Galway Advertiser 1984/1984_05_31/GA_31051984_E1_008.pdf 

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P r e s i d e n t s are in t h e n e w s lately. Especially h e r e in Galway. B u t o n e m a n w h o is very likely t o be still P r e s i d e n t after o t h e r s have come and gone is t h e U . C . G . P r e s i d e n t , D r . C o l m O hEocha. I n m a n y ways D r . O h E o c h a is t h e m a n of t h e m o m e n t ; having very successfully chaired t h e recent F o r u m for a N e w Ireland his University is hosting this w e e k e n d t h e President of t h e U n i t e d States, despite s o m e jibes from fellow academicians. But D r . O h E o c h a retains his enigmatic coolness in all occasions a n d even w h e n journalist J e f f O ' C o n n e l l interviewed h i m o n o u r behalf, it was difficult t o p e n e t r a t e " t h e very pleasantly decorated s t o n e w a l l " that s u r r o u n d s D r . O h E o c h a at certain questions b u t using all t h e skills and self-doubts of a n i n e t e e n t h century journalist, the following interview was cheerfully given and conscientiously recorded . . .

Galway's Resident President
In their concluding statements to the final session of the New Ireland Forum, each of the main party leaders paid particular tribute to the qualities of patience and dedication shown by the chairman, Colm O hEocha. Mr. Haughey was especially fulsome: the chairman, he declared, "undertook as a patriotic duty and without hesitation one of the most arduous and demanding tasks of modern Irish politics. His total commitment, his calm courteous patience and, above all, his determination that the Forum would succeed, contributed more than any other single factor to the suc cessful outcome of our work". Though the inside story of the Forum's work and the difficulties its Chairman was obliged to sort out may not be fully known for some time, the wrangling between the party leaders and, in one instance at least, within the parties themselves, provides some indication of the extent of Dr. O hEocha's achievement. As another Irishman, Swift, wrote of himself: He labour'd many a fruitless Hour To reconcile his Friends in Power; Saw Mischief by a Faction brewing, While they pursu'd each others Ruin. Everything I had read or i had not meant to devote been told about Colm O much rime to his personal hEocha before I went to life or the details of his interview htm had prepared career, as The Sunday me for a man who was Tribune of April 22nd seem s u p p o s e d l y t h e v e r y ed to have covered this. As I incarnation of Dryasdust-- was saying to him, the colourless, humourless, not P r e s i d e n t s t a t e d q u i t e given to small talk. I n short, forcefully that in his opinion he was apparently what they the Tribune had done no such call in the country a 'dark thing. It transpired that he man'. I must admit I was had nothing to do with this terrified at the prospect. So I .profile, that he had in fact d i d my h o m e w o r k as r e f u s e d t o s p e a k t o diligently as possible. For the Tribune at all, and that one thing, I read the entire subsequently the Profile had Keport ot the New Ireland been constructed on the Forum as published in The basis of what other people Irish Times, and made had said about him. copious notes on sections of it. I also read whatever I His Manner could find on O hEocha himself. I was determined Changed that if there were any Almost uncomfortable pauses in our Completely conversation I would have On the Forum specific plenty of material to get ally, his reasoning was things going again. In fact, as understandable. Now that I sat w a i t i n g in h i t the Forum was concluded secretary's office a few and the Report had been minutes before my interview issued he felt that he still had was to begin, the only thing an obligation to maintain the worrying me was what I non-partisan role he had s h o u l d call h i m -- P r o filled while it was in session. fessor? Doctor? Mr. Presi It had been his job to seek a dent? consensus among the There wasn't much time to consider the matter, because the next moment the door opened and in walked a very sober-looking Colm O hEocha, who casually examined me as if I was i n d e e d o n e of t h a t questionable species, the journalist. I wanted to tell him right there that I was no such thing, that I was, if you like, posing as one, but with as little faith in t h e performance as he appeared to have in the profession. He introduced himself, and I mumbled something about how kind he was to give me s o m e of his undoubtedly valuable time. Then he opened the door to his office and stood aside to let me through. We sat casually around a small table, and I took advantage of the moment to haul out my notebook and other material. It had been my original intention to concentrate on two areas, both contentious as it happened--the specific points raised in the Report of the New Ireland Forum and the immediate response to the Report itself, and the f o r t h c o m i n g v i s i t of President Reagan to Galway. differing viewpoints expressed by those who participated in the Forum, and he regarded himself as t h e c u s t o d i a n of t h a t consensus now that the initial work of the Forum was over. Giving myself some time to plan a way of approaching the subject of the Forum later, I made a rapid readjustment and decided to question him about himself after all. For one terrible moment it looked as if that' was all we were going to be talking about. However, this shift in perspective proved to be an excellent move. The President perceptibly relaxed; his manner changed almost completely. The serious, somewhat guarded look disappeared from his face, and in the informal conversation that followed he smiled, even laughed once or twice. And there were no uncomfortable pauses, no lengthy silences such as I had been led to anticipate. If he did not become actually garrulous, he certainly did not tail to pick up the conversational balls tossed to him, and several only picked them up but even ran with them a while. It crossed my mind that one possible explanation for the diffidence widely attributed to him was that no one ever asked him to talk about things he enjoyed talking about. For the record, Colm O hEocha was born fifty-seven years ago in Dungarvan, County Waterford. His father, about whom he spoke very warmly and with obvious admiration, Seamus O hEocha, was an important figure in the Gaelic League in the early years of this century. An Fear Mor, as he

