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On her Seattle visit, she was accompanied by her husband Dr. Martin McAleese; by Michael Ahern, T.D., Irish Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; by Noel Fahey, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States and Christine Fahey; by Dónal Denham, Consul General of Ireland for the Western United States and Siobhán Denham; plus executives of Enterprise Ireland; the Irish Chambers of Commerce; and other Embassy and Consular officials. Monday EventsThe evening of her arrival, President McAleese spoke at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond to about 200 mostly Irish-born professionals who work in the Seattle area for companies like Microsoft and Boeing. She received an enthusiastic welcome from those in attendance, people who are now considered to be the inaugural members of the Irish Professionals Network in the Seattle area. The event was organized by Enterprise Ireland and anyone interested in the Irish Professionals Network should contact David Nihill at David.Nihill@enterprise-ireland.com or call (650) 329-1414.
Tuesday EventsOn Tuesday morning, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels paid a courtesy call on the President to welcome her to Seattle, and later that morning, the President toured the Matt Talbot Center, a treatment program for the homeless named after the Dublin saint. Center Director Gregg Alex described the counselling and other resources provided for homeless people, and how the building itself contains new purpose-built transitional housing for members who have made the necessary commitment to get off the streets. He also explained the Center's Irish connection, with several Irish and Irish-American members on the Board of Directors, and the strong support the Center receives from Seattle's Irish community. The President had coffee and visited with many of the Center's members and toured part of the facility. She was scheduled to visit the Center for about 30 minutes but found it so interesting and inspirational that she stayed over an hour. For more information on the Center, visit www.matttalbotcenter.org.
The only completely public event during the President's visit was a foreign policy speech on Tuesday evening at the University of Washington's Kane Hall to the Jackson School of International Studies where over 700 people heard her lecture entitled “Europe, Ireland, and the United States.” She said she deliberately put Ireland in the middle of the title as she viewed Ireland as being a bridge between Europe and the U.S. Speaking of the European Union's huge potential, the President said, “Our future is linked to the future of half a billion men and women from Estonia in the Baltic to Malta in the Mediterranean and we are part of an extraordinary adventure in democratic partnership that some might see as nothing short of miraculous.” Following the lecture, she met with a select group of 30 UW students for a Q&A session that lasted over 30 minutes.
Wednesday EventsOn Wednesday morning, the President spoke to about 400 Seattle-area business executives at a Business Breakfast hosted by Enterprise Ireland. That morning, Michael Ahern, Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, led a delegation representing Irish aerospace and related companies to the Boeing facility in Renton where they toured the plant where Boeing produces the 737 planes. Irish company Ryanair, one of Boeing's biggest customers, has placed firm orders for 140 of the new 737-800 airplanes.
Later, the President spoke at a luncheon at the Museum of Flight that was hosted by the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, and which was attended by Boeing Company and other aerospace executives. At the luncheon, she declared that the Irish government was committed to making Ireland “a European center of excellence for aerospace companies.” Later that day she met with the Editorial Board of The Seattle Times where she said that peace will come to Northern Ireland as soon as the Irish Republican Army disbands and changes into something resembling “an old soldiers' club.” She also credited Ireland's adoption of free secondary education in 1969 for unleashing the brainpower that produced the economic miracle called the Celtic Tiger. She said that where Ireland had an agricultural economy in the Fifties and Sixties, now it's a center of information technology, aerospace, communications and financial services. That same evening, Consul General Dónal Denham hosted about 600 members of the Pacific Northwest's Irish community at a Presidential reception.
People attended from all over the Pacific Northwest, with some driving to attend from as far away as Butte and Missoula, Montana. Others came from California, Portland and Spokane, and the Irish in Hawaii and Alaska were also represented. The President spoke of people in times past being forced by poverty and other circumstances to leave Ireland. She quoted from an Irish emigrant's letter written in 1883 from his new home near Seattle to his family back in County Limerick: “To speak in truth, my last thought going to bed at night and first arising in the morning are of home. The thoughts of it everlastingly haunt my mind,” and she said, “so they came to Seattle and made it their home and the home of their children but if they loved this Pacific State they also kept alive the love of that far off Atlantic island.”
The full text of the letter can be read at www.irishclub.org/emigrant.htm. After the reception, the President spent almost an hour meeting and greeting people. All those in attendance appear unanimous in agreeing with Consul General Dónal Denham that her visit to Seattle was “a unique, lifetime experience, never to be forgotten.” Irish Trade MissionAn Irish Trade Mission, consisting of 33 people representing 23 Irish aerospace and telecommunications companies, arrived in Seattle in advance of the President's visit, and during her visit held numerous productive meetings with Seattle-area businesses. There are over 160 aerospace companies based in Ireland producing a wide variety of aerospace goods and services, and Ireland has also become a hotbed of innovation for emerging telecommunications technologies. The Irish Trade Mission trip was coordinated by Enterprise Ireland (www.enterprise-ireland.com) and specific details on the mission are available at www.irishtrademission-seattle05.com.
International JoyceIn her Wednesday evening speech to Seattle's Irish community, President McAleese highlighted the major James Joyce exhibition that will be on display at the new downtown Seattle Library from June 1 to 28. The Joyce exhibit tells the story of Irish writer James Joyce (1882-1924), one of the greatest prose artists of the Twentieth Century. International in his vision and impact, but always intellectually rooted in his native city of Dublin, Joyce could be said to represent the spirit of modern Ireland. This exhibition was organized by the Cultural Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland to mark the centenary of the day, June 16, 1904 - Bloomsday – on which Joyce's novel Ulysses is set. The exhibit has already been displayed in 26 international cities around the world and the Seattle appearance is organized by the Irish Heritage Club and the Seattle-Galway Sister City Association. It will be available for free public viewing through June 28.
