Tributes to retiring Cavan County Council chief

An “every man” with “no airs nor graces” - someone you could “chat to” and who “treated everyone the same”.

Those were some of the phrases used to describe outgoing chief executive of Cavan County Council, Tommy Ryan, who’ll retire later this month after eight years at the helm.

Elected members took the opportunity at Monday's monthly meeting of Cavan County Council to pass on their best wishes and pay tribute to his time in the county.

The meeting heard how Mr Ryan had started at the bottom rungs of local government as a clerical officer in Dublin in 1977. Over the course of the last 46 years, he rose to the top of his profession. A man blessed with insight and foresight, he wasn't afraid to make difficult decisions and sought to promote Cavan and its people on the global stage.

The Roscommon native took up the Cavan post following the retirement of former County Manager Jack Keyes. At the time, Mr Ryan was acting CE at Roscommon County Council.

He initially signed a seven-year contract as CE, but secured a three-year extension last year.

Addressing his senior executive and elected members at the October meeting, Mr Ryan described his career as a “great journey”, the “highlight” of which was coming to work in Cavan in 2015.

“It was a privilege,” he said.

It wasn't always easy though, and his keenness for strategies and reports was sometimes questioned. However when their value as tools to win capital funding became apparent, as Independent Shane P. O'Reilly stated, it put plenty of people “back in their box”.

He remembered meeting Mr Ryan in Foley's Bar in New York around 2014 while attending the St Patrick's Day parade as Cathaoirleach and telling him there was “a job going in Cavan”.

“How do you know I haven't already applied?” was the canny Mr Ryan’s response.

“Good enough I said,” recalled Cllr O'Reilly chuckling.

‘Common touch’

Fianna Fáil's John Paul Feeley said one of the most important signs of a person's character is how they “treat others around them”.

That Mr Ryan treated everyone with “equity”, he said, was a “mark of the man”.

Fine Gael's TP O'Reilly said it had been a “pleasure to be in the company” of Mr Ryan, espcially off site on visits abroad to places like Wurzburg and to watch him meet with the diaspora, which he did with a “common touch”.

Fellow party member Madeleine Argue paid tribute to the supportive role provided by Mr Ryan's wife Ann. She added that he would be missed going forward and said that his successor has “big boots to fill”.

Cllr Clifford Kelly praised how “gentleman” Mr Ryan had left the county in a “healthy” financial state, which could not be said of every other county in the country; while Brendan Fay (Ind) acknowledged how the outgoing CE was “always there to help”.

Aontú's Sarah O'Reilly thanked Mr Ryan for “all you've done for the county”, and noted that he was going out on a high note, following the success of Cavan Calling and Cavan Day.

“You were the driver behind that,” she acknowledged.

There were fond tributes too from Sinn Féin's Paddy McDonald, Winston Bennett (FG), Val Smith (FG), Trevor Smith (FG), Peter McVitty (FG), Aiden Fitzpatrick (FF), Craig Lovett (FF) and Áine Smith who said her late father had “great respect” for Mr Ryan.

Cllr Patricia Walsh (FF) said Mr Ryan had done “tremendous work”, and he did so as Carmel Brady (FG) said “without bringing politics into it”.

There were tributes too from each of the Directors of Services on the Executive.

Mr Ryan praised the “dedication and flexibility” of his staff who had coped with much change over the past eight years, as well as the commitment of community, business and volunteer organisations across the county.

He especially acknowledged the dedication of emergency workers - ground staff, fire service and the civil defence- during serious weather events.

Mr Ryan explained that, while people “didn't always agree” with the direction in which things moved, the ultimate intention was “to always do what was best for the county”.

He thanked his management staff for their support. “I don't micro manage. I always give them their own head.”

There was, Mr Ryan said, a legacy of projects being progressed and a pipeline of fresh ideas to come. He spoke to the reach of Cavan County Council in all facets of society. “We don't get it right all the time, but we get it mostly right.”

Of his own decision to retire, with a local election around the corner and a new corporate plan looming, Mr Ryan said he felt the “time was right” to step aside for someone new.

He'd miss the job, but it was “the people” he'd miss most.

Working in Cavan had “been a great period of my life”.

On behalf of the county and its people, Cathaoirleach Philip Brady thanked Mr Ryan for his service.

“He's one of the old stock.”