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Please be advised that the Embassy of Ireland, Denmark website has moved and this page is no longer being updated. The Embassy website is now available at Ireland.ie/copenhagen.

The Embassy History

Find out about the Embassy's history, including where we are and some of our former Ambassadors. 

Embassy of Ireland Denmark

Diplomatic relations between Ireland and Denmark were established in 1962. From 1962 until 1972, the Irish Ambassador in the Netherlands was also accredited to Denmark, after which time a resident Ambassador was appointed.

The Embassy has been at its current location since the early 1980s. It is situated in a building called Gylfe, built in 1902, and is connected to another building, Gefion.

The names Gefion and Gylfe are found in Norse mythology. The legend tells that the Swedish King, Gylfe, offered the goddess Gefion as much land as she could plough out of Sweden in one day and one night. Gefion transformed her four sons into oxen and they ploughed Zealand (the island where Copenhagen is situated) out of Sweden and placed it in the sea between Skaane (Sweden) and Fyn (the island between Zealand and Jutland).

Irish Ambassadors to Denmark

Robert McDonagh Chargé d'affaires a.i. 1962 - 1965 
Denis Holmes  Chargé d'affaires a.i.  1965 
C.P. Fogarty  Chargé d'affaires a.i.   
J.O. Burke  Chargé d'affaires a.i.   
Brendan Dillon  Ambassador  1972 
Dermot Waldron  Ambassador   
F. Mahon Hayes  Ambassador   
Florence O'Riordan  Ambassador  1981 - 1985 
Liam Rigney  Ambassador  1985 - 1990 
Sean O'Huiginn  Ambassador  1990 - 1991 
Andrew O'Rourke  Ambassador  1991 - 1996 
James Sharkey  Ambassador  1997 - 2001 
James Brennan  Ambassador  2002 - 2006 
Joe Hayes  Ambassador  2006 - 2010 
Brendan Scannell  Ambassador  2010 - 2014 
Cliona Manahan  Ambassador  2014 - 2019 
Adrian McDaid  Ambassador  2019 - 2022
Jerry O'Donovan Chargé d'affaires a.i. 2022 - 2023
Elizabeth McCullough Ambassador 2023 - 

 

Documents on Irish Foreign Policy project

Learn more about the history of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and our collaboration with the Royal Irish Academy's Documents on Irish Foreign Policy project