Abstract
Memoir of An Irish Economist provides a revealing autobiography of Labhrás Ó Nualláin (1912–2000). Ó Nualláin served as Professor of Economics at University College Galway (UCG) between 1970 and 1982. The book is based on a large (300,000 word) memoir written between 1982 and 1995. It is edited by Ó Nualláin’s daughter and published to celebrate the centenary of the bachelor of commerce degree at what is now known as NUI Galway. The memoir is enlivened by an interesting cast of characters and range of topics covered. Indeed, this must be the only memoir which includes discussions of British working class life, American race relations and friendships with Hugh Delargy, Seán MacBride and George O’Brien. The cast of characters also includes encounters with Brendan Behan and attendance at Theodore Schultz’s famed development economics course at the University of Chicago.
In terms of biographical details, Ó Nualláin was born into a working class Irish emigrant family in 1912 and grew up in Manchester. His fascination with his Irish identity led him to choose to move to the relatively impoverished Irish Free State. Eventually after working in Department of Industry and Commerce as a Clerical Officer, he returned to education studying at both UCD and TCD. In 1953, Ó Nualláin was appointed an Irish language Lectureship in Commerce, Economics and Accountancy at UCG. In 1965, he secured an English language Lectureship at the same institution. He also undertook a number of sabbaticals/visits at a range of prestigious American universities including Boston University, Chicago, Michigan State and Yale. His most famous academic work is probably Ireland: Finances of Partition (1952); this book has long been out of print alas. It is also relatively hard to find (this reviewer has only ever seen one second hand copy and that was the copy he purchased at the London School of Economics bookshop back in the 1990s). Ó Nualláin in addition to his academic responsibilities was politically involved. He was an active member of Clann Na Poblachta, and Our Nation, the party’s short-lived monthly newspaper, was coedited (and later edited) by him.
Ó Nualláin was very widely travelled but the memoir notes that between his mother’s funeral in 1956 and his brother’s funeral in 1971 he did not visit England and had no wish to do so (p. 361). It is equally clear from the memoir that family visits to Ireland by his English-based relatives were also rare. Other than his visit to Belfast in June 1950, an event that led him to write an article in Our Nation (pp. 158–76), he appears likewise to have rarely visited Northern Ireland. It is noteworthy that he appears to have started writing about Northern Irish public finances prior to visiting the jurisdiction (p. 158).
Ireland: Finances of Partition provided a very critical account of Northern Ireland’s public finances. Ó Nualláin claims that the book’s only negative review was an unsigned one in the July 1952 issue of the Economic Journal (p. 184); this claim is incorrect, however. TCD’s George Duncan in a June 1953 signed review within the Economic Journal, while acknowledging Ó Nualláin’s important empirical work, observed that the book’s solid empirical contributions were ‘set in a matrix of irrelevant polemics’ and that the book was excessively focused on the Imperial Contribution rather than devolution finance viewed as a whole. Duncan concluded that these issues would limit its influence. Ireland: Finances of Partition, despite the weaknesses identified by Duncan, is an important historical document as it presents an early attempt at discussing the comparative economics of the two Irelands.
Development and regional economics were Ó Nualláin’s main intellectual interests. That these interests were not converted into a shelf full of journal articles reflected in some part the observation that he operated in an earlier academic age in which the expectations concerning publications were much more modest than the current research evaluation environment would allow. His teaching load appears to have been heavy and this must also have reduced his ability to publish. For example, between 1965 and 1983, he taught modules in International Economics, Monetary Economics, European Economics as well as Development Economics and Regional Economics (p. 373). In addition, he also sometimes taught Irish economic history. It is a pity that in retirement he gave up on his attempt at producing a book on that topic and instead travelled and worked on family history (p. 380).
A very revealing observation reveals how Ó Nualláin during his American sabbaticals attended lectures and used this material to update the curriculum back in Galway. It is also notable that attempts at reforming the economics curriculum encountered resistance from those wanting instruction to remain in Irish only. Based on Ó Nualláin’s discussion, academic politics within UCG in particular, and the NUI more generally, appears to have been rather too concerned with political intrigue (and correspondedly, relatively uninterested in publishing in internationally regarded journals). One can speculate that such politicking must have hindered academic research productivity. His comments based on his experience of the Irish civil service, moreover, implies that merit was far from the sole determinant of career paths and that political patronage was rife on both sides of the border. His observations on these topics reminded this reader of Joe Lee’s discussion regarding possessor and performer ethics.
Interestingly, given his ideological outlook, and in contrast to many economic nationalists of both the left and right, he opposed maintaining an autarkic model of economic development and was a supporter of Irish membership of the European Economic Community (EEC). Yet once again notions of identity and economic development were fused within Ó Nualláin’s support for EEC membership. He was particularly attracted by the possibility that membership would free Irish exporters from an excessive dependence on the slow growing UK economy (p. 365). It is noteworthy that Kevin O’Rourke has concluded more recently that it was exactly this trade reorientation, despite the recent financial crisis, that helps explain the step improvement in Ireland’s relative economic performance since the 1970s. Ó Nualláin’s views on Irish economic development appear to have some support in recent scholarship.
In contrast, Ó Nualláin’s comments regarding identity and political violence read as ignorant at best to the modern reader two decades after the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement (see, for instance, pp. 163–70). Ó Nualláin chose to nurture his Irish identity first in Manchester and then in Ireland, but he showed little understanding or empathy for those on the island who did not share his chosen identity. At various points in the memoir, some combination of false consciousness, irrationality and/or crude financial motivations are used to explain Unionist identity (e.g. p. 157). For example, the statement that ‘Until he [the Northern Irish Unionist] comes to accept the traditions of the majority of the nation, we must be prepared to allow him to have his “Twelfth” walk, even in a United Ireland’ (p. 163) would not be one to win over the hearts and minds of even the most moderate Unionist.
Likewise, his comments regarding political violence are even more unsettling to say the least. For example, Ó Nualláin’s comments (pp. 71–2) that in the period 1931–32 he could not become a member of the Irish Republican Army, despite agreeing with their objectives, only because he disagreed with attacks on either the Irish Free State Army or An Gárda Síochána left this reader more than somewhat appalled. Nevertheless, despite its blind spots regarding Northern Ireland, Memoir of An Irish Economist is an important book which provides insights into a number of topics important to considering the emergence of modern Ireland.