Daniel Mulhall

Having delved into Frederick Douglass’s 1845 visit to Ireland during my time as #Ireland’s Ambassador in Washington, I was delighted to be asked by the Fitzwilliam journal to reflect further on the visit & its legacy. My commentary is 👇.

t.co/bmG11zofYc

From breath to breath
from dusk to dusk

let there be rainfall
when the soil is parched as rock

let there be sunshine
when the barley bends to be cut

let there be rainbows
when the days are short of light

let there be wind
when our boats are turned for home.
Jane Clarke

Behold this box of jumbled varicoloured lives
I once held daily office with; each a repository
for an imagined soul I would heap into piles
of the damned and the saved. I watched them
suffer many deaths, many resurrections.
Not all were assigned the daydreamt saga
of a hero …
Patrick Cotter

Opinion | Can the Trump Peace Plan Overcome Unprecedented Cruelty?

As he often does, Tom Friedman gets it right here:”If you are a hoping person,hope that this time will be different.If you are a praying person,pray that everything you know about this region,its current leaders & the poisonous legacy of the Gaza war will be overcome”
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/o...

Behold this box of jumbled varicoloured lives
I once held daily office with; each a repository
for an imagined soul I would heap into piles
of the damned and the saved. I watched them
suffer many deaths, many resurrections.
Not all were assigned the daydreamt saga
of a hero …
Patrick Cotter

Key peace process adviser Martin Mansergh dies aged 78 Former minister of state and key Fianna Fáil adviser Martin Mansergh has died aged 78.

Sad to learn of death of Martin Mansergh. We first met when I joined Foreign Affairs in 1978 & we shared an office. Martin made his name during the late ‘70s oil crisis & was hired by Charlie Haughey as advisor. He loyally served 3 FF leaders & helped bring peace to NI.
www.rte.ie/news/2025/09...

Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
W.B. Yeats

When I come to mind
don’t recall how, feisty,
I knocked nests of words
over the edge,
splattering on the rocks
to the crude squawks of other
ravaging, wing-elbowing birds;
rather think of the winged poems
I hatched, seen,
regardless of time & place,
gliding & gyring
with their own grace
Greg Delanty

Against her choice, I still affirm
That nothing dies, that even from
Such bitter failure memory grows;
The snowflake’s structure, fragile
But intricate as the rose when
Snow curls in on the cold wind.
John Montague

Dark cloud hangs over UN headquarters as leaders gather for ‘World Cup of Diplomacy’ Irish delegation to push Government stance on Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan crisis at General Assembly

The ‘World Cup of Diplomacy’ begins today at the UN as key countries are increasingly playing by their own rules. The tragic plight of #Gaza will hang over the proceedings. Recognition of Palestine’s independence by UK, France & others will make a difference.
www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...

The nights midweek are secrets kept.
No soul on site,no signal/bars,
and zilch for company except
a zillion bright disarming stars.

I’ll flit through ambers,quicker, higher.
I’ll break each hamlet’s Stop & Yield.
I’ll fix some noodles, start a fire
& climb up to the topmost field.
Conor O’Callaghan

President Donald Trump and Melania land in UK for second state visit - follow live The US president and First Lady Melania Trump will join King Charles at Windsor Castle for two days of events.

A high stakes visit to UK by President Trump. UK govt. has done well in cultivating Trump but there are yawning gaps on Ukraine, Gaza & political ideology. Those issues are bound to surface during this State Visit. Thursday’s press conference will be one to watch.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx...

His oil-wrinkled hands tug
the engine cord,
coaxing our boat
out of the cliff-shaded cove.
We withdraw
into the distance,
leaving a disgruntling sense
that we’ve only touched the tip
of these dark icebergs.
Greg Delanty #IrishPoetry

In cabin
and field, they still
speak the old tongue.
You may greet no one.

To grow
a second tongue, as
harsh a humiliation
as to be twice born.

