UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Wednesday, 7 December 2016 at 5 pm
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR BILL ROCHE, College of Business on 7 December 2016, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on KIERAN MULVEY.
President, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
In history, politics and culture, the peacemaker is a neglected figure. Kieran Mulvey has been making peace throughout his career as a concilitator: in industrial relations, in sport, in medical affairs, in human rights and in communities wracked by disadvantage and conflict, both in Ireland and beyond.
Particularly in the field of industrial relations he has occupied the ‘middle ground’ with unique distinction. In his roles as Chief Executive of the Labour Relations Commission and latterly as Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission he has been the supreme and supremely skilled Irish practitioner of conflict resolution.
Kieran was born in 1951 in Roscommon Town, the fourth of five children of Mary and Thomas Mulvey. From his mother, he learned to value and love education – an abiding feature of his professional career and personal life. His father was a highly skilled mosaic craftsman, examples of whose work can be found in mosaics at the Garden of Remembrance and Galway Cathedral, and in the terraza floors at the National Museum. The patient attention to detail and ability to create harmony from many different shapes and colours that mark the work of the mosaic craftsman surely also passed from father to son.
Kieran studied history and english at UCD, where he was active in student politics and served as a member of the UCD Governing Body. At the tender age of 24, he became the first General Secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers. While still only 29 he became General Secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland.
His experience of growing up in a county depleted by emigration, which affected his own and his parents’ families, was formative for his views on the importance of economic opportunity being available fairly to all. His experiences as a student activist and union official in the highly turbulent 1970s and 1980s were also formative for his subsequent work as a pathfinder towards agreement and accord.
In 1991, he became the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Labour Relations Commission, establishing the LRC as a respected, impartial and professional conflict resolution agency. In 2015 he became the founding Secretary General of the Workplace Relations Commission.
It is often said that the conciliator’s job is to ‘deliver the lion’s share to the lion!’ That however would not do justice to Kieran Mulvey’s courage and leadership, nor to his commitment to the public interest over expediency. In 2010, chaos threatened the Irish public services in the wake of pay cuts and growing trade union militancy. In a signal act of personal courage and leadership, and in the face of considerable criticism, Kieran Mulvey called for a negotiated accord between the government and the public service unions. This led to the Croke Park Agreement and to the subsequent Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road Agreements, each of which he brokered in his role as talks chairman.
These same personal qualities were shown again, earlier this year, when he criticised what he saw as unreasonable pay demands in an essential public service and called on the government to renew their accord with the public service unions – again in the face of criticism.
Kieran Mulvey has regularly shone the spotlight on the day-to-day exploitation and injustices suffered by marginalised groups, such as migrants and domestic workers. Since his retirement, earlier this year, he has worked with local groups in the North Inner City to identfy ways to respond to the problems of drugs and gang-related violence and to develop a vision for the regeneration of the community. He is also working with the European Commission and the ILO to seek consensus among employers and unions in the countries of the Western Balkans as they engage in the process of EU Accession.
The breath of Kieran Mulvey’s contribution to public life in Ireland and beyond is evident in his work as Chair of Sport Ireland/The National Sports Council; his past membership of the Independent Radio and Television Commission and his role on the governing authorities of Dublin City University and Athlone Institute of Technology. He is a trustee and treasurer of Frontline – the International Foundation for Human Rights Defenders.
He has long been committed to evidence-based public policy, and has actively supported research across all the universities on the Island.
His many distinctions include honorary professorships at Queen’s University Belfast and the National College of Ireland, the Whitaker Award of the Irish Academy of Management and an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland.
A man of warmth, charm and personal modesty, he is a proud alumnus of UCD. It is therefore entirely fitting, this evening, that his own university, his alma mater, should proudly recognise and celebrate his outstanding contribution and achievements.
The Guardian journalist, Julian Borger, has written in praise of ‘shuttle diplomacy’ – the core skill of the concilitator – in words that encapsulate the career and personal qualities of Kieran Mulvey:
‘In a darkening world, to persist in dialogue and reason is to rage – politely and diplomatically - against the dying of the light’.
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Praehonorabilis Praeses, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hunc meum filium, quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad Gradum Doctoratus in utroque Jure, tam Civili quam Canonico; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.