Winter Newsletter
News
20 December 2021
Christmas message from Consul General Anne-Marie Flynn
A chairde, dear friends,
I hope this finds each of you well. As the holiday season approaches, I would like to wish you and yours a very happy Christmas and a wonderful year ahead in 2021. I hope that you and yours will have an enjoyable and restful break over the holidays, although I am conscious that for some of you, this year’s celebrations may not be quite what you had initially hoped for. I would like to assure you that the team at the Consulate General – along with our colleagues at the Embassy in Berlin – will be on hand throughout the Christmas and New Year period to provide emergency consular information or advice.
With 2021 drawing to an end, we can now reflect on what has been a busy and productive year for the Consulate General.
In March, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a virtual reception and a wonderful series of videos of musicians from across Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, which you can still watch on our Facebook page.
Throughout the year, we ran a variety of online events in innovative ways. We organised a colloquium to celebrate the 150th anniversary of JM Synge’s birth – and the playwright’s links to Koblenz - in April and hosted an audience with the team behind the play ‘The Saviour’ in June.
Our book club continued to meet regularly online over 2021 to discuss Anne Enright’s The Gathering, Colum McCann’s Apeirogon, Caoilinn Hughes’ The Wild Laughter and Colm Toibín’s The Magician. If you’d like to get involved with the book club next year, please get in touch – newcomers are always welcome!
Last month, we hosted our first hybrid event – a panel discussion with journalist and author Joe Miller and two Irish staff who were centrally involved in the development and rollout of the BioNTech vaccine. It was a really enlightening event and is still available to view on YouTube for those who haven’t yet had an opportunity to watch.
We’re already looking forward next year to a number of exciting initiatives coming up in our consular region next year – including of course St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and a first Ireland Festival in Frankfurt in the summer months, once circumstances allow.
Throughout the year, we’ve had the privilege of working closely with the wonderful Irish community organisations in our region – with the Frankfurt Sarsfields and Darmstadt GAA Clubs, the Irish Business Network and the German Irish Lawyers and Business Association. Each of these organisations have played a vital role in supporting Irish people in our region – both virtually and in person – over the challenging year we’ve had and I would like to express my sincere thanks to each of them for the work and commitment.
I arrived at the end of August to take up my role as Consul General and am so delighted to have had the opportunity to meet so many of you over the past four months. I am extremely grateful for the warm welcome and guidance and support I’ve received from across the Irish community and from our German friends here. For those of you who I have yet to meet, I look forward to the opportunity to see you in the New Year. My door is always open.
On behalf of Niall, Martina and Rebecca, my team at the Consulate, I wish you and yours a very happy Christmas. We look forward to seeing you again in the New Year.
Nollaig Shona agus Beannachtaí an tSéasúir daoibh.
Anne-Marie Flynn
Consul General
An Irish Night In
Following the success of An Irish Night In earlier this year – along with the Irish Embassy in Berlin, we’re welcoming you back and inviting you to join us again for what will be another great night in.
Watch & listen to Ambassador O'Brien's video message here and put the 22nd of January 2022 in your diary. We’ll get together for food, drinks, games, and music from top Irish talents, live from Ambassador O'Brien’s house to yours!
Last time we had over 22,000 tune in on the night from around Germany & across the world and we were delighted to see all the photos on social media from participants. We were also thrilled to learn that chat groups had been used for school kids to enjoy the programme and play the games together. There’s lots of time to plan for the big night with your friends and family near and far and lots of ways to have ‘An Irish Night In’.
Register here and be in with a chance to win one of over a hundred Irish Night In boxes and to be kept up to date with announcements.
Travel advice
At this time of year, many of you will be travelling between Ireland and Germany.
For the latest information on travelling to Germany from Ireland, click here. For information on travelling to Ireland from Germany, click here.
To Be Irish at Christmas: 8 – 23 of December
To Be Irish at Christmas is back with another exciting programme of events from around the world. Wherever you are in the world, you’re invited to celebrate Ireland’s unique culture and people. Discover the many ways you can celebrate the season by visiting the website.