Sean Morrissey:Sean Morrissey who died on May 17th aged 85, was the ambassador who led the Irish team of officials who negotiated Ireland's entry into the then EEC. He was also the legal adviser for a decade to the Department of External Affairs as it was then titled.
With his expert legal background as a senior counsel, Sean Morrissey was highly qualified to negotiate and advise on how Ireland would adapt to the huge body of law derived from the community treaties and the ever-growing secondary legislation emanating from Brussels. The more political aspects of the negotiations were handled by Dr Patrick Hillery who as Minister for External Affairs had the chief responsibility for securing the best deal possible for Ireland.
Sean Morrissey was born in Tipperary on June 22nd, 1916. Following the death of his father, the family moved to Dublin. He was first educated at Belvedere College and then Blackrock College, where he captained the rugby team which won the Leinster Senior Cup thanks to his skills as a wing threequarter.
He studied economics and law at University College, Dublin. He was awarded an MA (Hons) in Economics and an LLB. However, his rugby-playing career at UCD was cut short by injury.
He then studied at the King's Inns and was called to the Bar in 1940. He practised as a barrister on the Leinster Circuit but times were difficult for juniors and to supplement legal earnings he joined with his close friend Brendan Matthews and Billy Sutherland, father of Peter, in the running of a well-known bicycle park off O'Connell Street for some years.
In 1943, he married Mary Joyce from Westport, Co Mayo, and they had three children.
In 1948, he moved from the financially precarious fortunes of the Leinster Circuit to the security of the Civil Service, where he was appointed assistant legal adviser in the Department of Local Government.
In 1954, he transferred to the Department of External Affairs as assistant legal adviser and a year later became the legal adviser. In the early years of Ireland's membership of the United Nations he worked with the Irish delegation to the General Assembly in New York. He was also involved in representing the Government side in the Lawless case before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Gerard Lawless, who was interned during the IRA campaign in the 1950s, successfully claimed that his human rights under the European Charter had been violated.
As legal adviser he attended numerous international conferences including two Law of the Sea conferences, the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Conference and the European Fisheries Conference. He also represented the Government before the International Court at the Hague and was leader of the Irish delegation to the UNCTAD (United Nations Conference for Trade and Development) conference in Geneva.
Sean Morrissey was promoted to assistant secretary in 1962. The following year he was called to the Inner Bar, becoming a senior counsel although his days on the legal circuits were long past.
The opportunity to experience the diplomatic circuit came in 1964 with his appointment as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Switzerland and Austria. But his legal skills were again required during this period when Ireland re-activated its application to join the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) during the Kennedy round of trade negotiations in Geneva.
A new challenge came with Ireland's application to join the EEC in 1961, which had remained blocked because of General de Gaulle's opposition to British membership. It became clear that Ireland needed to be better prepared for the day when real negotiations would begin, so the Government decided to upgrade the mission to the EEC. Up until then it was merely part of the duties of the Irish ambassador in Brussels, who was accredited to Belgium and Luxembourg.
In 1966, Sean Morrissey was appointed head of the mission to the EEC, which would be separate from the embassy in Brussels. Three years later Ireland was able to re-activate its application following the Hague Conference and de Gaulle's resignation. Sean Morrissey, who had built up excellent contacts at the European Commission, was brought back to Dublin in February 1970 to head the EEC division at Iveagh House and prepare for the impending negotiations.
Two weeks before the negotiations opened on June 30th, 1970, in Luxembourg, Sean Morrissey was appointed by Dr Hillery to lead the negotiations at the level of officials who would be drawn from the principal departments concerned by Ireland's eventual membership of the EEC.
Over the next 18 months the complex negotiations were carried on under the direction of Sean Morrissey, who was based in Dublin but travelled to Brussels for the main sessions, where Dr Hillery argued the Irish case for suitable transitional arrangements. After the final session at level of officials on January 18th, 1972, the official history records that the EEC representative extended "warm congratulations to the Irish delegation. The leader of the Irish delegation, Mr S. Morrissey, responded and the proceedings closed with appropriate toasts."
He and his negotiating team were awarded medals for their work by the then Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, in March 1973.
His next posting was as ambassador to the Netherlands, which he took up in 1973. After serving almost seven years in The Hague, Sean Morrissey retired in September 1980. Over his lengthy career, first at the law and then diplomacy, he made numerous friends. He did not seek the limelight but his sense of humour made him excellent company.
He is survived by wife Mary; son John; daughters Joan (Lowey) and Ruth (Reddy), and sister Noreen(O'Sullivan).
Sean Morrissey: born 1916; died, May 2002