Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland’s ambassador to the United States, is in town for the 2025 Kansas City Irish Fest, which takes place this weekend at Crown Center.
She told KCUR’s Up To Date that she couldn’t wait to experience the festival, which she said has quite the reputation.
“The Kansas City Irish Fest is famous, not just here in the United States, but back in Ireland. Your reputation goes before you,” Byrne Nason said.
She said it is a privilege to see so much of Irish culture expressed here in the United States, and that it demonstrates the nature of the relationship between the two countries.
“We started to come to this country over 200 years ago, and Irish people were all in from the beginning. They left the island not by choice, but came here and helped to build this great country,” she said.
“But the link back to Ireland was always through storytelling, through writing, through music, through dance, and they passed that on generationally. So, the strength of the 31 million Irish Americans today, which is political and economic, is underpinned by that cultural link. I admire it every single day, not because it's caught in a legacy, historical way, but because it's grown here.”
- Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States
Kansas City Irish Fest, 5 to 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 29-31 at Crown Center Square, 2425 Grand Boulevard, Kansas City, Missouri 64108. Tickets available here.
