Outgoing Irish ambassador reflects on 4 years in Korea

Irish Ambassador to Korea Michelle Winthrop poses in a street in southern Seoul's Noryangjin-dong, June 18. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu

By Bereket Alemayehu

• Published Jul 17, 2026 5:20 AM KST

Michelle Winthrop has been Ireland's top envoy to Seoul since 2022.

In her four years as ambassador, she has focused on strengthening the growing relationship between Ireland and Korea in several areas, including trade and investment, education, culture, innovation and shared democratic values. She will be remembered as a prominent advocate for mental health and well-being, encouraging more open conversations about emotional resilience, inclusive workplaces and healthy communities. She has spoken frequently about the importance of prioritizing mental health alongside economic and social development.

Winthrop has only been with the Irish Foreign Service about 10 years, but she has a long background of working in development cooperation. She previously worked in Africa, particularly Ethiopia, East Africa, Indonesia and Latin America.

While her time here coming to a close, she met with The Korea Times on June 18 to reflect on her time here.

Q. What were your first impressions when you arrived in Korea?

In Ireland, we have one-tenth the population of Korea but it's the same landmass size. My first impression was just how many people there are — to be honest, it took a while to get used to that, just the sheer mass of humanity everywhere you went.

We're maybe a bit more relaxed in Ireland. But in general, everybody has been very friendly and very kind and gentle.

It takes time to get to know how to get the best out of your relationship with Koreans. I feel like I've figured that out now, but it took a while.

Q. Koreans are sometimes described as the Irish of Asia. Do you agree?

Actually, this morning I was with (former U.N. Secretary General) Ban Ki-moon, and he said that Koreans are the Irish of Asia. And I often say instead that the Irish are the Koreans of Europe.

We're very similar. We've been through a lot of the same experiences. We've been through colonialism. We've been through divisions of our people. We've been through famine. We love to sing. We love to tell stories. We like to drink. Yeah, we really do have a lot in common. And even if you look in more recent history, we've kind of turned our economies around in a very short period of time.

We love sports. The kind of fever around the World Cup reminds me of how we didn't qualify for the World Cup, but it reminds me a lot of how we engage when we're in a big sporting tournament. I think we're just very similar characters.

The only difference I would say between the Irish and Koreans is that Koreans are a bit more reserved. But when you realize that most of the time, people are just being shy, it helps because you realize you have to smash the glass. Once you smash the glass, you break through and you form a connection, and then it's wonderful. Irish people are typically not so shy.

Q. What aspects of Korean culture have you found most interesting or surprising?

The thing I love the most is Korean food and literature. I'm such a fan of all the various books and I can't get enough of them. I think Koreans, a bit like the Irish, are just really good at telling a good story. And I think that's why K-dramas are so popular, that the ability to craft an amazing story is kind of innate for Koreans. But I've learned so much about different aspects of Korean history, Korean culture and what makes Koreans tick from reading all these books. “Human Acts” by Han Kang is one of my favorite books ever.

Q. How would you describe the current relationship between Ireland and Korea?

We're now in 43 years of diplomatic ties. During those years, one of the big events was the visit of our prime minister, Leo Varadkar. He came in late 2023 with three cabinet ministers and a delegation of 100 people.

Also, Ireland and Korea work closely together at the U.N. And we know we can always rely on each other, particularly at the U.N. If something is really important to Ireland, and we need support from a partner in Asia, we can always be guaranteed of Korean support.

Our trade is booming. We are at, in 2024, 7.6 billion euros ($8.7 billion) in two-way trade, which is huge, and it's only growing. What do we import from Korea to Ireland? Cars, TVs, phones, all the stuff you might expect. The Hyundai Tucson is the most popular car in Ireland.

And then here to Korea, we export a lot of medical devices and technology, beef and oats. We have a lot of farmers. The beef sector is really important to us and it's almost like a sense of pride that we're able to export our beef to Korea. We export services in the technology sector for ICT and AI. It's a strong and healthy relationship.

