Ó Conaill, Séamus (1913–98), civil servant, was born James Joseph O'Connell on 8 March 1913 at 33 Rock Road, Williamstown, Booterstown, Dublin, the eldest son of Michael O'Connell, conductor for the Dublin Metropolitan Tram Company, and Anne O'Connell (née Smith): throughout his life he was known to his family as Jim. He was educated at Booterstown national school, Blackrock College and UCD. While at UCD, he was auditor of An Cumann Literdha.
On leaving university, he entered the civil service, joining the Department of Finance. He was appointed administrative officer in 1936, assistant principal in 1950, and assistant secretary in 1966. In the late 1960s he was appointed chief establishment officer for the civil service as a whole, primarily concerned with issues of personnel, organisation and internal structures. He had long been interested in this area, contributing a paper on ‘Recruitment and promotion’ to a symposium on efficiency in the civil service which was published in the first edition of the journal Administration (1953). Among his other publications was an article ‘Towards greater efficiency in the Irish Civil Service’ in the International Review of Administrative Sciences (1968). He gave important evidence to the review group on organisation in the public services which produced the Devlin Report (1969) and subsequent reforms.
When the Department of the Public Service was established in 1973, he became its secretary and played a central role in the development of the partnership concept which emerged through the national agreements and national understandings of that decade. He acted as chairman of the civil service general council under the conciliation and arbitration scheme established within the civil service and, after his retirement, chaired the commission on industrial relations, which published a report that underpinned subsequent legislation in this area.
A modest, self-effacing man, for sixty years he was an active member of the St Vincent de Paul Society. In 1956 he served as president of the Blackrock College past pupils’ union and was a participant in its boys’ club in Dún Laoghaire. In 1948 he married Mary, daughter of James and Madge Grace, and they had four sons. He died in May 1998.