John Moriarty

I spent a year in the engineering branch of the Post Office after graduating from UCD in 1956. I had expected hands-on electronic work, but found instead that the job was largely administrative. Then I heard through the university’s department of electrical engineering that an American company was setting up here and looking for an engineer.

I joined IBM Ireland Limited in June 1957, following an aptitude test and at least one interview with the manager Raymond Girault – a rather formal old-style Frenchman. The company occupied the ground floor of 24 Fitzwilliam Place and had six staff, including secretary Margaret Fitzgerald and salesman Derek Overend. John O’Sullivan and John Hughes were both trainee salesmen then, although neither remained in IBM for long. I was recruited to set up a customer engineering service.

IBM engaged a photographic studio to record its kick-off meeting – an annual pep talk – in January 1960 at its Dublin offices in 24 Fitzwilliam Place.
Pictured from left to right are engineer John Moriarty, secretary Elizabeth McDowell, salesman Derek Overend and general manager Raymond Girault.
(Photograph by Dick Deegan courtesy of John Moriarty)

At the beginning of July that year I went to IBM United Kingdom for training and field experience. IBM, of necessity, had extensive internal training resources as computers did not generally become an academic subject until the 1960s. This UK secondment continued, with short visits back to Dublin office, until late 1958. During this time a second trainee customer engineer, Harold O’Hare, was appointed.

By then the Irish company had made its first sale – a punched card accounting system was on order for Gateaux in Finglas. Derek was following up several other prospects. It is difficult, however, to date the events of the 1959 to 1962 period accurately.

The ESB was the focus of considerable sales effort. They already used ICT products, but installed IBM punched card equipment alongside their existing hardware, pending the installation of an IBM 650 computer in 1960. This was IBM Ireland’s first computer installation. While the computer did the processing, the ESB continued to store files on punched cards until the reliability of magnetic tape was deemed acceptable!

The 650 itself used a magnetic drum for storage of both program and active data. Program performance could be optimised by calculating the execution time of each instruction and how much the drum would rotate during this period at its constant speed. IBM programmer Noel Peare, who worked on the ESB computer, was thus capable of positioning each instruction on the drum’s surface in a way that minimised the rotational delay.

Other installations or prospective installations at that time included Goulding Fertilisers, Irish Life, the universities and the Post Office Savings Bank, which used unit record equipment in the early 1960s.

Vivian Killeen and Neville Harris with the IBM 1620 at TCD.

To meet this growing workload, and in anticipation of future sales, IBM rented another floor in 24 Fitzwilliam Place and began to expand the staff. Noel Peare, a Dubliner with extensive machine experience, transferred from IBM United Kingdom to IBM Ireland. An accountant, David Bowles, was appointed to deal with the company’s finances. These were previously handled on a consultant basis by Amory Packenham-Walsh, a former accountant in Guinness, who subsequently joined the Business Studies Department of Trinity. A second secretary, Elizabeth McDowell, joined to assist with the growing work of preparing proposals.

It was also decided to set up a service bureau to undertake processing for customers without equipment of their own. It was also used for demonstration purposes. In what was a fine tribute to the structural quality of the Georgian building, the bureau’s very heavy equipment was installed in the ground floor room which Derek and I had earlier shared as an office. Tony Furlong, who started working at the bureau in 1960, went on to become IBM Ireland’s managing director from 1984 to 1991.

Professor Neil Porter and Phil Leahy (later Moriarty) with the IBM 1620 in UCD.
Both university systems were installed in 1962 and IBM commissioned these photographs.
(Photographs courtesy of John Moriarty)

In addition to data processing equipment, which was its main product area, the IBM Corporation also made electric typewriters. These had been sold in Ireland for many years by an agent, JA Miller & Son of Crow Street. Millers relinquished the agency in late 1958, so IBM Ireland had to take over both the sale and maintenance of this product line. This meant the appointment of typewriter sales staff, and in my case, the recruitment of typewriter maintenance personnel. Indeed, the sudden responsibility for typewriter support gave rise to some bizarre incidents! David Bowles, the accountant, once had to deal with a maintenance call equipped only with the toolkit from his Volkswagen Beetle. On another occasion I needed to bring a machine from Abbey Street to the office for a more complex repair, but was without a car and unable to find a taxi. I had to take a horse drawn cab from outside Amiens Street station.

