Seamus Fitzgerald Descriptive List (Ref. PR6)

participation for a number of years as a member of the ESB Superannuation Tribunal and his service on the Local Appointments Commission. His sense of fair play also made him a trusted negotiator and arbitrator as can be seen in Subsection H where is preserved dealings with both Employer's organisations and Unions. The final subsection here H records Fitzgerald's involvement with the Irish Tourist Association which was later malgamated into Bord Failte. Section 4, Business Involvements , records Fitzgerald's activities as a prominent Cork businessman. Section 4 Subsection A details concerns that he was in ownership or part ownership of Fitzgerald and Co., the Electrical Engineering and Goods shop he founded in partnership with his brothers, was his main base in Cork. Preserved here in A II are details of tenders offered and plans for early electrification projects undertaken, including Tralee County Hall and Limerick District Hospital. These provide a useful insight into the manner of rural electrification at that time. Fitzgerald was for a time also involved in running the New States Hotel in Cobh (Commodore Hotel) and the Lido Cinema in Cork but neither venture proved successful. However subsection B, Directorships, contains records of Fitzgerald's achievements as a director of Rushbrooke Dockyard, Verlome Cork Dockyard and Irish Steel. Much of the material relating to Cork Dockyards Limited revolves around repeated attempts from the 1920's onwards to place the dockyard on a secure footing, thus ensuring employment in the Cobh, Passage and Haulbowline areas. After a period of closure in the late 1930's the dockyard was reopened with great hope in 1941 , but never managed to become fully independent of state support. Foreign experts were brought in to help revitalise the company, a move not always approved of by the local people. A section of material is preserved relating to local complaints about William L Kok, Chief Engineer, at Rushbrooke. These centred around the fact that he owned a rather powerful motor boat which was felt to be inappropriate for an alien to operate around the Irish coast during the Emergency. A letter from Fitzgerald attesting to Kok's integrity appears to have finished the matter. Rushbrooke was taken over in 1958 by Verlome Dockyards, thanks largely to efforts by Seamus Fitzgerald, Dr. Baddy of the IDA and Brian Gallagher the Irish Ambassador to the Hague. The bringing of Verlome to Cork was one of the high points of Fitzgerald's career. Appointed a Director in 1959 he was instrumental in securing Irish Government support for the company. Preserved in the collection is material relating to the general administration of Verlome Cork Dockyards from its opening in 1958 to Fitzgerald's retirement in 1970. The move to Cork by Verlome was almost universally welcomed but there were one or two dissenting voices. Union relations were always tricky at Verlome and an interesting letter from Erskine Childers reveals support for Verlomes stance against some Union demands. Documents relating to ship orders, company finances, relations with the Irish Shipping Co. and Union negotiations are all preserved here. It must however be stressed that these papers do not provide a history of Verlome Cork Dockyards but rather reflect the surviving evidence of Fitzgerald's involvement with the company. Seamus Fitzgerald was also pivotal in the opening in 1939 of Irish Steel Limited, and material relating to this is contained in Section 4 Subsection 3. Preserved in Fitzgerald's correspondence is evidence of the company's rocky existence and dependence on government support. An interesting body of documents relates to the tribulations of William Masqeik, Chief Engineer at Irish Steel, who as a German National faced many bureaucratic problems during the Second World War, not least when he attempted to purchase a small farm in Co.

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