Past Presidents of Engineers Ireland

PAST PRESIDENTS

The Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland

Presidents

1835    Sir John Fox Burgoyne

1845     John Radcliffe

1846     Lt Col Harry D Jones

1850     Sir Richard Griffith

1856     George W Hemans

1858     Michael Bernard Mullins

1861     Sir Richard Griffith

1863     Charles B Vignoles

1865     Robert Mallet

1867     William Anderson

1869     John Ball Greene

1871     Bindon Blood Stoney

1873     Charles P Cotton

1875     Alexander McDonnell

1877     Robert Manning

1879     John Bailey

1881     Parke Neville

1883     William Hemmingway Mills

1885     Sir John A F Aspinall

1887     Sir John Purser Griffith

1889     Spencer Harty

1891     Thomas F Pigot

1893     John Chaloner Smith

1895     James Price

1896     James Dillon

1898     Wesley W Wilson

1900     Edward Glover

1902     John H Ryan

1904     Robert Cochrane

1906     William Ross

1907     Joseph H Moore

1909     George Murray Ross

1911     Peter Chalmers Cowan

1913     William Collen

1915     Mark Ruddle

1917     Walter E Lilly

1918     John O Moynan

1919     Patrick H McCarthy

1920     Francis Bergin

1921     Joshua Hargrave

1922     Pierce F Purcell

1924     James T Jackson

1926     Arthur Hassard

1927     Alfred D Delap

1929     Michael J Buckley

1930     Joseph Mallagh

1931     Stephen G Gallagher

1932     Laurence J Kettle

1934     Nicholas O'Dwyer

1936     Frank S Rishworth

1938     Joseph Albert Ryan

1940     Henry N Walsh

1942     Thomas J Monaghan

1943     Thaddeus C Courtney

1944     Patrick Joseph Raftery

1945     Norman Albert Chance

1946     John Purser

1947     Joseph MacDonald

1948     Joseph Phelan Candy

1949     Michael A Hogan

1950     Thomas A McLaughlin

1951     William Ian Bloomer

1952     Patrick G Murphy

1953     Henry Nicholls

1954     Henry Nicholls

1955     Stephen W Farrington

1956     Cornelius John Buckley

1957     Edward Joseph Francis Bourke

1958     Jeremiah A O'Riordan

1959     Vernon Dunbavin Harty

1960     Jeremiah Gerard Coffey

1961     Thomas A Simington

1962     Thomas J O'Connor

1963     John Lane

1964     Thomas Kelly

1965     Richard E Cross

1966     Daniel Herlihy

1967     Patrick Raftery

1968     James C I Dooge

Cumann na nInnealtóirí (The Engineer's Association)

Presidents

1928-1936        Micheal O Buachalla

1937-1938        Felix E Hackett

1939-1940        Nicholas O'Dwyer

1941-1943        D Coffey

1944                 P Cormac

1945                 Stephen W Farrington

1946                 Thomas A McLaughlin

1947                 D W O'Neill

1948                 H N Walsh

1949                 T S Duggan

1950                 P G Murphy

1951                 N A Chance

1952                 G Lee

1953                 T C Courtney

1954                 M Maguire

1955                 T P Flanagan

1956                 R A Jackson

1956-1957        C Warren

1957-1958        W H Prendergast

1957-1958        P J Byrne

1959-1960        Thomas Simington

1960-1961        T Kelly

1961-1962        P Byrne

1962-1963        A J Litton

1963-1964        John B Barry

1964-1965        S Merry

1965-1966        J H Harbison

1966-1967        J P O'Donnell

1967-1968        C P Blair

1968-1969        J Silke

In 1969 The Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland and Cumann na nInnealtóirí amalgamated to form The Institution of Engineers of Ireland