Another incident from the very early days was the news that Thomas Watson, head of the IBM Corporation – and son of Thomas Watson, the legendary founder of IBM – was due to visit Dublin imminently. In the ensuing panic, I was commissioned to get his late father’s photograph framed and suitably mounted and “Think” signs were displayed on desks! In the event, he never visited the office. He had come to escort his mother who was visiting Europe and only passed through Dublin on the way to the south. However, the Irish company rose to the occasion as Derek, whose relatives owned Garnish Island, was able to arrange a special visit which was much appreciated.

In 1961, when IBM had grown to occupy most of No 24 Fitzwilliam Place, it acquired No 28 on the opposite side of the street at the corner with Leeson Street. After the new building had been extensively refurbished, almost everyone moved across, although some space was retained in No 24.

It is difficult to put the overall IT situation in Ireland at that time in perspective, especially when viewed from a vendor’s standpoint. The company then known as ICT was the dominant player. Its predecessors Hollerith and the British Tabulating Machine Company had sold punched card equipment, originally based on IBM patents, for many years. The British Tabulating Machine Company also installed the first computer in the state at the Irish Sugar Company in late 1957, more than two years before the arrival of the ESB’s IBM 650.

Competition between IBM and ICT was considerable and in some ways mirrored the Cold War which was at its height on the world scene. I recall enjoying a very pleasant, but chance, lunch with Gordon Clarke of ICT and feeling very daring at the time!

In anticipation of the impending installation of the ESB equipment, IBM Ireland appointed Ehud Rubenstein of IBM Israel, an engineer with extensive large system experience, on assignment. He took over the hardware engineering function that the company described as “customer engineering”. I transferred to “systems engineering”. In effect, I switched from from hardware to software, although these two terms were not yet in general use.

Systems engineers and computer salesmen usually worked in teams that reported to a DP manager. When I left IBM Ireland in 1968, this manager was Bernard Prendiville. At the start of the 1950s he had obtained a masters degree from the University of Manchester in a class that was run by Alan Turing.

From the early 1960s to the middle of the decade I worked on the initial ESB installation, the three universities that installed IBM 1620 machines, the Aer Lingus project and several others. Supporting the universities was a major aspect of my work. In addition to technical supervision of their computer installations, I acted as a guest lecturer on a UCD evening course for practicing engineers in early 1962 – this is believed to be UCD’s first public computer course – and on TCD’s original MSc course in computer applications, starting in 1962/63.

The Aer Lingus project commenced in 1961 and culminated in an order in 1967 for a System/360-based online reservations system. It was the biggest project in IBM Ireland at that time. A team, which varied in size over the life of the project, collaborated with a group in the United States on the development of a communications based real-time system. The Irish group was lead by Dr Paddy Doyle and Fred Kennedy, who were account manager and program manager respectively. They were sometimes referred to as the AM and the PM. It included, among others, Brendan Byrne, Joe Cunningham, Bob O’Connell, K Padmanabhan, Gerry McAuliff, Mary McCarthy, and myself. The US team which was based in Kingston, NY, was headed by Bob Hunter.

This project was originally modelled on the IBM Sabre system in American Airlines, but on a smaller scale. It went through a difficult period when plans to base the system on an IBM 7010 computer with a 7740 communications controller were cancelled. The project was reactivated after the announcement of the 360. While the development of a real-time system progressed, the airline installed an interim application using an IBM 1440 in 1964.

This application was of interest in two respects. Firstly, it used a newly developed type of removable disk pack. Secondly, it involved IBM Ireland’s first data transmission link.

