Ireland's presidency of the EU Council, the eighth time in its history, was meant to be a proud moment to showcase the benefits that membership in the bloc has brought to the shamrock-loving republic and the diplomatic skills it has acquired as a result.
"Holding the presidency is an honour and a responsibility, and we are ready to give it our all," Taoiseach Micheál Martin said at the presidency's opening ceremony at Dublin Castle.
But the special occasion has been largely overshadowed by an explosive scandal over Ireland's alumina sales to Russia, an uncomfortable, perhaps untenable, look for a country that has placed support for Ukraine at the very top of its priorities and is supposed to act as an "honest broker" amongst the other 26 member states.
For Ireland, a country whose controversies tend to revolve around Big Tech and low taxation, the perception of being an indirect enabler of the greatest armed conflict on European soil since World War II is proving to be a devastating PR crisis.
The uproar has been building up since late March, when a media group exposed the lucrative ties between Aughinish Alumina, a sprawling refinery in western Ireland, and Russia's military-industrial complex, and was sent into overdrive this week as Ireland marked the start of its rotating presidency to much fanfare.
