PAUL QUIGLEY: Paul Quigley who died on February 1st, three days before his 80th birthday, was a driving force in the development of the Shannon region during the first 25 years of the innovative industrial zone. He was also a founding chief executive of the Irish Management Institute and was closely involved in the development of what has become the University of Limerick.
Headhunted by Brendan O'Regan for a senior post in the newly established Shannon Free Airport Development Company (SFADCO) soon after it was set up in 1959, Paul Quigley was appointed general manager in 1961 and held that position until his retirement in 1986.
During his tenure, Ireland's first new town, Shannon, which now has a population of 10,000, grew and prospered side by side with the Free Zone Industrial Estate, which today employs almost 8,000.
Paul Quigley was also a leading figure in the development of tourism around Shannon and helped promote the medieval banquets in the area's castles and the Rent an Irish Cottage scheme which have proved such an attraction to visitors. He remained modest about his achievements and was ready to attribute their success to others as well as himself. He was an impressive figure at meetings and other gatherings with his sense of humour, military bearing and well-cut suits.
Paul Quigley was born in Dublin on February 4th, 1923. His father, a county surveyor, had had a colourful life which included a stint in the Foreign Legion.
He was interned in the Frongoch camp in Wales after the 1916 Easter Rising. With his three brothers, Paul grew up on Leinster Road, Rathmines, and attended nearby St Mary's College.
He volunteered to serve in the Defence Forces during the recruitment drive of 1940 but was given an exemption to continue his engineering studies at University College Dublin, where he obtained an honours degree. He was in the same engineering class as the famous sports commentator, Micheál Ó Hehir.
He returned to the Army, was commissioned in 1942, and served in the military engineering school, learning, as he later recalled, to build a first World War trench, among other things. In 1946 he joined Irish Ropes in Newbridge under Eric Rigby Jones. In 1953 he was persuaded by Sir Charles Harvey of Guinness's to become the first director of the Irish Management Institute and guided its early development. In 1951 he had married Clare Bourke from Westport and they had one son, Jim.
In 1959, the then Fianna Fáil Government set up SFADCO and its chairman, Brendan O'Regan, invited Paul Quigley to join the pioneering venture in 1960.
Shannon had already become the world's first custom-free airport or duty-free zone and had developed a hotel management training school.
The establishment of SFADCO with a wide-ranging development role attracted new industries by generous tax exemptions on exports from the zone. Paul Quigley and his colleagues made maximum use of these incentives to develop Shannon and make it a showcase not only for the rest of Ireland but airports in other parts of the world. He later advised countries such as China and Sri Lanka on industrial free zone techniques under UN programmes. He found his workload growing with SFADCO's assumption of responsibility for inward investment to the Shannon region in 1968. Ten years later, the Government gave Shannon Development the job of promoting small indigenous industry in the mid-west region which was soon extended to include south Offaly.
From 1971 to 1978, he was also chairman of AnCO, the industrial training authority. During this time he was also a member of the Public Services Advisory Board and a board and executive member of the Mid-West regional development organisation.
A major achievement was to associate Shannon with the development of a university for Limerick. Paul Quigley was the first chairman of the Planning Board for the National Institute of Higher Education which opened in 1972.
He helped plan the courses based on technological themes but with a strong content of humanities and a European orientation. As chairman of the NIHE governing body for 12 years, he was prominent with its president, Ed Walsh, in the institute's evolution into Limerick's first university. The fruitful interaction between NIHE and the industrial needs of Shannon, helped attract new high-tech industry to the area such as Analog Devices which set up Ireland's first electronic chip design and manufacturing operation in Limerick. In 1984, the close co-operation between industry and the NIHE was symbolised by the inauguration of the National Technological Park at Plassey.
The tourism potential of the Shannon area with its airport gateway was also energetically developed under Paul Quigley's tenure. He is credited with even writing the script which introduces the medieval banquets, first at Bunratty and later at Dun Guaire and Knappogue.
In 1986, he took early retirement at 63 from his demanding post where he had served for 26 years. For relaxation, he and his wife and son spent summer holidays restoring a family cottage on Achillbeg, Co Mayo, as well as fishing and painting.
He is survived by his wife, Clare, and son, Jim. He was pre-deceased by his three brothers.
Paul Quigley: born February 4th, 1923; died February 1st, 2003.