Patrick Shea Central Bank, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts was a Northern Irish civil servant and the first Roman Catholic since A. N. Bonaparte-Wyse in the 1920s to achieve the rank of Permanent Secretary of a Government Department in Northern Ireland.
Background
Shea was born in Delvin, County Westmeath, where his father, a native Irish speaker from West Kerry, was a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary. His father had various postings until the RIC was disbanded in 1922 upon the creation of the Irish Free State via the Anglo-Irish Treaty/Partition of Ireland.
Education
Patrick Shea attended the Abbey Columbia Broadcasting System in Newry.
Career
Upon leaving, he joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service in June 1926. His postings included: Ministry of Labour, Clerical Officer 1926–1935 Belfast, Outdoor Officer Enniskillen 1935–1938, Senior Clerk, Headquarters 1938–1939 Ministry of Finance, Assistant Principal 1939–1941, Deputy Principal 1941. His initial appointment to this office was blocked because he was a Roman Catholic by the Minister of Labour John F. Gordon who was later overruled by John M. Andrews the Minister of Finance.
Secretary Civil Service Committee for Northern Ireland 1941 Ministry of Education, Principal December 1947 – 1959, Establishment Officer and Accountant Ministry of Finance, Public Buildings and Works, 1959–1963, Assistant Secretary 1963–1969 Ministry of Education, Permanent Secretary,December 1969–1973 After retirement he chaired Enterprise Ulster from 1973–1979.
Shea commented on his own career by recalling that it "was my experience that some Catholics, and especially those in Belfast, where I had been told, the Bishop advised them against seeking Government employment, looked with suspicion on Catholic civil servants. We had joined the enemy, we were lost souls".
Membership
He was made an Honorary member of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects in 1971 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1977. He was a long-time member of the Ulster Arts Club.