‘WE HAVE A STRONG RELATIONSHIP WITH ARGENTINA’

INTERVIEW WITH IRISH AMBASSADOR JACKIE O’HALLORAN

This week the Times sat down to talk with Jacqueline O’Halloran, Ireland’s current ambassador to Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Appointed to the post i n 2 018 , t h i s is actually O’Halloran’s second spell in Buenos Aires – her first posting as a diplomat was here between 1987 and 1991.

Warm and gregarious, Jackie (as she’s more commonly known), opened up on the relationship between Ireland and Argentina, as well as the recent push to legalise abortion in Ireland and the possible effect that Brexit will have on her home country.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what the day-to-day is like at the Embassy?

As you mentioned, we are the Embassy to Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Paraguay and basically the day-to-day responsibilities are very wide-ranging. We’re a small mission of diplomats from Ireland – there’s just myself and my deputy, head of mission Dermot Fitzpatrick. So, we cover the whole range of responsibilities, which includes liaison with the community and with Irish people there, providing the full range of consular services: passports, visas, citizenships, consular assistance.

What are some of the current objectives you have for strengthening relations between Ireland and Argentina, as well as the other countries that you oversee?

We have a very strong commercial and investment focus because our government does see that to develop and strengthen relationships, in the 21st century, it’s very important to have good strong economic relationships. So, we have an important focus on developing trade and investment, tourism with Argentina and with our other countries of accreditation. We have a commercial attaché who works on that field and we work closely with her.

We’re very optimistic about developing that aspect of the relationship and the Irish governmentisshortlygoingtobring out a new Latin American/Caribbean strategy. We’ve already opened two new embassies in Colombia and in Chile, so that’s already putting some important resources behind the government’sdesiretodeepenrelationships.

Of course, in Argentina it’s different because we already have a very strong relationship. In fact this we celebrate – it will be 100 years since the first Irish diplomat was posted to Argentina, and in fact this man, Eamon Bulfin was the first Irish diplomat to be posted abroad anywhere.

Heusedtowritefor TheSouthernCross [historicIrishnewspaper in Argentina]. He was born in Argentina and then the family moved back to Ireland where he tookpartintheEaster1916rebellion and was subsequently pardoned, but deported. So, the governmentdecidedtheywould make him our consul in Buenos Aires–that’sabitofadigression!

You first came here in 1987 and ended up coming back last year. Is there anything in particular about the culture and community in Latin America that really stands out to you?

I think in all of [the countries I oversee] there have been changes. And while there are a lot of challenges, what most strikes me coming back after such a long time is that there is much less poverty. That’s not to say that there aren’t clearly a lot of challenges, but people are clearly better off. And from a point of view of economic development, there has also been huge changes and progress in thoseyearsandIthinkdemocracy particularly is far more embedded.

I mean when I left, I think Chile was still not a democracy, Paraguay was just moving towards democracy. I think that the social freedoms and the strengthening and the deepening of democracy are probably the biggest changes.

Argentina and Ireland are both very similar i n that there’s a strong tie between the Catholic Church and society. Abortion was recently legalised in Ireland and there’s been a similar push here over the past few years. I wonder if you’ve noticed any parallels between the two movements?

There are parallels in that in some ways the question of the divisions is similar, but in Ireland we went through a very long process before we had our referendum and it was adopted by a popular vote. We had to have a constitutional change in ordertointroducelegalabortion in Ireland and in the lead-up to there was a really deep discussion by society, in a very restrained and very moderate way. People really did try to debate and to listen to each other. When the referendum was eventually put to the people, it was on the basis of facts and of people having listened particularly having listened to women’s stories and that proved to be hugely influential in the decision. It was a very high vote in favour in the end. And it wasmostlydowntomoving away from the more fundamental positions, to looking at it in terms of women’s health and looking at it as a women’s health issue andIthinkthat was fundamental to changing Ireland’s Ambassador to Argentina, Jackie O’Halloran, pictured in her office in Buenos Aires. people’s views, because in the beginning it wasn’t at all clear whether the measure would be passed.

The editor of the Times is British, so he’s stuck in the neverending saga of Brexit. Do you have any thoughts on how Ireland would be affected by a ‘hard Brexit’?

Our focus from the moment that the result of the vote was known in 2016 has been focused on two very important questions for us, and the fundamental one is the question of the border with Northern Ireland and the need to avoid the fact of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union would result in any kind of a hard border on the island.

As part of the Good Friday agreement settlement, which is now21yearsold–andwhichhas successfully provided for peace in Northern Ireland for more than a generation now – the elimination of the border under a European Union, single-market framework was a key enabler of the success of the Good Friday agreement.

So, from the beginning this was a major focus for our government and also of the European Union itself, for the other countries, because the peace process in Northern Ireland was one of the European Union’s great success stories ... There was very quicklyanagreementthatispart of the conditions for the withdrawal that there should be no border and the British government also agreed to that as a party to the Good Friday agreement ... It continues to be for us incrediblyimportantthatwhateverisagreedattheendoftheday, there will be no border.

The figures – you see a lot of things being thrown around – but basically Ireland’s biggest single market is not the United Kingdom, it is the rest of the European Union. So, obviously our interest is not just a question of economics, it’s a question of values and where we see our future. We see our future very firmlywiththeEuropeanUnion, we also see a future where we remain very close to the United Kingdom.

“It is 100 years since the first Irish diplomat was posted to Argentina.”