He is an attorney who has been an international corporate counsel and consultant. Since the 1960s, O'Malley has been active in the New York Irish community, joining various cultural, academic and social organizations. This collection includes materials regarding Irish-American and Irish cultural, educational, charitable, historical and political affairs. Materials include correspondence, newsletters, brochures and promotional material for the American Committee for Ulster Justice, the Irish American Cultural Institute, the Irish American National Bicentennial Committee, The American Ireland Fund, the Irish Georgian Society, and the O'Malley Clan Association. Also included are articles and texts about the Northern Ireland political and military crisis during the 1970s and lobbying material for the 1972 U.S. Congressional Hearings on Northern Ireland. O'Malley collected the materials through his contacts with various organizations in the Irish communities in New York, Boston, and Dublin, and his involvement with the struggle for civil rights in Northern Ireland.
Upon the death of his father, O'Malley left Ireland to finish his education in the United States, obtaining a BA from Harvard in 1965 and a JD from Columbia University in 1970. He pursued a career in international law in New York, first with Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, then, from 1981 with Bristol-Myers, living in Mexico, Brussels, London, and New York according to the dictates of his career. In the 1990s, upon retirement from Bristol-Myers Squibb, O'Malley became active as an advisor to Glucksman Ireland House at New York University.
When in New York, O'Malley was involved with the Irish American community, joining various cultural, academic, and social organizations, such as the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in the City of New York, the American Committee (later Conference) for Irish Studies, and the Irish Arts Center in New York. During the 1970s-1980s, O'Malley served as an officer or on the board of four such groups: the American Irish Historical Society, the Irish American National Bicentennial Committee, the Ireland Fund (now the American Ireland Fund) and the National University of Ireland Club. O'Malley also had an interest in the civil rights struggle in Northern Ireland. From 1971-1978 he served as national coordinator for the American Committee for Ulster Justice, a group of Irish American lawyers and activists intent on eliminating anti-Catholic discrimination and exposing British complicity in the region's conflict.
