Dan McInerney

Champion hurler who was part of one of Ireland’s biggest family construction companies, writes Liam Collins

DAN McInerney, who has died aged 93, was one of the best known builders in Ireland from the 1950s to the 1980s, and although he lived much of his life in the leafy Dublin suburb of Foxrock, his heart was very much in Co Clare and the town of Scariff where he grew up.

Born in November, 1924, he was the youngest of eight children. His father Thomas was a small farmer and builder.

His elder brother Ambrose (Amby) joined their father in building mainly in Clare and Galway and in 1949, they incorporated Thomas McInerney & Sons when the firm got its first big break with a contract to build a new runway at Shannon Airport.

Amby and Dan would later become joint managing directors of the firm. By contrast, Amby had left Scariff National School at the age of 14, while the newfound prosperity of the family enabled Dan, the youngest of the eight children, to go to the Cirstercian College in Roscrea (Tipperary) and later take a degree in engineering at University College Dublin of which he was extremely proud.

Dan McInerney was also one of the star hurlers of his generation, firstly with his club Scariff and later with the Clare county team.

“My earliest memories would have been of my mother sprinkling holy water on us as we were heading out to the matches and telling us to ‘mind our bones, be sure to win’,” Dan told the Hogan Stand magazine in an interview in 1993.

Although he started in goal with Scariff, he was playing at full back when his club won the county championship in 1946, 1952 and 1953.

On the Clare team he played against the greatest hurlers of his generation, and some would say of all time, Mick Mackey of Limerick, Nicky Rackard of Wexford and Christy Ring of Cork.

But real glory eluded that Clare team when they were defeated by Limerick in the BUILDER: Dan McInerney 1955 Munster hurling final.

Dan McInerney was also centrally involved in running the expanding family construction business. While Amby and their brother Frank ran the Irish arm, Dan was dispatched to England to spearhead the operation there, establishing the firm in Watford.

By the mid-1970s, he had built McInerney’s into the biggest local authority housing contractor in Britain, with major housing projects in the London area.

At home, the company was the biggest house-builder in Dublin before Brennan & McGowan and was also the main contractor in building the Hogan Stand in Croke Park, large parts of UCD Belfield and later the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin’s docklands.

With his wife Gemma and a growing family, Dan had returned to Ireland in 1966 and bought Carrickmines House, later selling off parcels of the surrounding land for housing.

He installed a swimming pool and riding facilities for his wife and children but continued to commute to England, overseeing the company’s property empire.

The McInerneys took the company ‘public’ and it was floated on the Stock Exchange in Dublin and London in December, 1971. Over the next few decades, it was to be a roller-coaster ride for shareholders, some of whom suffered massive losses in the process.

After an impressive start, the company had to lay off 1,100 staff in 1974 and sell property and sites in Dublin and London. The brothers also had to plough £5m of their own money back into the business to get the banks off their back.

Despite gloomy predictions, the company fought back with contracts in Ireland, England, Portugal, Spain and the Middle East. When Dan McInerney succeeded his elder brother as chief executive in the early 1980s, McInerney was again ranked as one of one of the country’s major construction companies.

A slump in commercial property in Britain in the early 1990s led to losses compounded by major liabilities arising from their holding in the Four Seasons in Vilamoura, Portugal. Dan, who had succeeded his brother Amby as chairman in 1986, retired in the early 1990s.

The family lived in four different homes in Foxrock before settling in Carrickmines. “The house is old and not too big,” he said in an interview. “The village (Foxrock) is lovely and the people are very friendly. The whole atmosphere of the place is wonderful. It’s a beautiful place to live.”

He played golf at Foxrock Golf Club but remained a hurling enthusiast all his life, lamenting the disappearance of “ground hurling” when he spoke to Hogan Stand magazine. “Hurling is the finest field game in the world” he said.

Dan McInerney died at his home on September 30 and his funeral took place last Thursday at Foxrock Church.

He is survived by his wife Gemma and their children Mary, Daniel, Mark and Gemma.