Today will be a significant date for Australians in Ireland – it is Australia Day in a special year. 2021 marks 80 years Robert Gordon Menzies, our longest serving Prime Minister visited Eamon de Valera in Dublin, and 75 years since the establishment of formal relations between the Government of Australia and the then soon-to-be proclaimed Irish Republic.
The creation of diplomatic relations in 1946 was illustrative of the deep and very personal ties between our two island nations which have continued for almost two and a half centuries.
Much has happened in the last 75 years. We have seen the world evolve in an unprecedented way; witnessing the first missions into outer space, hundreds of millions of people lifted out of poverty, the proliferation of democratic institutions across much of the world, the establishment of the United Nations Security Council, of which Australia was a founding member and on to which Ireland now takes its rightful place as a member for the next two y
Donegal man named President of Irish Australian Chamber
THE newly elected President of the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce is Dungloe man David Greene.
A qualified solicitor, Mr Greene (35) works as a political advisor for the Minister for Transport and Main Roads in the Queensland State Government.
Speaking to the Donegal News from his Brisbane home this week, Mr Greene admitted that many Chamber members were heartbroken at the current Covid-19 situation in Ireland.
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“There is a level of consensus among Irish Australians that the response to Covid-19 in Ireland has been mishandled from the start, and given that Ireland, like Australia, is an island nation, the worst impacts could have been avoided or at least minimized,” he said.