Francis Martin O'Donnell (born in 1954) is an Irish citizen who has served abroad as an international diplomat in senior representative positions with the United Nations until retirement, and later with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. He was elected Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science in July 2025.World Academy of Art and Science announcements on social media He was elected president of the Genealogical Society of Ireland effective March 2024,Ireland's Genealogical Gazette, Volume 19, number 1, January 2024 , published by the Genealogical Society of Ireland, Dublin. Ireland's Genealogical Gazette, Volume 17, number 9, September 2022, , published by the Genealogical Society of Ireland, Dublin. and President of the O'Donnell Clan Association in June 2024Tyrconnell Clans Revived - The O'Donnell Clan gathering 8–9 June 2024. He is a life member of the Institute of International and European Affairs (under the patronage of the president of Ireland).IIEA Annual Report 2022, Life Members (page 63), Institute of International and European Affairs, Dublin, October 2023 He currently continues to serve pro bono as an advisor to the Global Partnerships Forum and is a listed endorser of the NGO consortium known as Nonviolent Peaceforce. He served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the Slovak Republic from December 2009 to March 2013. He previously served as a United Nations official for 32 years, most recently as the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations system in Ukraine, from 30 September 2004 until 31 March 2009, and previously in the same capacity in Serbia-Montenegro. In early 2012, he was appointed to the council of the Order of Clans of Ireland, and was elected its chancellor in May 2014. He also served on the board of directors, and completed both terms of office in April 2015. Since then, he has participated in Globsec, the InterAction Council, and is a regular participant, panellist or moderator in the annual Global Baku Forum. He is also a speaker and panellist on global policy issues at seminars and forums of the Association of Schools of Political Studies of the Council of Europe, and was a director on the board of trustees of its School of Civic Education in London. He is a member of the Peacemaking Reflection Group of former senior UN officials under the auspices of the Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability.Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability He is an occasional guest speaker on Irish history and genealogy in Dublin, Madrid, Vienna, and at the Sorbonne in Paris. He is also a published author of a book and articles on global policy challenges, historical works and a first volume of poetry.
Background O'Donnell is the son of the late Patrick Denis O'Donnell, an Irish military historian and retired commandant of the Irish Defence Forces who served briefly as a military observer with UNTSO"An Appreciation", article on the editorial page of The Irish Times, Dublin, 24 January 2005
Education Schooled in Jerusalem (Collège des Frères) and Dublin (St. Vincent's C.B.S., Glasnevin), he grew up largely in Fingal, and retains interests there. An honours graduate in Economics and Philosophy from the National University of Ireland at University College Dublin, O'Donnell read International Law and Diplomacy at postgraduate level in Geneva, and qualified in Disaster Management at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.A Day in the Life, published in UCD Connections, worldwide magazine of University College Dublin Alumni, inaugural issue no.1 (), Dublin, Spring/Summer 1997 (page 46)
UN career O'Donnell joined the UN in 1976 on a volunteer assignment with United Nations Volunteers, running its programme in Sudan. He later served as a United Nations staff member in Lesotho, Mauritania, Niger, Switzerland, Turkey, and in United Nations Development Programme headquarters in New York. He then served as UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia & Montenegro and later in Ukraine until his retirement in 2009.Global Partnerships Forum (GPF Advisors)
At the end of the Cold War, he was requested in late 1991 to launch a rapid response capability for deploying UN Volunteers (UNV) to UN emergency operations worldwide. Overhauling recruitment methods saw the rapid deployment of thousands of UN volunteers to crisis zones,Meeting the Humanitarian Challenge – Background to UNV involvement in humanitarian assistance (Page 6) where they became the front-line link between relief and aid delivery agencies such as UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, UNDP, and WHO and suffering war victims, refugees and internally displaced persons. The effort saved lives during the years 1992–1994 in Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and other war-torn countries during the inter-ethnic wars that succeeded the Cold War's proxy conflicts.Meeting the Humanitarian Challenge – Foreword by Executive Co-ordinator Brenda Gael McSweeney True life stories from the field featured in Volunteers Against Conflict, a book praised by former presidents Nelson Mandela, Mary Robinson, Jimmy Carter, and Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum.
Later based in Turkey, he helped assure the humanitarian corridor through Turkey into northern Iraq after the first Gulf War from 1994 to 1996, and coordinated earthquake relief in Turkey itself. Subsequently, he held a senior emergency management role in UNDP headquarters in New York, and later led a systemic governance team for crisis countries, developing a new policy approach to tackle root causes for preventing crisis in vulnerable countries.
