Personal account, views my own. Born and bred in Dublin, educated at St Paul’s College Raheny and University College Dublin. Interested in history and how we got here.
Eamonn McKee
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eamonncmckee 
Shalom and welcome to Israel from Northern Ireland Friends of Israel – http://www.nifi.org.uk
We wish you good luck and success in your new position – would welcome your reflection about relations between the Republic and Israel – as its often the subject of headlines and blogs in both countries. What can you tell us about what is going on underneath the headlines.
Also I would be grateful for the Irish government’s view on the call by the Teachers Union of Ireland in February 2013 for a boycott of Israeli scientists and academics and for Israeli students to be banned from educational visits to the Republic.
Many thanks
Steven Jaffe
Co chair NIFI
Hi Eamonn, My name is Ronan McGreevy from The Irish Times. Could you call me regarding Mike Flanagan. I’m on 085 7288553. I’ve been asked to do something about him for the newspaper. Regards, Ronan
Ronan,
Believe it or not I’m only reading this now; I discovered a lot of comments waiting for approval! I’m very bad at curating my own site as you can see. Not sure if you ever did anything on Flanagan but if you did I’d be interested in seeing it.
Regards,
Eamonn
Hi Eamon – here is the link to the Globe and Mail review of Mark Bourrie’s new book, Big Men Fear Me, about George McCullagh, who founded the Globe and Mail. Interesting observations about Toronto politics in the mid 20 century, and the heavy Orange influence.
Best,
Joanne
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-mark-bourrie-big-men-fear-me/
Hi Joanne, many thanks for passing that along, will read with interest. Very best, Eamonn
Eamonn,
In your blog post about The Fews, you mention a family connection with Newtownhamilton, and there being a number of McKee families in the town. My great-grandmother was Ellen McKee from Newtowhamilton; she is buried with her husband Arthur Mallie, in St Michael’s Cemetary, as are her father, John McKee (died 1895) and three of her brothers. I have wondered at the connections of the other McKees buried there, which may include your family.
Hi Eamonn,
Glad you made contact. My grandfather was Hugh McKee from Newtownhamilton, and he had two sisters, Ellen and Susan, and a number of brothers. My mother says they married the O’Malley brothers. After partition, Hugh moved to Dublin and had a successful vegetable business. He married (late, in his fifties) Celina and had three children: my father Pat (dead), and my aunt Helen (still going strong) and Celene who died after giving birth in Spain in the early 1960s. Another brother Jimmy was a doctor who also set up a practice in Dublin. Is your father Donal by any chance? Feel free to contact me at eamonn.mckee@dfa.ie.
Thank you for the reply and your email. Donal O’Tierney is my dad, and Arthur Mallie and Ellie McKee were his maternal grandparents. Ellie’s sister Susan married Arthur’s brother Patrick Mallie; they started using the ‘O’Malley’ form of the surname and had a large family. I think Hugh had three more sisters and five brothers.
Great to meet a relative. Hugh was the only one of the brothers to marry I understand. Interesting clarification on the Mallie/O’Malley surname; my mother always uses the latter.
Hello Mr. Ambassador,
I enjoyed reading your website.
We met at this year’s Summer School at Strokestown Park. You may recall that my work “An Gorta Mor Bis/The Great Hunger” was performed by the Athlone Little Theatre Company. In your keynote comments you mentioned the link between the 19th century Potato Famine and the 20th century Easter Rising.
I, too, believe in this link. Consequently, I have decided to attempt to write a narrative poem on the Rising with a working title of “Motley Crew”. I envision a work of about 400 lines composed of 6 to 8 poems. To date, I have drafted about 100 text lines.
Before the Summer School I met with Mr Tom McGuire, the former Head of RTE Radio 1 in Dublin. He retired in September 2020. From October 2020, Tom has given great support to the Famine poem. In our discussion, he also made the link of the two events.
I have agreed that “An Gorta Mor Bis/The Great Hunger” will be performed in the Phoenix area on 16 November 2023. I find it quite appropriate that the Famine story is crossing the Atlantic like the Irish emigrants, such as my great grand parents in 1851.
I enjoyed very much meeting you at the Summer School.
Best of luck with the Canadian winter.
Regards,
Thomas J, Milan (original name Moylan from County Limerick)
P.S.
P.S. At NATO’s Civilian Headquarters in Brussels I held the post of Deputy Financial Controller from 1987 to 2012. With retirement I moved to Paris.