President Patrick Hillery - A career and life of dignity and courage

PRESIDENT Patrick Hillery, who died on Saturday aged 84, was of the generation who succeeded the revolutionaries-turned-politicians who shaped post-colonial Ireland in the second quarter of the last century.

He was one of the leaders of the generation who built modern Ireland. That generation inherited a divided, insular, largely bigoted and poorly educated country, ravaged by emigration and poverty. These challenges were exacerbated by the legacy of the second world war. Without the courage and idealism of that generation the Celtic Tiger would never have materialised. Access to education might have been denied to even more generations of Irish people. The social and economic evolution brought about by EU membership might have been delayed. The realisation that the north’s wretched situation could not be resolved by violence might not have been strong enough to prevent an even more catastrophic 30 years of conflict.

As a TD, as a minister, as our first European commissioner and as our sixth president, Patrick Hillery played a hands-on part in opening the doors of opportunity for generations of Irish people.

In 1961, 10 years after he had first been elected to the Dáil as Éamon de Valera’s running mate in Clare, a mere 10% of the children aged between 15 and 19 of semi-skilled or unskilled parents were in full-time education. The majority were condemned to a life as labourers for hire, either at home or abroad, no matter how bright they were; education was not an option.

In 1959, Dr Hillery was appointed Minister for Education by Seán Lemass and he subsidised national schools, cut class sizes by retaining married women as teachers and promoted curriculum reform.

He encouraged modern languages and the sciences, all the work of moving from an inward-looking, agrarian society to what we are today. He was especially committed to equality of educational opportunity.

Dr Hillery will always be remembered for how he confronted Fianna Fáil hawks at the party’s 1971 ard fheis. His courage was considerable and by defending the democratic process he may have saved hundreds if not thousands of lives. If he did nothing else, that steadfastness earned him a right to his country’s gratitude.

Though initially reluctant, he served as president from December, 1976 to December, 1990. During that time he was at least twice targeted by Haughey supporters. Once when Haughey tried to force his resignation and in January, 1982, when Garret FitzGerald’s government collapsed. On each occasion he acted correctly and with great dignity and clarity. Though he was a Fianna Fáil party man to his core that loyalty was not blind; he recognised the difference between honourable politics and inappropriate opportunism.

Patrick Hillery restored a considerable degree of dignity to an office that had become threadbare. In his personal life he maintained that dignity that manifested itself as a deep silence once he left public office. Had he broken that silence it is easy to speculate what he might have said of elements of the political generation that succeeded his.

President Hillery’s state funeral will take place during the interregnum between the Ahern and Cowen eras.

What a fitting tribute to him, and his generation, it would be if the principles of integrity and selfless public service he so admirably represented were restored to the centre of our politics.