Chevalier Joe Tiernan GCHS
President, Construction Industry Federation 1998-2000¹

Sections

Introduction

Birth and early life

The Tiernan Clan

Passion for building and construction

Tiernan Homes

The ‘T’ Symbol for Quality

Tiernan foresaw the property bubble and retired before it burst!

CIF, IHBA and Homebond

Social, Charitable and National Interest involvements

Politics

Knighthood

Joe Tiernan’s hobbies and interests

Tiernan’s own family

Introduction
Joe Tiernan’s major claim to an enduring place in history is his enormous contribution to the development of Ireland’s construction industry not only as a Master Builder of houses, commercial, industrial and infrastructural developments, but also as an entrepreneur who gave inspirational leadership to the industry at a critical time in Ireland’s economic and social development. Tiernan made other important contributions to Irish life. A comprehensive record of Tiernan’s career as an entrepreneur, property developer, and master builder is given in the accompanying 70 minutes DVD, made in 2010.² This biographical note records many of the highlights in that DVD and brings some of the information up-to-date as at May 2014.
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Birth and early life
Joe Tiernan was born on 29 June 1945. His place of birth was the family farm at Foxwood, Kilmore, County Roscommon, Ireland, close to the Shannon, Ireland’s longest river and the longest in the British Isles. His parents were Patrick Tiernan (1909-1974) and his wife, Pearlie (née Lenehan) (1923-2013). Tiernan’s paternal grandfather was Patrick Tiernan (1867-1949) and his great-grandfather was John Tiernan (1819-1903).
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The Tiernan Clan
Tiernan is an ancient and honourable Irish surname³, first mentioned in County Cavan from where it spread to Leitrim and Roscommon. Tiernan was the name of a grandson of Turlough Mór O’Connor / O’Conor, King of Connacht (1106–1156) and High King of Ireland (ca. 1120–1156). The Tiernan Clan traces descent from that royal Tiernan.

The motto under the Tiernan Coat of Arms is ‘virtute res parvae crescunt’, which in the English language means ‘small things increase by or through virtue’, and the twin lions on the shield signify majesty and kingship.
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Passion for building and construction
Joe Tiernan’s parents desired for him a career as a member of An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s National Police Force. He, however, had other ideas and from the age of 10 years the seeds were sown for his career in the construction industry, inspired by his fascination with the skills and achievements of the craftsmen who reroofed and refurbished his parental home in 1955! At the age of 17, he commenced working for a building contractor in Roscommon and he moved to Dublin two years later. Joe Tiernan served an indentured apprenticeship that gained for him qualified craftsman membership of the Ancient Guild of Incorporated Brick and Stonelayers’ Trade Union (AGIBSTU)⁴ and he attended lectures at the College of Technology, Bolton Street, which is a constituent College of the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).
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Tiernan Homes
Progress was rapid from being an employee to being an employer, initially as a specialist bricklaying contractor from 1966, in which capacity Tiernan soon employed 14 bricklayers. As a Master Builder, Joe Tiernan excavated the foundations for his first housing development at Rathcoole, County Dublin on 12 July 1968. From that beginning, Joe formally registered Tiernan Homes and between then and 2004 he built thousands of homes, in more than 40 locations, mainly in the Greater Dublin Area. Many of the individual developments each comprised more than 500 homes. Joe Tiernan named one of his housing estates ‘Foxwood’ in memory of the Roscommon townland of his birth; that estate is a development of 125 houses located in Swords, County Dublin.
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The ‘T’ Symbol for Quality
A Master Builder’s reputation depends on quality, service, and value for money, reliable assurances to the customer, and the total package of customer relations. Tiernan takes pride in his work and had the confidence to clearly mark many of his homes with his own symbol of quality.

Tiernan identified many of the dwelling units built by Tiernan Homes with the letter ‘T’ inserted as a brickwork logo in a prominent and highly visible location in the gable of the front elevation or in the leaded light set into the front entrance door.

The letter ‘T’, of course, identifies that the home was built by ‘Tiernan’ and it is also the initial letter of the Gaelic language name for a house or home … ‘Teach’!
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Tiernan foresaw the property bubble and retired before it burst!
In 2004, Tiernan ceased to build houses when he astutely and accurately identified an upcoming property bubble, then generating an over-supply of new homes relative to population needs. This was to be expected from a man who, with over 50 years experience, had become a legend in the industry for his ability to spot opportunities and complete developments to the satisfaction of the planning authorities and of the market. Tiernan’s research showed him that in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Irish construction industry’s annual output of homes far exceeded realistic demand projections. The annual output by 2004 reached approximately 17,000 homes per million of population, a figure more than four times the European average of about 4,000 homes per million population. Tiernan was convinced that such an output, even taking high inward migration into account, would result in a crisis of major proportions in both the construction industry and in the related financial sector.

