Welcome Message

Welcome to the website of the Embassy of Ireland in Chile.

I hope you find this site informative about Ireland, the services the Embassy offers, and the rich potential for deeper connections between Chile and Ireland.

Ours is an inter-twined history going back centuries, to even before Bernardo O’Higgins’ father, Ambrosio, left county Sligo in Ireland and eventually made his way to Santiago and Concepción. It was Bernardo O’Higgins – together with Juan MacKenna from Monaghan, and many others – who would go on to have the most profound impact in Chile’s fight for independence and early years as an independent state.

Bernardo was a big believer in forging deeper connections between Ireland and Chile. In 1823, he wrote to a friend, John Doyle, that: “I think there are no two countries better inclined to complement each other than Chile and Ireland.”

Over the decades that followed, many women and men from Ireland, or of Irish heritage, sought to deliver on those ambitions. This included religious missionaries, and prominent figures in politics, business and the arts.

The Embassy is hugely grateful for those manifold contributions from our diaspora, and from our Irish community in Chile today, as we now seek to help write the next chapter in the special relationship between Chile and Ireland.

We look forward to continuing our work with the Government and people of Chile, with the Chilean Embassy in Ireland and with all the Irish state agencies or North/South Bodies – Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia, the IDA, Tourism Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland, Culture Ireland and others – responsible for trade, investment, tourism, research & education cooperation, promoting Irish culture and so many other aspects of our multi-faceted relationship today.

There is much more we can accomplish – and we look forward to you, friends of Ireland and Chile, assisting and advising as we go. ¡Vamos!

Le gach dea-ghuí / Los mejores deseos,

Colum Hatchell

Ambassador