![\"an](\"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/gsu-press-release-1024x683.jpg\")
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The Minister of State for Tourism & Sport, Brendan Griffin, attended Mount Juliet Estate for the launch of an exciting new tourism initiative between Georgia, USA and Ireland spearheaded by incoming golf & heritage operators, Club Choice Ireland.<\/p>\n
The initiative is three years in the making and will see a delegation of forty Georgia Southern University Alumni make an eight-day tour of Ireland\u2019s East & South East regions. Their tour will be a combination of heritage, cultural research and golf.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland is currently seeing record numbers of people visiting the island. This is not happening by accident or by luck. It\u2019s happening thanks to the alignment of both State- and industry-led efforts, working towards a common goal. Initiatives like this collaboration between Club Choice Ireland and Georgia Southern University complement the work being done by our tourism agencies to deliver on Government tourism policy objectives. I\u2019m delighted to have the opportunity to help launch this project and look forward to welcoming the Alumni to Ireland\u201d — Minister Brendan Griffin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Starting in 2014, Georgia Southern University\u2019s\u00a0Honors Program\u00a0and\u00a0the Center for Irish Research and Teaching\u00a0have sponsored students to participate in summer research programs to investigate the Wexford-Savannah connections. They have made noteworthy discoveries and presented to hundreds of people in Savannah and in Wexford. It was this programme which was the catalyst for Wexford based Golf Tour Operator, Club Choice Ireland, to approach the University\u2019s Alumni department to look at creating a tour to Ireland which would allow their past students connect with the research of their current students.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the launch of the tour was Club Choice Ireland managing director, Tiernan Byrne:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be our pleasure to welcome the Georgia Southern University Alumni on what we hope will be a truly unique and memorable experience. Developing this tour itinerary was particularly exciting given the many friends we have at Georgia Southern and how, as a Wexford based business ourselves, we\u2019ve seen first-hand the wonderful work of CIRT & the GSU Honors Program.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Center for Irish Research and Teaching (CIRT) flies the flag for Ireland and advances Irish America in the 320,000-student University System of Georgia. An academic and outreach unit of Georgia Southern University, CIRT is proud to call historic Savannah, Georgia, its home. Productively blending native-Irish and Scots-Irish narratives since its founding in 1733, Savannah is undoubtedly the most Irish city in the Southeastern United States. CIRT researches and teaches the Irish past of Savannah in particular and Georgia in general. It also links Georgia to present-day, future-directed Ireland through such means as two study-in-Ireland programs and a TradeBridge\u00ae initiative with the Savannah Economic Development Authority\/World Trade Center Savannah.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Georgia Southern University Alumni Association is excited about our first alumni tour to the wonderful country of Ireland. Partnering with the Georgia Southern Center for Irish Research and Teaching, the tour will join Georgia Southern students studying abroad and explore the Wexford-Savannah Axis. Establishing lifelong relationships with alumni, students and friends is at the core of our mission.\u201d — Wendell Tompkins Jr, Senior Director of Alumni Relations at Georgia Southern University<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Minister of State for Tourism & Sport, Brendan Griffin, attended Mount Juliet Estate for the launch of an exciting new tourism initiative between Georgia, USA and Ireland spearheaded by incoming golf & heritage operators, Club Choice Ireland. The initiative is three years in the making and will see a delegation of forty Georgia Southern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186,"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2184\/revisions\/2186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clubchoiceireland.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}