Eugene McCague

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Tuesday, 3 September 2024

TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR IMELDA MAHER on 3 September 2024, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa on MR EUGENE McCAGUE.

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President, Colleagues, Graduates, a Chairde

Is mór an onóir é dom, gur iarr an Ollscoil orm an aitheasc seo a thabhairt don t-Uasal Eugene McCague agus an céim oinigh seo á bhronnadh air.

Mr. McCague we welcome you and your family here today as we honour you for your many achievements in the public and private realms.Your association with UCD has been longstanding, bookending an extraordinary professional life that has left a considerable footprint in law, business and public life in Ireland. 

I will refer to you as Eugene – following your example of referring to both Mr. Arthur Cox and Mr. Kevin McCourt by their first names in the two engaging biographies you wrote of these seminal figures in the early and middle years of the Irish state.

The path to this ceremony started when Eugene was 16 years old and set out for UCD from Clones, Co. Monaghan. He graduated with his BCL and shortly thereafter, the Diploma in European Law. Without detracting from the fine teaching that was done in the Law School at that time, I suspect Eugene has stronger memories of debating than lectures when he was here. He captained the first Irish debating team to tour the US having won the Irish Times Debating competition – a tour sponsored by the Coors brewing company. He also won the impromptu and gold medals at the L&H, and he was auditor of the UCD Law Society, beating our now Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell to that particular honour in the election. Subsequently, he was the first ever solicitor to be appointed vice president of that Society 20 years later. This was a fitting tribute and it is noteworthy that when Eugene was auditor, he had appointed the society's first woman vice-president – Mrs. Mary Robinson.

These skills no doubt served him well when he became a solicitor.I think it is fair to say, and indeed as is clear from his lucid and very interesting history of the first 100 years of the law firm Arthur Cox, that the profession has changed a lot since the early 1980s.Nonetheless, it is a mark of his brilliance and a sign of what was to follow, that within two years of qualification he was appointed partner in McCann FitzGerald, Roche and Dudley which was then the largest law firm in Ireland.Following another move to Esmond A Reilly & Co, he ultimately arrived and remained at Arthur Cox for the rest of his professional life serving as partner and as both Managing Partner and Chair.Having started in insolvency (where he advised on the first ever examinership in Ireland – the Goodman group -) with the arrival of the Celtic Tiger years he wisely pivoted to corporate law and governance, advising a wide range of public and private companies on mainstream corporate work, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings and corporate governance, acting for many of the major companies in Ireland including Aer Lingus and Eir.He proved to be a great boardroom lawyer inspiring trust and confidence in his many clients who were leading Irish businesses. This is reflected in his many non-executive roles, following retirement from Arthur Cox, for firms such as Icon and Aon.   

Eugene has also brought his extensive expertise and extraordinary reputation to bear in the public domain. He is chair of the board of the employers’ group IBEC, was the first lawyer to be President of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, was a lay member on the Council of Chartered Accountants Ireland and a member of the Public Interest Oversight Committee of Deloitte & Touche. He was chair of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, the Governing Body of the Dublin Institute of Technology (as it then was) and of the DIT Foundation. He also served on the boards of Focus Ireland, Cheeverstown House, and the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation and Co-Operation Ireland. 

I was privileged to garner some insight into his exceptional board skills when Eugene served as Chair of the UCD Governing Authority.Then with more than 40 members from a wide variety of backgrounds from student reps to county councilors, alumni representatives, appointees of the Taoiseach and of course the ever-critical academics (including myself), he expertly managed an always committed, sometimes restless board as we sought to support the University in realizing its educational and scholarly mission. It took me some time to work out that when Eugene started to talk about Monaghan – a place to which he remains immensely loyal - it was a superb distraction tactic that would diffuse what might otherwise become a more fractious discussion. To adapt a comment about Kevin McCourt referred to in his biography: his advice was always exceptional combined with a splendid, often mischievous sense of humour that smoothed the sometimes-tortuous way.Eugene’s calm leadership meant he led without the Board really even noticing, directing conversation, securing decisions and ensuring the voluminous business of the monthly meetings were fully addressed to the satisfaction of all concerned. His legacy is a well-governed university focused on scholarly achievement for faculty and students.

A character in one of Pat McCabe’s novels says, in relation to past days: “they always seem to me suffused with the colour of burnished copper…” Pat McCabe and Eugene are both Clones natives but I don’t think Eugene suffers unduly from that sort of nostalgia.In a newspaper interview he commented that when he arrived in UCD in the late 70s it was a forbidding, concrete place.Since then, as you all can see, the campus has matured into a vibrant, beautiful place.I hope Eugene that you can see how you have contributed to that extraordinary evolution for us here in Belfield.

I can’t let the occasion pass without also noting your continuing interest in the Sutherland School of Law (your speech after the dinner marking the opening of the School a decade ago has acquired legendary status).Your interest looms large for the School but of course is just one small part of your exceptional public service.

It is difficult to know how you could pack so much into your career and remain so kind with a wonderful sense of humour while also being sought after as a key adviser at the highest levels for business, government and public bodies.

Eugene on behalf of my colleagues, our students and the university, I am delighted to be part of this ceremony today.We welcome your wife, Marie-Christine (who you have acknowledged in all your books as having supported you in all your endeavours). We also welcome your offspring, Ellen, Eoin and Ronan. We remember your father, Eoin, who died when you, the youngest in the family, were only a few weeks old, and Mary, your mother who became a single parent then to four children.She worked as a conveyancing clerk in a Clones solicitors’ office and you dedicated your first book to her. I am sure both of your parents would take great pride in all your achievements and in this honour UCD bestows on you today.