Release date: Oct. 10, 2003
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

Former Irish Prime Minister to Speak at Emory Nov. 7

WHO: Albert Reynolds, prime minister of Ireland from 1992-94

WHAT: Lecture on the Irish economy, "Ireland: Gateway to Europe/Bridge to America"

WHEN: Friday, Nov. 7 at 4 p.m.

WHERE: Boynton Auditorium, Goizueta Business School, 1400 Clifton Rd., Emory.

COST: Free and open to the public. For more information, call 404-727-6180 or 404-727-6464. Sponsored by the Atlanta Chapter of the Ireland Chamber of Commerce-USA and the W. B. Yeats Foundation of Emory

Ireland has experienced extraordinary economic, social and political development during the past 15 years, and many credit former Prime Minister (1992-94) Albert Reynolds as one of the key architects of that remarkable transformation. Reynolds will discuss Ireland's economy--come to be known as "the Celtic Tiger"-- which will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Reynolds, Donald R. Keough, former president of The Coca-Cola Company and current chairman of Allen & Company, and Tom Noonan, chairman and CEO of Internet Security Systems Inc.

"If someone had predicted that Ireland, which in 1990 had a 15 percent unemployment rate and the poorest economic record in Europe, would in the year 2003 be expected to have the highest growth rate in the developed world, that individual would have been called a lunatic," says James Flannery, director of the W.B. Yeats Foundation and Winship Professor of the Arts and Humanities at Emory. Yet, according to Flannery, Ireland's average rate of export growth since 1994 is the highest among the members of the European Union, with two-thirds of those exports in services and high tech areas-- computer hardware, software and pharmaceuticals. Ireland is today the largest exporter of software in the world, according to Flannery.

Ireland has now the world's most globalized economy, as measured by trade and investment links to the rest of the world, according to Foreign Policy Magazine.

With a population of slightly less than four million, Ireland attracts 10 percent of the United States' investment in Europe. Ireland also ranks as the ninth largest exporter of goods to the United States. There are 1,300 multinational companies in Ireland whose activities total 87 percent of these exports. There are more than 600 American companies in Ireland that employ nearly 100,000 people. In turn, Irish companies employ 65,000 Americans.

Prior to his term as prime minister, Reynolds was the minister for industry and commerce and minister for finance, thus involved in setting the policies that led directly to the "Celtic Tiger." A highly successful businessman, his promotion of education, particularly in computer literacy, and his development of government-business partnerships with incentives for foreign investment, attracted a large number of major international companies to set up branches in Ireland.

"But perhaps Mr. Reynolds' biggest achievement while prime minister was the Northern Irish Peace Process, where he played a crucial role in securing the direct involvement of John Major, the prime minister of Great Britain, and former President Bill Clinton," says Flannery. Arguing that no progress towards peace could be made through a policy of exclusion, Reynolds persuaded Major and Clinton to invite Sinn Féin, the political wing of the IRA, to join the peace discussion.

Reynolds remains hopeful for a lasting peace in Northern Ireland, but continues to resist pressures from the British government as well as Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland, who are trying to force the IRA to decommission their weapons before the Northern Ireland Assembly is restored.

"There is no historical precedence in Ireland for decommissioning," says Reynolds. "It's symbolic of surrender and we didn't have a surrender--we had a cease-fire." He also notes that rebel forces in countries like Bosnia and South Africa were never required to turn in arms before talks began. "Those conditions were to be part of the negotiations," according to Reynolds. "Sinn Féin and the IRA have had issues of historic discrimination that they are trying to address. In every decade of this century there has been some form of rebellion against second-class citizenship and poor treatment of minorities by colonial governments."

The Yeats Foundation also is co-sponsoring with the Ancient Order of Hibernians a lecture by Martin McGuinness, chief administrator for Sinn Fein during the peace negotiations leading up to the Good Friday Agreement of March 1998, and former minister of education in the Northern Ireland Assembly. His talk about "Education and Peace in Northern Ireland" will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 8 p.m. in 208, White Hall, 480 Kilgo Circle, on the Emory campus.

"The combined talks by Reynolds and McGuinness promise to shed considerable light on the interrelationship among education, economic development and prospect for peace in what still remains one of the troubled areas of the world," says Flannery.

Both talks are free and open to the public. For further information, call 404-727-6180 or 404-727-6464.

Emory University is a highly selective, comprehensive research university known for its academically demanding undergraduate college, highly ranked professional schools and world-class research facilities. For more than a decade, Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, a comprehensive metropolitan health care system.

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