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There are evenings when a building begins to tell the story of its own life. On 6 November, the Daugavpils University building at 13 Vienības Street told the story of its 105 years. Even from the street you could see the light show on the façade, which movingly painted the university's journey from its beginnings to the present day. In golden tones, a great oak appeared on the wall with dancers circling beneath it, and at the end came the university building itself, surrounded by people holding small lights. Inside, a string quartet played and ballet dancers moved among red and white floral arrangements in the foyer, and it felt as if the whole building was radiating festive joy and welcoming everyone who came in.

I was invited to the anniversary as a partner from Ireland, and it was a great honour. Daugavpils University is a member of the Irish Latvian Chamber of Commerce (ILCC), and our paths have crossed not only in Daugavpils. Representatives of the university have visited Ireland several times and taken part in joint LatWest and ILCC projects. So that evening I did not feel like a guest looking in from outside, but like someone who has long been connected to this place.

An evening when the word “together” was heard most often

The ceremonial address was given by Rector, Professor, Academician Dr. biol. Arvīds Barševskis. He spoke about the university's values and the road it has travelled, but above all about the people who have walked that road and continue to walk it. The Rector reminded us that progress happens where there is shared work, mutual support and cooperation. This idea ran like a red thread through the whole evening, as almost every speaker later echoed it in their own way.

Minister of Education and Science Ilze Indriksone congratulated the university in a video address. She stressed how important DU is for the development of Latgale and wished it to become a science university. That is also the university's own goal: DU currently holds the status of a university of applied sciences, and the road to a higher status is one of its next major tasks.

Andrejs Elksniņš, Chairman of the Daugavpils City Council, called the university a highly significant asset for both the city and the whole region. He emphasised that it is the university that helps people stay in Latgale, and said that the municipality, local businesses and the community are together supporting its path towards science university status. Elksniņš also spoke frankly, making no secret that he considers it a mistake that the Rēzekne Academy was not brought into the Daugavpils University system. In April 2025 the academy joined Riga Technical University. Yet Elksniņš believes that this situation, too, opens new opportunities, and that what matters most is to preserve and develop the university in Daugavpils, as it is an integral part of the city's identity.

Aldis Adamovičs, Chairman of the Development Council of the Latgale Planning Region, recalled that for more than a century DU has been one of Latgale's most important centres of education, science, culture and sport, and has proved that high-level science can thrive far from the capital. He particularly highlighted the university's role in preserving Latgale's identity, language and cultural heritage. Adamovičs noted that the 14th Saeima, at its final sitting, adopted the Law on the Development of the Eastern Territory of Latvia, in which, he said, a special role is given to Daugavpils University. He closed with the wish that the university be bold in its plans, strong in its values and open to new opportunities.

Neighbours and friends

Other universities came to offer their congratulations too, bringing not only good wishes but also gifts. A representative of the University of Latvia thanked DU for their joint study programmes and spoke words that stayed with me long after the celebration: Latvia is not only Riga. Capable people are needed across the whole country, and as long as Latvia has centres of development like Daugavpils, its future is secure. The University of Latvia presented one of its own publications, about how foreign powers have used education to pursue their aims, and called on everyone to protect education and people, so that the mistakes of the past are never repeated.

Rector of Riga Technical University, Academician Tālis Juhna, reminded the audience with a smile that RTU will celebrate its 165th anniversary next year. He said that DU has always been a centre of education and development in Latgale, but today it is also becoming a centre of security for the region. Now that the RTU branch is close by in Rēzekne, the two universities can develop engineering together, something the region greatly needs. RTU's gift was a Latvian symbol 3D-printed in-house, with the wish that it would protect the university from every risk. Joining him in congratulating the university were former RTU Rector, Academician Leonīds Ribickis, and Rector of the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Professor Irina Arhipova.

Another moment worth noting came when ILCC Director Ilze Čakstiņa presented the university with a painting by the artist Annija Austra Grieķere. It is more than a gift. It is one more small piece of the bridge between Latgale and Ireland that we have been building together for several years.

