Background
Boland was born in Dublin on 16 January 1904.
Boland was born in Dublin on 16 January 1904.
He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, Street Olave"s Grammar School, Trinity College, and King"s Inns, Dublin, where he received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees. He received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Dublin.
He also did a degree in Classics at Trinity. He did graduate work at Harvard, University of Chicago, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1926-1928 as a Rockefeller Research Fellow. He was Assistant Secretary of the Department of External Affairs from 1939–1946, before becoming the Secretary, a post he held until 1950.
In this role he led negotiations in 1949 which changed Ireland"s status from membership of the Commonwealth to that of a Republic.
He was privately critical of the manner in which the Taoiseach, John A. Costello, handled the matter, saying " he has as much notion of diplomacy as I have of astrology."
He served as the first Irish Ambassador to the Court of Street James in London from 1950 to 1956, a move generally attributed to his inability to work harmoniously with Sean MacBride, Minister for External Affairs 1948-1951. In 1956 he became Ireland"s Ambassador to the United Nations.
Boland was married to the painter the late Frances Kelly. Their daughter Eavan Boland is a leading Irish poet.
Boland was the president of the General Assembly of the United Nations on 12 October 1960, when Nikita Khrushchev allegedly took off his shoe and pounded it on his desk.
Boland served as the twentieth Chancellor of the Trinity College, Dublin between 1963 and 1982.