Thomas O’Dwyer, who was an accomplished journalist and writer and who served as a columnist and the foreign news editor of The Jerusalem Post between 1989-2000, died in Israel on Wednesday at age 69.
Ireland-born O’Dwyer became a journalist after 12 years as a Royal Air Force officer. He flew on the iconic Vulcans that were part of the British aerial nuclear deterrent force during the Cold War.
As a journalist, he was an analyst for the Beirut-based Arab Press Service and then chief editor of The Cyprus Mail in Nicosia. Reuters hired him as bureau chief for their first Cyprus office and he worked as a Reuters correspondent across the Middle East, in Bahrain and Dubai. He covered the Lebanese civil war, terrorism and hijackings, and the Iran-Iraq tanker war.
The Jerusalem Post hired him as a foreign editor and gave him a personal column. During his years at the Post from 1989 to 2000, he covered Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the first Palestinian intifada and the visit of Pope John Paul II.
He was a columnist for the International Irish Tribune and wrote for The Guardian, The Economist Intelligence Unit and Open Democracy magazine. He also contributed broadcast reports for Ireland’s RTE Radio.
Thomas is mourned by his wife, Michal, daughter Fiona and grandchildren David, Emma and Chloe, and sister Fidelma.