H.E. Ambassador Fergal Mythen, Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations, discusses Ireland’s role at the UN and strategies for building mutual understanding and consensus

Mary Hendriksen

August 31st, 2025

When Fergal Mythen came to New York in August 2022 to begin his term as Ireland’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, he was deeply conscious of the distinctive historical experience, modern development story, and enduring values that his country brings to that institution. He was also very mindful of the many Irish diplomats who had previously served there with distinction, contributing to the development of the UN since Ireland first joined in 1955, some 70 years ago. 

“Because of our often difficult and troubled past, our experience of colonization and dispossession, famine and conflict over many generations,” he says, “Ireland is strongly positioned to be a strong and positive player at the UN. We see both our values and interests firmly embedded in a rules-based international order built on the principles of peace and security and friendly relations among nations.”

Ambassador Mythen points out that Ireland joined the precursor to the UN, the League of Nations, in September 1923—less than a year after the formal establishment of the Irish Free State. “It was very important for the new State to assert its independence on the international stage from the first moment, as it was just emerging from a bruising independence struggle and civil war,” he notes.

And, not only has Ireland been an active member of the UN since 1955, it has been elected four times by other UN Member States to serve on the Security Council, most recently from January 2021 through December 2022. He led Ireland’s team on the Security Council for the final quarter of that term, taking over the reins from Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, now Ireland’s Ambassador to the United States in Washington D.C.

Ambassador Mythen came to the UN with years of direct diplomatic and peace-building experience. After studying history and English at Trinity College Dublin, he joined Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs in 1990. His first role was working on Northern Ireland-related issues, as part of the International Fund for Ireland team - one of the early tools used by the Irish, British and US Governments to kickstart the fledgling peace process. He would subsequently return to work on the implementation of the Northern Ireland peace agreement – the Good Friday Agreement - on three further occasions in his career, often helping to restore the process after it ran into political difficulties or outright breakdown. Indeed, immediately before his appointment to his current role, he led the official team that negotiated the restoration of the power-sharing government institutions of the Good Friday Agreement in January 2020. 

Another early diplomatic role was with the European Community Monitoring Mission in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1996-97, during the immediate postwar, post-Dayton Accord period. He has also twice served in Ireland’s Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels. 

From 2017-2022, he was also responsible for Irish-British relations (including the impact of Brexit) and Irish-US relations at the Foreign Ministry HQ in Dublin. 

Those assignments, he relates, taught several strategies for skills critical in his current role: building mutual understanding, seeking fair and equitable compromise, and finding agreement and consensus. 

His primary strategy?

In the year 2000, Ireland presented the UN with this sculpture of a coffin ship, titled Arrival, by the artist John Behan. Situated in the UN garden in Turtle Bay, it represents the more than 2 million people who left Ireland from 1841 to 1851, because of the Great Famine. It likewise honors the many countries who welcomed the Irish emigrants and offered them the opportunity of a better life.

“Knowing your own positions, but also listening to other view-points, hearing what is being said and not said, and fully understanding the standpoints of others,” he answers. “The bedrock principle of the United Nations is the willingness of Member States to engage with one another. It is by assuming a listening mode, often followed by public consultations and private conversations, that can lead to compromise and consensus building—bridging the gaps and allowing everyone to leave the table with a win.  As we learned through the Irish peace process, one cannot force consensus. It must be built.  Consensus is not easy to secure, and it is often slow to emerge. And above all, every party to the negotiation must leave the table with something, a win-win; a win-lose outcome will never lead to a truly sustainable agreement.”

The issues around which consensus must be built here in New York, the Ambassador says, revolve around the three longstanding pillars of the United Nations, as set out in the Charter: Peace and Security; Human Rights; and Development.

As the new session of the United Nations begins this autumn, the Ambassador has several very real concerns.

Along with ongoing armed conflicts around the world, widespread famine, food insecurity and humanitarian crises, and the many dire situations of refugees, gender violence is also on the rise, and a pushback against universal human rights and women’s rights in particular. This global moment has been termed an era of polycrises.

Moreover, the Ambassador notes, in this time of great difficulty, “the UN is facing two daunting challenges. Firstly, the inability of core organs like the Security Council to deliver on its mandate because of the use of the veto power. And secondly, a potentially crippling financial crisis as a number of contributing Member States are drastically cutting back on or reviewing their contributions to the UN itself, and to its humanitarian and development agencies.”

“And yet," the Ambassador says, “there have been times of severe gridlock before at the UN, especially during the Cold War, followed by periods of decisive UN action and delivery. Ireland will continue to play our part, and we will continue to bring all our values, experience, and expertise to bear in our work here, in order to protect the UN through these difficult times. We will do so working closely with other Member States who see both the value and the necessity for such a truly global and inclusive system tasked with maintaining peace and security, defending and promoting human rights, and building sustainable development for all. 

“We know what a world without a UN and a fair, rules-based multilateral system looks like, we know where a global system based solely on ‘Might is Right’ leads to, and we know what the failure of the League of Nations resulted in. It is therefore imperative that we now in our own day do all that we can to protect these essential institutions, for the benefit of all”.