Thanking the people

At celebrations like this there always comes a moment when the people without whose daily work the university could not exist are invited onto the stage. Certificates of Recognition from the Ministry of Education and Science were presented by Lana Frančeska Dreimane, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry, and the municipality, the Latgale Planning Region and the university itself also presented their own certificates of recognition and letters of thanks. In total, 14 staff members were honoured. I applauded with particular joy for Anna Vanaga, Head of the Science Department, who received the municipality's Certificate of Recognition, and for Rita Baltere, Head of the Finance and Accounting Department, who received a Letter of Thanks from the Latgale Planning Region, as both have also been my lecturers. Daugavpils University's own Certificates of Recognition went to Lecturer Mg. biol. Liene Lukjanenko, Acting Head of the Department of Health Care; Associate Professor Dr. oec. Ludmila Aleksejeva, Head of the Department of Law, Management Science and Economics; Dr. philol. Irina Presņakova, Docent at the Department of Languages and Literature; Juris Sinkevičs, driver at the Maintenance Department; and Dainis Laizāns, Facilities Manager at the Maintenance Department. The university's highest award, the DU Silver Badge of Honour, was presented to Anita Brakovska, Member of the 14th Saeima and a DU graduate.

The evening closed with a concert by singer-songwriter Aminata, and afterwards only joy and warmth remained in the hall.

A stone that remembers

Near the university I also had the chance to see the environmental artwork “Atmodas līkloči” (“The Meanders of the Awakening”), which will be unveiled in University Square on 11 November, Lāčplēsis Day, when Latvia honours those who fought for its freedom. In a large granite boulder, the sculptor Ansis Dobičins has shaped a spiral, and looking into it you can see right through the stone to the grass on the other side. The spiral symbolises unity and continuity, and the work is dedicated to the memory of the 1991 barricades and the people's struggle for independence. Its location was chosen with purpose: it was here, outside what was then the Daugavpils Pedagogical Institute, that the Latvian national flag was raised on 11 February 1989.

105 years – and only the beginning

The celebration was hosted by the actor Egils Melbārdis, who at the end worked out that 105 years come to roughly 920,400 hours. He added that this is a great deal for a human life, but for a university it is only the beginning. Melbārdis reminded everyone that a university's task is not only to preserve what it has achieved: it must keep asking, searching, discovering and encouraging. He wished Daugavpils University the courage to think broadly, the strength to stay rooted in its own land and the wisdom to see the greatest value in people.

I join in this wish from Ireland, from the West of Ireland, where there are also people for whom Daugavpils University matters.

Saules mūžu Daugavpils Universitātei – may it live as long as the sun!

Skarleta Lyons, LatWest

Sources

• Daugavpils University: anniversary news (in Latvian)
• Daugavpils.lv: monument to the 1991 barricades (in Latvian)

A series on “The Competitiveness Agenda 2026” forum. Part 1.

We were there

At the end of October I wrote that LatWest would be attending the Irish Latvian Chamber of Commerce (ILCC) forum “The Competitiveness Agenda 2026” in Riga. On 4 November we were there. I represented LatWest, took photographs and kept notes on what the speakers said. Those notes are now becoming a short series, and this first part is about the keynote speaker, Danny McCoy.

Irish readers will know him as the Chief Executive of Ibec, a role he has held since 2009, and as a familiar voice whenever government, employers and unions sit down together. For Latvian readers it is worth adding that he began as an economist at the Central Bank of Ireland and the ESRI, and in the mid-2000s spent around five years running the European Commission’s macroeconomic forecasting network. Hearing him in Riga, speaking to a mostly Latvian audience, was a rare opportunity.

In short. McCoy’s central argument was that Ireland grew because it was predictable, legally stable and able to attract the intangible assets of global companies, and that the same qualities will decide who wins in an age of security concerns and artificial intelligence. For Latvian businesses, and for Irish companies looking at the Baltics, that raises three questions: can Latvia sell its stability, can security be treated as a competitive advantage, and where will the gains from AI end up?

What struck me most was the end of the speech. The head of Ireland’s main employers’ body warned that the gains from AI may drain away from the companies using it. More on that below.

How Ireland tripled its economy

McCoy opened with the French saying plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. He did not play down today’s uncertainty, but urged the audience to look at technology, AI included, with optimism: “we should be as optimistic as others urge us to be pessimistic.”

He then turned to the Irish experience. Over the past 12 years, he said, Ireland’s GDP has grown by 200%, in other words tripled, and no other economy in the world has managed that in the same period. He named four foundations:

• stable institutions;
• the rule of law;
• legislative flexibility;
• a place at the heart of the European project.

Most interesting was his account of how it happened. For years, many US multinationals held their patents and licences in Caribbean entities that often had little more than a registered address, yet booked enormous profits and paid almost no tax on them.

