Frederick Boland

Who was Frederick Boland?

Frederick Henry Boland was an Irish diplomat, who served as ambassador to Britain and the first Irish Ambassador to the United Nations.

Boland was born in Dublin on 16 January 1904. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, St Olave's Grammar School, Trinity College, and King's Inns, Dublin, where he received his B.A. and LL.B. degrees. He also did a degree in Classics at Trinity. He did graduate work at Harvard, University of Chicago, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1926–28 as a Rockefeller Research Fellow. He received an Honorary LLD degree from the University of Dublin.

He was Assistant Secretary of the Department of External Affairs from 1939–1946, before becoming the Secretary, a post he held until 1950. In this role he led negotiations in 1949 which changed Ireland's status from membership of the Commonwealth to that of a Republic. He was privately critical of the manner in which the Taoiseach, John A. Costello, handled the matter, saying " he has as much notion of diplomacy as I have of astrology."

He served as the first Irish Ambassador to the Court of St James in London from 1950 to 1956, a move generally attributed to his inability to work harmoniously with Sean MacBride, Minister for External Affairs 19487ndash;51. In 1956 he became Ireland's Ambassador to the United Nations. Boland was married to the painter the late Frances Kelly. Their daughter Eavan Boland is a leading Irish poet.