In 2000, he led UN/UNDP missions that helped the late Sergio Vieira de Mello lay the foundations for public administration capacity in East Timor before independence. He organised a workshop with the Timorese leadership on 1 March 2000, that re-designed the UN administration in East Timor, leading to a reform of the UN mission by the Security Council. O'Donnell organised the joint workshop between UNTAET and the Timorese leadership, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), on 1 March 2000 to tease out a new strategy, and identify institutional needs. The Timorese delegation was led by Jose Ramos Horta. The outcome was an agreed blueprint for a joint administration with executive powers, including leaders of the CNRT. The effort was the "two-day retreat" described in Samantha Power's 2008 biography of Sergio, "Chasing the Flame". Further details were worked out in a conference in May 2000. The special representative of the UN Secretary-General in East Timor, Sérgio Vieira de Mello, presented the new blueprint to a donor conference in Lisbon on 22 June 2000, and to the UN Security Council on 27 June 2000. On 12 July 2000, the NCC adopted a regulation establishing a Transitional Cabinet composed of four East Timorese and four UNTAET representatives. The revamped joint administration constructed the institutional foundations for independence.S/2002/432 – Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (see II. 4 UNDOC/GEN/N02/327/74/IMG/N0232774.pdf On 27 September 2002 East Timor joined the United Nations.
On 13 October 2000, O'Donnell arrived in BelgradeDaily Press Briefing, Office of the Secretary-General's Spokesman, DPI, United Nations, New York, 10 October 2000 in the immediate aftermath of the overthrow of the régime of Milošević. There, as UNDP representative, he supported the new democratic forces in bringing stability to the remnant of the former Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), preventing nascent conflict with marginalised ethnic Albanians in the Preševo Valley of southern Serbia, launching reintegration programmes, promoting human rights, and supporting reform of governance institutions and supporting civil society. In 2002, he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Resident Coordinator of the UN system, and appointed by the UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown as Resident Representative of the UNDP in Yugoslavia/Serbia-Montenegro, Following the Belgrade Agreement (2002) brokered by Javier Solana that restructured the remnant Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) into a looser state union of Serbia and Montenegro, O'Donnell held consultations with the president of the federal government of Yugoslavia and leaders of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, and organised a Strategic Roundtable on Governance Transition in Belgrade, featuring most of the signatories of the Belgrade Agreement, international experts on transition, and a large representation of government officials and the international community. It was the first major public forum bringing together important political players to air crucial constitutional issues. He also contributed to housing sector policy in south-east Europe. (pg. 87)
Transferred to Ukraine, O'Donnell presented his credentials to outgoing president Leonid Kuchma on 16 November 2004. As Resident Coordinator, he was the designated representative of the UN Secretary-general and led the UN Country Team of UN agencies. Following the Orange Revolution, he fostered international support to the reform process under the auspices of UNDP through its Blue Ribbon Commission for Ukraine. The 2007 Ukrainian political crisis, which lasted from April to June 2007 was part of political stand off between coalition and opposition factions of Verkhovna Rada that led to the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election, culminating in a degradation of the parliamentary coalition under then-Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, as the president of Ukraine (Viktor Yushchenko) attempted to dissolve the parliament. In light of impending political unrest, O'Donnell as United Nations Resident Coordinator, and following an earlier call to deepen democracy and liberalise the economy, exceptionally issued an advisory statement of principles on behalf of the UN Country Team on 3 April 2007, followed by a visit by former Estonian president Arnold Rüütel on 23 April.
O'Donnell called for greater awareness of the Holocaust, and decried antisemitism and discrimination against Jews, Muslims, migrants and minorities in many countries. He was also instrumental in tackling racism and xenophobia in Ukraine, by organising regular consultations with the representatives of diplomatic missions and international organisations and jointly bringing this issue to the attention of Government. An ambassadorial working group was formed and a Diversity Initiative, under the leadership of the IOM and UNHCR, was established to provide a forum for developing anti-discrimination policies. As a result of concerted efforts, the Government stepped up its response to this challenge; an official repudiation of racism by President Viktor Yushchenko issued; the Government adopted an Action Plan on Counteraction to Racism; and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) established a special unit to counteract xenophobia and intolerance. Policy advice was provided and best practices from European countries was shared with Government. There was a wide-scale information campaign, including broadcasting of public service announcements.