After the 2008 financial crisis, OECD countries agreed to curb these arrangements through the BEPS initiative (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting). The new rules required profits to be reported where a company has real staff and real activity. The multinationals needed a new home, and they looked to Europe.

The legal system made the choice. Common law allowed companies to work with new technologies, at that time cloud services, and to manage intangible assets: brands, patents, copyright and licences. In Europe, McCoy said, that meant a choice between three countries: Malta, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

From 2011 to 2014 the real contest was between Ireland and the UK. In 2015 Ireland took practically everything, and its GDP rose by almost 35% in a single year, exactly a year before the Brexit referendum.

One detail missing from many summaries is, in my view, the most important. McCoy pointed to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. Even then it was clear that the UK was institutionally uncertain. Ireland was offering what matters to capital more than any tax rate: predictability.

This is where McCoy turned to Latvia. He said that Latvia, too, shows institutional consistency and has an educated society able to adapt to geopolitical change. That is no small compliment from the man who speaks for Irish business.

A note on the figures

Irish readers know that GDP is a peculiar measure here. The CSO first put 2015 growth at 7.8%, revised it to 26.3% in July 2016, and later revisions took it to 34.4%, which matches McCoy’s “almost 35%”. Paul Krugman called it “leprechaun economics”, and the name stuck.

Much of the jump came from Apple moving its intellectual property to an Irish subsidiary in early 2015, which is why Ireland has published modified gross national income, GNI*, since 2017. That year Irish GDP was 162% of GNI*, whereas across the EU GDP and national income are roughly the same. In other words, Irish GDP was about 62% higher than what actually stays in the country.

For a Latvian company sizing up the Irish market, the practical lesson is simple: look at GNI*, not GDP. GDP shows where global corporations hold their assets, not how much money Irish households have to spend.

None of this takes away from McCoy’s point; it helps explain it. Ireland did not build 35% more factories in one year. It became the place where global companies keep their intangible assets, and that is exactly what he went on to talk about.

When intellectual property is the oil

McCoy described Ireland as a “resource economy” in which intellectual property plays the role that oil plays elsewhere. His example was Botox: the world’s entire supply is made in Ireland. It is an example close to home for me. Botox is made at the Allergan plant in Westport, Co. Mayo, the county where I live and where LatWest works. It is AbbVie’s only Botox plant in the world, and its pre-tax profit reached 1.5 billion US dollars in 2022.

He then made what I think was the key point of the whole speech. Companies’ intangible value, their goodwill, brands, reputation and patents, used to be safely protected by property rights. Today the world is less predictable, and intellectual property and resources are being redistributed. So, in his view, competitiveness can no longer be measured only in productivity and costs: security and defence have become part of it.

In my view this also exposes Ireland’s own vulnerability. An economy built on intellectual property depends on the world respecting property rights. Oil has to be moved by tanker; a patent can be moved with a single legal decision.

From this came his sharpest line: Europe’s competitiveness and its security can no longer be separated; they are two sides of the same coin. Security means more than defence. It also means resilient food, financial, energy, water and cyber systems. He urged that defence spending on Europe’s eastern flank be seen as an investment in competitiveness, not just a cost.

Seen from Riga, this matters. For Latvians, security is everyday life on the EU’s border with Russia and Belarus, not a conference topic. If Europe starts treating resilience as part of competitiveness, then the experience gained living on that border becomes something Latvian businesses can sell, including to Irish partners.

McCoy was not simply upbeat about Europe. He reminded the room that Europe’s greatest asset is its huge single market and the prosperity of its people, but that businesses are held back by structurally high energy costs and heavy EU regulation in the digital, social and sustainability fields. He sees the answer in well-designed public–private partnership and a shift from restrictive bureaucracy to a flexible labour market. For Latvian firms, which feel energy prices and red tape very directly, that is not an abstract argument.

AI: who keeps the gains?

McCoy began his speech optimistic about AI, but ended with a warning, and that warning is what stayed with me most.

He argued that AI creates a problem of information asymmetry for capitalism. Markets work when buyers know what they are buying. This time, neither buyers nor the developers themselves can foresee the long-term consequences.

His second warning was more concrete. The efficiency gains from AI often do not stay in a company’s profits but flow to the owners of the platforms. As I understand it, a subscription is not expensive in itself, but competitors use the same tools, so the savings quickly turn into lower prices rather than higher profits. The lasting value builds up with the platform, which learns from users’ data, becomes harder to replace and can later set the prices. That is why, in McCoy’s view, business leaders need to talk openly with their staff about introducing it, so that people are not afraid for their pay and their jobs. His conclusion: only co-operation between employers and employees will give Europe real resilience.