And then we have a lot of people-to-people ties. When I came to Korea for the first time, I think there was maybe one Korean restaurant in Dublin that people went to. Now, maybe there's around 20. Those people-to-people connections are really growing.

With everything that's going on in the world, and some of our values under threat and our commitment to free trade under threat, countries like Korea and Ireland need to work together even more closely, because we believe in the same things. The same things have made us prosperous: peace, multilateralism, trade, free exchange of people and ideas. So we need to build on that. I would say we’re going forward in our relations.

Korea has just joined the European Union's science research framework, called Horizon Europe, as an associate member, which means Korean scientists can collaborate with European scientists in science and technology. The other thing is that we're hoping to establish a direct flight, which would be amazing. And that would really help further with the scientific collaboration and trade.

Q. Cultural exchanges often strengthen diplomatic relations. How is the Irish Embassy promoting Irish culture in Korea?

St. Patrick's Day is always the highlight of our calendar.

Also in February, we have St. Bridget's Day, which is the day when we celebrate women. It's a little bit like International Women's Day, but it's kind of Irish.

We also have a literature festival, which will be held in September this year, where we promote Irish literature. That’s because we have many Irish books translated into Korean, and they're proving really popular. We take this opportunity to promote it. We have two famous Irish writers coming in September. There's a very famous writer called Paul Lynch, and he's coming from Ireland; he's probably the biggest name we've ever had.

Q. Ireland is known for its strong sense of community. How does the embassy engage with Irish citizens?

For the Irish government, a relationship with our communities abroad is important, and we have a diaspora strategy that provides the framework for how we work with communities.

Some of it is about working as partners on promoting, for example culture and literature. We have members of the community working with us on various initiatives. Some of us are about sports. We have three Gaelic football clubs in Korea.

Supporting our community is a really important national priority for us, but some of it is about looking after the well-being of our citizens.

Q. Could you share a recent project or event that you are particularly proud of?

Recently, we took part in the Seoul Queer Culture Festival. I suppose it was such a huge event. It was a great day, and the role Ireland plays in supporting LGBT rights is really personally important to me, and it's really important to the embassy. We've been prominent in that regard, and I'm really proud of us.

Probably my biggest highlight was in 2024, when Korea hosted the Homeless World Cup. We had Irish men's and women's teams in the games. The groups that came out were such a special group of people. They'd all been through some tough times. They played really well. It was a wonderful week.

Usually, we get many visitors to the embassy, such as dignitaries, experts and ministers. But to have people who had been homeless come to my home and feed them and make them feel at home, it was very special.

Q. Mental health has become an important public issue globally. Why has this issue become such a personal and professional priority for you?

Many people become champions of mental health when they've had personal tragedy in their lives. I haven't lost anyone close to me to suicide or anything, but I've seen the impact that depression has on society and on the economy and on families in Ireland, and we have a long history of people suffering with depression. The Solas initiative and fostering a general culture of talking about mental health do have an impact in Ireland.

I was pretty shocked at how severe the mental health epidemic is here in Korea and how many people were suffering, but what I was really shocked by was the stigma. I just thought you know what this is something that this is a story we can tell from our own experience. I feel quite proud of the fact that we've got this Solas initiative.

Q. Is there a place in Korea that has left a lasting impression on you?

I love Gwangju. It's a tough place where people are very open and patriotic. People are not afraid to say what they think. It's very friendly and interesting.

The whole democracy movement story has really stirred my soul, in a way, because I think it happened around the same time that we were having similar conflict in Ireland. And it's such a story of young people as well, and our own story of conflict is about young people.

Bereket Alemayehu is an Ethiopian photo artist, social activist and writer based in Seoul. He’s also the co-founder of Hanokers, a refugee-led social initiative, and a freelance contributor for Pressenza Press Agency.