The US government is expected to grant $500,000 to a scholarship programme, named after Senator George Mitchell, which brings "future American leaders" to Ireland each year to take post-graduate courses at universities on both sides of the Border.
Both houses of the US Congress have approved a recommendation that the funds be made available through the State Department to assist the scholarship scheme, which is administered by the US-Ireland Alliance. Since it began three years ago, 36 US students have won scholarships to attend universities in the Republic and Northern Ireland and a further 11 have been chosen for the next academic year.
The Alliance is a non-partisan, non-profit organisation based in Washington D.C. and dedicated to educating Americans about the island of Ireland and to strengthening the relationship between the US and Ireland for future generations. Senator Mitchell chaired the Northern Ireland peace talks which resulted in the Belfast Agreement.
Securing Congress approval for the grant is regarded as a significant achievement, particularly since the US does not tend to aid scholarship schemes that are based in one specific foreign country.
Nearly 50 Republicans and Democrats in the two houses, including Senators Edward Kennedy and Hillary Clinton and Congressmen Peter King and Richard Neal, backed the recommendation, which is part of an omnibus appropriations resolution recently approved by Congress.
The recommendation was originally initiated prior to last November's elections by the South Carolina Democrat, Senator Ernest Hollings. He was then chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee which is responsible for State Department funding proposals. When the Republicans took control of the Senate and Senator Judd Gregg (New Hampshire) became chairman of the subcommittee, he retained the provision.
The chief administrator of the scheme, Ms Trina Vargo said on a visit to Dublin at the weekend: "We are grateful for this support, especially for the large number of members involved and its bipartisan nature. Sending future US leaders to the island of Ireland will greatly enhance the future of the relationship between Ireland and the US."
She said the Mitchell scholarship had come to be recognised as one of the most prestigious scholarships for young Americans. Recipients had dropped out of the Rhodes competition and turned down Marshall and Fulbright scholarships to accept a place on the Mitchell programme.
The Mitchell scholarship is presented to "outstanding young Americans who exhibit the qualities of academic excellence, leadership and community service". Scholarships are not confined to Irish-Americans but are awarded regardless of ethnic origin.
The Irish Government helped launch the programme with a €2.8 million grant in 1999 and annual funding is provided by the British government, by two anonymous donors, and by such companies as Automsoft, Becton Dickinson, the Bombardier Aerospace (NI) Foundation, Cross Atlantic Capital Partners and the McDonnell Charitable Foundation. Corporate sponsors of the US-Ireland Alliance include the Bank of Ireland, CRH, Elan, IONA Technologies, Jurys Doyle Hotel Group, Riverdeep and the Jefferson Smurfit Group.
The US-Ireland Alliance also administers the Innisfree programme, which is bringing over 200 families of firefighters and police officers who lost their lives on September 11th to Ireland for a week's holiday this summer.