Dear US visitors, so you wonder why you should invest over here?

Monday, May 05, 2008

By Ed Curran

First and foremost, we are the kith and kin of so many Americans. We speak virtually the same language. We are steeped in the culture of the United States, not because you have imposed it on us (as so often you are accused of doing to other countries around the world) but because we imposed it on you.

We gave you at least 15 of your presidents. Many of the others, with only tenuous and sometimes non-existent links, have employed all sorts of ancestral wizardry to conjure up a distant family connection to these shores. We don't mind a bit. Indeed, most of us are extremely proud that the most powerful nation on earth regards such humble local antecedents as important.

As a boy growing up in Co Tyrone, I recall the tearful farewells as another son of our soil set off across the Atlantic. Walk down any street in this small country and you'll knock only a few doors before you find a family with a son or daughter across the pond.

And the nice thing about life today is that the distance between us all has diminished greatly. Last weekend my daughter, who spent four years at the University of California at Berkeley, near San Francisco, was married in Belfast.

It took me longer to cross the United States from one seaboard to the other to visit her than it did to actually cross the Atlantic. That's how close we really are and it's why as with my daughter's wedding, we didn't have to rely on reading out long-distance messages from her friends from student days. Rather we enjoyed having them actually with us in person over the Bank Holiday weekend.

I feel sure they have gone away with a positive feeling that Northern Ireland IS a great place to work and play. For example, we do not have the madding crowds of England or other parts of Europe. True, we complain about rush hour traffic jams around Belfast but, as you can note yourself, we don't know we're living compared to most cities these days.

Please also, do not take too seriously the morning radio or TV headlines in your hotel room. They are seldom a true reflection of life as it is lived here. They are more often than not too reliant on the overnight police log which would lead you to believe that we were all appearing in court on sex charges or were assaulting people after dark.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Be assured, if you invest here, you will be putting your money in one of the least crime-ridden and corrupt corners of Europe.

This is also a place where the quality of life is excellent. You may hear people complaining that they come from "socially deprived" districts. If you get a chance go and see for yourself. These districts and the homes therein are a far cry and nothing like as deprived as the rough, tough ghettoes in big American cities.

Belfast, as you will note, has the great attribute of being a relatively small city, where you can be in unspoilt countryside or by the seaside, within a few minutes' car travel. It may not be architecturally a sight to behold, but its saucer-like setting by the shores of the lough and in the shadow of the hills could lead you to believe you were in Cape Town. Indeed, here's a thought. How about investing in a cable-car up Cavehill?

But go out of town if you have that chance. See Londonderry by the banks of the Foyle, where the quality of life is arguably even better than Belfast with a wild and stunning Atlantic seaboard close at hand. Or the rest of Ulster, mainly small rural towns, where the constant drift from the land has created a willing workforce.

Now, on that question of our weather. A friend of mine was telling me the other day that it gets so cold in parts of the USA and Canada, that the grave-diggers have to wait until the Spring thaw to bury the dead. No bother here.

If you build a business here, just make sure the roof is water-proof, but forget about cyclones, tornadoes, tsunamis, twisters, heat-waves, droughts and freeze-ups. You won't have to insure against any of them. Just sit back and enjoy lovely soft rain showers all the days of your life.

We have a reliable workforce in this country second to none. I'm pleased that among the speakers this week will be my own boss, Sir Anthony O'Reilly, who has invested heavily in this newspaper and in this province in the past seven years but who also has wide experience in the United States as head of Heinz.

I would say, and I'm sure you would agree, that someone with that business pedigree, can appraise you fairly accurately about his experience of the Ulster work-ethic. Possibly not unlike Middle America. Certainly, dedicated, hard-working, loyal, proud, and, in the main, honest. You will travel far across Europe to find a people with better virtues.

Of course, our society is constantly changing. When our forefathers went to America they were first and foremost, Protestants and Catholics. Faith doesn't matter so much today even here in Ireland but the fundamental Christian teaching of what is right and wrong is still very important in our homes — and in our work-places. I leave it to the economists to tell you about money matters in Northern Ireland but we are part and parcel of the United Kingdom, America's closest friend. And we are also increasingly close to the rest of Ireland, where ties also run deep with your country.

I would argue that this is a special place. As I discovered personally, as close to the eastern seaboard of your country as San Francisco is to New York. So close indeed that at one point in "The Troubles", I wondered if the best solution might not have been to make us your 51st state.

I hope you enjoy your visit here. More than that, I hope you find that all the attributes of my country which I have mentioned help you to make your mind up. And that when it is made up, your decision will be to invest in Northern Ireland.

Many other Americans have invested here over the years. You will not regret it.

Yours Ed