that he led an institute that compared more than favourably with other similar institutes with which he was familiar in Europe. As a member of the Scientific Council of the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht, he was well placed to make this judgment.
Although he came to Dublin in 1960, he never thought of himself as anything but a Clare man. His roots were there. He was very conscious of this and of his education at St Flannan's, where his father, Paddy, taught Latin and Greek. He also had an attachment to Waterford, his mother's (nΘe Whittle) native city. When he came to Dublin he developed a passion for golf, achieving a handicap of six at Royal Dublin, moving later to membership of Delgany. In latter years he was one of the driving forces behind the charity Golf as Gaeilge. He also enjoyed classical music.
No portrayal of John Gallagher would be complete if it did not mention his story telling. He prided himself on his skills as a raconteur. Many of his stories emanated from his experience in the Civil Service and his post-prandial tales certainly showed scant regard for traditional Civil Service reticence. The following words, which he wrote in an obituary for his great friend Tom Collins, in 1987, apply equally to himself. "He was blessed with a good humour, a delicious sense of the ridiculous, salty wit and unbureaucratic ways."
John Gallagher: born 1943; died, October 2001