2024 Spring Newsletter
Dear Irish community, friends of Ireland, A chairde,
Welcome to the spring edition of our Embassy newsletter.
It has been a time of great change at the Embassy since our last issue in February. Our wonderful colleagues and friends, Janet O’Sullivan and Ivana Pangracova have now completed their assignments with us. We wish them both all the best as they move onto exciting new challenges.
Our new Deputy Head of Mission and Consul, Paul Gibbons succeeds Janet while Jozef Feťko has taken over from Ivana as our Policy and Public Outreach Officer. You can read messages from them both in the pages that follow. I am sure that you will join me in wishing them every success in their new assignments.
The signature event over the past few months was undoubtedly the Embassy’s Saint Patrick’s Day reception on the evening of 14 March at the historical building of Slovak National Council. It was great seeing so many of you as we gathered together to mark Ireland’s national feast day, albeit a little early! We were honoured by the presence of both Minister of State, Kieran O’Donnell T.D. and Deputy Prime Minister Peter Kmec, both of whom gave addresses at the reception. Their attendance was a sure sign of the strong and flourishing ties between our two countries. I know that Minister O’Donnell places a particularly high priority on outreach to Irish communities across the world and that he spent much of the evening chatting with many of you.
We hope you enjoyed the evening as much as we did, including memorable poetry readings as well as the wonderful music performed by An Craobh Rua. As you can imagine, enormous effort goes into planning every detail of such an evening. I want to pay tribute to the team at the Embassy for ensuring that everything ran smoothly.
As always, events marking St. Patrick’s Day both preceded and followed the Embassy reception. I was delighted to return to Trnava university for their traditional Irish festivities. The Embassy team also attended a wonderful evening of quizzes, song and dance hosted by the Irish staff at the European Labour Authority.
The Embassy continues to perform its core mission of promoting the best of Ireland, with many other events and activities of note. Rather than describing them, they are featured in pictures in the pages that follow. You will also find the regular update from our friends at the ‘Slovak Shamrocks’ as well as a piece from Shane Bissett on the new ‘Irish in Slovakia’ group.
If you know of anyone who has recently arrived in Slovakia and who you think would be interested in being on our circulation list, please encourage them to contact us at Bratislava@dfa.ie.
For news and updates, the Embassy’s Twitter account @IrlEmbSlovakia remains your chief source of information together with our Facebook page. You can also check out my Twitter account @IEAmbBratislava.
As always, we warmly welcome your feedback and suggestions as we work to improve our service and outreach to you. Please send any comments or ideas to Bratislava@dfa.ie.
We would be delighted to hear from you!
With best wishes, le gach dea-ghuí.
Dermot McGauran
Ambassador of Ireland
Embassy's St. Patrick's Day Reception
St. Patrick's Day at Trnava University
Honouring John Bruton
French-language festival 2024
Meeting with the President
Marking the 2nd anniversary of Russia's full-scale and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine
Marking the 6th anniversary of the murder of Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová
Meeting laureates of Roma Spirit Awards 2023
Marking Iftar
Opening workshop - Marketing English-language tuition
Important delegation at the Embassy
Oli Gemoli from the Irish Elements Show, whom you may remember from our last St. Patrick's Day reception, is presenting an exciting and lively Irish Dance show taking place in Bratislava at the Theatre of P. O. Hviezdoslav on 24 May.
First Irish Network Outing at Svätý Jur
A message from Shane Bissett
The Irish in Slovakia group recently had our first outing to SVÄTÝ JUR. We were hosted by the amazing team at Renaissance House, a wine cellar and distillery dating back to 1479 and steeped in local history. We got to enjoy drinks on the garden terrace before taking a short walk through the forest to the 800-year-old ruins of Biely Castle.
It was a fantastic location and enjoyable atmosphere with a turnout of 30 people, including Paul Gibbons, the new Deputy Head of Mission here in Slovakia from the Irish Embassy. We are now in the process of planning our next event and if you are interested in attending please take a few moments to let us have your feedback in this short survey. We aim for these events to be as inclusive and enjoyable as possible and welcome any suggestions or location ideas, equally please feel free to get in contact with me directly at skbissett@gmail.com and we can chat about how we can build this group further.
Look forward to seeing you at the next event :-)!
Slovak Shamrocks Shine at Regional Tournament in Prague
We are thrilled to share the outstanding achievements of both the men’s and women’s teams of the Slovak Shamrocks Gaelic Football Club at the recent regional tournament held in Prague on April 13th. Demonstrating skill, teamwork, and sportsmanship, our teams not only won multiple games but also captured the hearts of fans both on and off the field.
Further demonstrating their dedication, both teams are committed to traveling to Rome in May to participate in the second regional tournament. This is an exciting opportunity for our players to showcase their talents on an even larger stage.
Beyond our sporting endeavors, the Slovak Shamrocks are equally committed to fostering a strong community spirit. In March, we enjoyed a group hike from Rača to Stupava, reinforcing the bonds among our members through enjoyable social events.
The Slovak Shamrocks hold weekly training sessions every Wednesday at Molecova 1, Karlova Ves. We warmly invite everyone to join us in celebrating and supporting our vibrant Gaelic football community as we continue to grow and succeed together.
Changes to the Embassy team: Welcoming Paul and Jozef
A message from Paul Gibbons
A chairde,
It is my privilege to represent Ireland as Deputy Head of Mission and Consul at our Embassy in Slovakia. I am happy to be joining an experienced team and will work with them to promote Ireland politically, economically and culturally.
As Consul, my priority will be to protect the interests and welfare of Irish citizens living here, along with those visiting. I look forward to getting to know you and to working with our great Irish community based all around this beautiful country.
Beir bua.
A message from Jozef Feťko
Hi everyone!
I have taken over from Ivana as the Embassy’s new Policy and Public Outreach Officer! I am tremendously excited to be joining the team. Although my time at the Embassy will be quite limited, I can’t wait to meet and get to know many of you in the upcoming months.