Colonel Kevin McGrath, former Director of Ordnance, died recently. By sad coincidence a former director, friend and colleague, Col Jock McDonald, had left us only a week earlier.
Col McGrath was born in Dublin in 1925 into an Army and Ordnance Corps family. His father, Colonel Tom McGrath, veteran of the War of Independence with the East Clare Brigade and proud holder of an All-Ireland medal for hurling with his native county, was founder director in 1931 of the Army Ordnance Service, forerunner of the modern Ordnance Corps. And Kevin's son Roger served as captain in the Artillery Corps until he opted for retirement in the recent review of the Defence Forces.
Kevin married into a well-known Army family. His wife, Maeve, is a daughter of the late Col Felix McCorley, also a veteran of the War of Independence.
Having graduated from UCD as a mechanical and electrical engineer in 1949 Kevin was commissioned into the Ordnance Corps as second lieutenant. He held key workshop and staff appointments until promoted colonel and appointed director of his corps in 1984. Throughout his career he was directly involved in the procurement of many of the rifles, armaments and optronic equipments in service in today's Army. Given the broad range of ordnance equipment introduced into service in recent years, of ever increasing technological complexity, for whose procurement and maintenance the Ordnance Corps is responsible, he was dismayed when the corps (and indeed the Army) was subjected to severe pruning in the recent defence review.
In the case of the FN rifles, ironically of Belgian manufacture, he was a member of the group in 1961 which took the first consignment to Irish troops on UN service in the Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony. A short time later those automatic weapons, which replaced our single-shot, bolt-action Lee Enfields, were of vital importance when Irish troops went into action for the first time since the foundation of the State. This was the historic and successful UN "peace enforcement" mission in Katanga in the early 1960s. Their adversaries, the gendarmerie and mercenaries of Mr Tshombe's secessionist government, were also armed with FN rifles.
A decade later, Kevin served again with UN, in Cyprus.
He always kept up to date with technical developments in his profession and was an active member and fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland. His ability to master new technology won respect from younger officers often surprised and impressed by his depth of knowledge of, say, computers (fortran was a hobby of his), or explosive ordnance disposal, ammunition and explosives (not his field as an engineer). This director was not for bluffing.
A keen family man, he was devoted to his wife, Maeve, and seven children. And while he was involved in his local community and ministered unselfishly in parish affairs, he found time for golf and bridge.
As Director of Ordnance he was professional, dedicated and widely respected both within his corps and throughout the Defence Forces at large. To his officers and men he was always soft-spoken, approachable and considerate. It was clear his passing was widely mourned from the numbers who attended his funeral and filled his parish church at Mount Merrion to overflowing. He is survived by his wife Maeve, his children and grandchildren. May his gentle soul rest in peace.
S.O'C.