Give it up Eamon, it’s not about the money

VACILLATION and the Vatican make for uncomfortable bed fellows.

Which is why Eamon Gilmore’s latest move in the unholy row over Ireland’s representation at the Holy See will cut little ice in the now frozen relationship between Dublin and the papacy.

In an attempt to try and appease the angry Fine Gael lobby against the decision to shut down the Vatican embassy, Gilmore insists it is up to the Holy See to allow Irish diplomats to operate from the Ireland Embassy for Italy, in Rome, instead.

Since cutting a deal for the creation of the Vatican City state with Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in 1929, the papacy has been very touching about its status.

The Pope being afforded a full state visit to Britain — rather than a pastoral one — in 2010 provoked strong controversy.

Actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry, along with author Terry Pratchett and 50 other notable academics and authors, signed a public letter saying Pope Benedict XVI should not be given a state visit: “We reject the masquerading of the Holy See as a state and the Pope as a head of state as merely a convenient fiction to amplify the international influence of the Vatican,” they wrote, much to the indignation of the city state.

So the idea that the Catholic Church will now bend its diplomatic rules for the sake of little old Ireland is fanciful.

Mr Gilmore has strongly denied the closure is linked to the Taoiseach’s damning verdict on the Vatican’s attitude to child abuse in this country.

Enda Kenny drew wide- spread praise from across the political and social spectrum when he launched a blistering attack on the Catholic Church’s stance as reveal- ed in the Cloyne Report.

“For the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See, to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic — as little as three years ago, not three decades ago.

“And in doing so, the Cloyne Report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism, that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day.

“The rape and torture of children were down- played or ‘managed’ to uphold instead, the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and ‘reputation’.

“Far from listening to evidence of humiliation and betrayal with St Benedict’s ‘ear of the heart’, the Vatican’s reaction was to parse and analyse it with the gimlet,” Mr Kenny said.

The condemnation chimed with the public mood as 90% of those who contacted the government on the issue said they backed the Taoiseach.

In contrast, around the same percentage of those who expressed their views to the administration on the planned Vatican embassy closure, opposed it.

The reaction, including a muted, but simmering, backlash from the Fine Gael parliamentary party, has thrown Mr Gilmore onto the backfoot.

“No, there isn’t a secular agenda here. The decision in relation to embassies was based on the fact that as a department, we have to make savings,” he said.

“The money is one part of it; the other part of it is personnel. We have a small diplomatic team. We can’t spread ourselves too thinly,” he added, citing the costs of Ireland assuming the presidency of the EU next year.

However, it is curious that the comprehensive spending review in July recommended saving just €500,000 from embassy closures. The closure of Ireland’s embassy in Iran next week, in addition to the closure of the embassy at the Vatican more than doubles that target.

Despite official denials, if the Government had the courage to say the closure decision was not merely financial, but explicitly linked to the behaviour of the Vatican towards the abuse of Irish children, the move might be easier to sell.