“People didn’t want to listen because there was this campaign about ‘making England great again’. People just didn’t want to listen to arguments about the implications for British-Irish relations, for Northern Ireland and for the border in Ireland.”
As the Irish Ambassador to Malaysia, it fell to Dan Mulhall to find and repatriate Irish citizens impacted by the horrific 2004 Tsunami. He arrived at his next posting, in Berlin, when “Ireland was in the dog house” after its economy collapsed. Mulhall toured the country extensively, with a simple message: “Ireland has its troubles. We need help from you but don't worry, we have strength, and we will come back and we will repay every single penny of the money that we borrow from the European Union.”
From Berlin, he moved to London, at a time when Ireland’s nearest neighbour was preparing for the Brexit ballot, and Mulhall was there after the vote as relations between Ireland and the UK deteriorated. And, for his final posting, he was dispatched to Washington in the middle of Donald Trump’s first term.
Now retired from the diplomatic corps, he holds a number of consultancy positions in business and academia and is working on a project to develop an animated children's brand based on leprechauns from Carlingford.
In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, Mulhall talks about his career, diplomacy, Brexit, and the decision by Israel to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
