February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Patrick Markey
The recently appointed United States ambassador to Ireland, Michael Sullivan, will make his first public appearance before New York’s Irish-American community since accepting the diplomatic posting late last year.
Sullivan, a former governor of Wyoming and a close associate of President Clinton, takes over the post from Jean Kennedy Smith, who was ambassador in Dublin for five years.
Brian O’Dwyer, chairman of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, who invited Sullivan to New York, said that the visit was an opportunity for the new ambassador to meet with representatives of New York City’s Irish and Irish-American community and for the community to express the issues important to them. Sullivan is scheduled to meet with business, arts and labor leaders in the Irish-American community at several venues this week.
"We’re trying to give him a broad range of meetings with people from the community here," O’Dwyer said.
Sullivan was elected governor of Wyoming in 1986 and served as leader of the state for two terms. In 1996 he held a fellowship at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Never miss an issue of The Irish Echo
Subscribe to one of our great value packages.
"It is mostly to get acquainted and to listen to the expectations and concerns of the Irish-American community," Sullivan said of his New York visit. Sullivan will leave for Dublin from New York to start his new position on Jan. 15.
The ambassador will be available to meet the public at an open event on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 6 p.m. at Night Owls, 1036 Second Ave., at 54th Street, in Manhattan. For details, call (718) 478-5502.