The message carries weight because it comes from the head of an employers’ organisation, not a trade union leader. Ibec is the main employer voice in Irish social dialogue, so his view is practical rather than ideological. McCoy also stressed that Europe’s social model and its capacity to redistribute income will be a source of stability over the next decade. He contrasted it with growing inequality in the United States and urged Europe not to copy the US model blindly, but to build a new, balanced message of its own.

For me, this is where the Irish story and AI meet. Ireland won by becoming the place where intangible assets are held. In the age of AI those assets are algorithms, models and data. If they are “hosted” outside Europe, European companies become mere subscribers, and the gains go wherever the asset sits.

For any business, Irish or Latvian, that means one simple question before buying an AI tool: where will the value it saves end up? That is why McCoy talks about reskilling and a flexible labour market rather than job cuts.

What it means for Latvian and Irish businesses

McCoy himself compared Ireland and Latvia, and some of his parallels are worth looking at more closely.

Tax. McCoy noted that Latvia’s corporate income tax is 20%, while the effective rate for large multinationals in Ireland is 15%. One nuance is worth knowing for Irish partners: in Latvia the 20% is paid only on distributed profit, and reinvested profit is not taxed at all. Since 2026, companies owned only by individuals can also choose an alternative: 15% corporate income tax plus 6% personal income tax on dividends. For a growing company that reinvests its profits, the Latvian system is attractive, and Latvian firms should be telling their Irish partners about it.

People. Here the two countries go different ways. Ireland’s population is growing through migration. McCoy said that up to 25% of the population were not born in Ireland, and that Latvians have played a significant part in the growth of Ireland’s workforce. CSO data back him up: at the end of 2025, 2.8 million people were at work in Ireland, 19% more than in 2019, and 61% of the growth in employee numbers between 2019 and 2024 came from non-Irish nationals. McCoy acknowledged that this has created not only a tolerant and productive society, but also pressure on housing and infrastructure.

Latvia’s population is shrinking, and it does not attract immigration on anything like Ireland’s scale. It cannot solve labour shortages through migration as quickly, so productivity matters even more there than in Ireland. Where Ireland can use AI to complement a growing workforce, for Latvia it is a way to replace workers it does not have. That makes McCoy’s question about who keeps the gains from AI even more pressing for Latvia than for Ireland.

Takeaways. From this speech I noted four points for myself:

• Predictability is a product. Ireland did not win on a low tax rate alone, but by being predictable when the UK was not. Latvia should protect that advantage and sell it.
• Security is competitiveness. Resilience in energy, food, cyber security and logistics is becoming a service in demand across Europe, and Latvia knows it from the inside.
• The gains from AI should stay in the business. Before buying, work out what will stay with you. If every competitor uses the same tools, the savings quickly turn into lower prices for customers rather than higher profits. If your processes and data are tied to one platform, it can later dictate prices and terms. Lasting advantage comes only when the tool is combined with what is yours alone: your people’s creativity, your knowledge of your customers and your experience. AI is a tool that helps turn a person’s idea into reality faster and more precisely, but the idea that sets a company apart still comes from a person. So talk to your staff before you introduce it, not after.
• Don’t copy Ireland, use it. A large Latvian community already lives in Ireland and knows how business works in both countries. It is a ready-made bridge for Latvian companies entering the Irish market, and for Irish companies looking towards the Baltics, and it is exactly the kind of co-operation LatWest promotes together with the ILCC.

In the next part

Danny McCoy set out the questions that matter for Latvian business today. In the forum’s panel discussions, speakers answered them from a Latvian point of view. The next parts of this series will cover trade and economic security, investment, energy, and AI and skills.

Skarleta Lyons, LatWest

Sources

• Ibec: Danny McCoy
• IPUT: Danny McCoy
• Wikipedia: Leprechaun economics
• RTÉ: Allergan’s Westport Botox plant makes $1.5 billion profit
• CSO: Business in Ireland 2025 – Labour Supply
• Ministry of Finance of Latvia: Tax system 2026

After the working day, Latvian dance music starts to play at Mervue Community Centre in Galway. Latvians who live and work in the West of Ireland gather here — people with different jobs, everyday worries and life stories. One thing unites them: they give their free time to Latvian folk dance. This is the dance group “Rietumkrasts” (Latvian for “West Coast”).

