Statement by INUSA on the Swearing In of U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Kevin F. O’Malley

Irish Network USA would like to add our voice to the chorus of congratulations on the swearing in of Kevin F. O’Malley to serve as the US Ambassador to Ireland.

Mr. O’Malley embodies the very best traits of so many Irish Americans that still instinctively refer to Ireland as ‘home’. His willingness to listen to all sides, combined with an ability to make an informed and definitive decision, will serve him well in Dublin.  With his appointment and swearing in, Ambassador O’Malley joins a long line of top notch diplomats that have served in this prestigious post, and there is no doubt that he will bring the same honor to it, and to the US, as those before him.

We look forward to working with Ambassador O’Malley throughout his time in Dublin to further strengthen the already unbreakable bonds, in business, culture, education or sport, that already tie our two great nations together.

Simon Carswell was one of INUSA’s Featured Speakers in Austin. Here is a recent article; “Ireland pitches tent in boom town Austin, Texas!”

by Simon Carswell, Irish Times.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/ireland-pitches-tent-in-boom-town-austin-texas-1.1935087#.

Last Updated: Monday, September 22, 2014, 10:35

Austin revels in its kooky status and the Texan capital’s slogan “Keep Austin Weird!” has become a catch-all calling card for musicians and software coders, political liberals and start-up entrepreneurs.

So there is nothing weird about the Irish Government’s decision to establish a new Irish consulate and outposts forEnterprise Ireland and the IDA in Austin, where the organisations aim to help Irish firms win business there and attract more foreign direct investment out of Texas.

Austin, to which 110 people move each day, is America’s fastest growing city, with its strong employment prospects and attractive cost of living. This is lower than it is in America’s main tech hub, Silicon Valley and the San Francisco area.

Ireland will be the first EU country to set up a consulate in Austin and only the second internationally; Mexico has a diplomatic mission in Austin owing to the country’s proximity just south of the Texan border. The Irish Embassy is scouring for the right location for “Ireland House” amid ferocious competition for office space in this booming city.

“We are hoping for a prominent location, not far from the Capitol, to make a statement that we are here and that we are the first here from the European Union, ” says Adrian Farrell, the newly arrived Irish consul general.

Where Northern Ireland may have dominated Ireland’s diplomatic brief in the US in the past, the economic recovery at home has made strengthening business ties between the countries the priority for Ireland’s ambassador in Washington Anne Anderson.

Not having opened a consulate since the 1930s, the economic crisis forced a rethink on Ireland’s diplomatic frontiers to expand beyond the traditionally strategically important cities of New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.

The embassy opened a consulate in Atlanta in 2010 to corner the southeast of the country where the dynamic consul generalPaul Gleeson has covered much ground since being dispatched to that corner of the country. Attention immediately turned to the southwest. Texas, the 15th largest economy in the world and the second most populous state in the US with 27 million people, was the obvious choice. Then, it came to choosing between Dallas, Houston and Austin.

“There was sifting through the facts and figures of the trade and business connections,” said Anderson.

“Finally, the feeling was that the fit was best with Austin in that it is a very fast-growing, future-focused, young city: it has very clear strengths that match our strengths.”

A vibrant life sciences industry and information, communications and technology sector, as well as being an entrepreneurial hub and the seat of government in Texas, made Austin the winner.

Anderson said, on her visit to the city to attend the annual meeting of the growing Irish Network group last weekend, she heard someone describing Austin as being “powered by creativity,” which, she says, is similar to Ireland.

The University of Texas in Austin and other colleges in the city draw thousands of students and have helped to fuel that creativity. The city has strong cultural foundations and is home to the South By Southwest music, film and technology festival: linking it neatly with Ireland.

“The kind of vibe you have here in Austin is very much what identifies Ireland as well,” said Anderson.

The Government has led two trade missions to Austin and other Texan cities in the last two years hosted by Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton to try to tap some of the growing business in the city.

