Closing Vatican embassy ‘was wrong decision’

The Government was wrong to close Ireland’s embassy to the Vatican, a former head of the Department of Foreign Affairs has said.

Sean Donlon, once this country’s most senior diplomat and a former ambassador to the US, said the current difficulties between Ireland and the Vatican made the embassy more, not less, important.

He pointed to the fact that Ireland had never closed its embassy to Britain during the Troubles, even after Bloody Sunday when relations between the two states reached a nadir.