THE planned new Irish Consulate General for the north of England is on track to open on July 1, The Irish Post can reveal.
First announced in November 2020, Ireland’s new diplomatic mission will be based in Manchester, covering the North West, the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Sarah Mangan has been confirmed as the Consul General, responsible for leading the work of new mission.
She will work within a team of four initially – consisting of a second Irish diplomat and two locally hired members of staff.
When it opens on Thursday, July 1, the Consulate General will be temporarily based in the same building as the Enterprise Ireland office which opened in Manchester’s Marble Street in 2019.
A permanent location for the new consulate has yet to be acquired.
The opening of the new consulate will bring the number of Irish diplomatic missions in Great Britain to four.
The others are the Embassy of Ireland in London and the Consulates General in Edinburgh and Cardiff.
Announcing the plans last November, Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Simon Coveney said: “Moving ahead with plans for a new Consulate in the North of England is a really strong signal of Ireland’s commitment to the Irish-British relationship.”
He added: “When opened, this new Consulate General at the heart of the North of England will upgrade our capacity to advance our commercial interests and our cultural and people-to-people links.”
