CLEVELAND — A member of the Irish parliament was in Northeast Ohio Thursday, part of dayslong trip over the St. Patrick's Day holiday. The trip also comes less than a year after Cleveland sent a delegation on Aer Lingus' first direct flight to Dublin from the city.
Teachta Dala Niall Collins is the Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. This is his first visit to Cleveland.
"I'm sure you have Guinness, I'm sure there will be plenty of green, and I'm sure you'll have plenty of people enjoying the festivities," Collins said about celebrating the holiday in Cleveland.
St. Patrick's Day is marked by parades, shamrocks, and green. But for several members of the Irish government, it's also a time to connect with communities around the world. Collins described it as a "global mission" where they "sell the Irish message and try to promote our links, in this case obviously between Ireland and Cleveland, Ireland and the United States."
"Connectivity is hugely important for Ireland because we're an island economy," Collins explained. "We feel that there's great links here — there's great education links here, there's great business links here."
Before joining Cleveland's annual St. Patrick's Day parade this Sunday, Collins plans to visit Mayor Justin Bibb and other leaders at City Hall, as well as area businesses, members of the Irish community, and schools like John Carroll University.
"We want to promote those links and give the message that from the highest levels in Ireland, from government down, that we're open for business," he told 3News.
Since May last year, Aer Lingus has offered four direct flights a week from Cleveland to Dublin. In a statement, the company said, "The route is performing well on both sides of the Atlantic with North American point of sale being particularly strong to date. We have filled 85% of the seats operated on this route, and we are very encouraged by the positive response."
A delegation from Cleveland was on the first flight in May, with city and organization leaders telling us at the time the goal was to share the city's story and ultimately bring business back to Northeast Ohio.
"And there will be other investments, I understand, that are in the pipeline in terms of big business here in Cleveland," Collins said.
Team NEO says the flights are helping to open doors to potential economic opportunities and that they would be able to share more in the coming months.