Kevin Francis O'Malley (born May 12, 1947) is an American

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

who was the

United States Ambassador to Ireland The United States ambassador to Ireland is the ambassador, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the United States of America to Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is considered a highly prestigious position within the United States F ...

from 2014 to 2017.

Personal life and education

Kevin O'Malley is a second generation

Irish American Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry. Irish immigration to the United States From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...

, with

dual citizenship Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one sovereign state, country under its nationality law, nationality and citizenship law as a national or cit ...

of the United States and Ireland until he returned his Irish citizenship in order to become ambassador. He has Irish ancestry on both sides of his family, and his paternal grandparents came from Westport,

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

. O'Malley is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, and attended St. Vincent's Seminary at second level in

Cape Girardeau, Missouri Cape Girardeau ( , ; colloquially referred to as "Cape") is a city in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, Cape Girardeau and Scott County, Missouri, Scott Counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the ...

, and the novitiate at St. Mary's Seminary in Perryville, Missouri, where he studied for the priesthood. O'Malley received an A.B. in 1970 from

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...

and a J.D. in 1973 from Saint Louis University School of Law. O'Malley has been an active member of the Democratic Party in Missouri, and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough described O'Malley as a "close personal friend" of US President Barack Obama. He was previously an

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

in the

United States Army Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a Military reserve force, reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed ...

. He has two sons – Brendan and Ryan – with his wife, Dena, and two grandsons.

Law and diplomatic career

O'Malley was a Special Attorney of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

from 1974 to 1979 and was an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gov ...

in St. Louis, Missouri from 1979 to 1983. During his tenure as a federal prosecutor, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the Federal government of the United States, federal government. The attorney general acts as the princi ...

. O'Malley served as an adjunct professor of law at Saint Louis University School of Law from 1979 to 1985, where he previously studied, and as an adjunct professor of law at Washington University School of Law in 2013 and 2014. He was a legal instructor for the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

Central and East European Law Initiative (ABA CEELI) in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in 1996 and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 1999. In 1968, he had served as a Community Ambassador in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. In 2009,

Governor of Missouri A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Jay Nixon Jeremiah Wilson "Jay" Nixon (born February 13, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the List of governors of Missouri, 55th governor of Missouri from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...

appointed O'Malley to the Missouri Board of Healing Arts, the state's regulatory and disciplinary body for physicians, becoming its only non-

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

member, and the physicians subsequently elected him as Board President. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), and a nationally recognised author of a

treatise A treatise is a Formality, formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the main principles of the subject and its conclusions."mwod:treatise, Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Acc ...

jury instructions Jury instructions, also known as charges or directions, are a set of legal guidelines given by a judge to a jury in a court of law. They are an important procedural step in a trial by jury, and as such are a cornerstone of criminal process in many ...

that is used in federal jury trials throughout the United States. He has been consistently chosen by the editors of The Best Lawyers in America for his work in

medical negligence Medical malpractice is a legal cause of action that occurs when a medical or health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, deviates from standards in their profession, thereby causing injury or death to a patient. The negligen ...

defence and white collar criminal defences. O'Malley was a trial lawyer in the Litigation Department at Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C. in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was a partner, until resigning in order to become a US Ambassador. In 2013, he received the Award of Honor of The Lawyers Association of St. Louis.

Ambassador to Ireland

On June 5, 2014, O'Malley was nominated by President Obama for the position of US Ambassador of Ireland. Senator

Claire McCaskill Claire Conner McCaskill (; born July 24, 1953) is an American former politician who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Missouri from 2007 to 2019 and as State Auditor of Missouri, state auditor of Missouri from 1999 to ...

, a Democrat from Missouri, immediately threw her support behind O'Malley, as did Senator

Roy Blunt Roy Dean Blunt (born January 10, 1950) is an American politician and lobbyist who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Missouri from 2011 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he pre ...

, a Republican from Missouri.

White House Chief of Staff The White House chief of staff is the head of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, a position in the federal government of the United States. The chief of staff is a Political appointments in the United States, politi ...

Denis McDonough said that O'Malley would bring "a strong knowledge of the role of the religious and cultural underpinnings, and the very important foreign policy and national security undergirdings" of the relationship between the United States and Ireland. The appointment of O'Malley was approved by the Irish Government. On July 15, 2014, O'Malley underwent his first confirmation hearing before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He was unanimously approved by the committee. On September 18, 2014, the US Senate voted on O'Malley's appointment and he was confirmed in a simple vote. O'Malley was then officially appointed by President Obama, and sworn in by Vice President Biden on September 30, 2014. He presented his credentials to Irish President Michael D. Higgins on October 8, 2014, taking up residency nearby in the

Deerfield Residence The Deerfield Residence (formerly the Chief Secretary's Lodge) is the official residence of the United States Ambassador to Ireland in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. The premises has been the Ambassador's Official Residence since 1927, and was ...

in the

Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park () is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since ...

. On November 8, 2016, the day of the US presidential election, he made a speech at the Guinness Storehouse in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

where he said "regardless of who our next president is in January, America's relationship with Ireland will remain strong because of the exceptional ties that already exist between our two countries." O'Malley served until January 20, 2017, the date of the presidential inauguration of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

Creative Minds

The Creative Minds Series is a cross-cultural program launched in 2015 by Ambassador O'Malley and the U.S. Embassy in Dublin. The series invites prominent U.S. artists, writers, filmmakers, digital culture innovators and musicians to share their experiences with young Irish students and audiences. According to Ambassador O'Malley, the mission of the ongoing series is "to find ways to create new collaborations and encourage more creative economic linkages between young people in the United States and Ireland. The economies of the 21st century depend increasingly on creativity to succeed and this series aims to strengthen the creative industry ties between the United States and Ireland." The series was launched on February 13, 2015, with musician Ben Folds and a performance in the ballroom of the U.S. Ambassador's Residence in Phoenix Park. The event was broadcast live on RTE Radio and moderated by Irish radio host Sean Rocks. Amongst the attendees at the inaugural event were Irish President Michael D. Higgins and his wife, Sabina. On April 23, 2015, the annual U.S. Embassy Economic Conference was held on the lawn of the Phoenix Park residence. The event was part of Ambassador O'Malley's Creative Minds series and billed as "The Importance of the Creative Economy in the U.S.-Irish Relationship." The keynote speaker at the event was

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

Enda Kenny Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence (Ireland), Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 201 ...

