Ireland Has Confirmed It Is Closing Its Embassy to the Holy See

Vatican Insider
February 20, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/world-news/detail/articolo/irlanda-irelanda-vatican-vaticano-12834/

Dublin

There is a glimmer of hope that the embassy will reopen if the financial situation improves

The Irish government will not revoke its decision to close its embassy to the Holy See, at least not straight away. Dublin's deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, Eamon Gilmore said so today.

Gilmore told Ireland's National television broadcaster RTÉ TV that the decision will only be re-examined if the financial situation in Ireland improve or if the Vatican reviews its request for Ireland to have two separate embassies, one in Italy and one in the Holy See.

Dublin – Gilmore added – has put David Cooney, non-resident ambassador to the Holy See, in charge of starting talks with the Vatican as soon as his letters of credence are accepted.

"It is not a question of compromising. We have taken a decision and we are sticking to it. If the Vatican shows more flexibility on the question regarding the two separate buildings, we will show flexibility as well," Gilmore said.

Last week, almost three months after his nomination as new Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles John Brown presented his letters of credence to President Michael Higgins, saying he would do all that was in his power to strengthen relations between the Holy See and Dublin.

Brown was nominated Nuncio by the Pope last November, replacing Mgr. Giuseppe Leanza who moved on to the Nunciature of Prague after he had been called back to the Holy See from Dublin for "consultations".

Tensions between uber Catholic Ireland's government and the Holy See worsened after the publication of the Cloyne Report on paedophilia in Irish dioceses. In November, Ireland decided to close its embassy in the Holy See, though this was put down to economic rather than diplomatic reasons linked to Irish-Vatican relations.