I suppose that my decision not to become General Secretary of Fianna Fáil and, by implication, to continue working as a European Commission official, was in effect confirmation of a realisation that Anne’s and my choice of living and working environment had become a European choice.

In the course of 1981, when it became clear to me that I would in any case have to “rotate” back to Brussels in a year or two, I  began to consider how I might find an interesting post for myself there, rather than just letting the Commission’s administration find me a job. In other ways too, things seemed to be falling into a pattern which would make an open-ended departure for Brussels relatively easy to manage.

The completion of the rebuilding of the Monkstown mews gave us a range of options both for retaining a pied-à-terre in Dublin and for offering Florence, who was a healthy eighty year old, comfortable and acceptable accommodation.

Work on the thesis necessary to complete my M.Econ.Sc. degree was coming on nicely and I enjoyed a busy winter and summer of canoeing – a sport I had taken up as good for my damaged shoulder. But, I realised that Ireland’s attractive out-of-doors would never be enough to keep me on the island. My regular missions to Brussels and to Commission publications editorial meetings in Member State capitals seemed to reinforce the career wisdom of a return to the Berlaymont. The fact that Justin seemed to have settled well into Bootham, and that Patricia was still of an age when she might easily make the transition into one of the Brussels European Schools, was also positive.

On one of my missions to Brussels I learnt that Joe Carroll, who in 1972 had been recruited from his post as European Correspondent of the Irish Press to become the first Irish person to serve as a member of the Commission’s Spokesman’s Group, was planning to leave the Commission to return to journalism in Ireland. Having confirmed with him that this was in fact the case, I spoke with Manuel Santarelli, the Head of the Spokesman’s Group, who I had come to know over the years, and asked him if I might be a candidate to succeed to the Carroll post.

The proposal was accepted and the mechanism by which it came about was when Michael O’Kennedy, the former Fianna Fáil Minister who had succeeded Dick Burke as a member of the Commission in January, telephoned me to ask if I was prepared to take up the post. At that time it was traditional that the Spokesman’s Service should be made up of members matching the nationalities of each of the Commissioners, covering as Commission Spokesmen the same range of areas of special responsibility as the Commissioners themselves.

The formal appointment took place around November and Anne’s and my plan was to move house early in 1982. During the transition period I would be a Brussels/Dublin commuter using, in Brussels, the visitor accommodation at Quaker House, then in Avenue de la Brabançon, walking distance from the Berlaymont.

An attraction to me of my new appointment was that I would have to work my French up to a good level as, at that time, Commission Press Room briefings were exclusively in French. My specific dossier duties were unlikely to be too heavy because Commissioner O’Kennedy’s special responsibilities were for the Commission’s administration and, in partnership with the President, for the overall policy reform mandate which required the Commission to review its financial framework and, particularly, expenditure on the common agricultural policy.

In retrospect, I realise that the pattern of career and lifestyle change we chose in 1981 was, for better or for worse, the most significant Anne and I had made up to then, both for ourselves, for Justin and Patricia, and for our wider family and social relationships. I recognise that this pattern of significant change was mirrored by deep changes within me, shaping my adult personality, and marking important shifts of interest. The possibility that I might become a public person had been closed off. As a private person, my intellectual focus would shift from a constant search for economic, social and political ideas which might help to make a better world, towards the examination and explanation of the insights and values intellectuals and artists bring to an understanding of the world.

This shift brought about a clear distinction between my professional working life and my personal interest in ideas and culture and suggested topics that might even make a book.

Read more: 1982 – Brussels Becomes Home