Orla Battersby, Enterprise Ireland’s North America director, said that early last year it was receiving an increasing number of calls from client companies about Austin and setting up in Texas.

“There is only so much you can do when you are not on the ground there,” she says.

She expects exports to the US by Enterprise Ireland client companies to grow to €2 billion and maybe €2.2 billion this year, helped by new connections in Texas.

Texan companies already employ 4,000 people in Ireland and the Lone Star State is the largest exporting American state by volume so it made sense for the IDA to look at Texas to open the agency’s seventh US office and tap this outward-looking market for inward investment.

“The state has four of the top-10 fastest-growing cities. We felt we needed to be a bit closer to that and to be in the mix there,” said Pat Howlin, the director of IDA’s North American operations.

Will Wynn, who was mayor of the city from 2003 to 2009, puts Austin’s strong growth down to the city figuring out, about a decade ago, the “economic development model of the 21st century”. In the last century, the focus was in building massive infrastructure: airports, shipping channels, seaports that requires thousands of bodies, he said.

“The 21st century model, that we got lucky and discovered early, is the opposite: you attract the people – young creative talent – and the jobs follow them,” said the Democratic mayor who spearheaded the Keep Austin Weird campaign from 2002.

“We focus on quality of life, live music and progressive politics, pro-gay rights, lenient marijuana laws – I’m half-joking but serious. More 25-to-34 year olds move to Austin, Texas than in any other place in North America.”

The “talent” didn’t come here because social media, internet and technology giants such as FacebookGoogle and Applewere here, says Wynn; those companies came here because the talent was here. Dell’s headquarters in Round Rock, north Austin, has drawn many Irish from the computer company’s operations in Limerick.

Politically, Austin’s liberal blue credentials in a very red conservative state – “the blueberry in the tomato soup”, as one local described it last weekend – has made the city stand out in Texas as a place that is open to fresh ideas, turning it into a hub of start-ups.

Austin’s alternative ways of thinking made the city an ideal location for entrepreneur Sean O’Sullivan, a one-time investor on RTÉ’s Dragon’s Den, when he was looking to expand Carma, his car-pooling business that matches commuters with their neighbours’ empty car seats.

The Cork-based company employs two staff in the city. “That sort of orientation towards experimentation and towards open-mindedness has helped Austin become a pioneer,” he said.

The affordability of Austin, the city’s deep talent pool and higher quality of living for start-up companies makes it a top-tier city for technology alongside Silicon Valley, Boston and New York, he says.

Ciaran Connell, founder of DecaWave, a Dublin company that makes chips to track global positioning indoors, raised €9 million from investors in Austin out of the €25 million the company has banked. Connell lived there for 11 years, working for phone company Motorola.

Texas was dominated by the oil industry in the 1970s and 1980s and Austin made a conscious effort to diversify into technology from the 1980s onwards, offering a cheaper alternative to Silicon Valley, a move Ireland should consider replicating too, says Connell.

“It became known as the Silicon Hills. Every company that is worth anything in technology has a huge base in Austin – every Californian, American, Korean and Israeli company. There is an argument for looking at Austin which has successfully copied Silicon Valley, and copy them,” he says.

Pat Doab, president of the Irish Network Austin chapter (one of 19 branches in the US), estimates that there are between 400 and 600 Irish people living in the Austin area with more families moving over as people are hired for projects in Dell.

“There is so much construction going on here – there are cranes everywhere: it is a very vibrant city,” he says.

Steve Lenox, co-president of Irish Network USA, said the city’s energy, spirit and enthusiasm, combined with Austin’s strategic significance for trade and investment with and in Ireland, makes the city a logical choice for the network’s annual meeting this year.

Now, one of the challenges for Ireland’s new diplomatic and economic outpost is to continue to attract American businesses out of Austin into Ireland. The relationships are clearly growing.

Ambassador Anderson points to two statistics mentioned by officials working with the city’s mayor Lee Leffingwell at their meeting last weekend: a study of passengers flying to Europe showed that Dublin was fourth in terms of the numbers travelling from Austin.

