The Swedish embassy in Ireland is closing after 65 years, while the Philippine embassy celebrates its first year in Dublin.
Ambassador Abadilla was assigned as Consul General in Sydney in the mid-90s. After 4 years in Australia, he moved to Washington DC as head of the Philippine Mission and was later based in Honolulu.
Dublin, being small and less cosmopolitan, raised some challenges for Ambassador Abadilla. When he was asked to open his country’s first embassy in Ireland, after a lifetime living mostly in the US, he had to leave his family behind. His wife and Ivy League-educated daughters decided to stay in New York because they prefer the shopping and cultural life there.
Vanna Lim, secretary to the ambassador, has a strong American accent. She happens to be the pretty daughter of Corito and Victor Y. Lim, a former classmate of Abadilla at Ateneo de Manila. ?