Exhibit OpeningThe official opening of the International Joyce exhibit includes a dramatic reading by the Wild Geese Players (www.WildGeeseSeattle.org) from Joyce's novel Ulysses. This event will be on June 4 at 2 PM in the Microsoft Auditorium of the downtown Library, and also includes a short musical piece from Finnegan's Wake. The library will also have two different Irish book displays during June, one specifically about Joyce on the library's eighth level, and a display of Irish fiction and related non-fiction on the library's third level. The Joyce exhibit will be in the Dynix Gallery on the library's first level. The Library itself is located at 1000 Fourth Avenue (at Madison) in Seattle. BloomsdayJune 16, the day on which Joyce's novel Ulysses is set, is perhaps the only international feast-day dedicated to a work of art! Bloomsday 2005 will be celebrated in Seattle on June 16 at 8 PM, and on June 18 at 4 PM, both at Brechemin Auditorium (UW Campus) with staged readings by the Wild Geese Players (www.WildGeeseSeattle.org) of the Sirens chapter from Ulysses. Admission is free but donations accepted. For information, email Bloomsday@irishclub.
Irish RacesIrish Day at the Races at Emerald Downs in Auburn is June 12, with the first race at 2 PM. All the races will have Irish community representatives serving as honorary stewards, including the main race of the day, the $40,000 Irish Day Handicap. For free admission tickets, send your name, address (including zip), and the number of tickets needed to Races@irishclub.org, or call (206) 223-3608. For Turf Club reservations, directions, etc., call the racetrack at (253) 288-7000 or visit www.emeralddowns.com. Ireland Business MissionJust in time to greet Irish President Mary McAleese, business leaders representing over 40 Seattle area businesses arrived back in Seattle from what has been described as an “extremely successful” International Study Mission to Ireland. The 72-member group visited Northern Ireland for four days and met with city officials in Belfast, Lisburn and Derry, and then they spent another four days in Dublin visiting with local and Irish government officials.
The Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle organized the trip, building on the much-smaller 2003 Business Mission to the same Irish cities. For an extremely interesting and detailed diary of the trip, visit www.cityofseattle.net/tda/missions/ireland/ismireland .htm. Most-Cited MathematicianDuring Tuesday's speech at the University of Washington (UW), President McAleese paid tribute to Adrian Raftery, the Irish-born Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences at the UW. The importance of a researcher's work is related to how much influence his or her work has on other researchers, and their impact can be measured by counting the number of times their work is cited by other scientists. Professor Raftery, on the UW faculty since 1985, was the world's most cited researcher during the past decade in mathematics, including statistics, biostatistics and applied mathematics. Irish PicnicThe Irish Community Picnic is July 31, from noon to 6 PM, at St. Edward State Park in Kenmore (see www.parks.wa.gov for directions, etc.). Everybody in the Irish community is invited to attend and have a great time with the Gaelic football and hurling, the tug-a-war contests, kid's races, three-legged races, sack-races, water balloon toss, straw search, etc. Admission is free – just bring your own food and drink. For details and more information, call Rob Mullin at (206) 953-8460.
Book ClubThe Irish Heritage Book Discussion Group continues their regular monthly meetings. For information, call (206) 525-5310 or email hudit@comcast.net. Seattle GaelsThe Seattle Gaels Footballers and Hurlers continue their practices and are in the process of organizing a City League. New players are invited to join and participate in any of the games. For more information, call Rebecca Fox at (206) 498-2762, Rob Mullin at (206) 353-8460, email SeattleGaels@irishclub.org, or visit www.seattlegaels.org. TelecastsThe annual telecasts of GAA games from Ireland have started at the Irish Emigrant in Seattle's U-District. Championship season passes are available at $100 – call (206) 525-2955 for details. For game schedules and times, visit www.setanta.com. Irish MusicTHE CHIEFTAINS at The Paramount, July 14. AN RÍ RÁ MONTANA Irish Festival, August 13-14 in Butte, Montana. Visit www.mgcsonline.org. The Annual TÍR NA NÓG DAY CAMP at the Seattle Center July 18 - July 22, 9 AM - 12:30 PM daily, for youths aged 4-8. For information, call (206) 856-5535 or e-mail celticroots_seattle@hotmail.com. KARAN CASEY at the Tractor, Wednesday, July 20 - see www.karancasey.com. CÉILI and/or SET DANCING - A listing of Instructors in Washington State: Margaret O'Toole Weber, TMRF, (206) 365-2850, weberotoole7@msn.com. Jim Belcher, (425) 402-8363, Bothell, setdancer@aol.com. Melissa Curtis, (206) 856-5535, Seattle, seattlesetdancing@hotmail.com. Cathy Gill, (206) 683-2847, Seattle, seattlesetdancing@hotmail.com. Kathleen O'Grady Graham and Michael Graham, (206) 242-8922, Normandy Park, irish-dancer@attbi.com. Zane Haxton, (360) 867-6098, Olympia, evergreenirish@yahoo.com. Lori Malczyk, (206) 463-6917, Vashon Island. Michael and Shannon Meyer, (206) 463-9911, Vashon Island, VashonCelts@aol.com. Dan Paulson, (360) 378-2562, Friday Harbor, info@fridayharborirish.com, www.fridayharborirish.com.
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