Ambassador Jim Kelly reflects on his term in Canada
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Canada is Ambassador Kelly's fourth posting as an Irish diplomat. He previous served as Deputy Permanent Representative at Ireland's Mission to the United Nations in new York (2008-13), and also served at Ireland's Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels (2001-05) and at the Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark (1995-98),The balance of his diplomatic career to date has been spent at the Department of Foreign Affairs at HQ in Dublin where he has held a wide range of positions covering different areas of the Department's work. These have included a series of assignments with the Department's Political, European and Development Cooperation Divisions. He commenced his career in DFA in November 1993 with a formative one year assignment in the Anglo-Irish Division, dealing with Northern Ireland issues during the period of the 1994 paramilitary ceasefires which opened the way to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and a new era of peace and cooperation on the island of Ireland.Most recently, Ambassador Kelly established and directed the new Policy Planning function at the Foreign Ministry, where he led policy development on key issues such as the implications of Brexit for Ireland, and Ireland's response to the refugee and migration crisis.Before joining the Ministry in 1993, he worked as a consultant with the leading global professional services firm, Accenture, and prior to that he held civil service positions in the Department\\xa0 of Energy and the Revenue Commissioners in Dublin.He attended primary and secondary school at Drimnagh Castle CBS in Dublin, and is a graduate of University College Dublin (B. Comms (Hons) 1990).He enjoys running, hillwalking, reading; political, social and military history; music and cinema. He is also a keen follower of most sports, particularly Gaelic games.Ambassador Kelly served as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy's International Affairs Committee, 2014-16. and as Vice Chair of the United Nations General Assembly's Fourth Committee, (Political and Decolonization) during the 66th session (2011-12). He was the first Irish diplomat to be nominated to participate in the US State Department's International Visitor Leadership course in 2007.
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