Ambassador Francis M. O’Donnell is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science; founder-member of the Peace Reflection Group (of former UN system seniors); engaged in various appeals for regional peace and multilateral reforms through its joint advocacy efforts with the Club de Madrid and the InterAction Council. He is an active participant in a rights-based advocacy network of over 400 former EU & member states’ ambassadors & senior officials. Author and historian, he also serves as elected President of the Genealogical Society of Ireland, and of the Clan O’Donnell of Tyrconnell. He served as a director/trustee (2019-2025) of the School of Civic Education (Council of Europe auspices) and remains a listed expert; and a strategic advisor to the Global Partnerships Forum (New York). He served as senior advisor to Nonviolent Peaceforce (2009-2014), director of Clans of Ireland (2012-2013) and chancellor of its Order of Merit (2014-2015), and chairman of Vico Rock Property Management (2015-2020). He has participated in the InterAction Council, and as panelist or moderator in the annual Global Baku Forum, policy networks comprising of current/former Heads of State/Government, and also for the Association of Schools of Political Studies of the Council of Europe. He was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Sovereign Order of Malta to Slovakia from 2009 to 2013. He previously served as a United Nations official for 32 years, lastly as Resident Coordinator of the United Nations system in Ukraine, from 2004 until 2009, and previously in similar capacity in Yugoslavia/Serbia-Montenegro, 2000-2004. Prior to that he served as Principal Advisor on Governance in Crisis Countries. During his UN tenure he pioneered rapid deployment of volunteer expertise to emergency operations in 40 war-torn countries, helped broker negotiations stabilising post-conflict countries, and promoted economic and governance reforms. The initiative to create an Irish-Arab Society was proposed by him in November 1968, and taken up by a group of Irish and Arab friends. It played a key advisory and facilitative role in promoting Irish-Arab trade and cultural links, and with its support Irish diplomatic relations were established with 12 states in the Middle East and North Africa between 1974 and 1976. He has periodically been published in scholarly journals on public policy, military history, genealogy, and inter-faith matters, and is a member of several such societies. He was schooled in Jerusalem and Dublin. An honours graduate in Economics and Philosophy (1975) from NUI/University College Dublin, he later read International Law and Diplomacy at postgraduate level in Geneva, and qualified in Disaster Management at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has been knighted into several chivalric, dynastic, and papal orders, and has received other honours from several countries. His book “The O’Donnells of Tyrconnell – A Hidden Legacy” (750pp) was published by Academica Press LLC, Washington DC in 2018, and re-printed in 2019. He also presented his “Desperate Hope – Reflections on Survival Pathways for Civilisation” to the InterAction Council in Valetta, Malta in May 2023, and his monographs “Resolving the Israel-Palestine Conundrum – a new era” and “World Peace – Reclaiming the United Nations and its Ideals” were published by the Foundation for Global Governance & Sustainability (FOGGS, Brussels) respectively in November 2024 and June 2025. With the Irish College in Leuven, Belgium, he coordinated the recent publication “Memorialising Emigré Dignity” launched in the Royal Irish Academy on 5 September 2025, co-sponsored by the Genealogical Society of Ireland; Eneclann/Irish Family History Centre; the Clans of Ireland, and the O’Donnell Clan Association. It began back in September/October 2020, as the first webinar of the Irish College in Leuven. He is also a contributor to Cadmus, the journal of the World Academy of Arts & Science. He has actively advocated what he describes as a “call to conscience” for a return to the values and principles of the UN Charter, promoted by the Peace Reflection Group of former UN officials, through FOGGS, and endorsed by former UN Secretary-General Ban KiMoon, and 16 former presidents and 19 former prime ministers of 33 countries as well as 302 former top UN officials. The list of signatories was launched on 26 June 2025 as “UN Charter at 80” and secured the endorsement/signatures of members of the InterAction Council, The Elders, the Council of Women World Leaders, and the Club de Madrid. A further effort continued to 24 October 2025, UN Day, conjointly with the Club de Madrid and the Foundation for Global Governance & Sustainability hosting the Peace Reflection Group of which he is a co-founder.