Dr Maurice Moynihan, a former Government secretary and Central Bank governor died in Dublin on August 21st, aged 96. He was an outstanding survivor of the few who founded the Irish public service and helped to build it. The others, including Joseph Brennan, J. J. McElligott and John Leydon, were well-known as their work could not obscure their identities.
His role, however, was one of the classic anonymity of the civil service, first in the Department of Finance from 1925, then as Private Secretary to Eamon de Valera from 1932, and as Secretary to the Government and of the Department of the Taoiseach from March 1st, 1937.
In 1936, he joined Philip O'Donoghue and John Hearne on the committee which de Valera had set up to draft the new Constitution.
His later editorship of Speeches and Statements by Eamon de Valera 1917-1973 revealed his deep understanding of the author's mind. Those who had known him at work were quick to recognise his unique acquaintance with de Valera's mode of thought and way with words. It was a rare gift and a gift that de Valera was known to appreciate.
Maurice Moynihan's exquisite mastery of language in Irish and English was reflected in the simplicity and clarity of his style, and facilitated his remarkable skill as a draftsman. In advising Government, he was a model of integrity, courageous and forceful.
It was only after his retirement that he showed publicly the strength of his personal political convictions. Some readers may recall his invoking Yeats in a magisterial rejoinder to an Irish Times leader on Maastricht in July 1992.
In 1948, the Taoiseach of the first inter-party Government, John A Costello, was unable to use him in his full capacity as Secretary to the Government because Sean MacBride objected to his presence at Government meetings. In his absence, Liam Cosgrave, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach, kept records which he later gave to Maurice Moynihan for inclusion in the official minutes.
This lack of a proper administrative system produced consequences on which historians have yet to pass their final judgement. They included decisions at ad hoc meetings of ministers which might easily have been overlooked, and communication between Government and the public service, and even between ministers who attended meetings and those who did not, which might have been impaired. A government decision is not invalidated if it is not recorded, but such an omission could only lead to misunderstanding, and even recrimination.
If Maurice Moynihan had been allowed to play his full role and attend Government meetings, the disaster of the Mother and Child Scheme might have been avoided, and the many misunderstandings attending the repeal of the External Relations Act reduced.
He had long experience of relations between the State and the Catholic church. He had profound respect for the integrity of institutions, but he also felt that it had been no accident that Ignatius Loyola and Edmund Burke shared such common ground on the principle of the economy of truth. Careful drafting by an accomplished hand often produced a formula that satisfied two sides to a controversy without deceiving either.
From 1961 to 1969 he was Governor of the Central Bank, a period during which the organisation of banking in Ireland was effectively transformed almost unobtrusively by mergers and amalgamations. But the character and functions of the Central Bank altered as well.
In 1968 and 1969, the commercial banks exchanged most of their sterling holdings for Irish currency from the Central Bank. A revolution was achieved without clamour, indeed, almost by stealth.
Most important, perhaps, were arrangements for the transfer of the Exchequer Account from the Bank of Ireland to the Central Bank, a process completed on January 1st, 1972, thus ending a privilege which the Bank of Ireland had enjoyed since its foundation in 1783. Any of these events in isolation might normally have evoked attention, even disputation. Taken together they changed the face of banking in Ireland.
There was widespread acceptance that their successful passage owed much to the wisdom, tact and urbanity of Maurice Moynihan and to his ability to reconcile opposing views. That soft, Kerry voice had yet again exercised its magic in wider company. The banking reforms that Sean MacBride had sought had been achieved almost unobtrusively by the man he distrusted.
Modesty and lack of pretension were hallmarks of Maurice Moynihan's character.
He was proud of his formal distinctions such as a first-class honours degree in commerce from University College, Cork which enabled him to keep in contact with developments in economic theory.
He was conferred with an honorary degree by the National University of Ireland in 1955 and with a papal title, Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great, in 1959, but he never flaunted these accolades.
During his years as head of the Department of the Taoiseach, the achievements of that office were inverse in relation to its size.
The administrative staff consisted of himself and his Assistant Secretary, first Patrick Kennedy and subsequently, Nicholas Nolan. Apart from these, there was the modest clerical staff of two in the Registry. His history of the Central Bank, Currency and Central Banking in Ireland 1922-60 is an accepted classic.
A delightful conversationalist, always lively and lighthearted, his silent preoccupation with discretion never inhibited his enjoyment of good company.
He was predeceased by his wife, Mae (nee Conley), and by a son, Maurice and a daughter, Mary. He is survived by a son, Martin and two daughters, Joan and Anne.
Maurice Moynihan: born 1902; died August, 1999