Bart Cronin: Loyal government press officer who exuded good humour

Bart Cronin, who has died aged 87, was a Government press officer of the old school who exuded good humour and provided the media with as much information as he possibly could while remaining fiercely loyal to the politicians he served.

He impressed generations of journalists with his deep knowledge of Irish politics and history as well as an endless fund of anecdotes. He always had a trademark cigarette in his mouth and his conversation was peppered with colourful expletives.

When friends worried about the damage his cigarette habit would do to his health he was fond of remarking: “The man who was born to hang will never drown.”

While he smoked incessantly he drank moderately, always sticking to a glass of lager and while he cursed like a trooper he was a model of old-fashioned courtesy, treating everybody with equal respect regardless of their station in life.

As a State employee he served Ministers of all parties with equal diligence but never tried to disguise the fact that he came from a Fianna Fáil background and had a natural sympathy for the party.

A native of Tureencahill, Rathmore, Co Kerry, Cronin claimed to have run away from home to join the circus when he was 16. He soon moved into acting and played with some of the fit-up companies who toured the country in the 1940s.

As a fluent Irish speaker he also participated in Irish language productions at the Damer Theatre.

Cronin drifted from acting into freelance journalism with the Kerryman before joining Aer Lingus. He was quickly promoted to the company's press office where he was taken under the wing of legendary press officers Bill Maxwell and Jack Miller.

His support for Fianna Fáil and his love of the Irish language drew him to George Colley, a rising start of Fianna Fáil in the 1960s, and he moved from Aer Lingus to work with Colley as press officer at the Department of Finance. He remained a Colley man to the end and was deeply disappointed when Charles Haughey rather than Colley became leader of Fianna Fáil and Taoiseach.

After Colley’s departure from office Cronin stayed as a press officer with the Department of Finance working for a succession of Ministers including John Bruton of Fine Gael.

Despite his Fianna Fáil instincts he developed an affection for Bruton and always spoke highly of him. Like many truly committed political activists he could appreciate the merits of rival politicians and admired the truly good ones of all parties.

He moved to the Department of Industry and Commerce with Bruton and when Fianna Fáil regained power in 1987 struck up a strong bond with the new Minister for Industry and Commerce Albert Reynolds. When Reynolds was promoted as Minister for Finance in 1989 he brought Cronin with him back to Merrion Street.

Three years later when Reynolds became taoiseach he appointed him head of the Government Information Service.

In that position he worked closely with the Government Press Secretary Sean Duignan over the following three years which were full of high drama, history-making initiatives and political miscalculations.

In his riveting memoir of that period in government One Spin on the Merry-Go-Round Sean Duignan vividly recalled how he teamed up with Bart whom he had known since his days as a press officer in Aer Lingus.

“Over the next turbulent year I came to rely on him more than anyone else,” wrote Duignan who recalled Bart’s superb political judgment.

Returning to the Taoiseach’s Department after a dramatic day at the Beef Tribunal in Dublin Castle when Reynolds had used the word “dishonest” about his coalition partner Des O’Malley, Duignan sought Bart’s assessment.

“Bart Cronin spoke just that one word to me when I returned to the office – “dishonest” – and then jerked his thumb floorwards.” That gesture summed up the political situation as the government fell apart within days.

Another comment of Cronin’s on the eve of the coalition arrangement between Fianna Fáil and Labour is as equally applicable today as it was then. “Politicians will rationalise practically anything in the …er… national interest.”

While he had a deep insight into the machinations of politics Bart was never a cynic and was immensely proud of Albert Reynolds’s achievement in bringing the peace process to a successful conclusion.

When Fianna Fáil returned to power in 1997 he came out of retirement to work as press officer for Jim McDaid at the Department of Tourism and Sport. He was always cagey about his age and was widely assumed to be five or six years younger than he was.

Cronin, who lived in Santry, Dublin, is survived by his his widow Máire and children Gráinne, Bart, Seán, Máire and Niamh.