Philip McDonagh (born 1952) is a poet and former Irish diplomat. His father,

Bob McDonagh 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, but grew up in Sandycove, County ...

, and brother,

Bobby McDonagh Bobby McDonagh (born 29 June 1954) is a former Irish diplomat. Biography He was educated in Gonzaga College, Dublin and graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, Balliol College, Oxford with a Master of Arts (MA) (Greats/Classics). He was elect ...

, also served as diplomats.

Early life

McDonagh graduated in Classics from

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

, Oxford, where in 1972 he was elected

President of the Oxford Union Past elected presidents of the Oxford Union are listed below, with their college and the year/term in which they served. ''Iterum'' indicates that a person was serving a second term as president (which is not possible under the current Union rule ...

. In a harbinger of his future diplomatic career, during his presidency of the Union, in November 1972, he invited the Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach

Jack Lynch John Mary Lynch (15 August 1917 – 20 October 1999) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1966 to 1973 and 1977 to 1979. He was Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1966 to 1979, Leader of the Opposition from 1973 to 1977, ...

, to debate at the Union. This was in the period after

Bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday may refer to: Historical events Canada * Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia * Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence agai ...

( January 1972) when talks were taking place between the Irish and British which eventually culminated in 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 ...

. On the day after the debate Lynch had a working dinner with

Ted Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath also served for 51 year ...

, at 10 Downing Street. McDonagh's father was at the time head of the Anglo-Irish division at the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and was among the officials who accompanied Lynch to Britain on that occasion.

Diplomatic career

As Political Counsellor in London McDonagh played a part in the Northern Ireland peace process in the build-up to the

Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

. McDonagh served as Ambassador to India (1999-2004), the Holy See (2004-2007), Finland (2007-2009), Russia (2009-2013) and the OSCE(2013-2017). After retirement from the diplomatic service, he was appointed Senior Fellow at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, at

Maynooth University Maynooth University (MU) (), is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. Maynooth University was formerly known as National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM; ). It was Ireland ...

and, in a parallel appointment, Distinguished Global Fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry,

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. In May 2020 he was appointed Director of the newly-founded Centre for Religion, Human Values and International Relations at Dublin City University. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Economics and Peace (Sydney), the Advisory Council of the Institute for Integrated Transitions (Barcelona) and a member of the Steering Committee of the OSCE Academic Network (Hamburg),

Publications

McDonagh's first poetry collection, ''Carraroe in Saxony'', was published in 2003. The following year an expanded volume was published in India, ''Memories of an Ionian Diplomat''. In 2010 ''The Song the Oriole Sang'' was published. McDonagh published an English language translation in 2016 of the verse drama, ''Gondla'', by

Nikolai Gumilev Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev (also Gumilyov; , ; – August 26, 1921) was a Russian poet, literary critic, traveler, and military officer. He was a co-founder of the Acmeist movement. He was the husband of Anna Akhmatova and the father of Lev ...

. It was staged in several theatres in Ireland that year. In 2017, he published a stage adaptation of

Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influenti ...

's ''

Crime and Punishment ''Crime and Punishment'' is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal '' The Russian Messenger'' in twelve monthly installments during 1866.

''. It toured in Ireland that year and was also staged in England. Hastings Independent, 27 October 2017, accessed 18 October 2018.
/ref> McDonagh was principal author of ''Religion and Security-Building in the OSCE Context'' (2018). With three others he authored ''The Significance of Religion for Global Diplomacy'' (2021).

References

External links

Philip McDonagh's Poetry- audio podcast

Video greetings from former ambassador Philip McDonagh on Russia Day 2020

John Hume, Public Representative: A poem by Philip McDonagh, Irish Times 5 September 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonagh, Philip Living people 1952 births Ambassadors of Ireland to India Irish male poets 21st-century Irish poets Ambassadors of Ireland to Finland Ambassadors of Ireland to Russia Ambassadors of Ireland to the Holy See Permanent representatives of Ireland to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Academics of Maynooth University Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Presidents of the Oxford Union