Together, wherever they live

Latvians have always held together around song and dance, wherever they live. Latvians in exile organised their own song festivals as early as the middle of the last century: the first Latvian song festival in the United States took place in Chicago in 1953, and the first European Latvian song and dance festival in Hamburg in 1964. This summer, in July 2026, the 16th Latvian Song and Dance Festival in the USA took place in Michigan.

Latvians in Ireland today carry on this tradition in different circumstances. We can travel freely, go home and come back. And yet, even when Latvia is only a flight away, people look for a place to be together as Latvians. A rehearsal is not just about learning steps and formations. It is a place where Latvian is spoken and where tradition is not kept in a museum but lives.

From Galway to Riga

The dancers of “Rietumkrasts” perform at concerts and events in Ireland, travel to similar Latvian events in the United Kingdom and meet other diaspora groups. But the main goal, the one they work towards for years, is the Latvian Song and Dance Celebration in Latvia.

At the Celebration, diaspora groups dance alongside groups from Latvia as full participants. In 2023, 87 Latvian diaspora groups from 22 countries on four continents took part in Riga, 34 of them dance groups. The next Latvian Song and Dance Celebration will take place from 30 June to 9 July 2028, and preparations start now.

What this hobby costs

This is the part that is often unseen from the outside. In Latvia, dance groups usually work under the wing of local culture centres. “Rietumkrasts” funds itself: the dancers pay for the rehearsal hall themselves, cover their own travel to performances in Ireland, the UK and Latvia, and take care of their own folk costumes.

The costumes are sewn by the group’s own dancers — “Rietumkrasts” has two professional seamstresses among its members. Costumes are made for both women and men, and they meet all the classic requirements of Latvian folk costume. Even so, a costume sewn by your own hands does not come cheap. A trip to the Song and Dance Celebration means plane tickets, accommodation and days of annual leave that could have been spent otherwise. And week after week, there are evenings given to rehearsals rather than to rest or extra work.

Today the dancers are led by Elza Lace. Leading a group in the diaspora is not only choreography: it also means organising, keeping people together and being ready to take responsibility for making sure the rehearsal happens even when everyone is tired and has worries of their own.

A Latvian phenomenon

In today’s world, almost everything is measured in money and advantage. People calculate what their time is worth and what they will get for it. So the question has to be asked: how much passion — even fanaticism — and self-sacrifice does it take to drive to rehearsal after a working day, pay for the hall, the costume and the journey yourself, and do it year after year without expecting anything in return?

The answer is simple and at the same time hard to explain. Read about Latvian cultural life outside Latvia — about choirs and dance groups in the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Australia, the USA and Brazil — and it becomes clear that this is no accident. It is a phenomenon of the Latvian people: a nation that keeps its identity not only in its language and memory, but in moving together, in song and in dance.

“Rietumkrasts” is one small but living thread of this phenomenon. As long as someone in the West of Ireland drives to rehearsal after a working day, Latvian dance will live on here too.

On 4 November, the international business forum “The Competitiveness Agenda 2026” will take place at the Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel in Riga. It is organised by the Irish Latvian Chamber of Commerce (ILCC) together with the Swiss, Danish, Finnish and Canadian chambers of commerce in Latvia, the Polish-Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Arab Latvian and Latvian Turkish chambers of commerce, and the French Business Club. The keynote speaker will be Danny McCoy, Chief Executive of Ibec, Ireland’s largest business and employers’ organisation. LatWest, an organisation building links between Latvia and Ireland from the West of Ireland, will also be there.

The forum’s title asks a question: “Can Europe Still Compete? And Where Does Latvia Fit In?” It sounds like high politics. Read it as a business owner, though, and it becomes very personal. Where does my company fit in? Who will need what I do in five years’ time, if supply chains, energy prices and markets no longer behave the way the business plan assumed? That is exactly why the ILCC is inviting Latvian businesses to take this opportunity seriously: to hear, in a single day, what business leaders, policymakers, investors and international experts think about these questions, and to discover new opportunities and contacts.

“Wait and see” is no longer a good plan. For the past few years, many business owners have lived with the feeling that they just need to hold on until things settle down. It looks like they won’t. That is no reason to give up, but it is a reason to ask different questions. Not when it will be safer, but who makes me stronger. Where, and what, could be useful to me?

