24 October 2023
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
The British Embassy in Ireland has appointed a new Honorary Consul for the South West of Ireland; Katherine Fitzpatrick. Her focus will be to encourage greater business, research, people-to-people, ci
Cork is home to many Honorary Consulates, now the UK has a person on the ground to promote trade, and other links
Speaking about the appointment, the British Ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston said:
“…we mark the five year anniversary of Joining the Dots and we are delighted to do so by appointing Katherine Fitzpatrick as Honorary Consul for the South West of Ireland. This is a region of great importance to the UK-Ireland relationship, and of great potential. Which is why we launched JTD here in 2018. As a native of Cork and someone who is expert in supporting businesses to develop international networks, Katherine is a brilliant choice and will play a key role in supporting the Embassy’s work to promote region-to-region engagement.
“Part of the inspiration for Joining the Dots report was a survey we did in 2018, with Cork Chamber of Commerce, where we found that 93% of respondents saw potential for greater business links and collaboration between the UK and Ireland.
In the five years since, we have been busy building cooperation through a series of events in Limerick, Galway, Belfast, Birmingham, Coventry, Derry/Londonderry, Liverpool and Manchester… and now we’re delighted to be back in Cork again.
Our events across Ireland in the last five years have made connections across advanced manufacturing, health & life sciences, urban regeneration, creative industries and now, this week in Cork, we’re focussing on the vital area of retrofitting homes and businesses.
“The relationship between Cork and the South West of Ireland and the UK goes deeper than trade and business. We have strong people to people connections and enjoy close historical, cultural and sporting connections. We build on the strong links Cork and Coventry have with each other, being twinned cities since 1958, and, of course, the historic state visit to Ireland by The late Queen in 2011, which famously culminated in her visit to Cork.”
During his visit to Cork last week to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Joining the Dots, British Ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston, announced the British Embassy’s new Honorary Consul for the South West of Ireland, Katherine Fitzpatrick, alongside the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Kieran McCarthy and Ann Doherty, CEO of Cork City Council, at Cork City Hall.
Picture: Alison Miles / OSM PHOTO
During his visit to Cork last week to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Joining the Dots, British Ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston, announced the British Embassy’s new Honorary Consul for the South West of Ireland, Katherine Fitzpatrick, alongside the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Kieran McCarthy and Ann Doherty, CEO of Cork City Council, at Cork City Hall.
Picture: Alison Miles / OSM PHOTO
During his visit to Cork last week to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Joining the Dots, British Ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston, announced the British Embassy’s new Honorary Consul for the South West of Ireland, Katherine Fitzpatrick, alongside the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Kieran McCarthy and Ann Doherty, CEO of Cork City Council, at Cork City Hall.
Picture: Alison Miles / OSM PHOTO
Quote from Katherine Fitzpatrick
“I’m delighted to take on the role of Honorary Consul for the South-West of Ireland. There are so many opportunities for collaboration and engagement between the UK and Ireland across multiple areas, be they business, research, civic or cultural. I strongly believe in the value of building international networks and sharing best practices, so I look forward to helping the British Embassy to expand their networks in the South-West of Ireland, by identifying new opportunities of mutual benefit.
Quote from Lord Mayor of Cork
“On behalf of the people of Cork, it was my honour to welcome the British Ambassador to Ireland, Paul Johnston to Cork City Hall… With a projected population growth of over 50% by 2040, Cork continues to develop into a more sustainable city for people to live, work, study and invest in. This growth will only be bolstered by the support from programmes such as ‘Joining the Dots’. I would also like to express my congratulations to fellow Corkconian, Katherine Fitzpatrick for being appointed Honorary Consul for the South West of Ireland, and I look forward to working with Katherine to promote Cork as the region to do business in.”
About Joining the Dots
‘Joining the Dots’ is a British Embassy led programme that promotes economic links and opportunities between regions of the UK and Ireland bringing together the strands of the UK’s Levelling Up agenda and Ireland’s National Development Plan (NDP).
The initial report was launched with a keynote by Tánaiste Simon Coveney in Cork in November 2018, in partnership with Cork Chamber of Commerce. The report identified untapped opportunities to connect business, researchers and academia to promote UK–Irish economic growth. The visiting delegation from the UK partook in panel discussions with regional stakeholders and conducted site visits to research centres and urban regeneration projects.
Since its launch, the programme has built cooperation between the regions by hosting a number of events
About Katherine Fitzpatrick
Katherine has over 15 years’ experience in building strategic global networks as well as developing and managing projects to support regional enterprise ecosystems. As the former Director of International Relations at Cork Chamber of Commerce, she engaged extensively with stakeholders across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, both in Ireland and abroad, with a strong focus on place marketing, place branding, talent attraction and economic development projects. Katherine led the evolution and delivery of the ‘Connecting Cork’ initiative, which focused on the international promotion of Cork as an investment location through diaspora engagement, trade missions and international networking.
Katherine holds a BA in European Studies and Languages (UCC), a Masters in Italian Translation (NUIG) and has recently completed a course in Business Sustainability Management with the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership (University of Cambridge). She currently works as an independent consultant on a variety of projects that include benchmarking the attractiveness of cities and places through sustainability/talent attraction initiatives, as well as the development of business and international networks.