His Excellency Representative Simon Tu met with Ms. Sorcha Pollak of The Irish Times on 22 September 2016. Ms. Pollak is a journalist who writes with a particular focus on the experiences of immigrant communities. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the London School of Economics, she has previously worked as a journalist for the London Guardian and TIME Magazine. Representative Tu was joined by other leading members of Ireland’s Taiwanese community including Evan Furlong, Principal of the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese, and Frank Lu, President of the Taiwan Ireland Association. Together they offered a portrait of the Taiwanese community in Ireland.
Representative Tu numbered the current Taiwanese community in Ireland at over 400 people, including many professionals and managers in multinational businesses. Each year they are joined by 400 Taiwanese young people who come to Ireland to study, work, and explore using the Working Holiday Visa programme. Ireland is now a very popular destination for young travellers and businesspeople.
Frank Lu, who began his career with IBM twenty years ago, described falling in love with Ireland in the early years when few Taiwanese people lived here. Since then, the community has bloomed on account of business and educational links and international marriages. The Taiwanese community in Ireland is now growing by 10% a year.
Evan Furlong explained that the growth of the community has been accompanied by a rising interest in Mandarin. Most of her students are the children of marriages between Irish and Taiwanese citizens, but many of them are locals too. As well as language skills, she offers courses in traditional calligraphy, folk art, and cuisine, contributing to Dublin’s vibrant multicultural scene.
[PHOTO CAPTION:] Left to right: Patrick Furlong, Evan Furlong, Tracey Tu, Sorcha Pollak, Representative Simon Tu, Frank Lu
