February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
And then he will then take leave of America in the capacity that has become so familiar to Irish Americans as a result of eleven years at the head of Ireland’s government.
Next time the bowl of shamrock is presented to an American president it will be by a new taoiseach. That president will be newly minted too.
In a few days, the economic future of the new Northern Ireland will be mapped out at an investment conference in Belfast.
Here also the involvement of the United States, politically and economically, and corporate America, financially, will be obvious for all the world to see.
A consequence of American engagement in Northern Ireland has been hope and a flowering prosperity and the Belfast conference promises to spur even stronger change and growth.
As with the Republic, Northern Ireland is also on the brink of significant political change.
Ian Paisley will take his leave from the office of first Minister in a few weeks time. In his second political incarnation, Paisley has become a robust ambassador for all the people living in the Six Counties.
This was never more on display than during his recent visit to New York and attendance at a press conference announcing the city’s huge financial investment, by means of the Emerald Fund, in the future of the North, its people and those who live in the border counties of the Republic.
The Echo has been a witness to many changes and much of consequence these past eighty years. This week we are proud to play something of a role in the pursuit of even better times.
The Irish Echo Index Top 30, which will be unveiled at a luncheon in lower Manhattan on Thursday, places the spotlight on 30 publicly-traded companies doing business in the North while promoting it as an advantageous investment location for other companies looking for a setting that is secure, accomodating and provides profitable opportunity.
Americans don’t have to be much convinced that economic opportunity is vital for a fully functioning democracy to survive and thrive.
The New York event, we hope, will be seen as something of a curtain raiser to the Belfast gathering.
And from that gathering we hope will emerge an even stronger relationship than the already vital one that brings together the people of Ireland and America in so many ever changing and always consequential ways.