News

Michael Phillips – an appreciation

January 5, 2025

Michael Phillips served on the board of ICUF for many years, stepping down in 2020. He passed away in July 2024, and is dearly missed by his family and friends. At his funeral in Dublin on July 11th his friend, the novelist and poet Jane Urquhart, delivered the following eulogy.

***

Michael Phillips was an exceptional, distinguished, and highly accomplished man. He was a gifted career diplomat; rising to the top of that field at a time when his country, Canada, was regarded by the rest of the world as the homeland of brilliant career diplomats.

In addition to this, he was a truly honest and highly ethical man, a man you knew you could count on and trust. He did not offer up opinions, because opinions are too often tied to the fashion of the moment. Instead he held quiet convictions. He was sensitive, actively creative, and feeling-driven. He would express sentiment but was never mawkish or frivolously sentimental.

His long term colleague and friend Henry Kelly says of Michael Phillips: “He was a learned man who wore that learning lightly. Our conversations about the state of the world, and particularly global politics, are unforgettable and irreplaceable.

And as another friend and colleague, Marie Stamp says, “Michael served not only his country and his government, he looked after colleagues and his staff, treating his coworkers with respect and kindness. He never lost his sense of perspective, always acting with integrity, dignity, and humility.”

And the beloved cousin George cited all the wonderful memories he and his family hold from all the times they were with Michael and Oonagh, Ciara and Conor, referring to memories being at this time “like a warm blanket.”

The memories that our own family holds most precious under its own warm blanket are wonderful and plentiful. Fine friends and supporters of my late husband Tony, Michael and Oonagh were like second parents to our daughter, Emily, parents she met as a result of her treasured, lifelong friendship with Ciara. Lots of laughter among us and many good times shared in Stratford, New York, Toronto, Kingston and Colborne. And most particularly in Ireland. I recall the night, after dinner, when Michael performed an Irish jig in our little cottage in County Kerry while the rest of us were practically apoplectic with laughter.

He may have been a man who seldom jigged, but he was the most gifted oral storyteller I have ever met. And that is something to say while standing on the soil of Ireland. I suspect that his musicality contributed to the cadence and timing that changed mere anecdote into art. You could never retell one of his stories; without his voice, his sentence structure, his timing, the narrative fell apart in your hands.

Michael gave good advice, always when you asked for it, but often when he felt you needed it. I paid close attention, and, with time, even closer attention when the positive results of his previous advice became apparent.

Most important, his love for family—for Oonagh and Ciara and Conor, and for Selma and Declan—was fierce and constant, and palpably evident to anyone who knew him. But so was his love for his extended family, in Ireland and in Canada, and his love for his Saskatchewan home which had a place in his heart all his life.

One of the strongest visual memories of Michael that I hold in my own heart, is of him standing on the pier of Port Magee in the summer sunshine. My husband Tony and I, along with Emily, Oonagh, Ciara, and Conor, had been ferried out to the Skellig Islands for the day by a Kerry fishermen. When I had asked Oonagh the previous day whether she would like to visit the Holy Island of Skellig Michael she said, “I would Jane.” When I asked her whether Michael would like to join us, knowing him the way she did, she said “He wouldn’t Jane.”

Now, after a glorious day spent climbing the 700 steps and visiting the 6th century settlement we were coming back into harbour. And there stood Michael alone on the pier, after having had a marvelous day himself as we would later discover.

But just then he stood, surrounded by light, raising his arm and half laughing in that way of his. We all waved back and laughed ourselves with happiness. Real joy!

It is significant to remember that he was raising his arm as a greeting, almost a benediction, but a reunion in the purest sense.

He was not saying goodbye.

 

Jane Urquhart

July 2024

 

***

Michael Phillips was born in Saskatoon on September 29, 1939. He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with degrees in Arts and Law, where he was active in student leadership and journalism.

Michael began his long and distinguished career as a Canadian diplomat after articling with Wedge McKercher and McKercher. He served in embassies and high commissions in Ethiopia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Bermuda. He was Canadian Ambassador to Sweden and to Ireland, and Consul General to New York during the 9/11 attacks, earning recognition for his leadership in their aftermath. Michael also contributed to the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, adopted in 1982, and was named Queen’s Counsel the same year.

After retiring, Michael and his wife Oonagh settled in Ireland, where he co-authored Off the Wall with Canadian artist Tony Urquhart. He served on the board of ICUF for many years, stepping down in 2020.

Michael passed away on the 5th of July 2024. He is survived by Oonagh, their children Ciara and Conor, and their grandchildren Selma and Declan. May he rest in peace.