[caption id="attachment_67184" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore with NY State Senator Jeff Klein and singer Mary Courtney during Mr. Gilmore's Emerald Isle visit."]
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore, visited the Emerald Isle Immigration Center on Katonah Avenue in Woodlawn during his recent New York visit.
He was greeted by EIIC chairman Brian O'Dwyer, board members and executive director Siobhán Dennehy, who introduced the Tánaiste to the immigration services, the seniors program and the social services that are provided by the center.
The visit followed the week in which the center's meals-on-wheels scheme was formally launched by New York State Senator Jeff Klein.
Among those assembled the tánaiste was the Irish language group that meets every week in the EIIC under the tutelage of staff member Aine Murphy. The center's hugely productive knitting group was also represented.
According to a statement from the center, the vital immigration services that the Emerald Isle offers to the community were to the forefront as the tánaiste met with the staff that has been on the frontline of a recent increase in emigration from Ireland.
"Staff members on hand were able to elaborate on the valuable work of the organization, their experience of recent trends in Irish immigration, and the prospects for immigrants in a sluggish U.S. economy," the statement said.
