Caption: Left to right: new Consul General of Ireland for the Western US, Philip Grant; Irish Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar; Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland. This picture was taken at the United Irish Cultural Center in San Francisco at an event celebrating the re-opening of the direct Aer Lingus route between San Francisco and Dublin in April, 2014.

Consul General Philip Grant assumed duty as Consul General of Ireland to the Western United States, in San Francisco, on 30 September 2013. From Dublin, Philip has been a diplomat with the Irish Foreign Ministry since 1992. Prior to his appointment as Consul General, he was Spokesperson and Director for Press and Media Relations in the Foreign Ministry for four years. He worked on the visits of Queen Elizabeth and President Obama to Ireland, the Global Irish Economic Forum and Ireland’s EU Presidency. He was previously posted to the United States in 1994-1997, when he served as Vice-Consul at the Consulate in Chicago covering the mid-west and southern United States. From 2006-2009 he was Deputy Head of Mission at Ireland’s Embassy to Turkey in Ankara; and from 2002-2006 he was based in Israel, as Deputy Head of Mission at the Irish Embassy in Tel Aviv. Consul General Grant has also served in the Middle East and Anglo-Irish Sections of the Irish Foreign Ministry in Dublin, and at Ireland’s Mission to the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. He is a Science graduate of Trinity College in Dublin. Philip will be aided in his work at the Consulate by new Vice Consul, Kevin Byrne. Kevin, a native of Dundalk in County Louth, is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the London School of Economics. A Naughton scholar, he has worked internationally for national government, the European Union and in the think tank sector. He joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2010. Most recently he was seconded to the Department of the Taoiseach to plan Ireland’s successful 7th Presidency of the EU.