From Macroom the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
PROFESSOR MARTIN TANGNEY STARTED OUT EXAMINING MICRO ORGANISMS FROM THE GEARAGH AND NOW HAS ESTABLISHED A ‘WORLD FIRST’ BIOFUEL PLANT IN EDINBURGH
WHEN Martin Tangney was growing up in Macroom, it was safe to say that he was guaranteed to be found in the lab of the secondary school, peering at micro organisms from the Gearagh rather than togged out on the football pitch.
The GAA fever which engulfs so many young boys simply never took hold and, he told The Corkman, that if a team was to be picked he would be the last choice. There is something of a large smile which can be detected at the end of the phone line in Edinburgh as he recalls this story.
Martin may have started off in his early boyhood years peering at mirco organisms but just where did his interest stem from? Without missing a beat, he pointed to his former teacher, Kevin Corcoran, who is a well known environmentalist who is passionate about the Gearagh.
“When I think about it now, even back then Kevin was so passionate about conservation, as I am now so many years later,” he said.
In a snapshot, Martin went from looking at micro organisms at school to UCC where he obtained a first class honours degree in Microbiology and then a PhD and along the way became a professor. And right now?
He is the founder and president of Celtic Renewables Ltd, which is in the advanced stages of building a ground breaking world first for Scotland in advanced sustainable biofuel plant.
He also set the wheels in motion for the first car to be fuelled by a whiskey residue biofuel and just recently he was awarded an honorary OBE – but more on all of that later.
As touched upon, while the GAA didn’t tickle his fancy growing up on Main Street in Macroom, music certainly did and he played the guitar in a band – the Holy Orders. While that band has obviously now had its last orders, he pointed out that his much beloved Macroom was at the epicentre of all this music back in the 1980s as it held the famed Mountain Dew Festival. It was also the era of the devilishly delightful guitar legend Rory Gallagher, who Martin tips his hat to in appreciation.
When he got his Leaving Certificate, it was time to say slán to Macroom and he set “off to the bright and big lights” of Cork city, where he obtained a First Class Honours Microbiology degree, which included taking Biochemistry and Chemistry to general degree level.
“Cork was really buzzing back then. The city was so vibrant with all the bands. Sure, everybody was in a band – myself included,” he laughed.
The brilliance of U2 was emerging as was the Boomtown Rats, but at the back of his mind he said he knew “that a degree would have to be got”.
During his time at UCC his much loved father, Donal, passed away when he was in his 60s and his passing left a mark on Martin. “I became more grounded after my dad passed and felt there was a strong need for less of the music and more of the books,” he said.
That little equation worked very well as he topped his class with a First Class Honours degree. “It was emotional as I knew my dad would have been very proud of me,” said Martin.
After he had obtained his primary degree he went to Trinity College, Dublin, and along the way he became involved with a Danish company, Novozymes, and went on to do a PhD through a university in Scotland.
There were also stints spent working in industry in Copenhagen and Finland.
While he was in Copenhagen - “ironically enough, in an Irish bar” - he met his future wife, Anna Hyde. They have one son, Cian who is 14 and who has obtained a strong grá for Macroom and he gets to meet his cousins and his granny, Martin’s mother Mary Theresa O’Sullivan, who is 90 years old and is known to all Tess.
Ironically, Martin pointed out that after he and Anna had married, “many years later” they discovered that Anna’s father, Daniel, used to sup a few pints with Martin’s dad, Donal, when they were in their younger years. To bring the equation even closer to home, Anna’s aunt lived at Castle Street in Macroom, while Martin and his family were brought up on Main Street. As the crow flies you wouldn’t even have to flap a feather.
“It just goes to show that it really is a tiny world after all,” said Martin.
For his working life Martin also spent time in Helsinki in Finland and then he began to move away from industry and towards academia and research, and moved to Scotland “for only a few years”.
That was in 1996, where he has been in situ in Edinburgh ever since. And it really has been quite an adventure since then.
The Information Superhighway went into code red mode when Celtic Renewables Ltd set the wheels in motion of the first car to be fuelled by a whiskey residue biofuel. The fuel - biobutanol – is a new advanced and sustainable biofuel, which is a direct replacement for petrol and diesel. It is produced from draff – the sugar rich kernels of barley which are soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whiskey production – and pot ale, the copper containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation.
At that time, the Edinburgh based company received £9 million funding support from the Scottish government as a co-investment to build a commercial demonstrator plant in Grangemouth.
Martin, as the company’s founder and president, along with his colleague Mark Simmers, make a great team and Martin is quick to heap a deluge of praise on staff.
“The work which I am doing it really is all consuming and I mean it is 24 hours, seven days a week. It really never stops. You just have to be prepared all the time but you must also get and take others’ advice.
“Things must be solution driven and my mindset was always to fix it – but, in reality, you can only fix so much. So, what I now do is recognise the gaps.
“What my work has shown me is that you get to meet such interesting people and I am blessed with the quality and calibre of the staff,” he said.
“Of course, we have great days at work when there is a breakthrough and we duly celebrate but equally so there are days when things do not go well and that is how it is.”
Does he think about home? He stops but only for a quick second and said, that for him, home will always be Macroom, as “an Irishman” - it was where he was born and raised, it is where his family live. He said while he cannot get home that much due to his hectic work cycle it does make him smile to see his son, Cian, spend time with his first cousins – some of whom are his age.
“They are all in a way growing up together and Cian loves going to Macroom,” he said.
It is fair to say that Martin has come a long way from his days peering at micro organisms in a lab at secondary school to his recent OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). But just how did that come about?
“I have absolutely no idea who nominated me; the letter came in the door. It is an honorary OBE and I am an Irish citizen so I got permission from the Irish government to accept it,” he said.
There was equally something incredibly sweet that he received it in Edinburgh, where he has built up such a career and reputation. For the presentation ceremony he was surrounded by 30 members of his family and close friends.
On the day, two close friends made the journey – Deirdre Lynch and Cathal Buckley – who met Martin on his very first day of college at UCC and they have all remained close friends for all of these years.
“It really was an immense honour and I really was so proud and humbled by it all. We had great fun on the day and, really, it was so very very special,” he said.
When pointed out by this reporter that Martin has now joined the OBE ranks of F1’s Eddie Jordan and Hollywood actor Pierce Brosnan, he laughed and said that, for him, receiving the OBE in Edinburgh will always be something very special.
“It’s my home from home,” he said.