Another statistic from the mayor’s office, she says, is that more than 60 per cent of companies in the city have a strong interest in doing business in Europe but are not operating in that market yet.

“This city is only truly beginning to go global and think of itself in terms of global terms,” she said. “So – being in here early and with the kind of partnerships you are going to be able to set up between Irish companies and some of the companies over here – they can grow together.” Ireland in the United States: Embassies and offices Diplomatic representation Embassy: Washington DC Consulates: New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta and Austin IDA offices IDA offices: New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Mountain View (northern California), Irving (southern California) and Austin Enterprise Ireland offices New York, Boston, Silicon Valley and Austin

 

Irish Central: Irish Network gathers in the heart of Texas

Irish Central: Irish Network gathers in the heart of Texas

From September 11th-14th we gathered in Austin, Texas for our Annual National Conference.  Sheila Langan of Irish Central was there to capture the action.

INUSA – 19 chapters strong across the US after only four years – is a shining example of what can be achieved when the larger Irish diaspora bands together.

The network is dedicated to fostering professional, economic, cultural and social connections between Ireland and the US, and has grown dramatically since its founding four years ago in the midst of Ireland’s economic crisis. In the last year alone, its membership has nearly doubled in size to 3,500 and counting.

INUSA has tapped into the established Irish professional networks in New YorkBoston and Chicago, but the organization is also at the forefront in cities and states where the larger Irish communities are still in the process of connecting and growing – such as the Bay Area, with its many Irish entrepreneurs and start-ups; New Orleans, with its rich Irish cultural history just waiting to be further explored; and Austin, with its booming tech and innovation scene that’s drawing Irish transplants.”    Read more here in Irish Central. 

‘Duffy’s Cut’ Symposium planned at Immaculata!

‘Duffy’s Cut’ Symposium planned at Immaculata!

A small sign welcomes visitors to the Duffy’s Cut Museum room in the Gabriele Library at Immaculata University. Staff photo by Jim Callahan – Daily Local News
Artifacts recovered from archeological the dig in East Whiteland for clues into the fate of Irish railroad workers the Duffy’s Cut Museum room in the Gabriele Library at Immaculata University.Staff photo by Jim Callahan – Daily Local News

 

EAST WHITELAND >> An arts focused symposium developed after the discovery of Duffy’s Cut, the burial site of about 57 Irish immigrant railroad workers who died in 1832, will be held at Immaculata University Oct. 11.

The Irish Network of Philadelphia and the school’s history department are sponsoring events involving music, literature and dance that have commemorated the tragedy.

“Some of the areas where the Duffy’s Cut story has found a voice is the arts, so we are hoping to offer a full day of live Irish music, including songs inspired by this event,” said Bethanne Killian, chair of Irish Network Philadelphia. “In addition to live music, there will be movie screenings, dramatic reenactments, and Irish dancing.”

Over the past 15 years the university’s history department has collected numerous documents and stories about the fate of Irish immigrant track workers who were building the Philadelphia and Columbia Rail Road through Chester County in the summer of 1832.

The Gaelic-speaking workers were recruited off the docks of Philadelphia in June after immigrating from Ireland. After an outbreak of cholera, some died, but others were said to have been killed to prevent spread of the disease.

Sets of eight skeletons, including one woman, have been discovered. Some signs of violence documented by the archeology department of the University of Pennsylvania. One man was shot through the skull.

If documents and stories uncovered by Immaculata’s History Department and associates are true, the remains of 50 more buried could be near the site.

Immaculata Professor William Watson said organizers are still lining up logistics to find the mass grave where remaining victims are believed to be buried underneath about 50 feet of rail embankment that has built up over the past 180 years for the main east-west rail line across Pennsylvania.

The symposium is to raise awareness and funds for the effort, said Watson.

“We are calling it “Duffy’s Cut and the Arts — A Symposium,” said Killian.