The forum’s four themes show this well:

• Trade and economic security decide whether the shipment arrives on time;
• Investment and growth decide whether a small company can reach beyond its own country;
• Energy decides what it costs to make things;
• Artificial intelligence and skills decide how much each person on the team can get done.

These are not abstract topics for the walls of a conference hall. Each of them is a figure in somebody’s budget.

Why listen to Ireland? The keynote speaker, Danny McCoy, has led Ibec since 2009. It is Ireland’s largest business representative organisation and one of the largest in Europe. Ibec represents companies of every size across all sectors of the economy, both home-grown and international, and speaks for their interests in discussions with the Irish government. Before that, Danny McCoy worked as an economist at the Central Bank of Ireland and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), and advised the European Commission and the OECD. The Irish Times has named him among the 50 people who run Ireland.

It is rare to hear, in Riga, someone who speaks for Irish business every day and knows how the country thinks from the inside.

Ireland’s story is more familiar to Latvians than it might seem. As recently as the 1980s, it was a country young people left in search of work. A small home market, a place on the edge of Europe, no great natural resources. Ireland didn’t win by being big. It became not only a place to start a successful business, but also a country where foreign companies find it worthwhile to work and invest. Ireland is open to investment, it speaks English, it has a well-educated workforce, and it has a diaspora spread across the world that still feels it belongs.

Ireland is no fairy tale. It has serious problems of its own, such as a housing shortage and a heavy reliance on multinational corporations. That is exactly why it is worth listening. An honest account of what worked, and of the challenges still to be faced, gives a small-country business owner far more than a speech full of generalities.

A Latvian company coming to Ireland does not have to start from zero. A large Latvian community already lives and works there and knows both countries from the inside. In practice, this means Ireland already has people who speak both languages, understand both the Latvian and the Irish way of working, and could become a company’s first employees, partners or customers.

In this, LatWest complements the work of its partner, the ILCC. The ILCC builds business links between companies in both countries, while LatWest knows the people and local life in the West of Ireland well. You can find out more about our work at latwest.ie.

Speakers and participants with international experience. The forum is organised by foreign business communities already working in Latvia, and the Austrian and Japanese embassies are also involved. That means the room will be full of people who have already done what many Latvian businesses are only thinking about: entered a foreign market, adapted to it and established themselves there.

Addresses will be given by Ibec’s Chief Executive, Mr McCoy; Ivars Ījabs, Member of the European Parliament (keynote response, remote); and Jurģis Miezainis, Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia.

The forum will be moderated by Ansis Bogustovs. The four panel discussions will include:

• Trade and economic security: moderator Jūlija Bērziņa (Chairperson of the Board, Riga RoPax Terminal), Nicolas Lepage (Canada’s Regional Senior Trade Commissioner for the Baltics), Deputy Mayor of Riga Māris Sprindžuks, and Artis Dekšenieks (DHL Express Latvia);
• Investment and growth: Sibilla Strupule (investment-readiness adviser and exited founder), investor and supervisory board member Sandra Aile, and Nina Lubbe (Project Coordinator, JETRO – Japan External Trade Organization);
• Energy: moderator Ansis Bogustovs, Ivars Zariņš (Executive Director, Latvian Association of Power Engineers and Energy Constructors), Mārtiņš Vancāns (Head of Enefit in Latvia), and Reinhold Schneider (CEO, SCHWENK Northern Europe; Chairperson, FICIL);
• Artificial intelligence and skills: Eitaro Kojima (Director General, JETRO Warsaw), Pierre-Luc Stephane Brouilliez (Procurement Manager, Lexel Fabrika / Schneider Electric), and Guntis Kalniņš (AI Master Lab; Board member, Latvian Artificial Intelligence Association).

The programme includes coffee breaks and another 45 minutes for conversation at the end of the forum. The most valuable part of the day may well happen there rather than in the panels.

We will be there. If you are thinking about doing business in Ireland or working with Irish partners, or simply want to understand what opportunities Ireland could open up for your company, come and take part!

Practical information

• When: 4 November 2026, 09:00–15:00 (registration from 08:00)
• What: international business forum “The Competitiveness Agenda 2026”
• Where: Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel, Kuģu iela 24, Riga
• Fee: €65 for members of the organising chambers, €80 for others (incl. VAT). Places are limited.
• Registration: icham.lv/activity/the-competitiveness-agenda-2026, chamber@icham.lv, +371 29113900

How many Latvians live in Ireland, where do they work, and how many of us run our own business? Ireland’s 2022 Census gives the answers.

