Obituaries

Paul Good obituary: Cofounder of one of the country’s most prominent commercial and residential property agencies

He loved the law and the work but most of all he loved interacting with people

Paul Good, cofounder of DNG
Paul Good, cofounder of DNG
Sat Sept 28 2024 - 00:15

Born January 17th, 1941

Died August 24th, 2024

Paul Good, the co-founder of Douglas Newman Good (DNG) residential and commercial property agency has died aged 83. Widely respected within the property industry, Good was renowned for his expertise in arbitration, mediation, compulsory purchase order negotiations and commercial valuations. He was an accredited mediator and one of the five professional arbitrators engaged by the Courts Service in Ireland.

The second of five children of Pauline and James Good, commissioner in the valuations office of Dublin Corporation (now Dublin City Council) and director of the Ordnance Survey, he grew up on Whitebeam Road in Clonskeagh. He first attended Belvedere College and then transferred to De La Salle in Churchtown to complete his secondary education.

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After school he studied architecture at the College of Technology (now Technological University of Dublin) in Bolton Street but didn’t complete his degree. Instead he studied to become a chartered surveyor while working with property advisers and chartered surveyors Donal O’Buachalla. He later worked for Jones Lang LaSalle, Lisneys, Dublin Corporation and Druker Fanning. In 1982 he joined forces with Edmund Douglas and Paul Newman to establish Douglas Newman Good (DNG), which went on to be one of the country’s most prominent commercial and residential property agencies.

In 1994 Good left DNG to work for himself in roles right across the property sector. Over the next 30 years or so he did commercial and residential sales and rental valuations and acted as a mediator in disputes between landlords and tenants and homeowners faced with compulsory purchase orders. He was also an independent expert for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, the now defunct Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute and the Law Society.

[ Paul Good, co-founder of DNG, dies aged 83 ]

At the peak of the financial crisis from 2009-2011, Good reviewed more than 100 projects for WK Nowlan Consortium on behalf of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama). He was also a member of the Private Residential Tenancies Board’s Dispute Resolution Committee for a number of years.

“Work for Dad was his passion, his joy and his hobby. He loved the law and the work but most of all he loved the people he met along the way. It was the coffees, phone calls, long liquid lunches, stretching into liquid dinners and just the chance meetings and greetings,” his son James said.

With his love of mediation and arbitration, his colleagues said an alternative career in the legal profession would have suited him perfectly. “State arbitration work made him a close advocate to the judicial court system and such was his wealth of experience, Paul could be seen in a number of cases almost guiding the procedures,” said Paul Newman and Edmund Douglas.

His colleague and friend John Dawson, an auctioneer in Tullow, Co Carlow, said money was not the primary motivation for Good. “He was an unassuming, modest person who was very well informed and knowledgeable. I never saw him flustered and he would always help out colleagues in difficulty.”

Throughout his long career, Good lectured students at Bolton Street College of Technology and trainees in various professional bodies on property law and valuations.

Good met his wife-to-be, Eileen Walsh, at a dance in the Pembroke Cricket Club in 1964. The couple married in February 1969 and bought a house in Lakelands in the south Dublin suburb of Stillorgan, where they brought up their three children – Emily, Pauline and James. When his mother’s health was in decline, the family sold up and moved back in with her in the Clonskeagh home Good grew up in.

In the early 2000s, Paul and Eileen Good decided to leave the city and bought the Old Schoolhouse in the village of Ardattin in Co Carlow. Escaping the Dublin traffic was a strong motivation, as was the possibility to convert two stables in the garden to an office and work room. Although they missed evening concerts at the National Concert Hall, they thoroughly enjoyed their move to the heart of the countryside.

Good was a keen sportsman and a passionate supporter of Shamrock Rovers, Gillingham and Arsenal football clubs. He attended his first Shamrock Rovers match at the age of six with his father. In his twenties, he and his brother Richie spent the summer of 1966 travelling around England for the World Cup matches. Later he travelled widely with his son and other family members to matches abroad. Back in Dublin he was a keen hockey and cricket player and a member of Monkstown Hockey Club and Pembroke Cricket Club.

While continuing to work – he planned to retire in June 2025 – he also became an active member of the local community in Ardattin. Both he and Eileen served as members of the board of management of the local primary school, and he played the organ in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the village.

Paul Good is survived by his wife, Eileen; his children, Emily, Pauline and James; his sisters, Cecily and Geraldine; and his seven grandchildren. He was predeceased by his brothers, Declan and Richard.