Colombia National Day celebration

Colombia’s National Days celebrates their liberation from Spain in July 1810. The occasion was marked with a Reception in Dublin’s City Hall hosted by Andrés Echeverri, Charge d’Affaires at the Colombian Embassy in Dublin and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste.   Guests included the Leas Cheann Comhairle, Catherine Connolly, Ambassadors of several countries including India, Egypt and Lesotho and, yours truly,  Marian Benton from Travelbiz was there to report for you.

Andres welcomed everyone as gaeilge and spoke of the many connections and collaborations between Ireland and Columbia on trade, technology and education.  Ireland has played a crucial role in supporting their peace process as they have drawn on Ireland’s own experience with the Good Friday Agreement.    Co-operation has been greatly enhanced by the opening of the Colombian Embassy in Dublin in 2018 followed by the opening of an Irish Embassy in Bogota in 2019 with Alison Milton as the first resident ambassador there.   They were delighted to welcome Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar to Bogota in March 2022 to officially open the Embassy.

Andres spoke of the excellent relations and similarities between our two countries and said that the Irish are the “Latinos of the North” – we both have warm and open-minded natures and share a profound sense of wonder.    Andres said that they are eager to foster the growth of tourism to Colombia and he believes Irish travellers will be captivated by the wonders Colombia has to offer.    Andres regretfully said goodbye to everyone as his term of office in Ireland comes to an end.

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste, then thanked everyone and spoke of our shared bonds in terms of struggle for self-determination and our respective journeys for peace.   He mentioned the many connections established with universities here and the number of Colombians coming to study here.  The Lord Mayor thanked Andres and wished him well in his future career.  He finished by reminding us that through education, through culture and our shared bond on peace and reconciliation Ireland and Colombia have much to learn from each other.  We then had a demonstration of some lively traditional dancing before we took our leave.