Denied the formal schooling he later craved, Ambrose McInerney strongly believed in investing in the career opportunities of the people who worked for him through education and training.
Ambrose (Amby) McInerney, who died on September 20th aged 80, was for many years chairman and joint managing director of McInerney Properties, now McInerney Holdings plc. He would identify workers and send them on training courses to the Irish Management Institute or to learn public speaking. This, a former associate believes, was one of his greatest legacies.
"Many of those people are prominent builders in Dublin today, because he gave them the training and education and confidence to run an area, so that when recession hit and people had to leave, they had the confidence to go out on their own. That culture still lives on very strongly in the company."
At times when it might have been profitable, he made little or no political connections. The company culture was quality and delivery on time, another associate, recalls. "They were the biggest Irish-based international construction company and that man's name has not appeared once in any of these tribunals and never will. They had particular codes and ethics by which they operated."
Ambrose McInerney was born in Scarriff, Co Clare, on March 23rd, 1920, the third eldest of eight children. His father, Thomas, was a smallholder and also had a building business, started in 1909 mainly constructing walls and extensions. Ambrose McInerney had to leave Scarriff National School when he was 14 years old because the family needed another wage coming in. He worked locally before joining his father in the construction business. They began to take on larger projects, including a school building in Gort, Co Galway. In the early 1940s, they opened an office in Gort and diversified into housing, schools and other larger building contracts. For the next decade or more they operated mainly in the Clare and Galway area.
In 1949, the company was incorporated as Thomas McInerney & Sons and one of the initial major projects undertaken was the first jet runway for Shannon Airport.
Ambrose McInerney moved to Shannon for the duration and during this time set himself a target of reading for 35 hours-aweek in his insatiable desire for further education. By this time, his brother Dan, who would later become joint managing director, had joined the firm. Coming much later in the family Dan McInerney had had the benefit of third-level education.
In the early 1950s, the company began building in the Dublin area, starting with large local authority housing contracts. It built estates in Ballyfermot and a number of flats complexes in the inner city. It also undertook contracts for local authorities all over the midlands, becoming the first volume builders in the State. The Hogan Stand at Croke Park was another major undertaking in the late 1950s. When times were difficult economically in Ireland in the 1950s, Dan McInerney was sent to Britain, where he established its headquarters in Watford. The company went on to become a major local authority housing developer there, with clients like the Greater London Council, as well as residential property developers.
McInerneys pioneered timberframe construction methods and also developed some of the first joint-venture housing concepts with associations in the south of England. Dan McInerney remained in charge of the British operation, while Ambrose McInerney was Irish MD.
In 1971, the company went public; the flotation was 11 times over-subscribed and McInerney Properties was formed with Ambrose McInerney as chairman. He looked to new markets when the oil crisis and mounting inflation led to a recession in the 1970s. By 1980, McInerney Properties was operating in five Gulf states, building office blocks, local authority housing, banks and even palaces. Around this time, it moved into Spain and Portugal, constructing the Four Seasons country clubs. McInerney Properties was a partner with British Land and Hardwicke in the development of the IFSC in Dublin, which started in 1986.
Ambrose McInerney retired from the company in 1987. He was a director of Scarriff Chipboard, the company his late father brought to the town, until the late 1980s. A quiet and unassuming man, "nobody ever heard him raise his voice", one family member recalls. "You knew you were in trouble when he took his glasses off and looked at you." Fittingly, for a Clareman, his sporting passion was hurling and he also loved golf. Never a socialite, he spent all his free time with his wife Ann and son. John.
Ambrose McInerney is survived by his wife Ann, son John, brother Dan, and sisters Marie (Barry), Tess (Torpey) and Eilish (Murray).
Ambrose (Amby) McInerney: born 1920; died, September 2000