I’ve tweeted about our @GlobalIrish communities in #SanDiego, #Seattle, #BayArea & tweeted throughout the visit to #LosAngeles but there are so many other fantastic organizations & communities in Western US celebrating their Irish heritage & links to Ireland. Here are a few ...

Did you know that #Portland is home to a beautiful cross commemorating the famine? Portland is also home to the wonderful @CorribTheatre, led by the fantastic Gemma Whelan, delivering high quality productions of contemporary Irish productions such as Charlie O'Neill's HURL.

I recently visited Salt Lake City & was delighted to meet the Hibernian Society there. Next year #Utah will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the #GoldenSpike - the completion of the transcontinental railroad - in which the Irish community in the US played such a prominent role.

Few places in Western US with as strong an Irish heritage as #Montana, particularly Butte where Cavan native Marcus Daly hired huge numbers of Irish to work in his copper mine in the 19th century. Today, @umontana has a vibrant #IrishStudies prog led by Corkman Traolach O’Riordan

#Montana is also connected to Ireland through its first Governor, Thomas Francis Meagher, a Waterford man who took the long way to the US via Tasmania! A statue of ‘Meagher of the Sword’ stands outside the Montana Statehouse in Helena.