HUGH DELAP, the most gentle, self effacing, and principled man I ever met, always entertained the possibility that the other person in an argument might be right. So he was the best of listeners a quality especially cherished by those of my generation who had the honour of his open and accepting hospitality.
His greatest enjoyment, and that of his still constantly optimistic widow, Kathleen, was "other people". In the 1960s we young people were deeply charmed by his rapt attention in argument - as if we were a delegation from some august academy. I can recall his head inclined at the dinner table as he picked up crumbs with his fingers at "Ards", Cabinteely, and weighed a point carefully. I loved to listen to his demystifying explanations of technological concepts.
New Man and feminist
An Anglo Irish Protestant professional, who belonged to an extended family remarkable for what nowadays might be called "social activism", Hugh Delap was a true liberal, a lower case socialist. That his daughters, Jean and Anne, should unhesitatingly identify him as "a New Man", and "a feminist", before the terms were invented, reflects his unqualified and confidence building belief in everyone's right to express themselves and pursue their dreams.
Hugh Alexander Delap was an engineer, retiring from the public service as chief engineer of the Office of Public Works in 1971. He was a former president of the Institution of Engineers in Ireland. After retirement he took on engineering consultancies with NET (Nitrogen Eireann Teo) and the Department of Defence.
His eldest son, Michael, also an engineer, tells me that his father would get very annoyed at any suggestion that as a Protestant in the early days of the State it was difficult for him to be in the Civil Service. He saw himself as a republican first and a Protestant second. Enthusiasm for the new state, and for the task of developing its infrastructure, was untinged with any pining for empire.
He chose the public service, and not the more obvious private sector, where his father was a partner in the engineering consultancy business, Delap and Waller. This seemed of a piece with a determination to serve humanity. A cousin, hearing that his body was to be donated to medical science, remarked: "Bloody typical, always thinking of someone else."
Hugh Delap hated to be associated with the Protestantism of bigotry as represented by Dr Ian Paisley. He hoped that before he died - as he did peacefully on January 27th, aged 90 - that he would some day hear Dr Paisley entertain the possibility that he could be mistaken in his certainties. Tongue in cheek, he liked to quote Cromwell's entreaty to Scotsmen of the kirk: "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ to think it possible you may be mistaken.
Ever the scientist, he questioned, constantly re examining what was already "known": In spite of being a valued member of the select vestry of Tullow Church, Carrickmines, for 42 odd years, this included Christian faith. Yet his example was all about Christian values.
Harbour development
Five years after marriage in 1933 to Kathleen Orpen, "the girl next door", he joined the OPW and worked on the new seaplane base at Rineanna, near Shannon. He had been educated at "Miss Sweeney's" in Foxrock, Castle Park, Rugby, and TCD. Later, as the OPW's chief civil engineer, he directed the early development of Dun Laoghaire Harbour as a car ferry port.
But the work he seemed to enjoy most was that of developing and maintaining the many fishing harbours, jetties and slips around the coast. From Killybegs to Dingle there are many memorials to his care and skill in outfoxing nature in the interest of people's livelihoods.
As a young man he was cofounder with another chief engineer (of CIE) and brother in law, Paddy Somerville Large, of an extraordinary project to help the unemployed. The Mount Street Club - the name was intended to poke fun at the posh Kildare Street Club - offered work for food and clothing to unemployed men.
The club, with its own internal economy, including a currency of "tallies" and a 130 acre farm in once sylvan Palmerstown, lasted until the early 1970s, by which time real money and jobs had returned for many. "These men needed to be made feel of some value and preferably to better themselves materially," he said of this noble and original experiment.
He liked the economic logic of the tally system, which brought together purchasing power and goods that people wanted and needed thus solving (albeit on a small scale), a problem that bedevils Third World countries.
This project reflected an activism and social awareness intrinsic to inspired members of his generation and class. Included in the extended family were others who had married into the close knit Orpen family of five sisters, nieces of the painter, Sir William Orpen.
Self help philosophy
Co operative development, self help and service to others were the principles guiding this unsung group's interest in projects like the Country Shop in St Stephen's Green, the still existing Country Markets network, the Irish Countrywomen's Association, and An Oige, founded by Terry Trench, who married Kathleen's sister, Beatrice. Cyril Parker, husband of another sister, Cerise, ran what later became Newpark Comprehensive, Blackrock, according to the most progressive educational methods of the day. Cerise Parker was a Froebel kindergarten teacher at Avoca.
In the 1960s the Delaps became involved with the Intinerant Resettlement Committee. But their way of contributing was to have a Traveller family park in the front garden. The inevitable intersection of cultures was negotiated with a characteristic matter of fact equanimity and manifest understanding.
The people of Rosbeg, Co Donegal, where the Delaps renewed an old family link with the nearby Rosses by building a holiday house, have Hugh Delap to thank for designing and negotiating in a private capacity one of the country's first group water schemes.
This frugal, witty man would blush now if he knew all this praise was being heaped on him, or to hear his secretive generous contributions to charities recalled. To me, and other friends of his son Charlie, he had the status of an inspiring second father.