A renowned engineer, a respected international arbitrator and a concerned social worker, Patrick Mehigan has died aged 79. He was a man who represented the best of being Irish, with a deep feel for the language and traditions of the island and a distinguished career.
He joined the firm of consulting engineers, Nicholas O'Dwyer, after graduation and was associated with the company for almost all of his professional life, spending his last years there as chairman, a job to which he brought his qualities of leadership, intelligence and judgment.
Under his care the firm, one of the oldest and most renowned in Ireland, extended its remit to many countries abroad. It carried out extensive work in Nigeria, Zambia, Lesotho, Kenya, the Dominican Republic and Saudi Arabia. Many were multi-million European projects involving design and supervision of construction of hundreds of kilometres of roads and water and sewerage systems.
After mandatory retirement from O'Dwyer's at 65 he became a successful and sought-after international arbitrator, where his conciliation skills were much appreciated and where his considerable intelligence contributed to simplifying the seemingly obscure.
Patrick Joseph Mehigan, known to all his friends as "Ogie", was the third of five sons born to distinguished west Cork parents, Patrick Mehigan and Cissy Scully. His father, whose name will be well known to older Irish Times readers, reported in the paper on GAA affairs as "Pato" and covered coursing under the pseudonym of "Carbery". He also had the distinction of making the first radio broadcast of a GAA match on RTE.
A gold medallist in mathematics, his son was educated by the Marist fathers at CUS and later at UCD from where he graduated with an honours degree in civil engineering.
He had a passionate interest in sport as participant and follower. He won the All-Ireland Colleges high jump championship and was later hurdles champion. He played rugby at Lansdowne, was a competent sailor from the RIYC and a devotee of golf at Milltown, a game he played with greater enthusiasm than skill for 50 years.
A keen racegoer, he was a regular at Leopardstown and other race meetings,and he followed Gaelic football, rugby and athletics with enthusiasm and knowledge.
Mehigan had a strong social conscience and devoted 40 years to sustaining the Marist Youth Welfare Foundation and the Marist Boys' club at Percy Place, and was associated with many other philanthropic acts.
He was a great traveller and a wonderful travelling companion, full of curiosity, avid for experience and knowledge, sympathetic to his environment, a respecter of diversity and seldom censorious. A pillar of strength in adversity, he was a joy to be with.
A testament to his international standing was his election to the council of FIDIC, the body representing consulting engineers in the western world. The position of president could have been his if he had allowed his name to be put forward. He was influential in arranging that FIDIC's annual conference in Dublin in 1967.
His memory will be most strongly revered for his personal characteristics - one of life's "givers", a man to whom anger was unknown, and one who had the most extraordinary interest in everyone he met. He was a man of the highest principles and never compromised on these. He had deep and sincere religious convictions, reflected not in public display but in his relationship with people. He was an unselfish man, prepared to share his possessions, his time and his considerable expertise with all.
It's a pity he failed to reach his 80th birthday in August. He had planned to spend it in his beloved Ardfield in west Cork among "his own people" where he spent much time in his happy youth. His wife, Eithne, daughters, Sinead, Caoleann and CaraIosa, and sons, Declan and Brian, survive him.
Patrick J. Mehigan: born August 1st, 1924; died February 27th, 2004