EMMA MADIGAN HAS been announced as Ireland’s new ambassador to the Holy See.
Madigan will be the only staff member of the reopened Vatican Embassy after it was closed to save costs in 2011.
The Government announced in January that the embassy would be reopened with the Department of Foreign Affairs repeating today that the new Ambassador will have a particular mandate to ‘follow the activities of the Holy See on the development and human rights front’.
In a statement released this afternoon, the DFA referenced Pope Francis, saying that since his appointment he has “become a leading global advocate for action to address hunger and poverty and for the respect of human rights”
Madigan, who has been employed by the DFA for 14 years, is currently assistant chief of protocol and has been heavily involved in high profile visits in and out of Ireland including the recent State Visit of President Higgins to the United Kingdom.
She has also served as vice-consul in New York and has a degree in History and Italian as well as a Masters in European Studies from UCD.
Other appointments
The DFA today announced the appointment of a total of 36 Ambassadors and Consuls-General. The department say that this is primarily to fill vacancies that will arise over the current months due to rotation and retirement.
But some of the announcements relate to new missions, embassies in Croatia, the Holy See, Indonesia, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Thailand, and consuls in Austin, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo.
“Our embassy network is targeted at locations where we can have the greatest impact in terms of our economic growth, trade, Irish communities and our political and people-to-people relationships,” the DFA said in a statement.
12 of the 36 new Ambassadors and Consuls-General being appointed today are women.
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