1969-1971        James C I Dooge, Chartered Engineer

1969-1971        John H Harbison, Chartered Engineer

1971-1972        Michael A Lynn, Chartered Engineer

1972-1973        Robert C Cuffe, Chartered Engineer

1973-1974        Hugh A Delap, Chartered Engineer

1974-1975        Finbar Callanan, Chartered Engineer

1975-1976        John D Barry, Chartered Engineer

1976-1977        John Donovan, Chartered Engineer

1977-1978        William Wright, Chartered Engineer

1978-1979        Lucas Collins, Chartered Engineer

1979-1980        Morgan Sheehy, Chartered Engineer

1980-1981        Liam O'Brien, Chartered Engineer

1981-1982        Peter O’Keeffe, Chartered Engineer

1982-1983        Eoin O’Cionna, Chartered Engineer

1983-1984        Patrick J Lynch, Chartered Engineer

1984-1985        Oliver Feighan, Chartered Engineer

1985-1986        Robert N Hayes, Chartered Engineer

1986-1987        John F Lang, Chartered Engineer

1987-1988        Michael O'Donnell, Chartered Engineer

1988-1989        Pierce T Piggot, Chartered Engineer

1989-1990        Brian N Sweeney, Chartered Engineer

1990-1991        John E Wallace, Chartered Engineer

1991-1992        Michael J Higgins, Chartered Engineer

1992-1993        Richard P Grainger, Chartered Engineer

1993-1994        William A Fitzgerald, Chartered Engineer

1994-1995        Patrick O Jennings, Chartered Engineer

1995-1996        John J Killeen, Chartered Engineer

1996-1997        Phil Callery, Chartered Engineer

1997-1998        Gordon S Millington, Chartered Engineer

1998-1999        John A Kavanagh, Chartered Engineer

1999-2000        Prof Jane B Grimson, Chartered Engineer

2000-2001              Prof Gerald Byrne, Chartered Engineer

2001-2002              Liam Connellan, Chartered Engineer

2002-2003              Brian Kearney, Chartered Engineer

2003-2004              Peter Langford, Chartered Engineer

2004-2005              Paddy Caffrey, Chartered Engineer

2005-2006              Anne Butler, Chartered Engineer

2006-2007        John McGowan, Chartered Engineer4

2007-2008        Jack Golden, Chartered Engineer

2008-2009        Jim Browne, Chartered Engineer

2009-2010        Chris Horn, Chartered Engineer

2010-2011        Martin Lowery, Chartered Engineer

2011-2012        PJ Rudden, Chartered Engineer

2012-2013        Michael Phillips, Chartered Engineer

2013-2014        John O’Dea, Chartered Engineer

2014-2015        Regina Moran, Chartered Engineer

2015-2016        Bill Grimson, Chartered Engineer

2016-2017        Dermot Byrne, Chartered Engineer
2017-2018        Kieran Feighan, Chartered Engineer
2018-2019        Peter Quinn, Chartered Engineer

Annual General Meeting and Goodbye

This is my last blog following the 2012 Engineers Ireland AGM. Last night I was pleased and indeed proud to pass the President's chain of office to Michael Phillips Dublin City Engineer as our new President.

It's been a great year to be part of Engineers Ireland and to work with the great people there - John Director General and Directors Fionnuala, Margie, Aiden, John and John and their lovely staff who do us proud on a daily basis.

I wish Michael every success during the coming year supported by Vice Presidents Dr John O'Dea CEO Crospon and Regina Moran CEO Fujitsu. In his Inaugural Address last night he set the tone for a year of positive engagement with the members at home and especially abroad who may come home someday. He also exemplified the spirit of public service towards society that he and others in the local authority and public sector strive to deliver to us all on a 24/7 basis.

To all the readers and followers of this blog a heartfelt thank you for coming on this special 'journey of discovery' with me during the past 12 months.

Goodbye and may your God go with you!

To read the full blog in pdf format click here: A Year the Life by PJ Rudden (President of Engineers Ireland 2011-2012).pdf

Exploring the Burren in North Clare

I spent a few days holidays hiking around the Burren just prior to the Engineers Ireland AGM on May 24th. I had never been there before and found it a terrific natural heritage resource with huge tourism potential.

PJ Rudden outside Aillwee Cave entrance

This resource is also managed sensitively by the public bodies and all of the stakeholders involved. This is because they understand its heritage value and the degree to which a sustainable tourism product can co-exist to suit local people and the unique heritage in their midst.

