Kenny to hit positive note at New York Stock Exchange

TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny visits the New York Stock Exchange and attends a number of science events today in the latest leg of his US tour.

After ringing the opening bell at the stock exchange, Mr Kenny will talk to traders about Ireland’s economic prospects, before heading to Washington DC for two events hosted by Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland. This evening, he is honorary chair at the gala dinner of the American Ireland Fund, which has raised $90 million for Irish charities.

The traditional presentation of a bowl of shamrock to US president Barack Obama takes place tomorrow at the White House.

Mr Kenny arrived in New York yesterday from South Bend, Indiana, where he attended a dinner with staff and students at Notre Dame, the leading Catholic university in the US.

There, he presented an Irish passport to 94-year-old Fr Theodore Hesburgh, the former president of the university, whose grandfather Martin Murphy came to the US from Ireland in 1857. Mr Kenny described Fr Hesburgh, who oversaw a massive expansion of the college while he was president, as a “truly great Irish-American figure”.

Notre Dame is home to the “Fighting Irish” American football team, which is playing a match against college rivals Navy in Dublin in September. The match is expected to attract thousands of US tourists to Ireland. Plans are afoot for further games in Croke Park in 2013 but these have not been finalised.

The Taoiseach attended the St Patrick’s Day parade in Chicago for the first time this year, and used the occasion to repeat his mantra that Ireland is “open for business”.

“Our country is on the way back,” he told spectators from the viewing stand. “We’ve had difficult times, we’ve made a number of difficult decisions but our country is headed in the right direction. There’s now confidence and belief in ourselves, and we know where our path lies.

“We expect in our own time, before the end of 2013, to exit from the programme we are in and retrieve our economic sovereignty.”

Mr Kenny was hosted at the parade by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who paid tribute to the Irish emigrants who built Chicago “brick by brick” in earlier centuries.

In a speech to Irish Americans the previous night, Mr Kenny invited Irish emigrants to come home next year to help Ireland build its new, post-bailout world.