Modi arrives in Ireland on brief visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Wednesday for a brief visit to Ireland enroute to the U.S. to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation.

“From India to Ireland ... strengthening ties and deepening cooperation,” Mr. Modi tweeted as soon as he landed here. He is scheduled for a tête-à-tête with Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny at the Government Buildings in Dublin City Centre followed by a working luncheon hosted by Mr. Kenny in honour of Modi, the first Indian Premier to visit the country in almost 60 years.

“We hope to further develop strong people-to-people and economic ties with Ireland in the years to come,” Mr. Modi had said in a Facebook post in reference to the visit.

Ties date back to Independence

Relations between India and Ireland date back to independence and in 2013, the total trade in goods and services was pegged at euro 2.48 billion.

The key items of Irish export include computer hardware and software, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, food and machinery.

Indian exports to Ireland cover textiles, garments and clothing accessories, pharmaceuticals, light engineering goods and chemicals.

Indian pharma majors

Major Indian companies with a presence in Ireland include pharma majors such as Wockhardt, Sun Pharma and Reliance Genemedix and information technology firms such as FirstSource, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL and Wipro.

Following the government-level interactions, the Prime Minister will interact with the Indian community in Ireland at a special event being hosted at Hotel Double Tree Hilton in Dublin.

26,000 PIOs in country

Ireland is home to around 26,000 persons of Indian origin, of which around 17,000 are Indian citizens. The bulk of the community is in the healthcare sector, working as doctors and nurses, with information technology and engineering among some of the other sectors.

The country is also fast emerging as a significant destination for Indian students seeking higher education, particularly in post-graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral courses in these particular fields.

‘Very historic visit’

“This is a very historic visit and there are lots of expectations from Mr. Modi. We are confident the PM is the right person to trust to increase foreign investments for India,” said Lalubhai Parekh, president of the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP).

The last Indian prime minister to visit Ireland was Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956.

Gifts galore

Mr. Modi presented to his Irish counterpart reproductions of a selection of historic manuscripts and papers pertaining to two Raj-era Irish officials, Thomas Oldham and George Abraham Grierson, in recognition of their contributions to India.

Mr. Modi also gifted Mr. Kenny a specially handcrafted piece of silver, marble and roughly-hewn sandstone rock that imagines the Irish symbol of shamrock as a votive candle-stand or an ‘aarti’ lamp, with a peacock perched by the side of shamrock leaves, along with silver-tipped crystal dewdrops signifying serenity and purity.

The original manuscripts and papers which Mr. Modi presented to Mr. Kenny are preserved in the National Archives of India.

GSI and Irish fame

Born in Dublin, Oldham (1816—1878) was appointed as Geological Surveyor in 1850 to conduct a survey in India and his services were placed with the then Government of Bengal.

He assumed charge in March 1851 and his joining day is celebrated as the foundation day of the Geological Survey of India. Apart from conducting the first systematic coal mapping of India — and later initiating mapping of other minerals — he wrote extensively on the fossils of India.

The philologist

Grierson (1851—1941) was an Irish civil servant and philologist who, starting 1898, conducted the first Linguistic Survey of India. The Survey was later published over several years during 1903-28.

It was Grierson’s Survey that provided the first scientifically-based taxonomy of the Indo-Aryan languages within which the linguistic status of various forms of Hindi, Urdu and other Indo-Aryan speech forms is based.

The separation of Hindi into Western and Eastern dialect zones is the direct result of Grierson’s classification efforts. As a student of mathematics at Trinity College, Dublin, Grierson took prizes in Sanskrit and Hindi.

Language research

Grierson went to Bengal in October 1873, where, in addition to carrying out his duties in a succession of government posts until 1898, he devoted much time to language research. Two of his most important works are Seven Grammars of the Dialects and Sub-dialects of the Bihari Language (1883—87) and Bihar Peasant Life (1885).

The latter work, in addition to offering much linguistic information, describes the life, farming methods, and beliefs of the Bihar peasantry.

In 1994, India instituted an award in his honour that is given to foreign scholars who have made significant contributions to Hindi.