Eamonn McKee Irish Ambassador to Seoul

Dear Joseph,I wanted to bring to your attention two initiatives promoting Ireland. Firstly, I was delighted to host a reception at the Residence yesterday evening for a group of Korea teachers of English.

They were there to register for a competition offering four scholarships to live and study in Ireland for a month, improving their English and enhancing their teaching skills. The competition is funded by the Irish Department of Education and organised by Fáilte Ireland, our tourism agency.

It part of the new Education Ireland policy which promotes Ireland as a education destination. See www.educationireland.ie . Korea, along with Japan and Turkey, has been identified as a key market for this promotion. The competition will be held each year up to 2015.

I will let you know the competition winners when they are announced in November. The second promotion is for Irish speakers living abroad. You also have to have some artistic skills because it is a competition for the best Christmas card design with an Irish greeting. There are two sections in this competition – a section for children who are under sixteen years of age and one for adults.

There will be six prizes of €500 for the six best cards, three for each group. Further information about the competition is available from Glór na nGael on +353 46 943 0974 or by e.mail fiosru@glornangael.ie.

The initiative is part of the Global Gaeilge initiative and follows the success of the 2010 Christmas Card competition. Glór na nGael and the Department of Foreign Affairs are the organisers. Go raibh maith agat (thank you).