Helena Nolan

Helena Nolan is the Irish Ambassador to Belgium and Head of the Liaison Office of Ireland to the Partnership for Peace since 2017.

Ms Nolan is a former Director of the Disarmament and Non-proliferation Unit in Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, where she led the successful negotiations on the UN Treaty for the Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons, a signature foreign policy for Ireland. She initially joined the Irish Civil Service in the Department of Education in 1983 but moved into the diplomatic service in 1990 and has served in missions in Africa, Europe and Asia as well as a range of roles at headquarters.

Ms Nolan is a strong advocate for increasing cultural, economic and political connectionsbetween countries and through her work in the Irish Embassy, she works to promote a deeper, even closer and more dynamic relationship between Belgium and Ireland. She is a board member of the Leuven Centre for Irish Studies and a supporter of the work of EFACIS. In her role as Ambassador, she leads Embassy work on promoting and supporting Irish literature and writers, with a strong focus on gender equality. She will take up her next assignment as Consul General of Ireland in New York later in 2021.