Lord Mayor to lead Cork delegation to US cities for St Patrick’s Day

THE Lord Mayor of Cork, Kieran McCarthy, will lead a delegation of officials to the US this month and will visit both the east coast and the west ahead of the St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

In New York, Mr McCarthy will visit Ellis Island and remember Cork woman Annie Moore, the first arrival to the US to pass through federal immigration inspection.

He will pay his respects at Irish sculptor Jeanne Rynhart’s statue of Ms Moore there, which is a twin of her work in Cobh.

Mr McCarthy will also be guest of honour at this year’s Cork New York Association dinner, where he will meet with members of Leeside’s Big Apple diaspora.

The Lord Mayor will visit San Francisco in California along with some of his fellow councillors and Cork City Council chief executive Ann Doherty.

They will be joined by representatives of An Garda Síochána, Cork Chamber of Commerce, Cork Education and Training Board, Munster Technological University, University College Cork, and Visit Cork.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Cork’s twinning status with the Golden Gate City.

The twinning agreement was signed by former Lord Mayor John Dennehy and the late mayor of San Francisco, Dianne Feinstein, in 1984.

Mr McCarthy acknowledged Ms Feinstein’s work in spearheading the twinning arrangement.

“In later years, Senator Feinstein recalled how it all started with a conversation with Jack Lynch. She asked the former taoiseach what he thought of the idea, and he turned to her and said, ‘Done!’” Mr McCarthy said.

A reception will be hosted at the Irish Consulate General, and the Lord Mayor will address the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and meet with Mayor London Breed at the annual Irish flag-raising ceremony at San Francisco City Hall.

Among a number of planned meetings, the delegation of Cork officials will meet with the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women to discuss gender equity in local government, and will also meet with officials from the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives at the GLBT Historical Society Museum.

Speaking ahead of the visit, Mr McCarthy said he was looking forward to a busy programme which, he said, would copper-fasten Cork city’s US partnerships.

“I’m also delighted that so many of our city’s key institutions have opted to join this visit and develop our sectoral partnerships in the States. We can achieve so much as a team,” he said.

“So much has been done over the past 40 years, and I look forward to marking a ruby year for Cork in San Francisco, and looking forward to how we can continue to bolster Cork’s profile in the US as a great place to live, work, study, visit and do business in.”