IT is said that Bernard McNamara’s success was built on political fail- Woe
Following defeat in the 1981 Gen- eral Election the former county councillor decided to leave behind the world of politics, and moved to Dublin in 1984 to expand the fam- ily building contract business.
SW iteKiomserlaniomscemsleemeberemerm nite local authority described him as ‘a man that wanted to get the job done” and in many cases “border- ing on impatient”’.
He was elected to Clare County Council in 1974, at a ttme when he was working with his father’s com- pany Michael McNamara Construc- tion, having returned from college in Dublin three years previous.
He successfully contested the lo- cal election again in 1979, but his
political demise came in 1981 at the General Election.
He was co-opted on to the Fian- na Fail ticket, at a time when the party’s Clare county councillors were not automatically considered for national politics. It was former schoolteacher Tony Killeen that would later break that barrier.
For Mr McNamara, there were still too many big guns in the run- ning for the Fianna Fail seats, with Brendan Daly, Sylvester Barrett and William (Bill) Loughnane tak- ing the seats comfortably with Fine Gael’s Madeleine Taylor Quinn.
He received 2,676 votes just under one third of the quota.
In a 2006 interview, former mayor of Clare Flan Garvey (FEF), said that the Lisdoonvarna man had “minis- terial potential”.
But he moved too soon for his place in Leinster House, and the
world of politics was moving too Slow for him.
Sitting County Councillor PJ Kelly (FF) began his first day in Clare County Council in 1974 with Mr McNamara and described his former colleague as “enthusiastic” and “not like the rest”’.
“He was a man of few words but came to a conclusion fast, he saw the bigger picture,” said Cllr Kelly.
“After 1981 Bernard Mc felt poli- tics wasn’t the medium for express- ing his talents, and decided to apply them elsewhere instead,’ he added.
Mr McNamara left the world of politics behind at the next lo- cal election in 1984 and moved to Dublin setting up home in Mount Merrion.
There he secured huge private and public contracts for Michael McNa- mara Construction.
Such contracts were not unusual
for this company, which had previ- ously secured the construction of RTE’s sports and social club on its campus in Donnybrook within two years of Bernard McNamara’s re- turn to Clare.
This was soon followed by an ex- tension to Galway hospital.
The company, with Bernard at the helm, built a reputation for high construction standards and a qual- TL AYABUD OPK Oe
Since then the company’s share of state contracts has been sizable, not least among then the €400m Thornton Hall prison complex.
The company, which has a special meaning for Mr McNamara, and has been ringfenced from his cur- rent financial woes also received the contact to build the new Clare County Council offices, and five public-private partnerships (PPPs) with Dublin city council for hous-
ing regeneration.
The Dublin city contracts were eventually terminated however, signalling some of the future finan- cial difficulties faced by Mr McNa- rere ee
Among the other state contracts secured by the Clare man was the extensions to Leinster House and Dublin airport, the millennium wing of the National Gallery of Ireland, and the Ballymun social welfare offices and Garda station.
Mr McNamara was also one of the main landlords to the state, renting accommodation to the De- partment of Justice and Tourism Ireland.
Michael McNamara _ Construc- tion, from which Bernard McNa- mara has resigned, currently has 12 live contracts, with 270 direct employees, and many more on sub contract.