Tiernan’s view that Ireland’s speculative property bubble was a crisis in the making also for the financial sector was subsequently borne out by the European Commission which confirmed that, during the bubble period from 2002 to 2007, the balance sheets of the Irish banks grew disproportionately large relative to the size of the economy. The European Commission found that greater financial integration within the EU, consequent on the introduction of the euro, allowed the Irish banks to resort to significant levels of short-term borrowing from wholesale money markets abroad at the low interest rates set in accord with the policy of the European Central Bank.⁵

Based mainly on his construction industry and related financial assessments, Tiernan ceased his development activities and retired in 2004. The Irish construction industry continued its expansion and peaked in 2007 with about 20,000 homes per million of population, around five times the European average. Tragically, Tiernan’s worst forebodings were realised and the inevitable collapse of the industry occurred, exacerbated by inadequate statutory regulatory enforcement, including in the financial sector. Professor Patrick Honohan of Trinity College Dublin, who was appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland in September 2009, in a perceptive analysis of the crisis published in May 2009 identified the sharp fall in interest rates following euro membership as one of the triggers for the property bubble, and Honohan also identified market, regulatory and public policy failures.⁶

The sharp fall in interest rates from the high of 14% twenty one years ago in 1993 to the low of 3.5% in 2004, meant that any given income could support the servicing of much bigger mortgages. Many banks lent by reference to the size of the monthly repayment, based on the low interest rate, rather than by reference to prudential loan/income ratios. The availability of higher loans to the average borrower contributed to house prices increasing by a multiple of four times between 1996 and 2007; the subsequent financial crisis reduced house prices to around 50% of the 2007 peak levels, thus leaving many who bought in the later years of the ‘bubble’ with negative equity.

The role of the euro in terms of low interest rates and enhanced money supply to the Irish banking system is also confirmed in a Policy Research Working Paper published by the World Bank in July 2012.⁷

Many of Tiernan’s competitors, who remained active in the industry until the inevitable collapse engulfed them, experienced financial ruin.
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CIF, IHBA and Homebond
Tiernan was thorough and consistent in his commitment to the development of the construction industry as well as to his own business. By 1987, he was the elected Chairman of the Irish Home Builders Association (IHBA)⁸, within the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).

HomeBond is the leading provider of structural defect cover for new homes in Ireland, and between its’ founding in 1978 to the end of 2013, more than 600,000 homes have been registered with HomeBond.⁹ Joe Tiernan was Chairman of HomeBond for 17 years, from 1987 to 2004, and in that capacity he made an enormous contribution to the promotion and development of this important warranty scheme for new home purchasers. He is Life President of the HomeBond Warranty Scheme.

HomeBond is a member of the International Housing and Home Warranty Association (IHHWA)¹⁰, which aims to promote the benefits of construction guarantees and warranties at an international level. Tiernan Chaired that assembly of representatives of 23 nations when the Fifth International Housing and Home Warranty Conference was held in Dublin in 1990.

Tiernan went on to lead the Irish construction industry as President of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) for the three years 1998-2000, a fitting recognition for a Master Builder who founded what, at one stage, was the largest independent house building company in Ireland. He also represented Ireland at international construction industry conferences on all five continents over a period of twenty years.
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Social, Charitable and National Interest involvements
Joe Tiernan has long been conscious of his social commitments on a wider community basis that being a good employer, giving fair value to his customers, and complying with the laws and regulations that apply to the construction industry. On a point of honour, Tiernan was renowned for always paying his banks, suppliers and specialist subcontractors, as well as his employees, on time and in full. He has served as a non-executive director of Stewarts Hospital, Palmerstown, County Dublin, for more than thirty years, having been first appointed in 1979. Stewarts Hospital was established in 1869 as an institution to provide for the education, training, and maintenance of children with special needs.¹¹ Tiernan has also served as Chairman of the Stewarts Sports Centre that is associated with the Hospital. Even before the long-term involvement in Stewarts Hospital, Tiernan had been appointed in 1970 to an honorary position at the St. John of God Centre, Islandbridge in Dublin, which provides a range of services for mentally handicapped children.