hEocha's own education was conducted through Irish. The idea behind Scoil na Leanbh was to give children from non-Irish speaking areas, especially the larger cities, the opportunity to study the same subjects they were doing at their own schools, but entirely through Irish for one year. O hEocha was the only pupil to go through the entire primary course in Irish. He then went to Colaiste Iosagain in Ballyvourny, where instruction was once again entirely through Irish. I was quite amazed to learn from him t h a t he was a c t u a l l y monolingual until he was about eleven years old, having no English at all. From Colaiste Iosagain the natural progression was to the only University in the country that still had a strong Irish tradition, University College, Galway. Colm O hEocha still has a great love of Irish. His wife, D a i d e n , who is from Galway, shares this devotion, and their six children all have distinc tively, Irish names. At home,

PhD. in Oceanography. He spent another brief period in the United States, between 1961 and 1962, this time as a Research Associate at the University of Minnesota. As he clearly enjoyed his time in the U.S.A., I asked him if he ever was tempted to settle there permanently. Cert ainly, he told me, the idea of doing so had at one time been tempting. He had several job offers. Why, then, had he come back to Galway ? It was, he said, a question of the quality of life. His roots were very firmly planted in Ireland. He accepted that the opportunities for pursuing the interests he had existed to a much greater degree in the United States, but Irish culture had a great attraction for him; he felt comfortable within it, and felt that if he had a contribution to make it could be made with the greatest chance for personal satisfaction in this country. A further reason he gave me is perhaps characteristic of Colm O hEocha. One of his well-known interests is in the development of small-scale, high technology industries.

Chemists are Reasonable People . . .
All the time I was asking these questions, I was trying to work out a strategy for coming back upon my two original concerns -- the Forum Report and the visit of President Reagan. But my mind {ailed miserably in suggesting any gentle or unobtrusive way of getting in with a question before the guard went up. So all I could do was contribute my own uncomfortable pause, during which we both knew what was coming. I tried several times to penetrate the very pleasantly decorated stonewall that the President had skillfully reconstructed on the spot. I even managed to read out a lengthy statement by the Northern secretary, Mr. Prior, in which he objected to the Forum's interpretation of Anglo-Irish relations, but when I looked up President O hEocha told me very genially that that was one of those areas he just could not discuss. To be fair, he did suggest I could come back in about twenty years or so and he'd tell me whatever I wanted to hear, but I am sure he n o t i c e d t h a t my appreciation for this offer was not very enthusiastic. Nonetheless, I did manage to get s o m e t h i n g out of what he was prepared to say, and he will forgive me if I make an attempt to read behind, beneath, and between what he actually said. To begin with, I think the s t a t e m e n t given by O hEocha as chairman to the closing session of the Forum, contains a summary of what he sincerely believes the Forum to have achieved. In what he said to me he stressed the positive educational value of the combined sessions for all of those taking part, especially the different party leaders. I tried to put to him some of the objections made by Conor Cruise O'Brien in The Irish Times a few days after the Report was published, that, for example, the whole thing had been a pointless exercise because the Unionists wouldn't buy any p a r t of t h e R e p o r t ' s recommendations. He did not take kindly to the O'Brien line, and said rather darkly that that kind of criticism was so unbendingly negative that it served no constructive purpose at all.

establishment of Zimbabuwe? Yes, he believed that there was more reason to hope that Britain under Margaret Thatcher would respond constructively than under a Labour government. Besides, he added, wasn't she a chemist, after all ? Chemists were reasonable people, concluded the f o r m e r P r o f e s s o r of Biochemistry.

