October 7, 2024
Attendees at the award presentation included, from left: Martina Curtin, president of the ICC’s board of directors; Jim Brett, president and CEO, The New England Council; Kathleen O’Toole,; Ginny Donnelly, widow of Congressman Donnelly; and Jerry McDermott, executive director of the Irish Cultural Centre. Photo courtesy NE Council
The Irish Cultural Centre’s second annual Brian J. Donnelly Award for Leadership in Public Service was presented to Kathleen M. O’Toole on Sept. 19 at Venezia in Dorchester. The award is named for the late congressman who was a Dorchester native. He served in Congress from 1979-1993 and as US Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.
Ms. O’Toole’s public service has earned the description “remarkable.” She headed up the Metropolitan District Commission Police Department (later integrated with the State Police) in 1990 and 1991; was a Lt. Colonel with the Massachusetts State Police from 1992-1994; served as Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety from 1994 to 1998; was Boston’s Police Commissioner from 2004 to 2006; served as Chief Inspector of the Gardai Inspectorate in Dublin from 2006 to 2012; and was Chief of the Seattle Police Department from 2014 to 2018.
