Mr Burns tipped as next US ambassador to Ireland

The son of an advisor to the Kennedy family is reported to be the next American ambassador to Ireland.

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly appointing businessman and lifelong friend Brian Burns as his country’s next Irish ambassador.

Mr Burns’ father, John J Burns, was an advisor to Joe Kennedy, father of the late US president John F Kennedy.

An American Law Library at University College Cork had been founded by the likely new ambassador in honour of his late father.

The report of a new US ambassador to Ireland emerged in a tweet by New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman yesterday. Ms Haberman is the newspaper’s presidential campaign correspondent.

“In my minor ambassador obsession, Trump tells me he intends to make Brian Burns, son of Joe Kennedy adviser, the ambassador to Ireland,” she wrote.

However, confirmation is awaited from the White House or from Mr Trump’s transition team.

Just like the current ambassador Kevin F O’Malley, Mr Burns is the grandson of an Irish immigrant and can trace his Irish roots to Co Kerry.

He is the chairman of BF Enterprises, a publicly owned real estate holding and development company.

Mr Burns is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the College of the Holy Cross. The latter is a private, undergraduate Roman Catholic college in Massachusetts.

More than 50 years ago, Mr Burns became the youngest director of the American Irish Foundation.

The foundation was established in 1963 by then-president John F Kennedy and Ireland’s president Éamon de Valera.

In terms of Mr Burns’ connection to contemporary Ireland, he was the leading fundraiser behind the effort to restore the world famous Marsh’s Library at St Patrick’s Close in Dublin, the oldest public library in Ireland.

“I frankly had envied, in a constructive way, the manner in which 6m Jewish people were able to raise billions of dollars each year for the young State of Israel whereas, by contrast, hundreds of disparate Irish organisations were doing cumulatively a very tiny bit for Ireland even though there were over 40m of us,” Mr Burns said a number of years ago.

Meanwhile yesterday, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced the line-up for the parade for inauguration day on January 20.

These include various high school and college bands.