November Newsletter

News about Ireland

Ireland’s Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, unveiled the Irish Government’s Budget for 2015, when our deficit will drop below the EU target of 3% of GDP. Growth for the Irish economy in 2014 is forecast to reach 4.7%. Minister Noonan confirmed the long-term retention of Ireland’s 12.5% corporation tax rate, the phasing out of the so-called “double Irish” for existing investors by the end of 2020, and plans to develop a “Knowledge Development Box” to attract and retain ‘knowledge-based’ intellectual property and investment. You can read Minister Noonan’s speech and find much more detail on Budget 2015.

Former US Senator Gary Hart has been appointed by Secretary of State John Kerry to assist the political parties in Northern Ireland – and the Irish and British governments – overcome difficult current political issues in Northern Ireland. The appointment was welcomed by Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan.

The new US Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin O’Malley, shared this video on his first few days in the job.

The Consul General wrote an article for the Jacksonville Business Journal on the potential to deepen business ties between Ireland and north-east Florida.

The Lonely Planet travel guide named Ireland as one of the top 10 countries to visit in the world, while Forbes looked at “Wet and Wild in Ireland: The Adventurous Side of the Emerald Isle”. The Financial Times looked at “Ireland and the World”.

Electric Lit unveiled an online ‘Literary Atlas of Ireland’. And University College Dublin Professor Des Higgins was revealed to have written one of the 10 most cited research papers of all time.

Upcoming Events

The Irish Chamber of Commerce of Atlanta hosts Ireland’s Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys, for a lunchtime talk on “Ireland and our cultural economy: the arts as a gateway to business and tourism” from 12pm on Wednesday, November 5, at the Capital City Club downtown. You can reserve your place online.

The Minister will also speak at the launch of the next volume of the letters of Samuel Beckett at Emory University on Wednesday, November 5, with Beckett’s letters read by renowned Irish actor Barry McGovern and local performers. The event will be at the Schwartz Center at 8pm and will be free with no ticket required. Barry will also perform or read at East Tennessee State University (November 3), Georgia State University (November 6), the University of Georgia (November 10) and the University of Alabama in Birmingham (November 12) during his visit.

After her Atlanta programme, Minister Humphreys will travel to New Orleans for International Famine Commemorations over November 6-9, which will include a keynote address at an academic symposium organised by Tulane University; the opening of a new exhibition on the Famine at the Irish Cultural Museum of New Orleans; a wreath-laying at the New Basin Canal, which many Irish died digging in the years before the Famine; and an event at Gallier Hall organised by the Irish Network of New Orleans. The Minister will also speak at a business breakfast hosted by the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, Jay Dardenne. You can find details on these and many more events at www.ifnola2014.org.

A new production, ‘Trust Byron’, by Atlanta’s Celtic Theatre company, Arís, opens Thursday, November 13, at Georgia Public Broadcasting and runs until Sunday, November 23. You can find more information and purchase tickets online.

The annual meeting of the Irish American Chamber of Commerce of Florida will take place at Fiddler’s Green in Orlando on Friday, November 14; you can start to get involved by taking a look at their website.

Professor Tom Chaffin will speak about “Frederick Douglass’s Irish Odyssey” at The Carter Center on Monday, November 17, at 7pm; the event is free and open to the public.

Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow performs at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta on Wednesday, November 5, either side of concerts in Tennessee (Nashville) and North Carolina (Carrboro). You can find details and purchase tickets online [link no longer available].

Gráinne Owen, the Irish founder of ‘Curing Kids Cancer’, is organising a fundraiser in Atlanta on Friday, November 7, featuring Braves pitcher Craig Kimbrel and Grammy Award-winning musician, Ricky Skaggs; you can find details online.

Derek Warfield and the young Wolfe Tones will be amongst a series of Irish artists performing at The Irish House in New Orleans over November 7-8.

Historian David Gleeson will speak about his latest book “The Green and the Gray: The Irish in the Confederate States of America” at Georgia Southern University on Monday, November 10; details available online.

Gary Mason, a former Methodist clergyman in Belfast, Northern Ireland, will speak on “Reconciliation in a post conflict society” at Emory University on Wednesday, November 12.

Irish poet, Peter Fallon, will speak at the Woodruff Library at Emory at 6.30pm on Thursday, November 20, to mark the closing of the exhibition “Seamus Heaney: The Music of What Happens”.

And mark your diaries for the famous Atlanta Celtic Christmas Concert, which will take place at the Rialto Theatre on Saturday, December 20, and Sunday, December 21. You can find tickets and more information on their website.

If there are Irish events you’d like us to highlight in future newsletters, please let us know by Contacting Us.