Bob McDonagh (23 March 1924 – 3 May 2015) was an Irish diplomat, two of whose sons, Philip McDonagh and Bobby McDonagh, also served in the Irish diplomatic service.

Early life

McDonagh was born in

Tralee Tralee ( ; , ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the River Lee') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in ...

, but grew up in

Sandycove Sandycove () is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is southeast of Dún Laoghaire and Glasthule, and northwest of Dalkey. It is a popular seaside resort and is well known for its bathing place, the Forty Foot, which in the past was reserved for m ...

, County Dubin. He attended the

Presentation Brothers The Congregation of Presentation Brothers (; English: "Brothers of the Presentation of Mary"; abbreviated F.P.M.) is an international Catholic congregation of laymen founded in 1802 in Waterford, Ireland, by a local Irish businessman, Edmund Ig ...

school in

Glasthule Glasthule ( ; ) is a suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is along County Dublin, County Dublin’s south coast, between Dún Laoghaire, Sandycove, Glenageary and Dalkey. Amenities Sandycove and Glasthule are served by a number ...

and joined the

Irish civil service The Civil service () of the Republic of Ireland is the collective term for the permanent staff of the departments of state and certain state agencies who advise and work for the Government of Ireland. It consists of two broad components, the ' ...

as a clerical officer.

Career

When

Seán MacBride Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was an Irish Republican activist, politician, and diplomat who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff o ...

became head of the Department of External Affairs in 1948, he expanded the department and McDonagh entered as Third Secretary. An Anglo-Irish Division of the

Department of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral re ...

was set up for the first time in early 1972 and McDonagh became its head. As such, he was involved closely in talks that eventually led to the

Sunningdale Agreement The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed by the British and Irish government in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1 ...

of 1973. He became Ambassador to the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...

in 1973. In 1977 he became Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs but it was not a role that suited him. The following year he was replaced as Secretary and was appointed Ambassador to Italy. In 1983 he was appointed as Ireland's

Permanent representative to the United Nations A permanent representative to the United Nations (sometimes called a "UN ambassador")"History of Ambassadors", United States Mission to the United Nations, March 2011, webpagUSUN-a. is the head of a country's diplomatic mission to the United Natio ...

in New York and served in that post until his retirement in 1989. McDonagh amassed a library of over 1,000 diplomatic biographies in several languages which his family donated to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs after his death.

References

1924 births 2015 deaths Alumni of University College Dublin People from Tralee People from Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Ambassadors of Ireland to Germany Ambassadors of Ireland to Italy Permanent representatives of Ireland to the United Nations {{Ireland-diplomat-stub