Currently outlining a short-story that involves diplomatic relations and I can’t find an answer for this on the DFA site or FAQ. I’m not sure who to ask, but reddit surprises me sometimes with its depth of specialised knowledge.

Checking the list on wikipedia, I can see that Ireland doesn’t have an embassy or ambassador to every country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diplomatic_missions_of_Ireland

What happens if (say) some tourists get kidnapped in Mongolia or the Jamaican government contacts us about buying a million tubs of Kerrygold, so we need to do some negotiating that an ambassador would normally do? Would we send an ambassador from a neighbouring country? Or are there people in the DFA trained for this sort of thing who would fly out on a temporary basis, like some ambassador-for-hire? If it’s the latter, anyone know what their title or rank would be?

6 comments

  1. If you’re in a country that doesn’t have an Irish embassy, but has an embassy of another EU country, you can get consular assistance from that embassy. One of the less well known benefits of the EU.

    Failing that, you’d normally contact the nearest Irish embassy, though thed’d probably be limited to giving you advice over the phone.

    Can’t really say what would happen in the case of diplomatic things between countries themselves like you mentioned though.

  2. Many Irish Embassies cover other countries, e g. Turkey would cover Azerbaijan etc.. I’d say most if not all are covered, where they’re not there has been a history of the UK embassy helping with serious issues until DFA can get there.

  3. There are honorary-consuls in a lot of countries usually located in big cities, especially with Irish migrant communities. They handle small things like lost passports, illness, robbery for citizens in the area as well as being a local representative for Ireland.

    https://www.dfa.ie/travel/our-services/honorary-consuls/

    If Jamaica wanted to buy Kerrygold they’ll contact the company direct through their Irish headquarters or local subsidiary.

    But if a foreign government want to make some kind of wider trade agreement or partner in some specific area of trade they’d probably contact DFA first who would refer them to the relevant state agency like Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland, or the IDA.

    In an emergency the nearest embassy usually takes responsibility for a wider region and staff will be sent from there. If the situation requires it a team led by DFA will travel to the area. Often such a team might include members of AGS or the Defence Forces.

    Check out the press coverage of the evacuation from Afghanistan to learn how a DFA and Army Ranger Wing team were inserted to handle the practical matters of getting Irish citizens and dependants out.

  4. I’m not sure how to answer your question, but my Mongolian students deal with their visa and passport business through the London embassy. So I’m guessing if we were in Mongolia we could use another EU or the UK embassy

  5. Kidnapping of an Irish citizen for example during a coup, a government official/military advisor would go over and liase with whoevers in charge. Could be any official with diplomatic papers, more than likely the ranger wings already there anyway.

    Most recent military intervention was Afghanistan and ECAT, 66? Irish and auxiliary staff secured and taken to a safe air strip for evacuation, I think it was in conjunction with the French. ECAT: Emergency Civil Assistance Team

  6. Others have covered what happens if we don’t have a embassy.

    But kidnappings and trade deals are not really the role of an embassy. Kidnappings would be the responsibility of local law enforcement, an embassy may be able to make contact with some people but they will not be able to do anything. If someone wants to buy a million tubs of butter they contact the producer, their authorised dealer or buy on the gray market and then pay the relevant taxes and duties on import.
    Embassy’s are for processing documents and spying.

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