Niall Anthony MacDermot

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Niall Anthony MacDermot, Prince of Coolavin, (25 April 1935, Yokohama, Japan - 19 February 2003).

The eldest son of Dermot MacDermot and Betty O'Rourke, Niall became head of the MacDermot clan upon the death of his father in 1989. He was born in Yokohama, Japan, during his father's term there with the British Diplomatic service. Subsequently the family lived in Taiwan, Manila and back to Japan, which they were forced to leave on very short notice at the outbreck of World War II. Over the next several years he lived in Australia, Denver and New Orleans in the USA, Bray in Co. Dublin and Downside in Somerset, England. In between all these travels, he and his family made frequent visits back to his clan's ancestral homeland of Moylurg.

Following a course studying Nuclear Physics in London, he joined the RAF which he served in till 1970, winning the service's top two awards; the Glenn Trophy and the Aerobatic Trophy. During this time he married his fiancée, Janet, the mother of his son, Rory MacDermot, and daughter, Siobhan. Following a stint at the electroinic company, Neve's, he returned to Ireland permanently in the late 1970's, joining the telecommunications company Telectron. In 1981 he founded his own computer software company, retiring in 2000. He moved to Paphos, Cyprus as the mild, damp Irish climate suited neither him nor his wife.

Niall and his brother Connor set up the MacDermot Clan Association in 1993, subsequent to publishing their late father's definitive history of the clan "MacDermot of Moylurg." Its stated aims " is to gather and conserve genealogical information, to foster links between McDermotts worldwide and to provide a connection with the ancestral lands in Ireland." Clan Gatherings, both in Ireland and abroad, the publication of a MacDermot journal, and the sale of clan merchandise to raise funds for clan activities, were the main results of Niall and Connor's work for the clan.

Niall MacDermott died on the 19 February 2003 and was succeeded as MacDermot by his son, Rory.