A sea of green at the Celtic Club reception for the Minister of Agriculture
on St Patrick’s Day….
The Irish Ambassador, Mr Noel White introduced Simon Coveney, the Irish Government’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who addressed a gathering at the Celtic Club on St Patrick’s Day.
He is in Australia on a trade and cultural mission, and is particularly interested in learning how Australia deregulated its dairy industry as the EU is about to remove its dairy quotas. (ABC Landline).
He had a message for those who had emigrated when the Celtic Tiger was gasping for life. It has recovered, he assured migrants, and you’re wanted back in Ireland. He did acknowledge that Australia has a wonderful lifestyle, but he hoped that many emigrants who had felt that Ireland had had no future for them would feel empowered to return and make their lives in their country.
Tintean editors, Frances Devlin-Glass and Felicity Allen with Minister Simon Coveney
I felt for the family of five next to me who had arrived only three weeks ago, and I hoped enough of my countrymen and women had made them feel welcome. However, in this globalising world, one has to be thankful that choices can be made, that emigration is no longer a one-way street, and that one’s tribal affiliations can mean that one’s wealth is truly a common-wealth.
Tinteán 
Couldn’t have picked a better venue 😉
One earnestly prays that the Celtic Tiger is now extinct and that the rotten tax-haven economy that cloned the Frankinsteinian beast has been shut down and sent packing, however, thats not the reason that Irish folk are coming to live in the ‘lucky country’; people are sick of the begrudging and social-class society prevaling in Ireland that is seldom reflected on nor freely admitted to.
It’s easy enough for the Minister for Agriculture to invite us home to our homeland,one would prefer of course the appropriate minister to come here and make the announcement formally and with genuine compassion.