Tiernan has long been a supporter of the St Vincent de Paul Society and of other charitable organisations.

In terms of environmental awareness and responsibility, Tiernan has been a member of An Taisce, The National Trust for Ireland, and he was elected a member of the National Council of that organisation.¹²

Joe Tiernan was a member of the Board of Trustees that organised the construction of the Island of Ireland Peace Park at Messines, Flanders, Belgium, to commemorate the 49,400 persons from the Island of Ireland (North and South) who were killed in the First World War. A total of about 300,000 from the Island of Ireland served in the British Army in WWI, mainly in the 10^th (Irish) Division, 16^th (Irish) Division) and 36^th (Ulster) Division. The monument was officially unveiled by President of Ireland Mary McAleese on 11^th November 1998, in the presence of H M Queen Elizabeth II and King Albert II of Belgium.¹³
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Politics
As a long-time supporter and activist in Fine Gael, Tiernan is a somewhat unusual Master Builder considering that political allegiances within the construction industry are perceived as the preserve of another Party! That said, Tiernan was so deeply involved in Fine Gael by 1974 that he was selected at the Party Convention to stand as a candidate for the then Dublin County Council. He founded the Castleknock Branch (County Dublin) of Fine Gael in 1979 and he was subsequently selected to contest the Dáil Éireann Dublin West By-Election in 1982. He withdrew his candidature for political office, however, to concentrate on his career as a Master Builder. It is notable that Tiernan’s Party, Fine Gael, won the 1982 Dublin West By-Election!

Tiernan was an elected Officer at every organisational level in the Fine Gael Party; and he was centrally involved in the reorganisation of the Party as a member of the National Executive 1978-1982.

Tiernan was appointed a Peace Commissioner by the Minister for Justice and Equality in 1977.¹⁴
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Knighthood
Joe Tiernan was invested a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (KHS)¹⁵ in 2009, having been invited to join the Order in 2008 in recognition of his contribution to the work of the Catholic Church and of his wider societal contributions. He is the first native of County Roscommon on record to be so honoured. Tiernan is a member of the Irish Lieutenancy of the Order¹⁶ and he was advanced to the rank of Knight Commander (KCHS) in 2012.

Tiernan lives for part of each year in Marbella, Costa Del Sol, Spain, where he is President of the English-speaking Roman Catholic International Community of Marbella. That community comprises persons of more than twenty nationalities.
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Joe Tiernan’s hobbies and interests
Tiernan has a great interest in horse racing …he attended his first Irish Derby in 1964! He is also a devotee of show jumping, and, as a member of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS), he frequently attended the Annual RDS Horse Show from the 1960s.

He is passionate about preservation and conservation, and can justifiably claim to be an antiquarian. One specific interest is in the preservation and conservation of the Church of Ireland in his native Kilmore, and in the local history of Kilmore.

Joe Tiernan has a great interest in Ireland’s inland waterways, an interest that is facilitated by living during the summer months in his Annavale Manor on the River Shannon’s Lough Boderg. He has revived the North Shannon Yacht Club, which was founded in 1896.¹⁷

Tiernan and his late wife, Mary, were both founder members of Luttrellstown Castle Golf and Country Club, County Dublin, and they played golf in more than thirty countries, spread over five continents! He is equally a follower of Irish soccer at international level and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Roscommon GAA at both minor and senior levels.
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Tiernan’s own family
Joe Tiernan and his late wife, Mary (née Meighan) who died in October 2013, have three daughters. Each daughter, after graduation, travelled the world for a period of over one year.

Michelle is a Procurement Manager in Aer Lingus.

Marika obtained a Degree in Psychology at London City University and served in a professional capacity as a Captain in the British Army. She subsequently obtained a Master’s Degree in Property Valuation and Law at London City University. Marika married Reuben Vose, a Chartered Surveyor, on a beach in Antigua. She is now based in Dublin, where she established her own property company, MR Real Estate. Marika was previously in charge of the Valuation Department in Abu Dhabi with CBRE, the world’s largest firm of Chartered Surveyors, and her responsibilities covered Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates.

Sharon attended University in France and Oxford and studied Real Estate Management. She is a Chartered Surveyor and is Property Manager, Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) for Bentley Systems International Limited based in their EMEA HQ in Dublin. She is married to Darren Lui, an orthopaedic consultant surgeon, and they have a daughter, Ruby Lui.

May 2014

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