Members of the House will have learned with deep regret of the death of Muircheartach Ó Conaill, the Clerk of the Dáil. I bhflaitheas Dé go raibh a anam.
By the passing of Mort Ó Conaill the Dáil has lost one of its most active and loyal officers—and the last serving one of that band of young men who were gathered together as an administrative staff to help in the development of the new Irish Parliament in 1922.
In the pre-Treaty years Mr. Ó Conaill played a noteworthy part in the struggle for national independence, and, when the call to arms came in 1916, he did not hesitate to answer it, even though he was sacrificing a promising career in the Customs and Excise division of the British Civil Service, which he had entered in 1914. In the ranks of his volunteer company he took his place during the Easter Rising and fought in the Four Courts area, for which he was subsequently interned in Stafford Jail and Frongoch. Following his release, his renewed activities in the national cause led him to undergo further terms of imprisonment in Cork County Jail, Bere Island and Spike Island, where he remained until the Truce in 1921.
During the 34 years for which Mr. Ó Conaill served in Leinster House he proved himself a most efficient and conscientious officer. Up to 1940 he was Principal Clerk in the Public Bill Office, and in that year he was appointed Clerk-Assistant of the Dáil. In 1948 he was appointed Clerk of the Dáil. In that office, which is one requiring wide knowledge and experience of the precedents of the House and their equitable application, Mr. Ó Conaill functioned with a high degree of success. Every member very soon became aware that he had a mind stored with information relating to the Standing Orders and to parliamentary procedure, and every member likewise knew the readiness and courtesy with which he communicated the information he had and the genial manner in which he came to the aid of members in any difficulties. Indeed, there are few of us here who have not individually the memory of his prompt service and unstinting help.
Mr. Ó Conaill was honorary secretary of the Irish Parliamentary Association. He organised the Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference held in Dublin in 1950, and he attended conferences of the union at Stockholm, Istanbul, Berne, Washington and Vienna, where his valuable work was highly appreciated. For some years he acted on the executive committee of the Autonomous Section of Secretaries-General of Parliament.
Mr. Ó Conaill's comparatively early death will be deeply regretted by everybody who had made his acquaintance. We shall miss his familiar figure, and we shall miss his genial personality.
I ask you, a Cheann Comhairle, to have recorded in the Journals of the House the regret of the Dáil at the death of Muircheartach Ó Conaill, the late Clerk, and an appreciation of his services at the Table. I ask you also to convey our sympathy to his widow and family.