The booking data was collected and encoded in punched cards at the Aer Lingus reservations office in O’Connell Street, whereas the 1440 itself was located at the airport in an annex to Corballis House. This housed the office of G.H.H. Giltrap, the airline’s general services manager, who later became the secretary of TCD. A pair of IBM 066/7 data transceivers bridged the gap. One read punched cards in O’Connell Street and the other punched duplicates at the airport! A number of similar links were added to other locations.

Data communication on the Irish national network was in its infancy then. Leased lines for non-voice material were based on the telegraph system and I recall that they normally supported only 50 bits per second! The agent terminals considered for the original Sabre-based reservations system were intended to operate at a comparatively rapid 75 bits per second. Those terminals were never actually installed.

CIE, which was planning the installation of a System/360, became my major account during late 1966 and 1967. The system was to use the new IBM2316 disc packs, a scaled up version of the earlier IBM1316s. Because none of these were installed here, program testing had to be done initially in Germany and then in London. This entailed the transporting, by CIE programmers, of large boxes of punched cards back and forth. Being part of the international railway community, they had to travel by sea and rail, while I had the luxury of being able to fly there and avoid overnight stays. The System/360 was installed in late 1967 in a new computer building in Oriel Street and an OS/360 Sysgen – seen as a major challenge at the time being the first in Ireland – carried out successfully.

A major part of IBM’s work was the training of customer personnel. Courses for Aer Lingus and CIE staff accounted for much of this activity. Subsequently, these two companies proved to be major sources of trained staff for other emerging installations.

Minister for Education Brian Lenihan (seated) at the official opening of the TCD Computer Laboratory on 9th January 1969. John Moriarty, staff member Rosemary Murphy and Professor William Wright are standing beside the minister.
Also featured in this photograph are TCD architect Ian Roberts (behind John Moriarty), Professor John Byrne (behind minister), Cramptons engineer Brian Bond (back row, second from right) and TCD Provost, Dr AJ McConnell (back row, right).
(Photo source: “Terrapin of Ireland News” June 1969)

The IBM Family Dinner – a event at which the company hosted staff and their partners – was a company institution. I recall attending one or two of these at the Intercontinental in Ballsbridge and one in the old Royal Hibernian on Dawson Street. They were pleasant if rather formal occasions at which the IBM code of “no alcohol” strictly applied although some guests appeared to find the standard IBM fruit cup quite stimulating!

As a result of my growing involvement with the universities, I eventually left IBM and joined Trinity in March 1968 as a lecturer in systems engineering but was immediately charged with setting up the “Computer Laboratory” – a new central service department to run the IBM System/360 Model 44 which was due for delivery later that year. This became my main job with the title of director although I continued to do some teaching for several years to come.

Recruitment of programming and operations staff and the organising of accommodation for the new department’s staff and equipment continued through the spring and summer of 1968 so that everything was ready for the arrival of the machine before the year-end.

A prefabricated “Terrapin” building was constructed in the Fellows Garden between the old library and Nassau Street. Part of the standard Terrapin was modified with the installation of air-conditioning, a raised floor to accommodate cabling, and an automatic fire protection system. In addition to the Computer Laboratory this building also provided staff accommodation for the departments of computer science and statistics and a second Terrapin was located nearby for use as a lecture theatre by these departments. The accommodation was ready and the core staff appointed when the machine was delivered in November 1968 and the Laboratory was officially opened by the then Minister for Education, Brian Lenihan, senior, on 9th January 1969.

Contact was established with other organisations with similar interests and problems. The Laboratory became an active member of the Share European Association (SEAS), an association of scientific users of IBM systems, and I attended their meetings in Schevingen and Grenoble in 1968 and 1969. Trinity also participated in the “Forty Forum”, a group of UK universities which also used 360 Model 44 machines and met in Glasgow and Trinity during 1969.

Dealing with IBM as a customer was straightforward enough for me. My experience there had given me a good feel for how to interact most efficiently with the company.

Last edit: November 2016

© John Moriarty 2016