A rare event for your calendar. Former senior Irish Diplomat & Secretary General to the President of Ireland, Dr. Tim O’ Connor presents a first hand account of insights into the Good Friday Agreement process. This Lough Gur Historical Society event takes place on February 29th at 7.30pm in the Honey Fitz Theatre, Lough Gur. More information on the poster below.
Tickets on the door: €5.

Final Tim O' Connor_Historical Society Poster 29.02.24

Final Tim O’ Connor_Historical Society Poster 29.02.24

Tim O’Connor

Tim O’Connor is a former senior Irish Diplomat and former Secretary General (Chief of Staff) to the President of Ireland.  He worked with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs from 1979-2007 and most of his career there was spent working on the Northern Ireland situation.  He was a Senior Official of the Irish Government Negotiating Team in the Talks in 1997/98 that led to the Good Friday Agreement of 10 April 1998 and thereafter was the Lead Negotiator for the Department in the Talks to identify and establish the Cross-Border Bodies provided for in the Agreement.

From 1999-2005, Tim was the Inaugural Southern Joint Secretary of the North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC), the institution created by the Good Friday Agreement to oversee Cross-Border Co-operation on the island of Ireland. His role included facilitating, in collaboration with his colleagues from the Northern side of the NSMC Secretariat, the establishment, and early operation, of the seven Cross Border Bodies provided for in the Agreement (the six Implementation Bodies and Tourism Ireland).

Tim was Consul General of Ireland from 2005-07 and from 2007 to his retirement from the Public Service in 2010, he was Secretary General to the President of Ireland.  For the 14 years since then, he has been combining running his own advisory business with involvement on a voluntary basis with several not-for-profit projects, including membership of the Board of the leading humanitarian aid NGO, GOAL. For the last decade or so, Tim has also been involved in various projects in Limerick, in particular supporting the work of Limerick City and County Council.  In 2017, he was appointed by the Irish Government to be its Representative on the Independent Reporting Commission whose mission is reporting on efforts to end Paramilitarism in Northern Ireland, a role he continues to hold.

Tim holds honorary doctorates from Maynooth University (2005), Quinnipiac University (Connecticut, USA) (2007), the University of Ulster (2009) and University College Dublin (2016) and was appointed Honorary Professor of Practice at Queen’s University Belfast in 2022.