China has been a life-long interest for Brendan Halligan and in 1983, Brendan was a member of the European Parliament’s delegation to the People’s National Assembly which visited China at the invitation of the Chinese government.
He subsequently set up the China Project Group in the Institute of International and European Affairs and, after he re-visited China in 2014 to meet various official and academic bodies, began to escalate work on the development a new, independent organisation that would strengthen Irish-Chinese diplomatic and cultural relations, foster a deeper understanding of the respective cultural norms and values and deepen economic relations to the mutual advantage of both countries.
He also envisaged that it would encourage interaction between educationalists, scholars and students. It would be called the Ireland China Institute (ICI).
Working with ICI Chairman Ken Duggan and a voluntary ICI team, a Board of Directors was formed and in October 2019 the Ireland China Institute (ICI) launched in Dublin in Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, with a forum entitled “Ireland and China – Looking Towards the Next 40 Years”, to mark the 40th Anniversary of diplomatic relations between Ireland and the People’s Republic of China. For more information on ICI, click here. And please see below for a gallery of photographs from the launch of the Ireland China Institute:
For more information, please see the website of the Ireland China Institute And also see these other galleries here on Brendan’s site:
China Visit 1983, Professor Hu Angang Visit, IIEA-CASS.
