Republic brings Wales into line with Northern Ireland.

In 1999 the Republic's Government opened Consulates in Cardiff and Edinburgh, after the Welsh Assembly Government and Scottish Assemblies were set up and not (as far as I recall) directly as "part of the Good Friday Agreement" as stated by the Celtic League.

However, having just re-read the episode again in Godson's masterful biography of Trimble, it seems that the setting up of the consulates in Cardiff and Edinburgh to compliment the existing embassy in London was part of a deliberate political statement on the part of the Irish government (ie those three capital cities and clearly not Belfast were being accepted by the ROI as integral, although separate parts of a foreign nation, the UK).

Whatever the motivation, it hasn't really proved really that important, I suppose, in the long-run, especially now with this news:

In July 2009, the Irish Government took the decision to close the Consulate in Cardiff, due to budget cuts, but there are no plans to close the Edinburgh Consulate.

An economic not political decision obviously, but (in this particular area anyway) one which has the result of Cardiff (and Wales) being now being treated by the Republic's government in exactly the same way diplomatically as Belfast (and Northern Ireland).