John McGilligan, who died in Dublin on June 7th aged 61, was a banker, financier and senior member of Fine Gael.
Chairman of Bank of Scotland - formerly Equity Bank - since 1989 and managing director of Business and Trading House Investment Company, which invested capital under the Business Expansion Scheme, he was a former member of the Fine Gael National Executive and ran twice in the Seanad elections for that party.
Known for his sharp wit and as a friend to many, he worked previously for Trinity Bank - now part of Woodchester group - and was a former director of Bula Resources, the mineral exploration company.
He was born in Dublin on March 24th, 1939, to Ann (nee Conolly) and Patrick McGilligan, a founder member of Cumann na nGaedheal from Coleraine, who had joined Sinn Fein in 1910.
Patrick McGilligan was Minister for Industry and Commerce in the crucial period after the Civil War, strongly supporting the creation of the Electricity Supply Board.
Thus the milieu in which John McGilligan grew up during the 1940s and 1950s in the family's home at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, was one in which politics was central.
But John, youngest of four children, was the only one to pursue serious involvement with Fine Gael in adult life.
He was educated at Belvedere College and University College Dublin, where he took an M.Econ and a law degree.
Later, in 1966, he completed an executive programme in business management at the University of California in Los Angeles.
By this time he was working at RTE, where had responsibility for economics and planning studios. He previously worked for two years at Aer Lingus.
But it was only in 1973 when he left RTE to join the merchant bank, Trinity, that he discovered his true metier.
There he took responsibility for corporate finance and lending and established a reputation as a gentleman banker in the old style. He was appointed joint managing director in 1983.
Many younger business figures worked with him in this period, among them Esat founder Denis O'Brien.
He departed Trinity Bank in 1988 to establish Business and Trading House Investment Company, which was one of the first firms to exploit the annual Business Expansion Scheme.
He relished the challenge of the raising of capital and investing in growing companies.
He vigorously defended the tax incentives granted under the Business Expansion Scheme.
In an Irish Times article in 1992, he wrote: "The precept that the State should partly underwrite the risks taken by individuals who invest in private companies is sound provided there is genuine risk attached to such investment and provided also that the investment results in the creation of employment."
At Equity Bank, he oversaw significant growth of the business in the 1990s, primarily focused on personal and corporate banking, but culminating with its entry into the mortgage market last year.
In 1970, he married Grace O'Driscoll from Cork. A golfer, he was a member of the clubs at Portmarnock and Milltown, but retained a strong interest in all sports.
He was a member of the Judicial Appointments Board and also chairman of the Irish board of the Irish American Partnership.
Though his attempts to secure a Seanad seat failed, he was a keen life-long follower of the party's fortunes with both national and local influence.
His continuing interest in national affairs, despite serious illness, was evidenced last December, when he was interviewed by The Irish Times on Budget day.
A keen follower, like his father, of Budgets and the "hugely precious" secrets contained therein, he remarked that much of the excitement had gone from the Finance Minister's annual day out. "Going back 15 years or more, the Budget was a real hold-your-breath surprise, with no indication in advance whether it was going to be expansionary or deflationary. The minister just walked in and you didn't have a clue."
He bore his illness quietly, with determination, and worked until soon before his death.
He is survived by his wife Grace, daughter Tanya, sister Evanna and brothers Paddy and Kevin. His son, John Patrick, died in 1990.
John McGilligan: born 1939; died, June 2000