The Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Ireland is the United Kingdom's foremost diplomatic representative in Ireland and head of the UK's diplomatic mission in Ireland.
The Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Ireland is the United Kingdom's foremost diplomatic representative in Ireland and head of the UK's diplomatic mission in Ireland.
For several decades the British and Irish governments disputed the respective names of their States: the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" and "Ireland" respectively. The UK's official policy was to refer to Ireland as the "Republic of Ireland". [1] Up to and including the year 1999, the Diplomatic List issued by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office referred to the "Republic of Ireland", while the Irish Diplomatic List referred to "Great Britain". [2] Similarly, Ireland's policy was to use the term "British" when referring to the UK's diplomatic representative, as "UK" implied acceptance of British sovereignty over Northern Ireland. [3] However, this dispute over names was ended following the Good Friday Agreement. Consequently, since 2000 the British Diplomatic List has referred to "Ireland", and the credentials presented by the British ambassador, Stewart Eldon, in 2003, were addressed to the President of Ireland, while since 2001, the Irish Diplomatic List referred to the "United Kingdom". [2] The British Ambassador to Ireland has since been styled officially as "His Majesty's Ambassador to Ireland". [4]
The Governor-General of the Irish Free State had been the effective representative of the UK in the Irish Free State, negating the need for a separate envoy. However, following a 1926 Imperial Conference, each dominion's Governor-General became advised by the Government of that dominion rather than by Whitehall and the need arose for an envoy.
The first British diplomatic representatives to the new Irish Free State did not have the title of "Ambassador", instead having the title of "Representative", or "Minister". This was a compromise and arose because the nascent Irish state had proposed that the UK's representative should be styled as "Ambassador" rather than "High Commissioner", as was the norm in Commonwealth countries, despite Ireland itself having appointed a High Commissioner to London in 1923, [5] similarly exchanging High Commissioners with Canada, a fellow dominion, in 1938. [6] However the UK refused to use the title of "Ambassador" as it indicated a non-existent foreign status, as UK cabinet's minutes of September 1939 recorded at the time:
The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs reported that Mr de Valera had expressed himself as willing to receive a representative of the United Kingdom Government in Dublin. He proposed that this representative should have the title of Ambassador, but it had been intimated that this was impossible from our point of view and the title "Representative" had been agreed. The Secretary of State thought that until [the United Kingdom] representative had been appointed, it would be undesirable that the Defence Departments should raise with the Éire Government, the grant of any major defence facilities (e.g. the use of Berehaven) [7]
Similarly, the British mission in Dublin was styled not as the High Commission but as the "British Representative's Office". [8] In 1948, the Oireachtas passed the Republic of Ireland Act, under which Ireland withdrew from the Commonwealth the following year, and the name of the office was changed to "Ambassador", although holders of the post continued to be recruited from the Commonwealth Relations Office, later the Commonwealth Office, until the appointment of Sir John Peck in 1970. [9]
According to the Constitution of Ireland, the names of the Irish state are Ireland (English) and Éire (Irish). From 1922 to 1937, its legal names were the Irish Free State (English) and Saorstát Éireann (Irish). The state has jurisdiction over almost five-sixths of the island of Ireland. The rest of the island is Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. In 1948 Ireland adopted the terms Republic of Ireland (English) and Poblacht na hÉireann (Irish) as the official descriptions of the state, without changing the constitutional names.
John Loader Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby,, was a British civil servant and diplomat who was a key figure in Anglo-Irish relations during the Second World War.
Sir David Norman Reddaway is a retired British diplomat who was High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Ireland and Turkey.
In the Commonwealth of Nations, a high commissioner is the senior diplomat, generally ranking as an ambassador, in charge of the diplomatic mission of one Commonwealth government to another. Instead of an embassy, the diplomatic mission is generally called a high commission.
Sir John Gilbert Laithwaite was a British civil servant and diplomat, born and raised in Ireland. He reached the top of his profession, becoming Permanent Secretary of the Commonwealth Relations Office in 1955.
The Embassy of Belarus in London is the diplomatic mission of Belarus in the United Kingdom. It is situated just south of Kensington Gardens between the Embassy of Azerbaijan and the Embassy of Mongolia.
The Embassy of the United Kingdom in Dublin is the chief diplomatic mission of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Ireland. The Embassy is located on Merrion Road in the Ballsbridge area of the city. The current British Ambassador to Ireland is Paul Johnston.
