THIS is the story of the man who rescued Ireland from oblivion during the recession in the 1950s.
He was a man who was respected by all sides of the political divide, so much so that many past and present believe he is the greatest Irishman of all time, a thought confirmed by the fact that in the 2002 ESB/Rehab people of the year awards he was voted Ireland’s greatest living person by the general public.
So let us have a look at his career.
Thomas Kenneth (Ken) Whitaker was born in Rostrevor, County Down on 8 December 1916.
His parents were mother Joan from Labasheeda, Co Clare, his father Edward was born in Killucan, Co Westmeath.
He was educated at the Christian Brothers School in Drogheda, where on completing his leaving certificate he applied for a job in the civil service, taking first place in his entrance exams. He started his career in the Civil Service Commission and progressed rapidly up through the ranks.
At the age of 20, he became secretary to the minister for education. He joined the Department of Finance in 1939, now aged 23, having taken degrees in Latin, Celtic studies, maths and economics on the way. In 1941, he married Nora Fogarty.
They had six children.
Ireland was in the quagmire of recession in the 1950s; what was worse, it appeared as if we had no political drive to pull us out of it. Over 400,000 people had emigrated; a further 100,000 were still unemployed; and the economy was like a rotting egg, becoming more stagnant day by day.
Inflation was rampant and living standards deplorable. It has to be said this situation was the result of Éamon de Valera’s policies.
He would say to Whitaker: “You have done good work, but there are more important things.” It was only when Dev passed the reins of leadership to Sean Lemass that Ireland began to show vision.
It was in 1956 that Ken Whitaker became secretary of the Department of Finance, at the incredibly young age of 39. It was Fine Gael minister for finance Gerard Sweetman, who promoted the man he had watched progress rapidly through the ranks of the civil service.
Whitaker immediately set out his stall, making sweeping changes to the attitude of the department, instilling the fact that what was happening was not acceptable, that those in the department who thought this crisis would run its course were deluded.
Whitaker warned that if we did not change our attitude, we were on the brink of having to request a return to the sovereignty of Britain.
He took up the challenge of change and the hostility that ran throughout the department to that change. Politicians, under the supreme illusion that this recession would pass, sat back without any attempt to correct the crisis we were in, watching as the nation attempted to self-destruct.
Whitaker was not prepared to join this thinking; he was aware that action was needed and quickly, so he dispensed with all the so-called sacred cows.
He preached that Ireland could no longer sustain protectionism, tariffs and, above all, the misconception that we were self-sufficient, when it was blatantly obvious we were possibly the poorest country in Europe at this time.
When Fianna Fáil returned to power in 1957, Whitaker’s work was not as acceptable to de Valera, but he persisted. Still it was a relief when Sean Lemass became taoiseach in 1959.
Whitaker produced a white paper called The first programme for economic expansion 1958-1963. This paper was published in November 1958. The principle of protectionism was abandoned, with foreign investment encouraged, and actively sought.
Free trade was introduced, the idea being it would increase competition.
This was Whitaker’s plan to create jobs; it was now a reality that agriculture, although an important asset, could no longer sustain the population. However, included in this paper was a plan to increase the national herd by 300,000 with the emphasis on beef production rather than milk production. When Sean Lemass became taoiseach, he gave full backing to Whitaker’s paper, which would become a landmark in Irish economic history, stimulating foreign investment into the country for the first time.
A growth rate of 2% was forecast as a result (this was actually doubled during the lifetime of this plan).
Whitaker’s white paper became famous and is fondly referred to as The Grey Book.
This work was and is the foundation of the state’s progress into a modern nation; it would not be the end of Whitaker’s contribution to the working of the country.
Whitaker was to be involved in almost everything good that happened to Ireland over the following years.
It was his friendship with members of the Northern Ireland government, and his connections with their civil servants, especially Jim Malley, secretary to the Northern Ireland prime minister Terence O’Neill, who between them organised the unprecedented 1965 meeting between Lemass and O’Neill, which led to the establishment of communications at the top level between the two parts of this island. It is also believed that it was Whitaker’s intervention and advice to then taoiseach Jack Lynch, to whom he was an advisor despite having moved from finance, which persuaded Lynch against sending Irish soldiers into the North, citing it could and probably would lead to all-out war, a war that the Republic could not win.
His advice was to stay calm, don’t rush in and add fuel to the fire, and reject any request for military intervention.
It was as a result that a policy document on Northern Ireland was published detailing the historical development of partition, the anti and pro views on that partition, and the possibility of reconciliation between North and South.
Whitaker secured funding from the Ford Foundation, which enabled the launch of the Economic and Social Research Institute of Ireland (ERSI).
On 1 March 1969, Whitaker had moved to the Central Bank as governor; he would soon become a critic of public spending, warning it was unsustainable.
Whitaker would also begin the process of correcting finances with a view to EEC membership.
Many of the workings of the Department of Finance would now be transferred to the Central Bank.
One of the most telling steps was the 15 February 1971 introduction of the decimal currency system in accordance with the Decimal Currency Acts, 1969 and 1970. In fact, 5p and 10p coins had already been issued with a value of one and two shillings on 3 September1969 and 50p with a value of ten shillings on 17 February 1970. This was so people could get used to the new coins.
The 1971 Central Bank Act conferred for the first time the bank’s responsibility for the licensing and supervision of banks, also providing for the exchequer account to be moved to the bank. This took place on 1 January 1972.
As it is my intention to write a history of the Central Bank in a future article, I will not go into other details at this time.
With Ireland’s accession to the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973, Whitaker became a member of the Committee of Governors of the EEC Central Banks and the Board of Governors of The European Monetary Cooperation Fund. Ken Whitaker retired from his post in the Central Bank in 1976.
Taoiseach Jack Lynch nominated him for the 14th Seanad in 1977, an offer Whitaker only accepted when he was guaranteed he would be an independent senator, and served until 1981.
New taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald nominated him for the 15th Seanad in 1981, where he served until 1982.
Ken Whitaker would hold many important positions, although directly out of politics.
He was chairman of a committee of inquiry into the Irish penal system, also chairing the parole board for a number of years.
He was chancellor of the National University of Ireland from 1976-1996, president of the Royal Irish Academy and, therefore, a member of the board of governors of the National Gallery from 1985-1987.
His wife Nora passed away in 1994. Whitaker would marry Mary Moore in 2005.
The couple were invited by President Mary McAleese to Áras an Uachtaráin for his 90th birthday in 2006. Mary died in 2008.
Besides his award for greatest living Irish person in 2002, he was also voted the Irishman of the 20th century in an RTÉ poll a year earlier.
That year also, Dundalk Institute of Technology named a building in his honour. The present home of the ERSI is named Whitaker Square.
In the 1950s recession, Whitaker, Sweetman and Lemass were responsible for saving this nation. So far as the quagmire we find ourselves in now is concerned, none of the people in leadership have stepped up to the plate; they are totally incapable.
What would we give for a Ken Whitaker?
He would surely be utterly dismayed at the present situation.