How many of us there are. 18,300 Latvian citizens live in Ireland, plus another 2,418 people with dual Irish and Latvian citizenship. 20,330 residents of Ireland were born in Latvia.

How many of us work. Of Latvians aged 15 and over, 68% are at work. Among all residents of Ireland – Irish and non-Irish together – the figure is 56%. The difference is mainly because there are many retired people among all residents of Ireland (16%), but only 3% among Latvians. Most Latvians in Ireland are of working age.

Latvians who are not at work are studying, looking after family, looking for work or unable to work due to illness. 9% of Latvians are looking for work. Among all residents of Ireland, 5% are looking for work.

Where we work. Most Latvians work in retail and wholesale (2,200), manufacturing (1,908) and hospitality and food (1,182). They are followed by administrative and support services, construction, agriculture, health and care, and transport.

Where we live. Most Latvians live in County Dublin (4,784), followed by Cork, Louth and Meath. 1,739 Latvian citizens live in the West of Ireland (Connacht): Galway 609, Mayo 484, Roscommon 283, Sligo 201 and Leitrim 162.

Managers and business owners. 177 Latvians run small businesses or own them: shops, cafés, hotels and service businesses. The Census counts owners and employed managers in this group together, so we cannot say how many of them are owners. Another 413 Latvians work as managers in larger companies, mostly as employees. In total, 590 Latvians work as managers or own a business – 4.7% of all Latvians who are working or looking for work. Among all residents of Ireland who are working or looking for work, the figure is 7.6%.

Skilled trades. 1,669 Latvians work in skilled trades: construction, electrical work, metalwork, as chefs and in other trades. Some of them work as self-employed sole traders, but the statistics do not show how many.

How many Latvian business owners are there in Ireland? The exact number is not known. The Central Statistics Office publishes self-employment figures by county and sector, but not by citizenship. For comparison: across Ireland, 13% of workers are self-employed, 16% in County Mayo, and about 6 in 10 self-employed people have no employees. If you are thinking about starting your own business, it is worth knowing where to find support.

Where to get support. Every county has a Local Enterprise Office, which offers first advice, training, mentoring and grants for small businesses. Local development companies and LEOs also run “Start Your Own Business” courses.

About the figures: the Census records citizenship, not ethnicity. Data on sectors, occupations and place of residence refer to Latvian citizens; people with dual citizenship are not included.

Do you run your own business in Ireland? Write to us – we would be glad to tell other Latvians about you and help you find contacts.

On Saturday, 10 October, Noel and I travelled to Galway. The local Latvian support group had invited us to their traditional autumn concert and dance, „Rudens vēju ieskautie” (Embraced by the Autumn Winds), at the Connacht Hotel.

All around the hall you could hear people chatting in Latvian, something you rarely hear in everyday life here in Ireland. Dancers and singers had come from Galway, Dublin, Mayo and even Latvia. „Rietumkrasts” and the little „Pastaliņas” danced, while the Dublin choir „LA’IR” and the children’s ensemble „LA’IR Mazie” sang. The guests who had travelled furthest were the dance group „Aija” from Latvia.

We sang three songs: Raimonds Pauls’s „River of Life” („Tikai nesaki nevienam”) and „If You Did Not Exist” („Ja tevis nebūtu”), and the Latvian folk song „Love of Mother”. We translated all three into English ourselves, so we sing them in both languages. That way the Irish listener in the next seat understands a Latvian song too.

It turned into a warm, homely evening. The audience asked for some dances to be repeated, and the whole hall sang along to the best-known songs. „Pastaliņas” took the stage for the first time in their new, colourful costumes, and they were a joy to watch. Elza Lāce, leader of „Rietumkrasts”, presented her new dance „Ai, Baldone, smuka muiža”, which she will enter in the diaspora new dance competition.

After the concert the dance began, with music by Miks, a Latvian musician from Galway itself. His repertoire was truly wide, from Latvian retro to rock and even rap, so there was something for every taste.

A big thank you to Aija Arāja-Čunka, who put so much work into this event. Without people like her, evenings like this simply would not happen.

On 5 October, at a rehearsal of the Latvian dance group „Rietumkrasts” at Gort Community Centre, we showed the dancers the new LatWest website, latwest.ie, and its „Latvians Worldwide” section.

