Who We Are & What We Do
Mission
Our aim is to promote, through social, cultural and sporting activities, fellowship among residents of Ireland and Northern Ireland who have Irish-Canadian connections, and to promote within Ireland, Northern Ireland and Canada greater awareness of Irish and Canadian cultural and other links.
Our Story
Founded in December 1996, the Irish Canadian Society is a voluntary membership organisation that has been hosting social, cultural and sports events for nearly 30 years.
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ICS members hail from diverse parts of Canada, Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Canadians include students, retirees and everything in between. We have members who are Irish with Canadian connections either past or present.
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Canada's Ambassador to Ireland
Nancy Smyth​
Nancy Smyth (BA Hons [French, German], McMaster University, 1987; MA [International Affairs], Carleton University, 1991) joined Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada in 2005 as deputy director for Policy Planning (2005 to 2008) and acted as deputy head in the Transformation Office (2008 to 2009).
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Most recently, Ms. Smyth served as the Director General for Social Development in Global Affair Canada’s Global Issues and Development Branch (2016 to 2020). In this capacity, she held thematic policy and programmatic responsibilities for education, gender equality and child protection during the development and early implementation of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy and during Canada’s leadership of the G7 Charlevoix Education Initiative. She served as Canada’s representative to the Global Partnership for Education and was Chair of the Executive Committee of Education Cannot Wait, housed at UNICEF.
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Ms. Smyth worked with Employment and Social Development Canada as a Director in the Program Operations Branch (2010 to 2015), and as Director of International Policy Coordination at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (2015 to 2016).
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Prior to working in government, she spent over a decade with Canada’s International Development Research Centre in several program, partnership and policy positions, including working in the South Africa office (1995 to 1997).
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She is married with three adult children and is very proud of her Irish heritage.