The Irish Network is still developing the final schedule but it will be available by emailing Killian at bethannekillian@comcast.net. Other public announcements are to follow.

“Our vision is to demonstrate the impact this important project has had beyond the world of academia and the passion that is evoked by this American immigrant story,” said Killian. “ Because there is still much work to be done (excavation, DNA testing, historical and genealogical research) by the Duffy’s Cut team, we are hoping to raise both funds and awareness to allow them to continue their work,” she said.

Besides various artistic performances, panel groups will include a discussion by The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society on the significance Duffy’s Cut in the context of railroad history, said Killian.

The Pennsylvania Railroad was the successor railroad to the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. The railroad did its own investigation in the early 1900s into stories about the 1832 incident that became a foundation for the Immaculata investigation 90 years later.

Reach the author at JCallahan@dailylocal.com .

To view the article, click here.

INUSA Announces Films To Be Shown At Inaugural Film Festival During National Conference

INUSA Announces Films To Be Shown At Inaugural Film Festival During National Conference

Alamo_Drafthouse_West_Oaks.350w_263hINUSA Announces Films To Be Shown At Inaugural Film Festival During National Conference

Irish Network USA has announced the selection of two award winning feature films to be shown at their inaugural film festival on September 13, 2014. Doors will open at 2:45pm at the historic Alamo Drafthouse Ritz Cinema in Austin, Texas, for screenings of “Rebuilding the World Trade Center” and “The Irish Pub Film”. Both films will be followed by Q&A sessions with the filmmakers who will be participating remotely.

“We spent a great amount of time considering what films would best fit within the mission of Irish Network USA, and with ‘Rebuilding the World Trade Center’ and ‘The Irish Pub Film’ we’ve found them,” stated Steve Lenox, President of Irish Network USA. “Every one of our members can relate to the stories being told in these films, furthering our ‘boots to suits’ approach to engaging the Diaspora across the US.”

“Storytelling is a critical element in the life of the Irish, one that extends through the generations, no matter how far removed they may be from living within the borders of an island we all still refer to as home,” stated Deirdre Woodbyrne, Executive Director or Irish Network USA. “These films continue that tradition, and we know that as the credits roll and the lights come up on our inaugural film festival our members will feel closer to their heritage, and more engaged than ever.”

“Rebuilding the World Trade Center” by Belfast filmmaker and artist Marcus Robinson, is a culmination of ten years of work using 35 mm time-lapse film intertwined with a series of lithographs, drawings and oil paintings capturing life on the World Trade Center Site. Documenting the redevelopment of Ground Zero, from the perspective of the tradesmen and tradeswomen working there, the film gives an inside look at the motivation and commitment of those who have taken on the task of rebuilding on one of the most hallowed grounds in the world.

Alex Fegan’s “The Irish Pub Film” tells the stories of some of the most traditional pubs in Ireland, and the characters and memories within their walls. “We tell the story through the eyes and anecdotes of publicans whose pubs have been in their families for at least three generations, we learn of family & community, jokes & songs, life & loss, and more,” Fegan said. He continued, “I’m really thrilled for my film to be included as part of the inaugural INUSA Film Festival! Having worked with several of the Irish Network Chapters this year, I’ve realized what brilliant work they do to help promote Irish art and artists around America. We couldn’t be more grateful to Irish Network for the welcome and support we received at film festivals and other events we attended.”

For further information on the pubs and the film, please visit www.irishpubfilm.com.

More about Marcus’ film and artwork can be found by on his website at www.marcusrobinsonart.com.

Tickets for the Irish Network Film Festival are $15.00 and can be purchased in advance at the Irish Network USA website.

The festival will take place as part of INUSA’s National Conference to be held September 11-14 in Austin, Texas. To learn more about the conference click here. Follow Irish Network USA on twitter @IrishNetworkUSA and the annual conference at #INUSA14.

 


Thank you to our friends at Irish Central for helping us make this important announcement!