Seamus Parle is leading the way at Rotary Ireland in his role as District Governor of the international organisation on Irish soil, writes Barry McCall.
The move to semi-retirement in 2023 allowed Wicklow-based Seamus Parle to devote more time to his voluntary work with Rotary Ireland, ultimately taking on the role of District Governor of the all-island organisation in July 2024.
For Parle, the role marks an important milestone in his professional endeavours, allowing him to apply skills learned over the course of a successful career for the betterment of society.
“Rotary is dedicated to serving communities both here and abroad, and through its voluntary work, provides an excellent platform for people to develop socially and professionally,” he explains.
“Rotary members are people with a social conscience who want to put their skills and expertise into the service of the community.
“Whether it’s supporting a health or education project here in Ireland, providing housing for families in Ukraine or funding a water pump project in rural Kenya, Rotary has no shortage of projects for people to become involved in.”
Professional career
Parle’s professional career began in 1975 with Bank of Ireland. “There weren’t many jobs around at the time. When I left the bank four years later, people said I needed my head examined. But I was studying accountancy at the time, and it was difficult to get to classes in Dublin from Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow, where I was working,” he says.
From Bank of Ireland, Parle moved to engineering company TMG Group as an Assistant Accountant.
“It was in Wexford and even further away from my classes,” he recalls, “But I got practical hands-on experience of doing accounts and I then moved to Waterford Iron Foundry.”
His next move saw him take up a role with Ballyfree Farms in Wicklow. “I qualified as a Management Accountant (CIMA) while I was there. The company was taken over a number of times, most recently by Kerry Group. If I wanted to progress my career, I had to be prepared to move to Tralee or even further afield. Our first child was on the way and that wasn’t for me.”
This led to Parle’s move into practice. “I went to work for my friend Cathal Cooney at his practice. The plan was to stay for a year while looking for another role in industry. I was still there 33 years later—I never escaped,” he jokes.
“After industry, I found the diversity of practice work very enjoyable. You are involved in totally different assignments from one day to the next. In industry, it’s pretty much the same every day.
“After a few years, I realised I wouldn’t be able to sign audit reports as a Management Accountant, so I did the CPA exams to become a Certified Public Accountant. In 2023, we merged with a larger firm which allowed me to retire from the practice.”
Parle’s involvement with Rotary dates back to his taking over from Cathal Cooney as Managing Partner of Cooney Parle & Co. Accountants (now GBW Cooney Parle & Co. Accountants) in 2012.
“Cathal had always looked after business development while I stayed in the office. I had to step into his role and decided to do some networking, so I joined Rotary,” he explains.
Parle became Wicklow Club President in 2014 and Assistant Governor with responsibility for eight clubs in 2016.
“I became District Treasurer with responsibility for finance for Ireland in 2018 and, on 1 July 2024, became District Governor for the Rotary organisation on the island of Ireland for a one-year term.”
Rotary history and development
Rotary Ireland has 1,450 members while the international organisation has 1.2 million members at 35,000 clubs in over 200 countries worldwide.
“Rotary was founded in 1905 as a business networking group by four people in Chicago,” Parle explains.
“They decided that if each of them recommended each other to their contacts, all the businesses would grow as a result. If you want to recommend someone, you need to know that they will do a good job, so you need to know them quite well.
“They met weekly in each other’s offices on a rotational basis, hence the name. The businesses prospered and after a few years, they decided to give back a proportion of those gains to the community.”
The first beneficiary was the community in a town outside Chicago. The nearest doctor’s horse had died, depriving the town of access to the doctor. The Chicago Rotary Club solved the problem by buying a new horse for the doctor.
The second project was the construction of a new public convenience in the city of Chicago. “Such facilities were quite novel at the time,” Parle says.
The Irish connection goes back a long way. “The first Rotary Club outside North America was in Dublin. The ‘Dublin Number 1’ club was founded in 1911 and is still meeting today. That’s the origin story.”
Rotary was founded for business and social networking and to provide an opportunity for people to perform community service and for their own self development in areas like project management, teamwork and leadership, Parle explains.
“Involvement teaches members about work and life and gives them a different perspective on things. Members also have access to all 35,000 clubs around the world. I was in Brazil recently and had the privilege of visiting the Rotary Club of Copacabana.”
Rotary club members are drawn from all walks of life, and each brings something to the table. Accountants can be particularly valuable, Parle points out.
“Every club needs a Treasurer. In Rotary, you are dealing with other people’s money, whether that’s the members’ money or money raised through charity fundraising. Accountants have high ethical standards, are skilled at making the most effective use of scarce resources and are seen as a safe pair of hands.”
Irish Rotary Club projects
Irish Rotary Clubs have been involved in a range of projects in recent years. These include the annual Trees of Remembrance, a Christmas initiative hosted in many shopping centres around the country.
“Just over half the clubs in Ireland are involved in that. People can write a note to remember a loved one who has passed on or is ill and can make a donation which usually goes to an end-of-life charity,” Parle explains.
Another initiative has seen Rotary Clubs tackle waste at the same time as providing bicycles to schoolchildren in Africa.
“A number of years ago, we got €250,000 from the Government’s anti-dumping initiative. We used that to put containers in recycling centres to allow people to dump unwanted bikes,” Parle says.
“We bring them to Loughan House and Shelton Abbey open prisons for refurbishment where the prisoners acquire skills in bike maintenance. The bicycles are shipped to Gambia where students might live a two- or three-hour walk from their school. Having a bicycle leads to better educational outcomes for them.”
Other projects involve road safety advisory sessions for transition year students in Ireland and the provision of microcredits to people starting businesses in the developing world.
Parle also mentions a former winner of Rotary’s Youth Leadership Development Competition—Rotary honorary life member, former Taoiseach and current Tánaiste Simon Harris.
“Simon learned a lot through his involvement in Rotary and it shows the benefits of becoming involved at a young age regardless of whichever party you support or are a member of,” he says.
New members are always welcome. “New members from different backgrounds, with different perspectives, all are welcome, and we would really like to see more young people, particularly women, joining,” Parle says.
“In Ireland, we have clubs throughout the country. People interested in joining can contact their Rotary Club through Rotary.ie. We have people waiting to respond to membership enquiries. They are all volunteers, we have no paid staff, no offices and no admin costs as such.
“Through Rotary, I’ve learned so much and met so many wonderful people from all over the island of Ireland and beyond. Quite simply, joining Rotary was the best decision I made this century.”
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