Second Reading Fr Kevin Hegarty 
A line from a John Lennon song asserts that life is what happens when you make other plans. Dr Paddy Hillery could have reflected ruefully on the truth of that observation. After qualifying as a doctor in 1947 he looked forward to a career of tending patients in his Milltown Malbay clinic and in their homes along the winding roads of west Clare.
Fate ordained otherwise. Headhunted to join the Fianna Fáil ticket in Clare, along with Eamon de Valera, in the general election of 1951, to his surprise he was elected. So began a career, spanning almost four decades, in the service of Irish and European democracy. He held office as Minister, European Commissioner and President, a troika of offices occupied by no other Irish politician.
My reflections here on his career are inspired by a reading of his official biography by John Walsh of Trinity College’s history department, published before Christmas. In my view, the book is one of the best biographies of recent Irish political leaders.
Much of the publicity that followed its publication centred on its account of the prurient and false allegations that Hillery had extra-marital affairs while Commissioner in Brussels, which surfaced during the early years of his presidency. To concentrate on this short section in a work of over 600 pages is to do an injustice to the life of a quiet radical who achieved many political and social reforms during his career. It is as if one sought to sum up the career of Winston Churchill by focusing exclusively on his penchant for cigars and brandy.
Hillery was a reluctant candidate for Fianna Fáil in 1951 and, in a sense, remained a reluctant politician all his working life. He regularly hankered after a return to medical practise. For the first eight years he combined his work as a Dáil deputy with medical practise at the weekend in Clare. He refused offers of promotion from de Valera regarding politics as ‘a temporary derailment – an aberration from which I would one day escape’.
When Seán Lemass became Taoiseach in 1959, he called Hillery to his office, said he wanted to appoint him as Minister for Education and would not take no for an answer. Hillery was excited by Lemass’s vision of a new Ireland, free of the antagonisms of civil war politics. His response to the peremptory offer was comical, though sincere: “I can’t do a thing like that, I have people booked in for babies!”
Lemass allowed him to fulfil his remaining medical appointments. One of his last appointments was to deliver the baby of a west Clare national teacher, surely a first for a Minister for Education.
In 1959, the Department of Education was a quiet backwater, the conservative overseer of a system of education mainly controlled by the churches. Hillery had the vision to transform its activities during his six years in the ministry. He authorised Ireland’s participation in an OECD study of educational systems. It was the first independent survey of Irish education since the foundation of the State. The resultant publication analysed the system perceptively, identified its strengths and discerned its weaknesses. It plotted a way forward so that the education system could be become a source of economic development and social advancement.
Hillery was especially conscious in 1959 that over one third of Irish students did not advance beyond national school. He planned for the provision of comprehensive schools, especially in remote areas, where there was a glaring absence of second level facilities. He faced down serious opposition from Catholic Church leaders who feared the proposal would undermine the denominational schools. Cardinal Conway rather patronisingly told him that ‘I see that you are a young man and you want to make a name for yourself’.
Hillery’s gradual transformation of the aims of the Department of Education and its infrastructure paved the way for Donogh O’Malley’s free second level education for all in 1966.
On his appointment as Minister for Industry and Commerce in 1965, Dr Hillery soon realised the need for comprehensive labour legislation in Ireland. Ireland’s rapid economic expansion in the early sixties brought industrial unrest in its train. It was a time of lengthy strikes. Lemass was impressed by his insight and appointed him as Minister for Labour in 1966. Here he was an effective minister, though he did not fully achieve his aim of an ordered industrial relations system. As John Walsh succinctly comments: “He initiated a difficult transition away from the quick fix of political intervention in disputes, occasionally reinforced by the blunt instrument of legislation to control strikes, towards a greater reliance on effective official institutions/or dispute resolution.”
In 1969 Dr Hillery became Minister for Foreign Affairs. It was a challenging time to take charge of this ministry. The Northern Ireland conflict threatened the stability of the Republic. Charles de Gaulle’s resignation as French President paved the way for Ireland to renew its application to join the EEC.
Hillery was Jack Lynch’s main political support as the Taoiseach sought to plot a safe path through the minefield of the Northern Ireland problem, especially after the arms crisis of 1970. Hillery trenchantly advised the British government of the need for rapid social and political reform in Northern Ireland. He brought the conflict to international attention through the UN. The seeds that later blossomed in the peace process were sown during his tenure.
He led successfully our negotiations for entry to the EEC and, as European Commissioner for Social Affairs, created a genuine European social policy for the first time. His most significant achievement lay in the provision of equal pay and opportunities for women.
In his last political post, Paddy Hillery stabilised the Presidency after the torrid years that followed the death of Erskine Childers and the resignation of Cearbhaill Ó Dálaigh.
Paddy Hillery left public life in 1990, his term as President ended. The country was now suffused in the excitement of Mary Robinson’s presidency and he was quickly forgotten. It was a new world. He had done much to bring it into being. He had done the State some service.
