Henry Patrick McDonald (6 July 1965 – 19 February 2023) was a Northern Irish journalist and author. He was a correspondent for The Guardian and Observer, ^[1] and from 2021 was the political editor of The News Letter, one of Northern Ireland's national daily newspapers, based in Belfast.

Early life

Henry Patrick McDonald was born in a Catholic enclave of central Belfast in 1965, and was a student at St Malachy's College. ^[2] He briefly attended Edinburgh University before gaining a degree from Queen's University Belfast. ^[2]

In his youth, McDonald involved in the Workers' Party, a left-wing party that emerged from Sinn Féin in the early 1970s and was associated with the Official IRA. ^[2] He travelled to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) with the youth wing of SFWP in the early 1980s. ^[3]

Career

After taking a journalism course at Dublin City University, McDonald began his professional writing career in 1989 at the Belfast newspaper The Irish News. ^[2] He wrote extensively about the Troubles and related issues, with a particular focus on paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, like the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). He wrote a book on the INLA, INLA – Deadly Divisions, which he co-authored with his cousin, Jack Holland. The book was first published in 1994. ^[2]

McDonald also wrote on Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups and co-authored books on the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and UDA with Jim Cusack. ^[4] He also wrote a biography of Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble, a personal biography Colours: Ireland – From Bombs to Boom, and, in 2017, Martin McGuinness: A Life Remembered. ^[5] He was, for a period, a security correspondent for the BBC in Belfast. ^[2]

In 1997, McDonald became the Ireland correspondent for The Observer, and assumed the role for The Guardian in 2007. He was based out of the paper's London office from 2018 to 2020. ^[2] He then returned to Belfast, where he wrote for The Sunday Times, and worked as the political editor of The News Letter, headquartered in Belfast. ^[2]

Novels

McDonald's first novel, The Swinging Detective, was published in 2017, ^[6] and his second, Two Souls, was published by Merrion Press in 2019. ^[7] A third novel, called Thy Will Be Done, was forthcoming at the time of his death. ^[2]

Personal life and death

McDonald was a supporter of Irish League football club Cliftonville and English Premier League club Everton. He married Claire Breen in 1996, and they had three children before divorcing. ^[2] He also spent 12 years in a relationship with author June Caldwell, ^[8] living some of that time in Dublin where he taught journalism and feature writing at the Dublin Business School and the Irish Writers Centre. ^[9] At the time of his death, he was in a relationship with Charlotte Blease. ^[2]

In 2018, McDonald was diagnosed with cancer and an unspecified heart condition. ^[2] He died at a hospital in Belfast on 19 February 2023, at the age of 57. ^[10]

Works

Non-fiction

• McDonald, Henry; Holland, Jack (1994). INLA – Deadly divisions. Dublin: Torc. ISBN  189814205X.
• McDonald, Henry (2017). Martin McGuinness: A Life Remembered. Belfast: Blackstaff Press. ISBN  9781780731681.
• Cusack, Jim; McDonald, Henry (2008). UVF: The Endgame. Dublin: Poolbeg Press. ISBN  9781842233269.
• McDonald, Henry (1 September 2005). Colours: Ireland – From Bombs to Boom. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN  1845960254.

Fiction

• McDonald, Henry (2 November 2017). The Swinging Detective. London: Gibson Square Books. ISBN  9781783341160.
• McDonald, Henry (20 August 2019). Two Souls: A Novel. Newbridge, County Kildare: Merrion Press. ISBN  9781785372575.

References

External links

• The Guardian | Henry McDonald