February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Harry Keaney
Deputy First Minister for Northern Ireland Seamus Mallon has announced that the Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland is to open an office in Boston early next year. Mallon made the announcement while visiting Boston during the recent Northern Ireland U.S. roadshow aimed at attracting further U.S. investment to the North.
Mallon said it was fitting that Boston had been chosen as the location for IDB’s fourth North American office.
"This historic city was the landing point for thousands of emigrants from Ulster in the 18th and 19th centuries as they fled poverty and oppression in search of jobs and a better way of life. How fitting it is then that . . . Boston is contributing to the job of creating employment in Northern Ireland," Mallon said.
"Boston’s colleges have contributed to the development of management skills in Northern Ireland. Many of our up and coming managers have attended Harvard Business School through a relationship with the University of Ulster’s Business School."
Mallon said that the relationship between Boston College and the University of Ulster had produced pioneering initiatives such as the developing Entrepreneurs in Boston for Ireland.
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At a presentation in Boston’s John F. Kennedy Museum and Library, Ted Kelly, president and chief operating officer of the Liberty Mutual Group, told business and civic leaders why his company chose Northern Ireland as a base from which to provide the group’s worldwide operations with software programming and support.
"Our information technology people looked around the world . . . we reached the decision that Northern Ireland was by far the best option. The investment has achieved all that we had hoped," Kelly said.
Meanwhile, Boston-based Segue Software Inc., is to set up a worldwide technical support center in Belfast. The project will employ 45 people within the next three years. Segue Software was floated on the NASDAQ in 1996, five years after its formation.
IBO news
The Irish Business Organization of New York will honor Monaghan native Tony White, chairman & CEO of the Abacus Direct Corporation, as IBO business person of the year this Friday, Oct. 23, at the IBO’s annual gala ball in the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan. White has selected the Emerald Isle Immigration Center as the beneficiary to receive a portion of the evening’s proceeds.
The Arthur Clements Awards will be presented to Bill Buckley, Tess Casey of Aisling Flowers, and Philip McGauran of Belvedere Communications. The Celtic Achievement Award will go to former senator George Mitchell, who was chairman of the Northern Ireland peace talks.
Samantha Janna FitzGerald, 15, of Fort Lee, N. J., will sing both the Irish and the American National Anthems, as well as "My Heart Will Go On," from the movie "Titanic," and "Think of Me," from the musical, "Phantom of the Opera."
Tickets cost $150 per person, $1,500 for a table of 10. For information, call (718) 745-9146.
China lady
Donegal Parian China Promotions Representative Patricia Boyle will visit a number of Irish import retail stores in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia during November and December.
During her visits, she will deliver a history of Donegal Parian China, fine china handcrafted in County Donegal. She will also demonstrate the art of producing parian china, and show a video of the process at the pottery in Ireland.
Pub sold for £3.65m
Gerry O’Malley, owner of the Four Roads Pub, in Crumlin, Dublin, is the new owner of the Halfway House, in Walkinstown, which sold for nearly £3.65 million, according to the Sunday Business Post newspaper. According to Mark Smyth, of selling agents McCabe Crisp, bidding for the Halfway House opened at £1 million, with further bids coming slowly but steadily during an hour-long auction. The property went on the market at £2.2 million. It was eventually knocked down after a total of 35 bids.
There have been a number of high-profile pub sales in Dublin this year, with a number changing hands for more than £3 million. Dublin pubs expected to come on the market soon are Hynes in Rathmines, Mullingar House in Chapelizod, and the Cherry Tree in Walkinstown.