Frederick Henry Boland (11 January 1904 – 4 December 1985) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

diplomat who served as the first Irish Ambassador to both the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

Family and education

Frederick Boland was born on 11 January 1904 at 32 Eden Vale Road, Ranelagh, the second son of Henry Patrick ("H.P.") Boland (1876-1956), a civil servant in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs (retiring as Senior Assistant Secretary to the Minister for Finance), and his wife Charlotte Nolan Taylor. H.P. Boland was son of the workhouse master at Clonmel. Boland was educated at

Clongowes Wood College Clongowes Wood College SJ is a voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814, which features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel '' A Portrait of the Artist as ...

St Olave's Grammar School St. Olave's Grammar School (formally St. Olave's and St. Saviour's Church of England Grammar School) ( or ) is a selective secondary school for boys in Orpington, Greater London, England. Founded by royal charter in 1571, the school occupied sev ...

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

and

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns ( ir, Cumann Onórach Óstaí an Rí) is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environment ...

, Dublin, where he received his BA and LLB degrees. He also did a degree in Classics at Trinity. He did graduate work at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, and the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...

in 1926 to 1928 as a Rockefeller Research Fellow. He received an Honorary

LLD Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...

degree from the

University of Dublin The University of Dublin ( ga, Ollscoil Átha Cliath), corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a university located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dub ...

. He married the painter

Frances Kelly Frances Josephine Kelly ( – 2002; usually known as Judy Boland), was an Irish painter. She is known for being the wife of Frederick Boland, an Irish diplomat who served as the United Nations representative for Ireland. By the age of tw ...

on in the Church of St Michael, Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland. They had a son, Fergal and four daughters; Jane, Nessa, Mella, and the poet

Eavan Boland Eavan Aisling Boland (24 September 1944 – 27 April 2020) was an Irish poet, author, and professor. She was a professor at Stanford University, where she had taught from 1996. Her work deals with the Irish national identity, and the role of w ...

Career

Boland was Assistant Secretary of the

Department of External Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

from 1939 to 1946, prior to becoming the Secretary, which position he held until 1950. In that role he led negotiations in 1949 that changed Ireland's status from a Dominion within the Commonwealth to a Republic outside it. He was privately critical of the manner in which the

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the of ...

John A. Costello John Aloysius Costello (20 June 1891 – 5 January 1976) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 1948 to 1951 and from 1954 to 1957, Leader of the Opposition from 1951 to 1954 and from 1957 to 1959, and Attorney General ...

, handled the matter, saying that "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's The Court of St James's is the royal court for the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. All ambassadors to the United Kingdom are formally received by the court. All ambassadors from the United Kingdom are formally accredited from the court – ...

in London from 1950 to 1956, a move generally attributed to his inability to work harmoniously with

Seán MacBride Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was an Irish Clann na Poblachta politician who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 19 ...

( Minister for External Affairs 1948–51). In 1956, he became Ireland's Ambassador to the United Nations. Boland was the president of the

General Assembly of the United Nations The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

on 12 October 1960, when

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

allegedly took off his shoe and pounded it on his desk. Boland served as the 21st Chancellor of

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

between 1963 and 1982. He was made an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 1983.

References

External links

UN bio of BolandOn Irish UN stamp 2005Transcript of election to Presidency of General Assembly 1960
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boland, Frederick Henry 1904 births 1985 deaths Chancellors of the University of Dublin Harvard University alumni University of Chicago alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Diplomats from Dublin (city) Honorary Fellows of Trinity College Dublin Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly Permanent Representatives of Ireland to the United Nations People educated at Clongowes Wood College Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Ambassadors of Ireland to the United Kingdom Alumni of King's Inns