PJ Rudden at Poulnabrone Dolmen
on Burren Landscape

The Aillwee Caves are the result of water erosion of weak limestone rock and is now one of the main tourist resorts as is also the Poulnabrone Dolmen both of which were attracting busloads of foreign tourists even in the month of May. In fact Aillwee Caves was only discovered in the 1940s by a local farmer who lost his dog into a hole in the ground chasing a rabbit. The farmer went looking for his dog through the opening in the ground and some hours later managed to find not only the dog but the natural heritage feature which is now known as the Aillwee Caves. This story was told by Lorraine Shannon one of the local guides who is an archaeologist.

Lorraine Shannon local archaeologist and guide
and PJ Rudden in Aillwee Caves

Both the cave and the dolmen are beautifully illustrated on signs together with many hundreds of other interesting features. There is little doubt that the Burren in North Clare will probably become Ireland’s 3rd World Heritage Site after Skellig Michael and Brú na Bóinne.

Flora at the Burren

The limestone landscape is interspersed with a wide range of flora which are in abundance at this time of year. All in all a lovely way to spend my last few days as President.

Annual Conferring of Titles

Over the past few weeks I had a busy round of Conferrings of Titles around the Regions and finally in the Helix DCU last Friday. These Conferrings were to the Titles of Fellow, Chartered Engineer, Associate Engineer and Technician Engineer. Travelling with me in each case was Shirley McDonald our Membership Growth Manager who organised the events together with the local Region Chairmen.

PJ Rudden President Engineers Ireland, Shirley McDonald Membership Growth Manager

and Professor Padraic O'Donoghue Chairman of the West Region

In March I had the first Conferring of Titles in the North West Region in Sligo. Then in April we had the same ceremony in the Cork Region. In May, we commenced in Limerick with the Thomond Region on May 1st followed by the West Region in Galway on May 9th and the Midland Region on May 14th. The National Conferring for the East coast and other regions were then held in the Helix DCU in Dublin on May 18th. I was delighted to see the family event that these conferrings have become where increasingly partners and children attend.

The National event included the annual award of Fellowships by Presidential Invitation. These were awarded for outstanding achievement in building national infrastructure, research leading to job creation, balanced regional development in addition to long service to Engineers Ireland. The seven recipients this year were Gerry Campbell of Shell, Andrew Cooke of EirGrid, Orla Feely of UCD, David Kirwan of Bord Gáis, Michael Loftus of CIT, Liam Madden of Xilinx and John Quinn of the North East Region.

President presents Fellowship of Engineers Ireland to Gerry Campbell
Project Director of Shell E&P Ireland Ltd

President presents Fellowship of Engineers Ireland to David Kirwan
Managing Director of Bord Gáis Energy

The event in each region also coincided with the AGM where the new Chairman and Committee for each Region were elected. I therefore witnessed the 'changing of the guard' in each region. In the Thomond Region the Chairmanship passed from Kieran Horgan (Consultant Engineer ex ESB) to Peter Tiernan (UL), in the West Region from Padraic O'Donoghue (NUIG) to Christy O'Sullivan (RPS) and in the Midlands Region from John Jordan (Wirtgen Ireland Ltd) to Damien Grennan (Offaly County Council).

President welcomes the new Thomond Region Chairman
Peter Tiernan of University of Limerick

President welcomes new West Region Chairman Christy O’Sullivan of RPS Group

At each regional event, I was also pleased to present my Presidential Address which I originally gave in Clyde Road last September. The substance of the address had not changed but I updated it to give it greater relevance to each of the regions themselves in terms of my particular visits to that region during the years.

Eoin Greaney of Pavement Management Services being presented with Chartered Engineer title 
 in Galway by President PJ Rudden and Chairman of the West Region Padraic O'Donoghue

- Eoin is joined by his wife and 3 children

In Tullamore President and Midlands Chairman presents Chartered Engineer title
to Linda Parkinson of Laois County Council

I was able to strengthen the address also in terms where Government had heeded what I had said in September and had made policy changes in the meantime. This was obvious to me in two important policy areas.

