PAUL TANSEY, a former editor of Trinity News, passed away on September 21 at the age of 59.
The Blackrock College student came to Trinity to study economics and politics in the late 1960s. He succeeded Ted Oliver to become editor of this newspaper in Trinity term of 1970.
PAUL TANSEY, a former editor of Trinity News, passed away on September 21 at the age of 59.
The Blackrock College student came to Trinity to study economics and politics in the late 1960s. He succeeded Ted Oliver to become editor of this newspaper in Trinity term of 1970.
He was involved with the Students’ Representative Council, the forerunner to today’s Students’ Union. He started the Students’ Union’s tradition of publishing as founder and first editor, in 1970, of Liaison, which was succeeded by Union, Aontas and the University Record.
He was elected president of the Students’ Representative Council, also in 1970, and deputy president of the Union of Students in Ireland the following year. During his time in student politics he also spent a year in Prague with the International Union of Students.
John Spain, writing in the Irish Independent last Saturday, recalled Paul’s student days. The 1960s were a time of student rebellion, said Spain, but “Tansey saw through the revolutionary nonsense quicker than most. Unlike the rebels propping up the Buttery bar, he had a maturity about him that the rest of us lacked.”
Tansey took the BA and MA degrees. He returned to Trinity in the 1980s to study for the master in business administration degree, which he took in 1987. He also studied at the London School of Economics in the 1970s.
Soon after leaving Trinity he took up a position with The Irish Times, becoming economics correspondent two years later, in 1975. Apart from his year at LSE, he stayed with The Irish Times until 1983, when he became deputy editor of the Sunday Tribune.
He became an economic consultant, setting up Tansey Webster Steward Group, and published many papers on economics and finance.
His knowledge of economics was lauded in the newspapers last week. Joan Burton, deputy leader of the Labour Party, said he was “first among equals in the ranks of economic commentators”. John McManus, business editor of The Irish Times, said: “Without a doubt, his work both as a journalist and an independent consultant had an influence on the development of Irish economic policy over the last 30 years.”
He returned to The Irish Times last year, becoming economics editor.
Tansey died on the morning of Sunday, September 21, while playing tennis at the Enniskerry home of Dublin University senator Shane Ross, a long-time friend of his.
His wife, Olivia O’Leary, paid tribute to him at his funeral at St Patrick’s Church, Monkstown, last Thursday. She thanked him for 25 years of “fun, laughter and love”. He was remembered as a “wise old owl” with a “Rolls Royce mind”.
Among the mourners at Tansey’s funeral were Professor Antoin Murphy, Senator Shane Ross and provost Dr John Hegarty.
Paul Joseph Anthony Tansey, MA, MBA. Born August 17, 1949.
Died September 21, 2008, aged 59.
(Peter Henry)
