Like arriving 'in the middle of a movie on fast-forward'

The new British Ambassador to Ireland, Julian King, arrived in the middle of the Lisbon debate (say nothing, he was told) and a rapidly-changing economy. He shares his impressions so far

THERE IS a ritual involved in any interview with a British ambassador to Ireland. The journalist asks the inevitable question as to when Queen Elizabeth is finally going to make her long-heralded State visit here. The ambassador of the day responds with the standard non-committal answer that he hopes it will happen “before too long”. But new ambassador Julian King adds an intriguing ancillary detail: when he met the British monarch for her usual private conversation with ambassadors prior to their departure, and she was “resplendent in green”.

When it is put to him that the relationship between our two countries is like that of a cantankerous old married couple who have finally come to terms with one another only to find the new dispensation somewhat humdrum, he replies that few relationships are as, "richly-textured, deeply-rooted and multifaceted" and have as much potential. "And I really believe that." Even at a cultural level, he points to "those terrible twins" on the The X Factorand the popularity of Irish author Sebastian Barry with British readers.

One of King’s first duties was to mark the 75th anniversary of the British Council and in his brief address he quoted the novelist Colm Tóibín on the bilateral relationship: “The business of offering to the other side a full understanding might be a metaphor for how progress will be made in Ireland.”

Like London policemen, British ambassadors to Ireland are getting younger and King says this is also the case in other UK missions around the world. He was born on August 22nd, 1964 and discovered, in the course of preparing for the new job, that his birthday is also the anniversary of Michael Collins’ assassination.

His father was a retail banker and he quips that this was “the honest end of the business”. Young King went to the local grammar school in Sutton Coldfield, on the outskirts of Birmingham. Then it was on to Oxford where he read philosophy and theology. Despite his rather unworldly choice of subjects he was accepted into the Foreign Office at the age of 21. He now thinks this was too early. “It’s not something I would recommend,” he says. But he was soon off to the prestigious École Nationale d’Administration in Paris where he spent two years getting high-class civil service training and also met his future wife, Lotte Knudsen, who is from Denmark. She now holds a senior position with the European Commission in Brussels and commutes to Dublin at weekends.

The only Irish connection he has is that his paternal grandfather was born in Dublin in 1898, since his great-grandfather was garrisoned here at the time as a sergeant-major in the Royal Artillery. “They left very soon after that and went off to India.”

King’s first proper diplomatic posting was in 1987 as private secretary to the British ambassador in Paris, former Scottish rugby international Ewen [now Sir Ewen] Ferguson.

A good deal of his experience is in the European security area especially with the Common Foreign and Security Policy. In response to concerns expressed in this country about Irish involvement in EU security arrangements, he says: “It’s something that I think Ireland can and should be very comfortable with.”

He maintains that what is actually being created is, “an outward-looking, engaged, multilateral foreign policy that makes the United Nations central to any form of security or peace-building activity and does a whole range of security work which is very much in the tradition of Ireland and the Irish deployments”. He points to Ireland’s role in the EU peacekeeping mission to Chad which was headed by our own Lieut Gen Pat Nash as an example.

He was also deeply involved in the negotiations with the former communist countries seeking to join the EU and he believes the enlargement policy has been, “a huge foreign policy success” which has made for greater stability and security in central and eastern Europe. “They got massive enthusiasm and energy out of the whole process.”

King’s next posting was to the UN in the immediate aftermath of the start of the war in Iraq, before moving to Brussels as UK representative to the political and security committee of the EU.

He then went on to become chef de cabinetto Peter (now Lord) Mandelson as European trade commissioner, which was "incredibly stimulating". The new job included "some long and sometimes challenging conversations with representatives of the Irish farmers" (who would not have been great Mandelson admirers). "We listened to them very carefully and we did take very much into account some of the concerns that they were raising," he adds.

Asked for his personal view of Mandelson, he replies: “He’s actually a very warm, friendly and amusing human being; he’s a very effective politician, as I think has been proven in spades since his return to the UK scene.”

Arriving in his current job on September 8th, he found himself in the middle of the second Lisbon Treaty campaign. The firm referendum advice he received from Irish friends in administrative positions in Brussels was as follows: “The best thing you can do as British ambassador is, say nothing.”

Now that he is in a position to comment, he says it was “very striking in particular how civil society mobilised so effectively”. Between Lisbon, the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and the debate on the forthcoming Budget he feels like he has, “arrived in the middle of a movie that is on fast-forward”.

He expresses his appreciation that President Mary McAleese was prepared to accept his credentials at an early stage so he could begin his official duties right away. He attended the first day of the Nama debate in the Dáil and welcomes the fact that, “there is a lot of contact going on between the finance ministries, the regulators, the banks” in both jurisdictions.

“We need to make sure that those processes are managed in a way which works for both economies,” he says.

“The UK does as much trade with Ireland as it does with France [which has] 14/15 times the population.” Asked for his reaction to a recently-repeated call by Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams for the British government to act as “persuaders” for a united Ireland with the unionists, he says: “There are still some challenges obviously. There are challenges around politics. We need to keep working on devolution of policing and justice when the time is right to make progress on that.”

He particularly stresses the need to pay attention to the economy in Northern Ireland: “That’s one of the areas that we need to keep working on.”

On the threat posed by republican dissidents he says: “We’re seriously concerned about the recent incidents. There is excellent co-operation between the Garda and the PSNI and that’s very, very important.” Asked about the Dáil motion calling on the British Government to release all relevant documentation relating to the Dublin-Monaghan bombings of 1974, he says: “Our position is that we have sought to do everything we can to co-operate and assist with the inquiry.”

Northern Ireland may be quiescent, but the British government is facing a major political and security challenge in far-off Afghanistan. However the ambassador is unimpressed by comparisons between the situation there with the Vietnam War. “I don’t know that any of these sort of historical comparisons actually help you do effective policymaking,” he says.

“One of the challenges that we need to focus on, as well as the security challenge, is building stronger, more effective administrative and government capacity.”

On a more personal note, King says he is a dog-lover and will be approaching one of the dog-rescue shelters in search of a robust canine companion for weekend treks in the Wicklow Mountains. He is also a keen cyclist but, given his position, don’t expect to see him racing around the streets of Dublin anytime soon.

Political Correspondent