What does an Irish ambassador do day to day? We went to Spain to find out 

While a diplomatic passport and a large mansion in a leafy area might come as a perk of the job, for the ambassador and his small team in Madrid, dealing with the 39 ongoing consular cases is the priority.

When an Irish citizen gets into trouble abroad, no matter how far-flung the location our diplomatic staff are the ones who quietly work at speed in the background to ensure their safety.

From emergency evacuations of war zones and natural disaster areas to supporting bereaved families who have tragically lost loved ones in different time zones, a network of 1,341 people working in missions overseas are there to support Irish people in times of crisis.

Last year, the embassy in Madrid dealt with 400 new consular cases, which spanned everything from 628 lost passports; to 63 people who got themselves arrested and one couple who staff became aware of before they even arrived on Spanish soil due to their unruly behaviour on the flight over.

There are also more complex cases involving missing people; prisoners; those with serious mental health issues; critically ill patients and, sadly, those who pass away while abroad.

"Consular is obviously a big, big part and we want it to be; it's meaningful work — you're solving people's really, really difficult problems for them and you're offering real support to people which is what the State should do. We take it very seriously and it's now a really central plank in the department's work," says Smyth who has previously been posted in Brussels and the UN in New York.

It's Tuesday morning and a dazzling spring light shines in through Smyth's office windows on the fourth floor of a building that is shared with Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia, and Tourism Ireland to form one of a number of 'Ireland Houses' the State has established under its Global Ireland 2025 strategy.

Today, he has spent the morning meeting with the owners of a local gourmet food market which will host a number of St Patrick's Day events to showcase Irish produce before heading back to the Embassy for discussions with the Enterprise Ireland and Tourism Ireland staff.

In the afternoon, Carlos Burgos, the organiser of a festival to commemorate Red Hugh O'Donnell, comes into the office.

For a number of years, those living in the city of Valladolid have recreated the funeral of the Irish chieftain with a procession though the streets complete with an empty coffin, and the ambassador is keen to get an update on how preparations are going for this year's event.

"There's always somebody somewhere overseas who has a connection with Ireland, and our job is to find them to build relationships with them, to enhance that relationship, to strengthen it, to build it up as strongly as we can," Smyth says.

Drawing on these connections is also vital in promoting business, tourism, and cultural links as well as creating strong political and diplomatic ties.

These connections extend right the way up to the current prime minister Pedro Sánchez who as a teenager was among the 35,000 Spanish students who come to Ireland each year to learn English.

Fostering these relationships allows our diplomats to become the eyes and ears of the State abroad, another important aspect of the job.

"You try to find out as much as possible, including formally through meetings with representatives of the foreign ministry or the prime minister's office or maybe the agriculture ministry, we would be meeting those people to get the official line and then you'd be following the media, be talking to people in business and you put together a jigsaw that is any society.

"There are many different parts, there is the official line, then there's what's going on in the business sector, the NGO sector, interactions with neighbours, for instance," he says, pointing to Spain's important links to Morocco for example.

Policy

With over 100 missions abroad reports back to Iveagh House are as "succinct as possible," and there are fortnightly meetings with Ambassadors across the 26 EU countries.

"We would basically convey the main four or five main issues mainly as they relate to Ireland. Some of them may relate very directly — if you're in the middle of an election campaign that's important if there's going to be a change of government, for instance, there could be a change of policy. That is a very important thing both in multilateral [terms] within the EU and maybe within the UN, but also bilaterally because if you are working closely [with a country] a change of government would change that."

The lure of a life in exotic parts of the world is often seen as what attracts many to the Department of Foreign Affairs but the Ambassador insists that a career as a diplomat means "you are a civil servant who does work some of the time overseas".

"The fundamental thing is you're a civil servant, and you represent the State overseas."

'It's not just interesting work, it's meaningful'

It's late afternoon when Smyth receives an update from staff on the current consular workload.

This includes one case involving one man who suffered a severe brain injury after a fall and has been in an induced coma for a number of weeks.

From the first phone call, which often comes from a family member in Ireland, consular staff can be involved in supporting the citizen and their loved ones for many weeks and sometimes months. Complex medical or mental health issues can involve consulting with hospital or medical staff, translating for the family, putting them in touch with social workers as well as assisting that person in getting back home when they are well enough.

"It's not just interesting work, it's meaningful, and particularly in relation to the consular work that we do because we're making a difference when people get into crisis situations, whether it's health, welfare, or even just travel documents. That in itself, as anybody who's lost these documents will know, can be a real problem," the Ambassador says.

"We have great privileges We get access to public servants, to public events, we are witness to very interesting events. It's a huge privilege to do that if you're interested in this area of work. I've never woken up to say, 'I don't want to go into work,' I love what I do," Smyth says.

His working day ends back at his home in the city, the impressive ambassador's residence, with a large gathering of Irish living in the city and not a Ferrero Rocher in sight.