Credit: Ali Sahib, Chronicle.lu

On St Patrick's Day, Monday 17 March 2025, Ireland's Ambassador to Luxembourg, Jean McDonald, hosted a lunchtime reception at the Cercle Cité in Luxembourg-Ville.

Approximately 300 invited guests, from both Luxembourg's Irish community and beyond, were warmly welcomed by Ambassador McDonald and newly appointed Deputy Head of Mission, Caoimhe McCarthy, to celebrate Ireland's National Day, in the impressive surroundings of Cercle Cité.

Musicians from Comhaltas Luxembourg, well recovered from the previous Saturday evening's St Patrick's Céilí Dance, entertained guests on arrival. Finger food, provided by the Home from Home "expat shop", soft drinks, Guinness and champagne were freely available and served by students from Ireland's Shannon College of Hotel Management, who are currently on placement in various hotels in Luxembourg City.

Both the Luxembourg and Irish National Anthems were played before Ambassador McDonald addressed the audience.

Ambassador McDonald welcomed the guests, saying that St Patrick's Day was undoubtedly the high point for Irish diplomats abroad and thanked the Irish community in Luxembourg for "flying the flag for Ireland every day of the year".

Ambassador McDonald spoke of the exhibition featured at the Embassy event, "A History of Ireland in Ten Words", focusing on words passed down from the Irish language. She spoke of how language tells us so much about who we are and from where we come. She added that it was widely accepted that the writings of St Patrick are the first works of an identifiable individual voice from Ireland and explained that one of the oldest surviving texts is one sent by St Patrick to Coroticus (a British warlord), when the latter kidnapped and killed some of St Patrick's converts. This text was the first of many famous writings from Ireland.

She continued by saying that, in the past twelve months, the Embassy team supported many political visits, including that of Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Luc Frieden, to Dublin in September 2024 and a visit by Irish Minister for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne, to Luxembourg in February 2025. She also thanked Luxembourg's Minister of Finance, Gilles Roth, and his team for meeting with her earlier that day.

Ambassador McDonald spoke of the pleasure of supporting many community, cultural and sporting occasions in Luxembourg throughout the year, before announcing the upcoming launch of a Young Professional Network, further details of which will be made available in due course.

The Ambassador thanked "our Luxembourg friends" for their openness and engagement, and mentioned the historical links between Ireland and Luxembourg, from the time of St Willibrord. She added that the 21st century friendship between the countries is marked by a collaboration across political, business, cultural and community activities. She spoke of the need for peace in conflict zones and of her gratitude for the bilateral relationship between Luxembourg and Ireland, based on common EU membership and shared values, including defence of the rule of law and fundamental freedoms.

Ambassador McDonald thanked Home from Home, Comhaltas Luxembourg, the students from Shannon College of Hotel Management and the Irish Embassy team involved in the organisation of the reception.

Before concluding, the Ambassador spoke of celebrating the fact that many exciting chapters are yet to be written in the story of Ireland and Luxembourg's relationship, before wishing all guests a very happy St Patrick's Day.

HOM