Galway Minister takes craic and culture on global tour
A Galway Minister spent the run-up to St Patrick’s Day in a Craic House – and left GAA jerseys from Sylane and Corofin behind him!
Minister of State Seán Canney was meeting up with members of the Irish community in Seoul and Tokyo during engagements as part of his St Patrick’s Day programme in Asia.
And that included a visit to the Craic House in Seoul, where Minister Canney met members of the Irish community living and working in the city and thanked the bar for providing a welcoming space that helps keep Irish culture and community alive so far from home.
As part of the visit, Minister Canney presented the owners of the Craic House - Soyeon Lee, Kevin Conlan and Neil Timmons – with two GAA jerseys from his home clubs in Galway.
The Sylane hurling jersey and the Corofin football jersey were presented to the Minister ahead of the trip by Liam Brady of Sylane and Tommy Greaney of Corofin - and they will now be displayed in the bar a long way from home.
It was great to spend time with members of the Irish community during my visit to Seoul and Tokyo.
During his visit to Tokyo, Minister Canney also presented the same jerseys to representatives of Japan GAA, recognising the important role GAA clubs around the world play in bringing Irish communities together and promoting Irish culture internationally.
“It was great to spend time with members of the Irish community during my visit to Seoul and Tokyo. No matter where you travel in the world, you will always find Irish people creating a strong sense of community,” he said.
Meanwhile, six decades of diplomatic relations between Ireland and New Zealand were celebrated in style over the weekend as Galway TD and Minister of State Noel Grealish met with members of the Irish Business Network of New Zealand on his trip Down Under.
Minister Grealish, who was in New Zealand as part of his St Patrick’s Day Programme, took the opportunity to highlight the opportunities that exist for Irish businesses to enter and expand in the New Zealand market – in particular to Irish agri-tech companies that are successfully operating in New Zealand.
“A key part of the St Patrick’s Day programme for the Government is to promote trade and investment, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to help Irish businesses seeking to do business here in New Zealand and support the work of Enterprise Ireland,” he said.
In line with the ambition of the St Patrick’s day programme to also highlight research partnerships, the Minister visited the New Zealand Bioeconomy Science Institute and the Ag Emissions Centre, among others.
The Minister noted ‘as Minister with special responsibility for research and development, I was pleased to visit a number of agricultural and bioeconomy research centres here in New Zealand’.
“My Department has run a joint research programme with the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries since 2022 and I took the opportunity to visit some of the eleven collaborative projects taking place in the area of agriculture and climate,” he said.