*** Welcome to piglix ***

Maurice Moynihan


Maurice Gerard Moynihan (December 1902 – 21 August 1999) was a senior Irish civil servant, co-drafter of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland, Secretary of the Government of the Irish Free State in 1937, Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland in 1960, and Knight Commander of the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1959.

Moynihan was born in Tralee, County Kerry, brother of Sean O'Muimhneachain, a member of the Irish Volunteers, and later Sinn Féin and both sons of Mary and Maurice Moynihan (died 1918) of Tylough, County Kerry, a leading nationalist who was campaign manager for the constitutional nationalist Thomas O'Donnell, M.P. The two brothers took opposite sides, Maurice for, and Sean against, the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, but both ended-up working for Éamon de Valera. A third brother, Michael, who joined the British Army, was killed in action in World War I on 3 June 1918. Their sister Johanna was a member of Cumann na mBan, interned along with Sean during the Irish Civil War. Maurice was also a cousin of Patrick Denis O'Donnell, with shared interests in Irish history. Maurice married US-born Mae Conley in 1932, and they had five children.

Moynihan was schooled by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, and won a scholarship to University College Cork, where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in Commerce.

Moynihan began his civil service career working in the Department of Finance in 1925, and his talent was quickly recognised by Finance Minister Ernest Blythe. He was promoted to become Private Secretary to the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera in 1932. He was appointed Secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach, and Secretary to the Government in 1937, in which post he served until 1960. In 1960 he was appointed as Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, having been a Service Director thereof from 1953 to 1960. He was one of the "architects" of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland.


...
Wikipedia

...