PADDY BUCKLEY: PADDY BUCKLEY, who has died aged 64, was the former executive secretary of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). He brought diligence, energy and enthusiasm to the position and helped transform the academy into an institution fully geared to the needs of the 21st century.
He was responsible for bringing to fruition such important projects as the nine-volume Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB), Documents on Irish Foreign Policy and the Origins of the Irish Constitution. He was instrumental in persuading the OPW to extend the academy’s accommodation to Bective House and oversaw refurbishment of academy premises in the 1990s.
RIA president Jim Slevin said that he established an excellent rapport with government ministers and civil servants; his understanding of how government and Civil Service work had been of immense value to the academy during his tenure.
“Paddy was possessed of a lively witty intelligence,” said former president Nicholas Canny. “He had a keen eye for the foibles of the many people with inflated egos he had to deal with on a daily basis. He was keenly interested in the work and the projects of the RIA and he had an encyclopaedic knowledge of all elected Irish parliamentary representatives from the Parnellian era to the present day.”
He put this knowledge to good use in his DIB article on Ernest Blythe, a perceptive portrait of a complex figure.
Buckley was born in Limerick in 1947. He was one of three children of Denis Buckley, a garda stationed at O’Curry Street, and his wife Mary (née Ryan). He attended Crescent College and completed his Leaving Certificate in 1966.
At University College Dublin he studied history and politics and graduated with an honours BA. In 1983 he secured an MA for his thesis Electoral Change in the Irish Free State, 1927-1932.
After a stint teaching at Presentation College, Glasthule, he joined the Civil Service in 1971 as an administrative officer at the department of finance. While at the department of the public service, he met his future wife Mary Devane.
After returning to finance, he transferred to the department of economic planning and development in 1977 and remained there until it was wound up after Charles Haughey became taoiseach in 1979.
He was next assigned to the department of the taoiseach, where he showed great aplomb in his handling of the arts and cultural division. He remained there for 13 years, rising to principal officer, and was seconded to the Royal Irish Academy in 1993.
A career highlight was his nomination by Garret FitzGerald to the National Archives Advisory Council. He enjoyed his membership of the council because it proved to be an imaginative and effective body and it facilitated a working relationship with academics and archivists to advance and preserve knowledge of Ireland’s past in which he had an abiding interest.
Previously he had been closely involved in the establishment of Aosdána and with important aspects of sequential programmes for government. He had no time for departmental turf wars and instead focused on the job. Politics and current affairs fascinated him. He also was an avid collector of books and Irish silver.
He was always concerned that RIA staff and academics engaged in projects such as Foclóir na Nua Ghaeilge and the Dictionary of Irish Latin from Medieval Sources, which do not usually attract media attention, received recognition for their efforts, at least within the walls of Academy House.
Buckley was extremely proud of the academy and keen to display its treasures. He was adept at identifying material that would interest visiting politicians, senior civil servants and public figures.
Academy staff would often hear him greet a visitor with the words, “I know that you have a special interest in . . .” , whereupon he would produce a copy of one of the academy’s Irish Historic Towns atlases or direct them to the original Ordnance Survey from their native townland or a precious manuscript identified with their native place, which he had arranged to have on display for the visitor.
Abstemious himself, he kept a bottle of Irish whiskey in his office for special visitors to Academy House who might appreciate something other than the wine that was generally served at receptions.
This unobtrusive attention to detail epitomised his professionalism, which extended to all aspects of the academy’s work. He was a wise man, an outstanding and disinterested public servant. Above all Buckley was a family man and proud of his Limerick roots.
He was greatly liked and admired by colleagues for his humanity, good sense, good judgment and work ethic.
He became ill in 2010 and retired last year. His wife Mary and daughters Claire, Hannah and Frances survive him.
Paddy Buckley: born September 20th, 1947; died May 17th, 2012