Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Eamon Delaney (born 14 July 1962) is an Irish newspaper columnist,<ref name=McInerney>Template:Cite news</ref> author, editor,<ref name=Fay>Template:Cite news</ref> novelist,<ref name=Bloomsday>Template:Cite news</ref> journalist<ref name=Walker>Template:Cite news</ref> and former diplomat.<ref name=Purdy>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=ie/><ref name=Dwyer>Template:Cite news</ref> According to the Irish Independent, Delaney's best-selling memoir of life as an Irish diplomat "ruffled feathers" within the Irish diplomatic corps.<ref name=ie/>
Education and careerEdit
Delaney attended University College Dublin (UCD). He was Auditor of the Literary and Historical Society from 1985 to 1986. He served Ireland as a diplomat from 1987 until 1995.<ref name=DwerR>Template:Cite news</ref>
After leaving the diplomatic corps, he became a full-time author. His first novel, The Casting of Mr. O'Shaughnessy was published in 1995, and republished in 2002.<ref name=Muir>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Mirror>Template:Cite news</ref> The eponymous character of Mr O'Shaughnessy was, in the author's own words, "partly, but quite obviously, based on the career of the colourful Seán MacBride".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
His next book, an account of his eight years as a diplomat, An Accidental Diplomat: My Years in the Irish Foreign Service 1987–1995 was widely discussed.<ref name=McManus>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Irish journalist Thomas O'Dwyer describes Delaney's wit as "wicked" and his 2001 book An Accidental Diplomat as having been, "a runaway bestseller."<ref name="O'Dwyer">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=bestseller>Template:Cite news</ref> Delaney writes for the Irish Independent, and on an occasional basis for The Irish Times and other outlets.
In 2004 Delaney was named editor of the Dublin news and opinion magazine, Magill Magazine, a position that continued until its closure in 2009.<ref name=Fay/><ref name=ie>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2009 Delaney published a book focusing on the life of his late father, the sculptor Edward Delaney entitled Breaking the Mould.<ref name=Dwyer/><ref name=Village>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Siggins>Template:Cite news</ref>
O'Shaughnessy hoaxEdit
In 1986, Delaney applied for a government pension to be granted to Cornelius O'Shaughnessy, fictional hero of Delaney's later novel The Casting of Mr. O'Shaughnessy, on the basis of the character's participation in the 1921 Irish War of Independence. Singer Gavin Friday lent Delaney the name and service details of his own grandfather, an actual veteran of 1921, to serve as the fictional O'Shaughnessy's commanding officer in the application. Delaney cited sufficient plausible historic detail in the application which attracted the personal attention of Taoiseach Charles Haughey. Haughey asked Secretary of Defense Michael J. Noonan to review the case, and three months later the government sent Delaney the appropriate service medals and approved the pension. Delaney revealed the hoax before the pension was actually paid.<ref name=Sheehan>Template:Cite news</ref>
Accidental DiplomatEdit
According to The Times of London, Delaney's Accidental Diplomat, "lifted the lid on the internal workings of the Department of Foreign Affairs."<ref name=Sheehan/><ref name=Callahan>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=King>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Wharton>Template:Cite news</ref> The book was serialised in The Sunday Times<ref name=BurnsJ>Template:Cite news</ref> which described Delaney as "spilling the diplomatic beans."<ref name=BurnsJ/>
According to the Irish Times,<ref name=BestsellerList>Template:Cite news</ref> Delaney's memoir was a "surprise bestseller."<ref name=Hegarty>Template:Cite news</ref>
ColumnistEdit
In 2011, a Delaney column in the Sunday Independent in which he argued that the gay rights movement is "overreaching" in seeking the "right to marry, to adopt children, and to intimidate opponents into silence,"<ref name=Quinn>Template:Cite news</ref> touched off a media flap.<ref name=Flanagan>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Finnegan>Template:Cite news</ref> Those who criticised Delaney's column included actor Charlie Condou writing in The Guardian.<ref name=Condou>Template:Cite news</ref>
Personal lifeEdit
Delaney is married, with children.Template:Citation needed
BooksEdit
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