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Irish Consul General Ciara O’Floinn, who’s been in her post in Atlanta for about a year, is heading back to Dublin in August to take up a new role at the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The departure comes much earlier in her tenure than expected; diplomats customarily serve at least three years in a post, and her predecessor, Shane Stephens, became the longest-serving member of the consular corps after spending five years in the city.
But for Ms. O’Floinn, heading back home means a promotion that retains a focus on the Western Hemisphere: She will head up the department’s Latin American and Caribbean Affairs division.
And the mother of two young children, while she says she will miss Atlanta, relishes the opportunity to be back near family.
Ms. O’Floinn has been a diplomat for nearly 14 years, with deep experience in EU affairs, including four years seconded to the EU as part of the European External Action Service, the bloc’s diplomatic arm. Before coming to Atlanta, she was back in Dublin as deputy director of the DFA’s strategy governance and change unit. Judging by her publicly available bio, this will be her first position focused on Latin America.
A few months after her arrival in Atlanta amid pandemic-plagued 2020, she was Global Atlanta’s guest at a virtual Consular Conversation that focused heavily on vaccine development, pharmaceutical supply chains and other COVID-related economic issues.
Later, she presided over a virtual St. Patrick’s Day forum that stressed the importance of Irish investment in the South: On St. Patrick’s Day, Irish Community Touts Outsized Investment Impact in Georgia
The Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Diplomacy Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Diplomacy newsletters.