TD. In November 2015, Creative Minds partnered with Dublin City University's Ryan Academy to present the ''Creative Minds Social Entrepreneurship Hackathon'' aimed at finding solutions to social problems using entrepreneurial and business skills and to strengthen cross-border dialogue. Other prominent guests of the Creative Minds series have included: ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey American Mafia, Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluct ...

'' creator

David Chase David Henry Chase (born August 22, 1945) is an American writer, producer, and director. He is best known for being the creator, head writer, and executive producer of the HBO drama ''The Sopranos'', which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2 ...

; musician Christopher Tin; New York City-based storytelling group

The Moth The Moth is a nonprofit group based in New York City, dedicated to the craft of storytelling. Founded in 1997, the organization presents a wide range of theme-based storytelling events across the United States and abroad, often featuring promine ...

; Pixar's

Pete Docter Peter Hans Docter (born October 9, 1968) is an American filmmaker and animator, who has served as chief creative officer (CCO) of Pixar since 2018. He has directed the company's animated films ''Monsters, Inc.'' (2001), ''Up (2009 film), Up'' ( ...

and Jonas Rivera; songwriter Paul Williams; singer-songwriter

Glen Hansard Glen James Hansard (born 21 April 1970) is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician. Since 1990, he has been the frontman of the Irish rock band The Frames, with whom he has released six studio albums, four of which have charted in the top ten o ...

; singer-songwriter John Prine; co-founder of

Square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

and LaunchCode,

Jim McKelvey James Morgan McKelvey Jr. (born ) is an American billionaire businessman who co-founded Block, Inc. McKelvey was appointed as an independent director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in January 2017. As of July 2023, his net worth was es ...

; singer-songwriter Patty Griffin; rapper and poet

Saul Williams Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor. He is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop, and for his lead roles in the 1998 independent film ''Slam ( ...

; singer-songwriter

Rufus Wainwright Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter, and composer. He has recorded eleven studio albums and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written two classical opera ...

; singer-songwriter Ryan Bingham; restaurateur and ''New York Times'' best-selling author Danny Meyer; Grammy award-winning banjo player and composer Béla Fleck and

Abigail Washburn Abigail Washburn (born November 10, 1977) is an American clawhammer banjo player and singer. She performs and records as a soloist, as well as with the old-time bands Uncle Earl and Sparrow Quartet, experimental group The Wu Force, and as a ...

; general manager and president of Pixar, Jim Morris; Americana musician

Shakey Graves Shakey Graves (born Alejandro Rose-Garcia; June 4, 1987) is an American musician and actor from Austin, Texas. His music combines blues, folk, country, and rock and roll. Rose-Garcia received his stage name at Old Settler's Music Festival in 20 ...

; A cappella group Straight No Chaser; musician Andrew Bird;

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...

CEO and businessman Michael O'Leary; songwriter

Jimmy Webb Jimmy Layne Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He achieved success at an early age, winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the age of 21. During his career, he established himself as one of Am ...

; and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. On November 3, 2015, at an opening session for the

Web Summit Web Summit is an annual technology convention (meeting), conference held in Lisbon, Portugal. Founded in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave, Web Summit was held in Dublin, Ireland until 2016, when it moved to Lisbon. The conference's topics center on intern ...

in Dublin,

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...

journalist Dearbhail McDonald remarked during an interview with Ambassador O'Malley that he had "managed almost single-handedly to turn Deerfield- the US Ambassador's Residence in Ireland in the Phoenix Park- into one of the coolest music venues and one of the coolest arts venues through the Creative Minds Series." On March 15, 2016, at the annual White House St. Patrick's Day party, President Barack Obama said of Ambassador O'Malley and his Creative Minds program: "Although Kevin's only been in Ireland for 18 months, he has crammed in almost eight years of work. One of his legacies will be his Creative Minds initiative, in which he's been busy connecting the next generation of Irish and American leaders." At the Ireland Fund 40th Anniversary Gala in Dublin on June 24, 2016, Vice President Joe Biden said of Ambassador O'Malley, "one of the things I am so proud of our ambassador- Ambassador O'Malley- is he has gone out of his way to reach in every nook and cranny, every organization- big and small- to get to know this country, to get to know what makes it tick, to get to know each of the individuals. It's personal. And I think he's done our country a great, great service and presumptuous of me to say... I think he's been a great value to your country as well." In July 2016, Ambassador O'Malley and the U.S. Embassy Dublin produced a two-part series entitled ''Creative Minds in Medicine''. The first part of the series, ''Wired for Sound'', brought together the cochlear implant teams from the Vanderbilt University Department of Otolaryngology in Nashville, Tennessee and the Irish National Cochlear Implant Program (NCIP) at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Part two of the ''Creative Minds in Medicine'' series was held on World Head and Neck Cancer Day and hosted by Professor James Paul O'Neill from the

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) is a not-for-profit medical professional and educational institution, which is also known as RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. It was established in 1784 as the national body ...

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