Pulling on the red and white jersey for Derry as goal of stronger links with Ohio is realised

In a whistle stop tour the trade delegation met with local businesses, civic leaders, educationalists and manufacturers as they sought to explore further opportunities for mutual cooperation between Derry and North East Ohio.

The mission was put together by Carnhill-woman Clare McGee, whose social enterprise AwakenHub/AwakenAngels is geared towards channelling capital into women-founded start-ups, and Top of the Hill émigré Mark Owens, who works with North East Ohio (NEO)/JobsOhio and has been Ireland’s Honorary Consul to the ‘Buckeye State’ since 2023.

The ‘Journal’ caught up with Clare and Mark as they literally pulled on their red and white jerseys to cheer for Derry at a Goals Beyond the Pitch networking event at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.

Both are passionate about their native city and this is clearly a motivating factor in what they are trying to do.

“Every Derry citizen has the opportunity to be an ambassador and sell Derry,” Clare insists. “When you are in a different city and someone asks you where you are from always say, ‘Derry, it's the best city in Ireland’. “We all have the opportunity to be positive and sell our city.”

She adds: “It is our story to tell. I think everybody can keep selling it and banging the drum and our local education systems and the council are all doing great jobs in trying to make the City Deal happen. We all just need to get behind them and bring other opportunities to the table to kind of help all that gel together.”

Mark concurs and confides that his friends from the greater Cleveland metropolitan area were taken aback by the warmth of welcome they received.

“The reception we have got here...they have been blown away by the hospitality of Derry people was the passion of Derry people. No matter who they met it was Derry, Derry, Derry, they were blown away by that,” he says.

Mark has been living in the Cleveland area for over 25 years having attended John Carroll University in the late 1990s and set down roots.

He was introduced to Clare by happenstance after the AwakenHub/AwakenAngels founder met Kevin Malecek, Director of Economic Trade & International Trade, City of Mentor, Ohio, at a St. Patrick’s Day function in Philadelphia.

This led to a first trade mission from Ohio to Derry in April, which got the ball rolling.

“Since then we were seeing what we could do in order to support North West companies in the US and we have been working on bringing our networks together in order to support companies that are going over to the US,” says Clare.

Mark adds: “We got talking more then during that event about what more work we can do. This was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the opportunity to do more collaboration and people are showing a bigger interest. It has kind of evolved in the last few months to what we have now with the big delegation in town.”

Those in attendance in Derry were mayors and city managers with significant executive powers and budgets and who were ‘very interested in learning about how companies work here and about how civic engagement is here’.

"There is a big opportunity to even match up companies and match up organisations, whether it is community wealth builders here in Derry and community wealth builders in Cleveland. We are seeing a lot of similarities in what we are trying to achieve for our own regions. There is a lot of cross-over there,” he says.

AwakenHub is an island-wide organisation and Clare reveals that one of their companies has just moved into Ohio to open up operations there.

"The strategic link up between Ireland and the US is really beneficial to companies whenever they want to scale into the US or if they are seeking investment.

"We are representing women founders who are scaling businesses in medtech, in aerospace and cyber security. That's very much similar to the region in Ohio and the specialisation they have there in manufacturing.

“So the Ohio region and the North West region, they are very similar in their culture, the cost of living, the education system and the universities and the people are kind of similar and they all really want to help,” Clare tells us.

About 14 per cent of people in Ohio claim Irish ancestry. North East Ohio boasts the highest concentration of Irish immigrants, both Irish-born and people with Irish ancestry, Mark points out.

A direct flight between Dublin and Cleveland was established in 2023 improving connectivity for those travelling between Ireland and the region.

When the new Derry to Dublin flight eventually takes off getting from the banks of the Foyle to the shores of Lake Erie will never have been easier.

"There are less excuses not to come!” says Mark. “Now it's a case of there being a direct flight to Cleveland to Dublin six days a week and then when the new flights come on from City of Derry Airport that will make it easier - one stop from one plane, onto another.”

Clare agrees: “When you think about the US you think of San Francisco or Boston but with the direct flight with Aer Lingus from Dublin to Cleveland that has kind of opened up the opportunity.”

Following the successful engagements in Derry a NW delegation will travel to Ohio from September 26-30.

They will meet with the Cleveland Clinic, the Cleveland Mayor’s Office, the Ohio Ireland Trade Commission, NASA, The Democracy Collaborative and attendance at VC Fest.

And it is not only about trade.

Mark explains how his alma mater John Carroll University runs a peace and reconciliation study programme and brings students to Derry every year on a field trip.

“In April we went to the Bloody Sunday Trust to educate the US visitors about some of the history of Derry.

The new Bloody Sunday documentary came out, ‘The Day Innocence Died’,” he says.

John Carroll is now set to host the US premiere of the film.

“We have students coming from Cleveland to Derry as part of the civil rights programme and now we are getting to show the Bloody Sunday documentary in Cleveland which presents a full circle opportunity as well,” Mark continues.

The growing link up between Derry and Ohio has the real potential to grow jobs and opportunities for both areas, Claire believes.

“It's jobs and opportunity and investment and it's a two way thing. That's why the mayors and the city managers are here...all this kind of happens through conversation and collaboration,” she says.

That positive message will resound loudly and clearly when Clare and Mark pull on their red and white jerseys to cheer on Derry in Ohio in the coming days.

“I always say being Irish is a superpower and we just need to use it better,” Clare maintains.

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