Dermot Anthony Gallagher (1944 – 15 January 2017) was an Irish civil servant and the Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs. He left office as Secretary-General on 24 January 2009 and was replaced by David Cooney, former Ambassador to the United Kingdom. In February 2009 he was nominated to be Chairman of the

Garda Síochána (; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace"), more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards", is the national police service of Ireland. The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Gover ...

Ombudsman An ombudsman (, also ,), ombud, ombuds, ombudswoman, ombudsperson or public advocate is an official who is usually appointed by the government or by parliament (usually with a significant degree of independence) to investigate complaints and at ...

Commission and was appointed Chairman of

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

Governing Authority.Dermot Gallagher appointed chairman by University College Dublin Governing Authority. UCD News/Nuacht UCD, 25 February 2009

Early life

Gallagher was born in

Carrick-on-Shannon Carrick-on-Shannon () is the county town of County Leitrim in Ireland. It is the largest town in the county of Leitrim. A smaller part of the town lies in County Roscommon. The population of the town was 4,062 in 2016. It is situated on a stra ...

, Leitrim, where he played at left half forward for Leitrim at minor and Under-21 level. He was the son of a Garda sergeant. His interest in the wider world was sparked by observing

Guinness Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

s arriving in his native town and speculating about their places of origin.A Legend in the Public Service and Beyond Who Never Lost Touch with his Leitrim Roots. Irish Times, 24 January 200

This curiosity was refined under the tutelage of Professor Desmond Williams, who taught a course on diplomatic history at

Early career

Having taken his Master of Arts, MA in History at UCD, Gallagher joined the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

applying for a position in the Department of External Affairs, as it was then called, starting in the job on 6 January 1969. His first minister was

Frank Aiken Francis Thomas Aiken (13 February 1898 – 18 May 1983) was an Irish revolutionary and politician. He was chief of staff of the Anti-Treaty IRA at the end of the Irish Civil War. Aiken later served as Tánaiste from 1965 to 1969 and Minister fo ...

, who usually talked to him in Irish, having learned that his new junior official was fluent in the language. Later that year, Aiken was succeeded by Dr

Patrick Hillery Patrick John Hillery ( ga, Pádraig J. Ó hIrghile; 2 May 1923 – 12 April 2008) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as the sixth president of Ireland from December 1976 to December 1990. He also served as vice-president of the Euro ...

and then the event took place that was to shape Gallagher's life: the North erupted into violence. On Saturday, 16 August 1969, Gallagher, as weekend duty officer for the department, encountered a group of nationalist MPs from the North, including

Paddy Devlin Patrick Joseph "Paddy" Devlin (8 March 1925 – 15 August 1999) was an Irish socialist, labour and civil rights activist and writer. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a former Stormont MP, and a member of ...

, who arrived at

Iveagh House Iveagh House is a Georgian house which now contains the headquarters of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin, Ireland. It is also sometimes used colloquially as a metonym referring to the department itself. Iveagh House was originally t ...

demanding to meet

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

Jack Lynch John Mary Lynch (15 August 1917 – 20 October 1999) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1966 to 1973 and 1977 to 1979, Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1966 to 1979, Leader of the Opposition from 1973 to 1977, Minister ...

to obtain arms for the beleaguered Catholics of the Falls Road in Belfast. He told them he would convey their request for a meeting to his superiors in the department.

Foreign service

His first foreign posting was to the Irish consulate in San Francisco in August 1971 – he and his college sweetheart, Maeve Farrell, from Ratoath, Co Meath, had just been married the previous month. After a few sojourns at the United Nations in New York City, Gallagher found himself at the Irish Embassy in London serving from 1973 to 1977 as press officer. He was present at the Sunningdale negotiations in 1973, leading to the ill-fated powersharing deal. He was sent to

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in the early 1980s as a deputy ''

chef de cabinet In several French-speaking countries and international organisations, a (French; literally 'head of office') is a senior civil servant or official who acts as an aide or private secretary to a high-ranking government figure, typically a minist ...

'' with the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

. He got his first ambassadorial posting in 1985 – in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, where his contacts with Irish missionaries in particular taught him "a great deal about what matters in life". He returned to Dublin to take charge of the Anglo-Irish division, with responsibility for

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

policy. That was the time of the

Anglo-Irish Agreement The Anglo-Irish Agreement was a 1985 treaty between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland which aimed to help bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The treaty gave the Irish government an advisory role in Northern Irelan ...

, which

Charles Haughey Charles James Haughey (; 16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach on three occasions – 1979 to 1981, March to December 1982 and 1987 to 1992. He was also Minister for the Gaeltacht from ...

had vehemently opposed in opposition. But when Haughey took over as Taoiseach in 1987 he told Gallagher he wanted the agreement implemented "''fully and imaginatively''". He was appointed Ambassador to the US in 1991 where, as usual, he quickly developed a wide range of friendships and contacts. One of these was

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

, then governor of

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

. His White House contacts proved advantageous when the nascent Irish peace process faced its first major challenge: securing a US visa for

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...

leader

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020 ...

. After his posting in Washington DC he returned home in 1997 with the title of Second Secretary General.

Bertie Ahern Bartholomew Patrick "Bertie" Ahern (born 12 September 1951) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2008, Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997, Tánaiste a ...

was Taoiseach and eager to make a contribution to peace in the North. Gallagher put together a team of officials for the negotiations at Stormont, including David Cooney, who succeeded him as secretary general. After the success of the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

, Gallagher moved to the Department of the Taoiseach as Secretary General of that department. After his departure, this post was combined with the position of Secretary-General to the Government, under Dermot McCarthy. Then it was back to

as that department's Secretary-General.

Academic career

The Governing Authority of

approved the appointment of Gallagher as chairman on Tuesday, 24 February 2009, to replace Kieran McGowan, who chaired the Governing Authority since February 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallagher, Dermot 1944 births 2017 deaths Alumni of University College Dublin Ambassadors of Ireland to the United States Irish civil servants People from County Leitrim