Decades later
that child’s grandchild’s
speech stumbles over lost
syllables of an old order.
John Montague ‘A Grafted Tongue’

In cabin
and field, they still
speak the old tongue.
You may greet no one.

To grow
a second tongue, as
harsh a humiliation
as to be twice born.

Decades later
that child’s grandchild’s
speech stumbles over lost
syllables of an old order.
John Montague ‘A Grafted Tongue’

Poland warns of 'open conflict' risk after drone incident Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament it was "the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two", though he also said he had "no reason to believe we're on the brink of war".

Russia seems intent on testing NATO’s resolve with 19 drone incursions, which means that it cannot have been a rogue drone. The let will be what view of Russia the US ultimately takes. www.rte.ie/news/world/2...

The West a fiery complex, the East a pearl,
We gave our frail skiff to the slow-moving stream,
Ruffling the waters. And steadied on a seam
Of calm & current.

Together, both as one,
We lifted our dripping blades in the dying light
And thrust ourselves forward …
Thomas Kinsella ‘Downstream’

Our scattered tribe began gathering itself
& trudged off onto a gravel path after it.

By their own lightness
4 girls & 3 boys separated themselves
out in a ragged band from our full custom

& moved up close after it, in front,
all shapes & sizes,
grandchildren, colourful & silent.
Thomas Kinsella

Curving back by the northern cliffs,
where a pale scar shows
that another slice of mountain
has succumbed
to this century’s
hard seas
& grey storms,
we halt at a rim,
& far below us,
in June sunlight,
blows the big,elongated O
of Lough Bunnafreva,
ringed,in this summer’s long drought …
Moya Cannon

Standards have certainly dropped. Salty invective now a norm in some quarters.

Last night, Russia launched one of the largest drone and missile strikes on Ukraine, targeting government buildings and civilian homes alike.

Once again, the Kremlin is mocking diplomacy, trampling international law and killing indiscriminately.

Driving Life with Conor Faughnan: Dan Mulhall - Senior Times Conor meets Daniel Mulhall, now retired but once Ireland’s most senior representative abroad. He was ambassador to the UK during Brexit, the US during Trump’s first term and Germany in the wake of the...

If you want something to listen to today, here is a podcast I did with Conor Faughnan for the Senior Times magazine in which I talk about aspects of my 44 years in diplomacy & being Ambassador in Kuala Lumpur, Berlin, London & Washington.

seniortimes.ie/driving-life...

For those who didn’t get to the Electric Picnic last weekend, here is a link to the @historyireland.bsky.social
recording of my interview there in which I try to make sense of #Trump’s #America.

historyireland.com/hedge-schools/

For those who didn’t get to the Electric Picnic last weekend, here is a link to the @historyireland.bsky.social
recording of my interview there in which I try to make sense of #Trump’s #America.

historyireland.com/hedge-schools/

The sounds of Ireland
that restless whispering
you never get away
from, seeping out
of low bushes & grass,
heatherbells & fern,
wrinkling bog pools,
scraping tree branches,
light hunting cloud,
sound hounding sight,
a hand ceaselessly
combing & stroking
the landscape …
John Montague

McCarthy and Keane clash brought to life in Saipan Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane infamously volcanic relationship is revisited in all its grubby glory in the movie Saipan.

Imagine that. A feature film about Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane battling it out in Saipan. Game of Thorns? www.rte.ie/entertainmen...

I bent down,
my face so close
it grazed the surface
of the water.
My kingdoms hovered
above, below,
and in a slight breeze
blew ripples of light
that quaked as the wind
rowed them toward me.
Ethna McKiernan

If self is a location, so is love:
Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points,
Options, obstinacies, dug heels and distance,
Here and there, and now and then, a stance.
Seamus Heaney

Cover of a collection of poems by Billy Collins.

They are moving off in all imaginable directions,
each according to his own private belief,&this is the secret that silent Lazarus would not reveal:
that everyone is right,as it turns out. You go to the place you always thought you would go,
the place you kept lit in an alcove in your head
B Collins