The White House has announced Missouri lawyer Kevin F O'Malley as its nominee for Ambassador to Ireland.
Mr O'Malley has been a practising trial lawyer for over 35 years and is an adjunct professor at Washington University School of Law since 2013, and taught at St Louis University School of Law from 1979 to 1985.
He served as an Assistant US Attorney in St Louis from 1979 to 1983 and was a Special Attorney in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Department of Justice from 1974 to 1979.
In 2009, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon appointed Mr O'Malley to the Missouri Board of Healing Arts.
Mr O'Malley served as a legal instructor for the American Bar Association's Central and East European Law Initiative in Moscow in 1996 and Warsaw in 1999.
He received an AB and a JD from Saint Louis University.
There has been no US Ambassador to Ireland for more than 18 months, as Dan Rooney left the post in December 2012.
This had been a political sore point on both sides of the Atlantic with US Democratic Congressman Joe Crowley last week criticising the Obama administration for not naming someone.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny also raised the matter with US President Barack Obama at the White House in March.
It is understood that Mr O'Malley is about to be nominated to the position by Mr Obama.
The nomination will then have to go forward to the Senate for confirmation, and will be examined at a committee hearing.
Mr O'Malley practises law in St Louis, Missouri, and last year was given the Award of Honor from the Lawyers Association of St Louis.
He is a second-generation Irish-American and his grandfather came from Mayo.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has also welcomed the nomination of Mr O'Malley, saying "it is important that there be a resident US Ambassador here, to reflect the extraordinary strength and depth of the relationship that exists between our two countries."
Mr Gilmore added "the Government looks forward to early approval of Mr. O'Malley's nomination by the US Senate and to working with the new Ambassador on the further development of all aspects of our bilateral relationship with the United States".
