Dec 24, 2024
Nov 18,2024
We present an extract from T.K. Whitaker: Irishman of the 20th Century, the acclaimed biography by Aine Chambers.
Throughout his long life of public service, Dr T.K. Whitaker's contribution to the economic, financial, social, educational, political and cultural evolution of the Irish state was unprecedented.
In this new edition of his biography, author Anne Chambers reveals the extraordinary diversity of Whitaker’s undertakings on behalf of the State and its people; his relationship with national and international political leaders and organisations; his background, motivations, humour and compassion; the personal losses endured; the many highlights enjoyed; and his legacy and relevance today.
The first edition of this biography was launched in September 2014. The event was attended by his family, a wide circle of friends, politicians, including the late former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, and representatives from the many organisations to which he had contributed throughout his years of public service. Then in his 97th year, Ken's presence lent the event a special appeal and significance not lost on the large attendance, who patiently queued to have his biography personally signed by both author and subject.
Launching the book of a man he described as 'a national treasure... who had made a singular and peerless contribution to life on the island of Ireland’ the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, praised Whitaker’s ‘deeply principled morality’, which saw him ‘make and live a commitment to bring equity and order in an unruly world.’ In a brief response, Ken extended thanks to ‘all who had helped him during his life and on many a long journey’, to the Taoiseach for honouring him and to the author ‘for bringing me to life again!’
For the remaining years of his life, Ken continued both interested and interesting, absorbing the news in his daily newspaper … even giving the occasional interview. One such interview included a rare comment on the economy, which by then had come through the disastrous financial and economic crises of the earlier decade: ‘What I will say is that I want to see a progressive improvement in living conditions in Ireland’. (1)
I do have some regrets from my life but I rationalise them out of the way as far as I can… Although I am ninety-seven I don't carry around with me any baggage of unhappy regrets. I'm at ease.
T.K. Whitaker
Choosing to live in his own home on Stillorgan Road to the end, Ken remained interested in the lives of his ever-expanding family. His 100th birthday on 8 December 2016 was celebrated at his home with family and close friends. By then in the care of a circle of wonderful home carers and family members, his last days, as he had wished and deserved, continued to be spent in his home. There, a few weeks after his centenary celebration, on the evening of 9 January 2017, he peacefully passed away.
His funeral Mass, celebrated in his parish church in Donnybrook, was attended by President Michael D. Higgins, politicians and representatives of the many organisations in which he had been involved during his lifetime. ‘Dr Whitaker’s life’s work stands as an embodiment of the finest qualities and aspirations of the Irish people’, the President noted in tribute. ‘What is more he loved Ireland deeply – its people, language and culture. He was as fine an Irish man as there has been.’ (2)
Ken Whitaker was buried in Shanganagh Cemetery, Shankill, county Dublin.
Watch: TK Whitaker receives a lifetime achievement award at the American Chamber 50th Anniversary Gala, circa 2011
T.K. Whitaker’s contribution to the economic, financial, social, educational, political and cultural evolution in Ireland, and its relevance for the future, was widely acknowledged on his death. ‘Whitaker’s life of outstanding achievement reminds us that there can be a real nobility to the public service. He never set himself above or beyond the primacy of electoral democracy. But neither did he hide behind it,’ an editorial in the Irish Times noted. ‘Ken Whitaker had the instincts of a supreme mandarin, but the curiosity, the intelligence and the backbone of a good citizen. He tried throughout his public life to tell the truth as he saw it, (3) journalist and author Fintan O’Toole attested. Quoting Whitaker’s own hopes in relation to the future of Northern Ireland,
…it should never be forgotten that a genuinely united Ireland must be based on a free union of those living in Ireland, on mutual tolerance and on belief that ultimate government authority will be equitable and unprejudiced,
journalist Eoghan Harris noted Whitaker’s ‘visionary pluralism’ and how ‘like James Joyce … he was never trapped in the net of nationality’. (4)
From ordinary members of the Irish public, whose betterment had ever been the raison d’etre of Whitaker’s work as a public servant, tributes and remembrances appeared in the letters pages of the national press. ‘T.K. Whitaker’s charm, understated effectiveness and intellectual courage will be greatly missed but must be a great example to all of us left to follow in his footsteps as we continue to benefit from his patriotic endeavours’, one contributor stated.
Of the many positive traits and characteristics attributed to T.K. Whitaker, perhaps the most significant and enduring was his ability to inspire confidence in others, from family members, students, to those who worked with him in his various public roles throughout his lifetime. As one of his collaborators in Economic Development, the late Tomás Ó Cofaigh noted, ‘Whitaker had the ability to give great encouragement to his colleagues… and guaranteed zeal and effort by his own example.’
For a biographer, as distinct from an historian, to find and analyse the human being behind the public figure is their motivation, as well as the raison d’être underlying this literary genre: how the personal life of the individual, lived within a particular period of time, impacted and shaped their character, personality and public actions, and, in turn, how the individual may have contributed to their time and thus present, as Benjamin Disraeli once noted, ‘life without theory’.
In subsequent public talks given by this author to various groups and societies about the subject of this biography, the ways in which the policies and programmes devised and pursued by Ken Whitaker during his life of public service impacted on the personal lives of individual Irishmen and women became manifest. Commending him as the person who had prevented their enforced emigration back in the sixties, ‘without Ken Whitaker’, one such attendee confided, ‘myself and my family would now be citizens of another country.’ While during the course of the author’s own interviews with her subject, their weekly lunch in Gleeson’s public house in Booterstown were regularly interrupted by complete strangers approaching their table ‘just’, as they invariably stated to a bemused Ken Whitaker, ‘to shake your hand.’
Such spontaneous recognition and appreciation said more about the subject of this biography than any academic treatise and was a validation of the Irish public’s choice of T.K. Whitaker as their Irishman of the 20th Century.
T.K. Whitaker: Irishman of the 20th Century is published by Red Stripe Press, 2024
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