Dr Al Kelly: Dr Al Kelly, who has died aged 79, was an outstanding and pioneering engineer and manager in the ESB over a career which spanned 43 years.
As the director of generation and transmission, he was responsible for the planning and execution of some of the board's most ambitious projects, such as the Poolbeg and Moneypoint power stations. He also helped to develop the overseas work of the ESB in countries such as Saudi Arabia.
In his spare time, he wrote a well-received book on management techniques and challenged aspects of Einstein's theory of relativity in public lectures and a book not yet published
He also found time to experiment in more efficient methods of turf production at a peat bog he bought in Co Offaly.
Alphonsus Kelly was born in Brownstone, Co Meath, on January 6th, 1926. He was one of three children of James and Tess Kelly.
His father worked in local government in Co Meath; he took over a post which had been occupied by the poet Francis Ledwidge, who joined the British army and went to fight in France, where he was killed in action.
James Kelly, who had been active in Sinn Féin, was a Fianna Fáil TD between 1932 and 1943.
His son, Al, was educated at the local national school and at St Finian's college, Mullingar. At University College Dublin he qualified in mechanical and electrical engineering.
When he joined the ESB (where he was usually called Alf) in 1947, the company had just come through the so-called Emergency period of the second World War, maintaining the electricity supply in very difficult circumstances from the Ardnacrusha and the old Pigeon House power stations.
It was about to embark on a period of major expansion involving rural electrification, the peat programme and oil-fired power plants.
Kelly soon became involved in the design and construction of the new power plants. Peat plant engineering was virtually unknown outside Ireland. As a result, the ESB engineering teams had to carry out a lot of original and innovative work. He was to leave his mark on many areas, including the novel design of turbine foundations and the design of cooling towers.
In the early 1970s, thanks to Kelly's drive, the ESB decided to install the first combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) commercial power plant in Europe at Marina in Cork, giving the ESB a lead in this outstanding technology that it has maintained to this day.
It made possible the development of the Kinsale gas field. It also gave ESB International (ESBI) a lead in the development and operation of CCGT plants in the overseas market.
In the mid-1970s Kelly became deeply involved in the international sector and played a key role in winning an ESB consultancy in Saudi Arabia's electricity programme. He became the first chairman of ESBI, which was set up in 1988.
He was the author of a book on management skills called How to Make Your Life Easier at Work, which sold in seven languages, and was a life fellow of both the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
In retirement, apart from giving more time to golf, he studied the work of Einstein, Faraday and other famous scientists. He published a number of significant papers and in the process generated much academic debate, some of it acrimonious.
His last book before his death, Challenging Modern Physics, subtitled "Questioning Einstein's Relativity Theories", is due to be published shortly.
He is survived by his wife, Ria; sons Simon, Gavin, Piaras and Donncha; daughters Gemma and Louise, and his sister, Sr Bernadette of the Loreto order. He was pre-deceased by his brother, Fr JP Kelly, who was parish priest of Rathcarn, Athboy, Co Meath.
Al Kelly: born January 6th, 1926; died July 30th, 2005