Courtney McGrailThe Vatican: Ireland’s diplomatic listening post
In recent years the justification of Ireland maintaining an embassy in both the Vatican and Italy has been the subject of much controversy, with the Vatican legation being abolished and then re-established.
The Government seems to have taken little cognisance of the fact that the Italian State does not care to have any ambassador accredited to Rome to also be accredited to the Vatican, though this was well known to the diplomats in Iveagh House.
The vital importance of our embassy in the Vatican over past decades as a source of important information is revealed in several files newly released. Much of this confidential information relates to places which are of vital importance internationally, and for Ireland’s interests too.
Ireland and Cuba at the Vatican
It was at the Vatican at the end of November 1983 that the Cuban Ambassador to the Holy See came to visit by appointment the Irish Ambassador.
He explained that he had been instructed by his Foreign Ministry to informally approach Ambassador Cooney about the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries. Cuba was then a bête noir of the USA, but that did not enter into this encounter.
The ambassador had to explain that though the Government during the 1970s had extended its diplomatic contacts, Ireland still had fewer than 30 embassies. There was only one embassy in Latin America, in Buenos Aires – but then Ireland had long standing connections with Argentina, where there was a significant section of the population were of Irish origin – and still spoke with Irish accents after three generations, according to another source.
Connection
The Cuban ambassador appreciated that, but thought the connection could be non-residential initially. Ambassador Cooney passed all this back to Iveagh House.
But the Government decided the financial burden would be too great even to establish relations on a non-residential basis. This was presented to the Cuban Ambassador to the Holy See at his residence on April 26, 1983 as an Aide Memoir, which was less formal than a Third Party Note.
These niceties aside, the Cubans were, it seems, very disappointed. It would have led to an improvement in trade, and they hoped the Irish Government would reconsider it in a few years. Ireland, after all, was now the only European country with which Cuba did not have diplomatic relations. They had relations with Iceland, Malta and even tiny San Marino.
Eventually Ireland did establish relations with Cuba through the Irish embassy in Mexico City in 1999. Though there is still no Irish legation resident in Cuba, these days the Cuban flag flies over an embassy building in Pearse Square.
This is a nice example of what Ireland gains by having diplomatic relations with the Vatican however.
