William V. Shannon

William Vincent Shannon (August 24, 1927 – September 27, 1988) was a member of the editorial board of the New York Times and U.S. ambassador to Ireland under President Jimmy Carter (1977-81).

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, he earned an A.B. degree from Clark University in 1947 and an M.A. from Harvard University in 1948.

He was a Washington correspondent and columnist for the New York Post from 1951 to 1964. From 1964 he was on the editorial board of the New York Times. He also authored the books The American Irish: A Political and Social Portrait (1964, ISBN 0-87023-689-X), The Heir Apparent (1967) and They Could Not Trust the King (1974). He was coauthor of The Truman Merry-Go-Round (1950) and published many articles.

Shannon served on the board of directors of the American Irish Foundation. In 1975 he received the Gold Medal of the Éire Society of Boston for service to literature. He was an associate fellow of Yale University's Morse College from 1966, and in 1961-62 was fellow-in-residence at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Shannon died in 1988 of lymphoma, at age 61.

External links

• Shannon's obituary
• Some biographical information from The American Presidency Project

United States Ambassadors to Ireland Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Irish Free State 1927–1950 Frederick A. Sterling 1927-34 W. W. McDowell 1934 Alvin M. Owsley 1935-37 John Cudahy 1937-40 David Gray 1940-47 George A. Garrett 1947-50 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary 1950–present George A. Garrett 1950-51 Francis P. Matthews 1951-52 William Howard Taft III 1953-57 Scott McLeod 1957-61 Edward G. Stockdale 1961-62 Matthew H. McCloskey 1962-64 Raymond R. Guest 1965-68 Leo J. Sheridan 1968-69 John D. J. Moore 1969-75 Walter J. P. Curley, Jr. 1975-77 William V. Shannon 1977-81 William E. McCann 1981 (acting) Peter H. Dailey 1982-84 Robert F. Kane 1984-85 Margaret M. O'Shaughnessy Heckler 1985-89 Richard Anthony Moore 1989-92 William Henry Gerald FitzGerald 1992-93 Jean Kennedy Smith 1993-98 Michael J. Sullivan 1999-01 Richard J. Egan 2001-03 James C. Kenny 2003-06 Thomas C. Foley 2006-09 Dan Rooney 2009–2012 Kevin O'Malley 2014–present