FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 29, 2024
Above (L-R): Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk); Loretto Horrigan Leary, Secretary of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield (IGHMF); Amy O’Shea, Vice-President of IGHMF.
NORWALK – Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) has appointed Loretto Leary of Norwalk to serve on the new Connecticut-Ireland Trade Commission.
Leary, 55, was born in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland. She attended the University of Galway, majoring in English, sociology and political science, and she has advanced degrees in teaching from Sacred Heart University and Fairfield University in Connecticut. Leary currently serves as secretary for Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield, which collects, preserves, exhibits and studies a collection of art, artifacts and literature related to the Irish Famine/Great Hunger that occurred from 1845–1852.
“As an Irish-born native and as someone who has a passion for Ireland’s people and history as exhibited by her work with the Great Hunger Museum, I am confident that Loretto will add depth and sensitivity to the Connecticut-Ireland Trade Commission as we seek to build stronger business, academic, and cultural ties,” Sen. Duff said.
“I am very, very honored to have been appointed to the Connecticut-Ireland Trade Commission. My focus will primarily be on Irish history in Connecticut and the Irish arts in Connecticut,” Leary said. “I’ve long been interested in the role of the Irish immigrant – I immigrated in 1993. There are lessons to be learned from immigration, and lessons to be learned from the Famine. I’m an ordinary person with an interest in a particular part of history, and I think if ordinary people focus on historical events, they will find it relates to the present.”
The 36-memeber Connecticut-Ireland Trade Commission was created this spring by the General Assembly, where Sen. Duff was a co-sponsor and an early backer of the bill, testifying at its public hearing that he was inspired by similar legislation passed in New Jersey to create the New Jersey-Ireland Trade Commission.
Connecticut’s trade commission seeks to enhance bilateral trade and investment with Ireland, initiate joint action on policy issues of mutual interest, promote business and academic exchanges, and encourage mutual economic support and infrastructure investment.
Leary’s appointment is effective immediately and ends on September 30, 2028.
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