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Smyth (centre) at the Gala Dinner for 1848 Tricolour Celebration. Twitter/USAmbIreland
sheriff in town
Donald Trump is yet to select an Irish ambassador but a Texan is keeping the seat warm
Reece Smyth is acting as chargé d’affaires in the US Embassy.
6.11am, 8 Mar 2017
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THERE’S NO IMMEDIATE sign that the Trump administration is about to appoint a full-time ambassador to Ireland.
The role is currently being held on an interim basis by Texas diplomat Reece Smyth who first arrived in Dublin in September last year.
Smyth is now chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy in Ireland after the departure of former Ambassador Kevin O’Malley in January.
The position fulfills the role of ambassador in the absence of a permanent appointee.
O’Malley was appointed by the Obama administration and departed his role here on the same day Donald Trump was sworn in over in Washington.
O’Malley told TheJournal.ie prior to that date that he wouldn’t see Trump getting sworn in as he’d be “over the Atlantic”.
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Prior to O’Malley being appointed and after the departure of former ambassador Dan Rooney, there was a two-year gap when the US didn’t have an official ambassador to Ireland.
While it is hoped within the embassy that such a gap would not be repeated, there has been no movement on the announcement of a replacement.
When an announcement is made it will be made directly by the White House with the US Foreign Relations Committee then voting on whether to confirm the appointment.
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Ambassadorial appointments are usually political in nature and often go to business people or politicians loyal to a given administration.
In the case of in interim appointments they usually come from the US State Department, as is the case with Smyth.
Smyth originally arrived in Dublin to take up the role of deputy chief of mission last September having come from an assignment in Beirut.
Before that he served as a US representative in Nato and also has previous deployments in Macedonia, Bosnia and Pakistan.
Smyth is originally from Dayton, Ohio, but grew up in Houston, Texas.
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Surprised that he considers himself too old to care about Repeal. He spent enough time writing about the varieites of damage done to indivduals by the Catholic Church and allied institutions. You’d think that he would follow through on this, simply as a citizen, forget about his being a writer. Nobody is asking him to write on behalf of Repeal or turn himself into a sociologist or poltician. Though a pity that writers now seem to think they shouldn’t air their politics. They could definitely make a useful contribution, given their imaginative and empathetic abilties. Probably a result of being brought up on Philomena Begley and The Bachelors rather than The Clash.
@andrew: I suspect that he doesn’t equate the repeal of the 8th with his views on the Catholic Church. Sensible man, they have nothing to do with each other.
Interesting read, sadly hijacked by the Repeal commentators. It was just a couple of sentences and the rest of the content gets ignored.
I look forward to to reading his book.
Also Pat was a great man for marking the class report at end of year everybody got excellent for everything he would never comment at the bottom of the report everything was just excellent with a tick. I am glad he found his calling in life as sure was not teaching.
Owl Pat was a teacher in Haddington Road not a very good one but a teacher none the less.My parents lord rest them despised him .
He use to sit in the class with his legs crossed & up on the table.
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