We are delighted to announce that Máirtín Ó Muilleoir - former Lord Mayor of Belfast and the owner of the Irish Echo - will be at the Museum on Sunday, February 27. This event is for members only and you will have the chance to meet Mr. Ó Muilleoir, and hear him speak on events in Norther Ireland, the work the Irish Echo is doing for the diaspora, and transatlantic partnerships. He will cover the implications for Northern Ireland and Ireland at this pivotal moment in history, twenty-four years after the Good Friday Agreement and with Brexit and the Protocol becoming increasingly difficult.
You can attend in-person or participate on Zoom. This event is free but everyone will need to register. Members will receive an invitation with registration information via email, or you can email info@irish-us.org.
Máirtín is a tireless advocate for the new and resurgent Belfast. He founded a series of initiatives designed to showcase the very best of the city, including the Aisling Awards and the Belfast International Homecoming which encourages the global Irish diaspora to invest Belfast’s renaissance. As Lord Mayor, he received several awards including the Community Relations Council Award for Civic Leadership, the PRIDE Festival Award for Best Political Contribution to the LGBT Community, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians of America JFK Medal, their highest honor.
From 1987 to 1997, Máirtín was among a new generation of Sinn Féin councilors (led by former Mayor Alex Maskey) who transformed Belfast City Council through a series of landmark legal challenges which guaranteed equal rights for all representatives. He left politics in 1997 to take over the Andersonstown News, growing it into the Belfast Media Group with colleagues and launching the newspaper Daily Ireland in 2005. He returned to City Hall in 2011 and was elected Lord Mayor (ArdMhéara) in 2013. He returned to Sinn Féin in the Stormont Assembly election of May 2016 and again in March 2017 (securing the highest-ever Sinn Féin vote in the constituency) as a representative for South Belfast. Following the 2016 poll, he was appointed to the post of Finance Minister in the North of Ireland Executive and remained in post until the Executive collapsed in January 2017.
In 2007, he purchased the New York-based Irish Echo newspaper - "the USA's most widely-read Irish-American newspaper."