By Ray O'Hanlon
Irish Consul General in New York, Niall Burgess, will be leaving his post in a few weeks.
Burgess, who holds the rank of ambassador, has been promoted within the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to the key post atop the department's Anglo Irish Division.
It was expected that Burgess, a popular figure in the New York's area's Irish and Irish American community, would remain at his New York job up to, and for a time after, next year's 250th annivesary St. Patrick's Day Parade celebrations.
But now his departure, that of his wife Marie, and the couple's two school-going children, will happen by August.
As head of Anglo Irish, the Dublin-born Burgess will be centrally involved in the Northern Ireland peace process and relations between Dublin and London.
An archaeologist by academic training, Burgess is related to the first ceann comhairle (speaker) of the Dáil, Cathal Brugha.
