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Ireland on May 17 sent its third minister-level delegate to Atlanta in as many months, a two-day stopover showing once again the priority the country is placing on deepening its relationship with the Southeast U.S.
Robert Troy, minister of state at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with responsibility for trade promotion, visited the Georgia capital after a spending time in Greenville, S.C., and just before heading even further south to Mexico.
He arrived with a group of Irish firms in tow, saying the trip was about “re-establishing the face-to-face connection that we have missed over the last number of years, and I think that is key to building trust.”
Assisting on the mission and attending the Atlanta reception were representatives from all over the U.S. of IDA Ireland, the country’s inbound investment agency, and Enterprise Ireland, which helps Irish companies expand abroad, often by providing venture capital.
The South, Mr. Troy said, is increasingly present on the country’s radar from a business standpoint, with the arrival of major investments like Kerry Group’s $137 million plant in Rome, Ga., as well as operations of companies like software firm Fineos. Despite its small size, Ireland is the No. 9 foreign investor in both the United States and in Georgia. The state is less known back home on the Emerald Isle, even though about 10 percent of its citizens claim Irish heritage, he said.
Irish companies are making their mark in Atlanta bringing innovative solutions to the market & going from strength to strength.
Delighted to celebrate their continued growth, announce new partnerships & promote the best of Irish innovation while here @EI_theUSA #irishadvantage pic.twitter.com/kX8xYd7bir
— Robert Troy TD (@RobertTroyTD) May 18, 2022
“We’re very familiar with the green rivers in Chicago, and the pipers marching down Fifth Avenue in New York on St. Patrick’s Day,” Mr. Troy said in a speech at the Consulate General of Ireland in Buckhead, which opened a decade ago this year. “But what about the green fountains of Savannah? Or the Irish dancers in Atlanta on St. Patrick Day as they parade down Peachtree Street? I think that rich link, that sense of connectivity and connection is not well enough known back at home, and I think it’s a story we need to tell more and more.”
Visiting just after Diaspora Minister Colm Brophy made an appearance in Atlanta in April, Mr. Troy called members of the Irish diaspora the “bedrock” of the country’s growing ties in the region.
“We are doubling our footprint in the Southeast in the summer with the opening of a new consulate general in Miami, and the fulcrum is moving south all the time,” Mr. Troy said.
The May reception was held in an outside courtyard at the consulate’s offices at Monarch Plaza just across from Lenox Square Mall, where representatives from Irish business and investment agencies mingled with executives from major Georgia companies with deep Irish roots, including Global Payments and Equifax.
The minister’s overall visit had a particular financial technology flair to it. He held meetings with the leadership from the Technology Association of Georgia, which is set to host its annual Fintech South conference June 14-15 (Ireland has been a past exhibitor). That same discussion included the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Fintech Atlanta, among other organizations.
He made a stop at Elavon, a top Atlanta-based payments processor with a large operation in Ireland, and, proving that the relationship goes both ways, he also met with Trustap, an Enterprise Ireland-backed startup that provides an escrow-like platform for peer-to-peer transactions, helping buyers avoid scams online. Based in Cork, Ireland, Trustap was in town to launch a “make offer” feature on Claz, a metro-Atlanta-based online classifieds platform.
During the trip, Mr. Troy spent time with a company that has made an impact in his home county of Westmeath. Patterson Pump Co., which employs more than 100 people at its headquarters in the northeast Georgia city of Toccoa, has operated in the city of Mullingar, Ireland, since 1998. Mr. Troy met with President Kerby Pope at Patterson’s Toccoa factory, which makes fire, water, wastewater, flood control and other pumps.
Mr. Troy also met with ClickDimensions, which put a 28-member team in Ireland in 2019, and Atlanta-based package giant United Parcel Service Inc.
In closing, he thanked both his hosts and the companies that joined the visit, saying he would head to Mexico and then back home persuaded that Ireland and Georgia have both the family bonds and shared values to continue growing their relationship. He noted that the war in Ukraine shows that friendship must be cultivated continually.
“We’re a small, open economy that is hugely dependent on our ability to trade internationally. But I think trade works best when it’s about more than just monetary exchange … and we have that in spades between Ireland and Georgia.”