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Message from Ambassador Michael Collins regarding his departure from the US
As we will shortly leave the United States, I would like to thank the many, many people here in Washington DC and throughout the United States for all their friendship and kindness to my wife Marie and to me during the last six years.
To be Irish in America is to feel at home and I have been privileged to represent Ireland in this most special place since July 2007. Over these six years, I have had an opportunity of engaging with the political, business and community leadership in Washington and around the United States and also to speak about Ireland - our achievements and our challenges - on a regular basis. In visiting many of the fifty States I certainly came to more fully appreciate the extraordinary links, both historic and current, that exist between Ireland and the United States.
Ireland and America enjoy a unique and celebrated relationship. We know one another very well and we know that our friendship is strong and enduring. Our past is full of rich engagement and success and our future could not be more promising.
America and Irish America are central priorities for Ireland. Pride in being Irish in America is at an all time high and I salute all who celebrate their Irish antecedents and connect with Ireland through the many organisations and ever-increasing number of community networks that serve to ensure that the links between Ireland and America remain active and vibrant.
Our economic relations are thriving and of fundamental importance to Ireland's determined recovery drive. American business sees Ireland as a great location in Europe and as a place of opportunity and welcome. Visitor numbers to Ireland are strong and Irish culture continues to be widely enjoyed and appreciated.
We deeply appreciate that America remains a trusted friend and a valued voice as we work together to protect and assure the peace and partnership that Northern Ireland enjoys today.
These have been some very tough years for Ireland and its people. But with our own resilience and America at our back I have never been more certain of Ireland's future and of the relationship between our countries and peoples, a relationship that is now closer and stronger than at any other time in our history.
I will take up my new posting as Ireland's Ambassador to Germany later this month. We will miss America, its wonderful people and our many friends but most of all conscious of the extraordinary privilege it is to represent Ireland as an Ambassador and the trust placed in me to now do so in Berlin.
I wish my successor, Ambassador Anne Anderson, every success and happiness in Washington. She will be leading a great Embassy team who have supported me throughout my time in Washington and who are devoted to ensuring the best and most effective representation and service on behalf of Ireland in the United States.
Michael Collins
Ambassador
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