Completing his stay to Dublin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Terens Quick visited the Greek Community’s school and met with the BoDs and members of Greek Community organizations based in Dublin. The school has over 50 pupils and additional classes are being started in the Irish cities where most brain-drain Greeks reside. Mr. Quick was welcomed by the President of the Community of Ireland, Stella Xenopoulou; the President of the Greek Orthodox Community based in Dublin, Thomai Kakouli-Duarte; and the Board of the school Community.
“This is a very special, dynamic, enviable Community, with harmony among its members. Greeks who have resided here for decades and members of the last immigrant generation who found in Ireland a welcoming home, together with their children, and good working conditions in the various professions they practice,” the Deputy Minister stated, departing for the airport and his next destination, London.
The members of the Greek Community in Ireland (mostly in Dublin) raised the following issues:
- Timely replacement, by the Ministry of Education, of the seconded teacher, whose tour is ending, so that the new school year can start smoothly in fall 2018.
- Potential for sending a second teacher for regions of Ireland where schools are being opened for students of the new immigrant generation – mainly primary-school students.
- Intervention with the Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain to find a Priest to replace Father Thomas –should he retire– at the sole Greek Orthodox church in Dublin, the Church of the Annunciation.
- Support for the Community’s cultural actions aimed at promoting Greek arts and letters, such as translation of literature or musical works into the Irish language.
Also raised was the issue of the shortage of space where the Greek school is housed, with Greek community organizations lacking office space. Regarding this latter issue, Mr. Quick informed the members of the Community that he had met with the Mayor of Dublin, Micheal Mac Donncha, who promised that his team, in collaboration with the Greek Community of Ireland, will try to find an appropriate building, despite the huge housing problem in the Irish capital. Mr. Quick took this opportunity to thank Mr. Mac Donncha for retaining the name ‘Greek Street’ for a street very close to the city’s Cathedral – a legacy of the first Greeks who went to Dublin and settled in that neighbourhood.
The Deputy Minister was accompanied to all of his meetings by the Greek Ambassador in Dublin, Katia Georgiou, and he was also accompanied to his meetings with the Greek community by Cypriot Ambassador Kostas Papadimas.
March 25, 2018