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Latest ESBNET News @ : 23/07/2021 14:20:45
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Friday 23rd July 2021 14:20
Farewell & Thanks
Farewell to Brian O’Mahony, retiring from ESB today, Fri 23 July / Donal Phelan
After more than 40 years of dedicated service to ESB, Brian O’Mahony will be finishing another chapter as he departs from ESB. Brian’s last working day will be today, Friday July 23rd.
Brian joined ESB Civil Works Department after graduating from UCD in 1980 as part of Building Division where he gained his initial experience in the field and at the design desk on a myriad of projects across the company. He remained in Building Division until 1987, being promoted to Team Leader along the way, at which time he was promoted again to Senior Professional Engineer in Development, Planning and Hydraulics Division where he had his first serious exposure to ESB’s hydro business as he conducted stability assessments on the Shannon and Erne dams.
In the late 1980s, ESB started a new venture in the form of ESB International, which showcased the company’s talents on external projects. Brian joined ESBI in 1989 as Consultant Level 1 and was assigned to the Ballinamore-Ballyconnell Canal Project, an initiative kicked off by Charlie Haughey to restore this derelict canal to full working order. During the four years that Brian was involved in this project, it took up most of his time, but he was also kept busy with other customer projects including motorway bridge assessments in Northern Ireland and designs for the Shannon Aerospace project.
Brian continued to work in ESBI through the early 1990s, often involved in other canal-related projects until 1996 when he moved to providing services to the then Chief Civil Engineer, including inspection and monitoring dams and overseeing maintenance works. Then in 1998 Brian became a Senior Consultant, providing maintenance and support expertise to the thermal power stations, before becoming a Team Leader on the Dublin Bay Power construction project.
Brian got a chance to take his skills overseas from 2001 when he worked as the Lead Civil Engineer on ESBI Investments’ CCGT construction projects in Marchwood UK and Amorebieta, Spain. The Amorebieta project included monthly safety audits which were challenging to persuade the contractors to change their ways, and Brian has some very interesting stories about the things he found on those inspections!!
In 2007 Brian was promoted to the position a Chief Civil Engineer, replacing Jack O’Keeffe, a role he fulfilled for 13 years. In that time, under Brian’s stewardship and determination these assets have received substantial investment and renewal. Their excellent condition today is testimony to the effort and focus that Brian has brought to bear on them, and to his close working with our engineering teams to ensure that the company retains and enhances the capability of our engineering specialists working on our hydro assets. This has been particularly visible in the manner by which the External Dam Safety Committee inspections and review have been planned and organised by Brian, to be carried out with full involvement of a wide assembly of our engineering talent.
In addition to minding our assets, Brian spent much of his time in the role of CCE preparing and presenting evidence for the civil legal case which followed the floods in Cork of 2009. Brian’s expert witness evidence was crucial to ESB’s case, and was well received by the judges that heard and reviewed it. Brian has also been representing ESB at other national forums, including the meetings of the OPW’s Lower Lee Flood Defence Scheme, and multiple groups working on the implementation of the Water Framework and Floods Directives, to mention only a few.
Current circumstances don’t allow for the kind of send-off that Brian’s friends and colleagues in ESB would like to have, and hopefully we will be able to pick a date this year to celebrate this more formally, but I’m sure Brian would be glad to hear from his many friends in the business to wish him well on his next chapters.