By Paul McGill from NICVA
Published on 04 Sep 2006
This week, NICVA remembers with fondness one of those responsible for the council's formation.
John Oliver, who died recently at the age of 92, contributed enormously as a civil servant to radical reforms in planning and local government structures during a turbulent time in Northern Ireland’s history. He also made an important contribution to the development of civil society here.
After an academic career at Queen's University, Belfast, in Bonn, Königsberg and Geneva and then the Imperial Defence College, he joined the Northern Ireland civil service in October 1937, soon appointed to beocme a clerk to the nascent Northern Ireland Council for Social Services.
He recalls in one of his books that in 1938 his work on the regulations for factories and workshops was interrupted:
“I was called in one day and despatched to act as Clerk to a new body which the Ministry was promoting: a Northern Ireland Council of Social Service. Remember the circumstances; a new constitution in the South and a deep economic depression in the North. I was to serve the NICSS until they had appointed a proper full-time, chief officer. About the only thing I managed to do was to help set this body on a path of good friendly working relations with the government departments, a situation of mutual trust and respect.
“Since then I have winced as I have watched civil servants in various places seconded to bodies, feeling they must show how macho they were to the extent of setting up quite needless distance and tension – all out of fear of being looked on as ‘Yes Men’ – the silly chumps.”
John set out his views on how relations between government and the sector have developed:
“Stormont departments have also enjoyed a well-founded reputation for being easily approached and for having the imagination to foresee the benefits of co-operation with voluntary bodies.
“Few things in public life have given me greater pleasure than the knowledge that that sort of good relationship has persisted for more than fifty years now.”
There was a twist to this tale a full 46 years later, as the book explains:
“One evening in 1984 our fifth son, Quintin, telephoned from Glasgow … he wanted to tell us he had applied for and been offered a job in Belfast. It was with the NICSS, now transforming into the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action – did I know it, by any chance?”
Helping to set up NICVA’s predecessor body was not his only involvement in the sector. For eight years after the war, he was chairman of the Federation of Boys Clubs in Northern Ireland. Later, in retirement in England, John immersed himself in local life as chair of the Cumbria Council for Voluntary Action.
During the 1950s, he was involved in housing, slum clearance and physical planning and initiated Northern Ireland's first area plans, covering Belfast and the Fermanagh lakeland. In 1964 John became permanent secretary of the new Ministry of Development, where he used his influence to urge nervous Unionist ministers to act with tolerance in the face of a rising tide of sectarian anger and fear.
In 1966 he launched a review of Northern Ireland's local councils, which he described as too many, too small and too poor, leading to the radical restructuring of local government in 1973. The process is only now being taken further under the Review of Public Administration.
From 1970, John tackled energetically many of the problems created by the troubles: bombs directed at his buildings and services, transport disruption, rent strikes and street protests. When direct rule was imposed he regretted that Whitehall officials drafted into Northern Ireland tended to bypass the devolved ministries, which might have benefited from their political experience.
John's last posting in 1975-76 was as adviser to the chairman of the Northern Ireland constitutional convention, Merlyn Rees's effort to build a cross-party consensus on the restoration of devolved government. John's memoirs include a valuable analysis of why the experiment failed, which today's ministers could learn from.
John married Stella Ritson in 1943 and delighted in the achievements of his five sons, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His service was recognised when he was made a Companion of the Bath in 1968.
A ceremony to mark his life was held on 29 August at Malone House, and his ashes were interred on 30 August.
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