Despite acting as press officer to a succession of Ministers for Foreign Affairs - Dick Spring, Ray Burke and David Andrews - Dan Mulhall managed to produce a book on a millennium theme which will be launched by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, next week. A New Day Dawning; A Portrait of Ireland in 1900 took 20 months to write and has chapters on what happened during the year; how people lived; the economy; nationalist Ireland; unionist Ireland; literature; and comparisons with today.
A Waterford man and UCC history graduate, Mulhall says it is not an academic text, but is properly researched and written and designed for a wide general audience. Being busy, he says, gave him the extra energy to do it - late at night and at weekends. Mulhall is now our first Consul General in Edinburgh and much involved in promoting Irish/Scottish links. He attends the new parliament on a regular basis and despite the current debate about the extent of anti-Catholic bias in Scotland, says his experience has been nothing but positive. The interest in Ireland is very high, he says, and he is working on establishing a business forum which will act as a permanent network between the two countries.