[1] Patrick McCartan was to visit Moscow on the instructions of Éamon de Valera to make inquiries on the possibility of mutual recognition.

In February 2009, the Russian Navy aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov caused a large oil spill while refuelling off the coast of County Cork.

It is believed that these provocative missions are meant to intimidate, to test RAF response time, and to gather intelligence on British-Irish air defence co-operation.

[9] The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) was forced to delay flights and divert civilian passenger aircraft out of the path of the Russian bombers.

[10] The bombers flew within 25 nautical miles of the Irish coast, and were intercepted by RAF Eurofighter Typhoon jets scrambled from Britain.

Included on the planning application was a large underground complex, marked for storage and plant use, despite there being "plenty of room" to build above ground.

The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the expulsion as "an act of solidarity with the United Kingdom" following a nerve agent attack in Salisbury earlier that month.

[14] There was controversy in January 2022, when Russia announced plans to hold naval drills about 150 nautical miles off the coast of County Cork, within Ireland's exclusive economic zone.

[15] Eventually, in response to a request from the Irish government, Russia's Minister of Defence Sergey Shoigu agreed to move the naval drills further away from Ireland "as a gesture of goodwill".

[16] On 24 February 2022, Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an "immoral and outrageous breach of the most fundamental principles of international law" and a "shocking murderous act of aggression against a sovereign peaceful state".

The embassy claimed that gardaí did nothing to stop the truck, calling the incident a "blatant violation" of international diplomatic law and demanding that the Irish state ensure the safety of its staff.

It was also highlighted that Russia had an usually high number of diplomats working out of its Dublin embassy, which had long been seen as a hub for Russian intelligence in western Europe.