Frank Feely, the Dublin city manager in the 1980s and early 1990s, has died at the age of 91.
A career public servant, Mr Feely presided over Dublin’s administration at a time of straitened finances and growing controversy over planning corruption.
He is credited with initiating new housing schemes, city parks and pedestrian streets and claimed to have come up with the idea of marking the Dublin millennium in 1988.
Although the date was contested historically, the celebrations for the millennium gave the city a much-needed boost in the period before the Celtic Tiger.
During his tenure, the tall, bespectacled Mr Feely became the public face of Dublin Corporation, looming large at functions around the city.
Dublin’s current Lord Mayor, Caroline Conroy, expressed condolences on his death. “As Lord Mayor, I wish to offer both my own and Dublin City Council’s condolences to his family and friends. Frank was a hardworking and dedicated employee of the council.
“He was a committed public servant who made a significant contribution to the life of Dublin city and its citizens during a long career.”
Mr Feely was the Dublin city and county manager from 1979 to 1993 and then Dublin city manager from 1993 until his retirement in 1996.
With his wife Ita, Mr Feely had four children, including Orla, professor of electronic engineering at UCD, and the late Emer, a public-health doctor and wife of former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan.
Mr Feely, the son of a Leitrim-born garda, was born in Dublin. He joined Dublin Corporation as a clerk in 1949, straight from Synge Street CBS, and rose through the ranks, serving as minor staff officer, organisational methods officer, senior administrative officer, principal officer and assistant city manager.
Having studied accountancy at night, he became the corporation’s finance officer before winning the top job as city manager and town clerk. Until county Dublin was divided into three new councils under a reorganisation of local government in the early 1990s, he was county manager as well.
In the 1980s, Mr Feely concentrated on the city, while assistant city and county manager George Redmond was assigned responsibility for the county. Mr Redmond was investigated for corruption and went to jail for accepting bribes but this conviction was later quashed.
In 1989, developer Tom Gilmartin made a series of allegations about planning corruption to Mr Feely, who brought them to the attention of minister for environment Pádraig Flynn.
