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Behind the Scenes of the visits of Queen Elizabeth and President Obama

Over 2,000 members of the media, both Irish and international, accredited with the Department of Foreign Affairs to cover the visits of Queen Elizabeth II and President Barack Obama. Organising facilities for these journalists and broadcasters involved setting up press centres in Dublin Castle, Cork, and Templemore where they were provided with the facilities and infrastructure required to report on the visits. Transport was also organised to and from each event for the media.

Weeks of preparation went into organising the visits, involving a team from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Government Information Service, the Office of Public Works, and Press Officers from across Departments. MerrionStreet.ie spoke to a number of people who worked on the visits about their role in making sure the events ran smoothly.

Organisations like the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia and Fáilte Ireland were also involved, taking advantage of the opportunity to showcase Ireland to the international media and hosting events during the visits. MerrionStreet.ie spoke with Fáilte Ireland CEO Shaun Quinn on the positive effects of the visits and the benefits his organisation anticipates for Ireland.

You can view the feature below...

You can see the information given to the media, including tourism fact sheets, information on some of the sites involved in the visits, and details of President Obama's Irish heritage here.