Not Pleased at the Prospects of Protest
And so at last to the Reagan visit. Once more, I tried slipping a question through about those a c a d e m i c s who were objecting to the Honorary Degree that was to be conferred upon Mr. Reagan. And at this point I thought I detected the only sign of real irritability the President showed throughout our conversation--'After all, it's only two people we're talking about'. From other comments made in reply to my questions I gathered the very distinct impression that Colm O hEocha is not at all pleased at the propect of protests against the visit, and especially those that might take place at the University. He emphasised several times t h e u n f o r t u n a t e conse quences this could have for American investment in this country. He wanted people in America to associate Galway with a friendly, courteous city, that had welcomed President Reagan in a dignified manner. When I raised the objections that many people, even many of the P r e s i d e n t ' s own countrymen, had to his foreign policies, President O hEocha said that he was satisfied that Dr. FitzGerald would convey whatever objections there were to Mr. Reagan personally. In conclusion, President O hEocha spoke briefly about Galway. It was a city that he found very attractive from many points of view. He had a great sense of the city's history, especially in this Quincentennial Year. And he sensed a renewal of pride and self-confidence among the city's inhabitants. He felt very much at home here, and he hoped that the city would develop its great potential in the years to come. I said thank you to the President, shook his hand, and made my way back to my car. When I looked at my watch I could hardly believe that I had been with him for nearly an hour and a half. But I couldn't help feeling disappointed. There were so many things I would have liked to ask him. Colm O hEocha, a rather formidable man, who plays his cards very close to his chest. Jeff O'Connell.

Dr. Colm O'hEocha,

President of U.C.G. and Pro-ViceChancellor National University of Ireland. he told me, the family use both Irish and English, but the speaking of Irish is obviously encouraged. I asked him what he thought about the future of the language. He agreed that it seemed to be disappearing in its f o r m e r s t r o n g h o l d s around the country, and attributed this interestingly in l i g h t of h i s o w n background, to the over emphasis on the exclusively grammatical approach. It also seemed to be a bad sign that so few people nowadays read books and newspapers in Irish. When a language ceased being a medium through which practical information and simple amusement was commun icated to at least a portion of the whole community, a point of no return had been reached.

of the

was known, had taught himself Irish while living in West Limerick, and had then become a travelling teacher. Eventually, in 1921, he established the famous Irishspeaking primary boarding school, Scoil na Leanbh, in Ring, County Waterford. In the light of some of his later remarks, I would suspect that along with ordinary filial devotion President O h E o c h a c o m b i n e s an admiration for the way in which his father relied on his own initiative in achieving his aims. An Fear Mor was not an entrepreneur, but he clearly exhibited those qualities of self-reliance and organisational expertise that his son believes are necessary if I r i s h i n d u s t r y a n d technology are to compete successfully in the interna tional marketplace.

As President of U.C.G. he has forged links with the I.D.A., and has encouraged in a wide variety of ways initiatives related to these particular areas. In 1963 O hEocha was appointed the first Professor of Biochemistry in U.C.G., and, after serving as Dean of the Science Faculty, he was elected President of the University in 1975. When I asked him to sum up his time as President, he said that he felt a certain satisfaction in the way in which the College had expanded -- in numbers of students, in land area and physical resources and facilities, and in the number of academic disciplines now covered.

An early interest in the m a r i n e life along t h e Still has seacoasts of Ireland, led to a a Great B.Sc. and later an M.Sc., supervised by the late To mas Love of D i l l o n , in B i o l o g i c a l Irish Chemistry. From Galway, With the deep involve on the west coast of Ireland, ment of both of his parents in O hEocha went to the the Irish L a n g u a g e University of California, on m o v e m e n t , it is n o t the west coast of the United surprising that Colm O States, where he received his

I asked if he really thought any progress was possible so long as Margaraet Thatcher was Prime Minister. There was, he replied, a common misconception that Labour governments, or, to speak more broadly, liberal governments, implied social, economic, and political progress. Whereas the evidence seemed to be contrary to this widely held belief. Since the last war it c o u l d be a r g u e d t h a t Finally, I asked him how progress in all these areas he relaxed, and he answered had taken place under without hesitation -- "rough conservative governments. gardening"; he liked it He had been in the United because it was as far removed States during the 1952 as possible from what he election, and he had been a spent most of his days doing. supporter of Eisenhower He also enjoyed reading against Stevenson. Eisen history, and he had come to hower had gone on to end the combine this with the trips war in Korea. Again you saw he was obliged to take from this happening with Nixon, time to time, so that he tried who ended the Vietnam war. to read something that Who would have imagined related to a particular place that Margaret Thatcher he visited. would preside over the

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