1. I had called for the re-initiation of long term economic planning as we had in the early 1960s in time of TK Whitaker and other national greats who led us forward.

Only in recent weeks the new Secretary General in Dept of Finance John Moran  announced that a new economic unit was being set up to better plan not only our economic recovery but to look beyond that phase of national development in the future. John Moran had recently been recruited into the public service from the private sector where among other things he ran a series of juice bars in the South of France. He was thus bringing lateral thinking and a welcome business acumen to the work of Government. He also represents a shift from the past less regulated thinking that practically brought the country to its knees. Well done to Minister Noonan who appointed him and to Minister Howlin who appointed a man of similar background and calibre in Robert Watt as Secretary General in the new Dept of Public Expenditure and Reform.

2. In Education I called for a new 'joined up thinking' between primary and secondary education in all subjects but particularly in Maths teaching and learning.

The new Junior Cycle reform agenda being planned by Minister Quinn includes for reconfiguring that transition between 5th and 6th class in Primary school and 1st year in Secondary school. Previously as we pointed out in our 2010 Maths and Science Report there is no 'end of school assessment or report card' at the end of Primary to give any guidance  to the secondary teachers on their new pupils which I found to be odd in the extreme and not resource efficient in terms of teaching and learning. Happily the new Junior Cycle curriculum 'Innovation and Identity' recognises this failing and seeks to correct it. Increasingly it is becoming obvious that it is at Junior Cycle that most of the issue with Maths learning exists as the unqualified Maths teachers are usually sent into this cycle and those better qualified sent into the Leaving Cert classes. The sooner the better this whole Maths situation gets rectified as it will take at least a generation for the new learning processes to embed.

Visit to Limerick IT

Limerick Institute of Technology is in fact in Cratloe in County Clare north of the new Limerick Tunnel. I discovered this on a recent visit to the college organised by Thomond Region Committee Member Maria Kyne who is Head of School Built Environment.

Left to right – Seamus O’Sullivan (Lecturer), James Collins (Head of Department Built Environment Management), Paschal Meehan (Head of School Science, Engineering and IT), PJ Rudden President of Engineers Ireland, Maria Kyne (Head of School Built Environment), Pat Gill (Head of Department Construction and Civil Engineering), James Greenslade (Acting Head of Department Electrical and Electronic Engineering).

I met Maria and her colleague Paschal Meehan Head of School Science, Engineering and IT who kindly gave me a tour of the college where I met both staff and students. Indeed I was also glad to meet Seamus O'Sullivan and Gerry Ryan both former classmates of mine in UCD and both now lecturing at the college. Seamus was Limerick City Engineer for a period of major infrastructural development in the City prior to taking up a lecturing role at Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT).

Paschal Meehan in the Electronics Laboratory with PJ Rudden

Maria Kyne, PJ Rudden and Paschal Meehan in Solar Energy Laboratory

LIT specialise in civil mechanical and electrical engineering in addition to construction management studies. Both areas that are currently growing in the college are electronics and the whole area of studio sound and acoustics for music and theatre events which I visited to view some dress rehearsals. Firstly I toured the surveying, motor engineering and electrical engineering depts meeting various staff members and students.

Gerard Meagher (Lecturer) and PJ Rudden President of Engineers Ireland
in the Music Media and Performance Technology Department

Maria Kyne and Paschal Meehan in the Motor Engineering workshop with PJ Rudden

I then visited some of the music centres where students at various stages were testing their sound and acoustic talents in advance of gaining employment in radio TV stage and screen.

PJ Rudden President of Engineers Ireland and Peter Diffley (technician)
in the LIT Millennium Theatre

I was brought into the LIT Millennium Theatre where I was shown the equipment used to mix the sound and music effects of a full production.

Ger Hartigan and PJ Rudden President of Engineers Ireland
in the Surveying Department

I left LIT realising that every IT has its own set of specialist areas and service specific areas of the economy. LIT graduates have project management skills for construction and logistics management in industry generally and also specialise in producing graduates who are the engineers that make stage and screen events happen in Ireland and internationally wherever they go.