The sudden recent death of Declan McCourt (April 15th, 1946 – October 18th, 2024) has left Ireland without one of its pioneering entrepreneurs.
Declan was the son of Kevin and Peggy McCourt. Kevin McCourt was one of a small group of business people who actively promoted economic activity in the Ireland of the 1960s and 1970s most notably in bringing together many of the distilleries under the banner of Irish Distillers and also as director general of RTÉ shortly after its establishment. It would be accurate to say that Declan was more than a chip off the business block of his father.
Declan went to school at Castleknock College playing on the wing for its senior schools cup team. He studied economics to MA level at UCD, while also taking the law courses at the King’s Inns. He was called to the bar in 1968.
Instead of a career in law, he opted instead for the commercial world. After some early experience with Goulding Fertilisers, he took the unusual step, at the time, of opting to study for an MBA at Harvard University.
The principal can’t sleep for worrying. If she paid all the bills on her desk, she couldn’t open the school
Trump’s return is an opportunity to confront urgent questions about Europe’s future
Someone should take Simon Harris’s phone away before he bankrupts the country
Here’s why churches across Ireland will turn red next Wednesday
This experience enabled him to move into the world of international business, and his initial work was in the distillery and drinks industry when he became marketing director for Seagram’s in Rome and was later promoted to the position of vice-president in New York.
Ever a fervent Irishman, he decided to return to Ireland when offered the position of chief operating officer with the TMG Group.
Later, in 1982, he was invited to join the OHM Group as partner and chief executive. So started a career in the motor industry for Declan which lasted until his death. He was a key driver in greatly expanding the group to become a leading automotive and power solutions business – it now employs over 500 people.
His immense success in business attracted major Irish companies, ranging from the Bank of Ireland, Fyffes, Balmoral International Land Holdings and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, to appoint him to their boards.
Highlighting Declan’s outstanding career should not mask his exceptional contributions to two areas of social activity where he left lasting legacies, namely the Mater Hospital Foundation, on which he served for 26 years, and UCD’s School of Law Development Council.
Mary Moorhead, the CEO of the Mater Hospital Foundation, wrote that “It is no surprise that during Declan’s tenure as chair, the Foundation remitted over €31 million to help fund innovative and transformational projects”.
His work for the Law School in UCD was marked by the university conferring an honorary doctorate of law on him in 2013. His dedication to his alma mater continued over the years and more recently he was a member of the President’s Advisory Board at UCD.
Always the absolute gentleman, Declan, behind his ever-smiling face, demonstrated an extraordinary emotional capacity to confer his love on his family and friends. With his wife Margaret, to whom he proposed three weeks after having met her in 1967, he raised four children: Conal, Cian, Melissa and Melanie. He was devoted to Margaret and to their family. He enjoyed nothing more than holidaying with them and the grandchildren on Inishnee in Connemara during the summer.
With his numerous friends he relished the occasional meeting at Moran’s of the Weir, golfing trips or fishing at Currarevagh. On one occasion in the latter setting, he took great pride in showing his friends a big black box which he said would enable him to communicate with the business world while fishing. This box, appropriate now for a museum setting, was the basis of a new phenomenon which would be called the mobile phone!
Declan’s personality radiated warmth, generosity and a great joy for life. He had an innate gift to make friends and to be a great friend.
The huge attendance at his recent funeral in Foxrock bore testimony to this.
His work both at the corporate and charitable levels is a fitting legacy to a life well lived, sadly taken from his family prior to its completion.