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St. Patrick’s Day 2015

St. Patrick's Day in Uganda

In Uganda

The main annual St. Patrick’s Day event is a Reception held at the Ambassador’s Residence. This year the Reception saw around 600 attendees, and was honoured by the presence of Foreign Affairs State Minister Henry Okello Oryem. The event is well known in Kampala and has been very popular, and this year was no exception. The afternoon was marked by a lunch for Irish missionaries, a now annual feature of the day. The lunch enabled senior members of the Irish diaspora in Uganda to gather, chat informally, and enjoy Irish music and dance, prior to the full festivities setting in. The lunch was attended by notable Irish diaspora figures such as Sister Maura Lynch and Sister Cosmas Cullen (featured in booklet for new Diaspora Policy). This led naturally into an evening of celebration, kicked off with speeches from Ambassador Dónal Cronin (which spoke amongst other things about Ireland’s economic recovery – speech available on request) and Minister Henry Okello Oryem. Irish food and Guinness (sent from St James Gate courtesy of Diageo) were enjoyed by all, and images of the Global Greening were featured on a large screen throughout the evening. The St. Patrick’s Day Reception is organised by the Embassy team each year, and is followed by two subsequent events – an Irish Pub night, and the St. Patrick’s Day Gala Ball – which are put together by the Irish Society.

In Rwanda

For St. Patrick’s Day 2015, a four day visit (March 16th – 19th) to Rwanda was undertaken, where Ambassador Dónal Cronin and Second Secretary Frances Collins were involved in a series of meetings and events. The key St. Patrick’s Day event was a Reception held on March 17th, at Hotel Des Mille Collines, which welcomed some 70 attendees from the small but vibrant Irish community in Rwanda, as well as other contacts. The festivities went off well, with Guest of Honour Mr. Parfait Gahamanyi, Director General for Multilateral Cooperation, as well as the Minister of Youth and IT Jean Philbert Nsengimana, both in attendance. In his speech addressed to the people of Ireland, and to friends of Ireland, Mr. Parfait Gahamanyi commended the good bilateral relations between Rwanda and Ireland over the past 20 years, and took the opportunity to thank Ireland for its contributions to the socio-economic transformation of Rwanda through support to community development initiatives.