1987-88 Joe Blackwell (No 35)

Chieftain Joe Blackwell with Eileen Devitt Hodges in Chicago at the 1987 O'Malley Clan annual dinner.

Joseph Blackwell (1913 - 1993) was born in Windsor, England, the son of Nina O'Malley of Ross House, Newport, Co Mayo  and William Gordon Blackwell whose family ran the Crosse and Blackwell Company. Educated in France and England, he served with the British Army during and after the Second World War. He lived for some years in Jamaica where he was engaged in the import and export of wines and spirits, as well as the sugar, banana citrus and cattle businesses. In the USA, where he was to spend twenty five years , he was with Crosse and Blackwell Foods in Chicago. Joe visited his mother in Ross House regularly, and came to live there permanently in 1970. He married three times, to Blanche Lindo, Edith Behr and Meike Albrecht. His son Chris Blackwell was the founder of Island records and inherited Ross House on Meike's death in 2024. Joe was a lover of music and was always intensely interested in local history and archaeology, especially in the history of the O'Malley Clan. He was elected Chieftain No 35 in 1987 and held his 1988 rally in Newport House and the Great Southern Hotel, Mulranny. While Chieftain, he initiated a newsletter, distributing 3 editions during his tenure. He also visited Chicago, where he met with the committee of the O'Malley Clan in that city. Middleton O'Malley (Chieftain No 47) wrote an appreciation of Joe Blackwell's life in the 1993 Newsletter.