Stephen McGonagle, former Northern Ireland Ombudsman and Senator, died in his native Derry on March 4th aged 87. He is perhaps best remembered as a strong and forward-looking trade union leader on both sides of the Border, for his contribution to the growth and consolidation of both the trade union and labour movements and as a life-long socialist.
By nature and temperament and by all his previous experience he was uniquely qualified for the post of ombudsman, the title by which, perhaps, he would most wish to be remembered.
Born in Derry on November 17th, 1914, the son of Joseph and Rebecca McGonagle, he spent three early years of his childhood with his father's people on Owey Island, off the coast of Donegal and started school there.
He was educated by the Christian Brothers at Brow of the Hill in Derry, and subsequently at the adjoining technical school, before taking an apprenticeship in his father's trade as a plumber.
Stephen McGonagle worked with a local firm, Archbolds, which was engaged, during the second World War, in the Derry dockyards servicing the naval ships engaged in the battle of the Atlantic.
He then became a full-time trade union official as local organiser for the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers. In this role he unionised the overwhelmingly female labour force in the Derry shirt factories, traditionally overworked and underpaid under autocratic managements.
After briefly forming a break-away union, he led his members into the Irish Transport and General Workers Union of which he became North-West Regional Officer.
Stephen McGonagle was ahead of his time as a trade union official. He believed that strikes were a waste of time which cost workers money and sundered relationships in the workplace. He preferred hard and constructive bargaining and was convinced that a well-prepared case, rationally presented and strongly argued would serve his members better and ensure the success of the enterprise. It was an approach that he carried into other professional and political settings.
In the 1960s Stephen McGonagle became an increasingly influential figure in trade union affairs and industrial relations in Northern Ireland. At that time the Stormont government refused to deal with Irish-based unions. Workers in the North were divided between Dublin and British-based unions (and not on sectarian grounds).
To its credit, the trade union movement refused to split and the British-based unions refused the blandishments of the unionists to enter a negotiating structure which would exclude their Irish brothers. In the end, Brian Faulkner's desire, as Minister of Commerce, to have an Economic Council representative of both sides of industry, forced a compromise.This was forged by a brilliant and able group of trade union leaders, prominent among whom was Stephen McGonagle. The result was a Northern Ireland committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions with Billy (now Lord) Blease as secretary. Stephen McGonagle later became chairman and in 1972 president of Congress. This led to membership of the Economic Council and of the Training Council.
Increasingly playing a part in public and political life, Stephen McGonagle stood three times as a Labour candidate in the Foyle constituency against Eddie MacAteer, then leader of the Nationalist Party. Although unsuccessful, he attracted a respectable vote each time. He was also a member of the administrative council of the Irish Labour Party, where he forged links with the trade unions and with Northern Ireland. In 1969, he became vice-chairman of the Londonderry Development Commission, from which he resigned in 1971 in protest at internment.
In 1974, he was appointed Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Commissioner for Complaints (the ombudsman), the first Catholic to hold such a post in Northern Ireland and the first person who had not been a civil servant.
He brought to this post the same sense of rationality and fairness, the balance and sense of natural justice, the careful preparation and the sound commonsense which had marked his earlier career. He retired in 1979 on reaching the age of 65.
In 1977, he became chairman of the Northern Ireland Police Complaints Board which he had helped to set up. This was heavily criticised by the Civil Rights Association, by Sinn Féin and the republican clubs.
At a time when allegations of police brutality abounded, the board could deal only with minor complaints and discourtesy. There was no power of initiative; investigation and discipline were in the hands of the police, and the role of the board was merely supervisory.
The appointment ended, controversially, in resignation in 1983. In that year Stephen McGonagle was appointed to the Seanad by Garret FitzGerald, and was immediately attacked by unionists in the Assembly at Stormont.
Members of the Assembly denounced his chairmanship in language which would now excite wonder, if not hilarity (except that some still believe it) as "incompatible with his involvement in the affairs of a foreign state whose every pronouncement is designed to insidiously undermine the stability of Northern Ireland".
In the Seanad (from 1983-1987), he took the Labour whip and spoke frequently on labour matters, social issues, health and housing and on the reports of the Ombudsman. He was also a member of the New Ireland Forum.
Speaking on the Anglo-Irish Agreement, he described an encounter with a sceptical unionist lady in Derry. "She had consent with a British guarantee, consent with an Irish guarantee. What did she want - consent with a Russian guarantee?"
Behind the public figure, Stephen McGonagle was a very private man. His first love was his family. He read deeply and widely and enjoyed conversation. He had a passion for fishing and a great love of nature. His wife Greta pre-deceased him by three years.
Stephen McGonagle's abiding qualities were a sense of fairness, interest in people and a respect for others. His characteristic words of farewell were "Keep in touch". He certainly did that.
He is survived by his daughter Patricia and sons, Owen, Brian, Kevin, Malachy and Declan.
Stephen McGonagle: born 1914; died, March 2002