The dancers tried the games „Treasures of the Amber Sea” and „Necklace of Proverbs”, explored the amber map and learned how to share their own story by the fire. The group’s leader, Elza Lāce, filmed the moment.

Thank you, „Rietumkrasts”, for the warm welcome and for being our first players!

Games: latwest.ie/pasaule/en/speles

On Saturday, 5 September, the creative group “Grannies on the Island” (Omītes uz salas) gathered in Dublin, at the Avila Carmelite Centre, at the home of our welcoming “granny” Zaiga Greivule. In the flower kingdom she tends, together with other friends of poetry and song, we celebrated Poetry Days.

This year’s motto was “Poetry Sings!” – and that afternoon poetry truly did sing, both in readings and in songs.

We were delighted to discover the poetry of Gunita Barscauska, a member of the Irish Latvian literary club “Zaļā Spalva”. Her poems were heard in two voices: in the author’s own heartfelt readings and performed by Viktorija Klavina, a pupil of the Latvian school in Tullow. Viktorija was the youngest voice of poetry that day.

Noel and I had been invited by Inga Zvirgzdina, leader of the creative group “Grannies on the Island”, to present our trilingual book Balsis uz tilta / Voices on The Bridge / Glórtha ar an nDroichead. Our programme of more than ten songs and poems also came from the book: poetry by beloved Latvian authors, songs by well-known composers and our own original work in Latvian and English. Noel also sang a Latvian folk song in English, in his own interpretation, and it was remarkable to hear a folk song find its way into another language. We gave one copy of the book to Inga Zvirgzdina and another to Viktorija Klavina.

A real surprise came from Irish philatelist Denis Fahey, who brought his collection of countless stamps about Latvia, dating back to 1918 – a small history of Latvia in little paper squares.

Thank you to everyone who was with us for the warm atmosphere!

European Parliament member Inese Vaidere, attending the EPP group Summer University meeting in Galway, met informally with Galway Latvian Support Group leader Aija Araja-Cunka and LatWest leaders Skarleta Mukane and Noel Lyons. The MEP spoke about her work in the European Parliament and current EU challenges, while the Latvians shared their experiences of life in Ireland, cultural preservation and projects to pass the Latvian language and traditions to the next generation. The meeting ended with a shared song.

The spring event organised by the Galway Latvian Support Group took place at the Connacht Hotel. Nearly three hours of programme featured local dance groups Rietumkrasts (dir. Elza Lace) and children's folk dance collective Pastaliņas (dir. Aija Araja-Cunka), Dublin ensembles Karbunkulis and Dzirnaviņas, visiting collective from Latvia Mārupieši, choir LA'IR, children's vocal studio LA'IR Mazie and the Saulitis singing family. Latvia's embassy adviser Lilita Cirule also attended. A highlight of the evening: Latvian dancers performed Irish dance steps they had learned in a masterclass — a beautiful moment of cultural exchange.

LatWest took part in the traditional St Patrick's Day Parade in Galway — one of Ireland's most celebrated national events. Latvia's community brought colour, folk costumes and dance to the streets of Galway, marching through the rain and continuing into the evening celebrations. Joining the Latvian delegation were folk dance group Rietumkrasts (Ireland, led by Elza Lace), children's folk dance ensemble Pastaliņas (led by Aija Araja-Cunka), representatives of the Embassy of Latvia, and special guests from Latvia — folk dance group Mārupieši. Latvians carried the Latvian flag and the Rietumkrasts banner, danced before large crowds on Galway's main streets, and brought the celebrations indoors for the evening event.

LatWest leader Skarleta Mukane was invited to become the musical accompanist (concert master) of the Galway Latvian dance group Rietumkrasts, operating under the Galway Latvian Support Group (GLAG). The first rehearsal took place on 23 January. Rehearsals are held at Gort Community Centre and occasionally at Mervue FC in Galway. The group was founded in the second half of 2018 by Guntis Bergholcs, who served as its founding and first leader until his passing. In 2026 the group enters its 9th season with 19 members, led by Elza Lace since 2024. The group performs more than 6 times per year both in Ireland (including Cultural Night Galway) and abroad — in Latvia and the United Kingdom — with plans to expand its activities further. Among its most notable events: the Latvian National Song and Dance Festival 2023 and the festival Dziesma Dejo Deja Skan in 2025 (Eposs Düna).

On Latvia's Independence Day, Latvians living in Ireland gathered at the Dalton Inn hotel in Claremorris to celebrate the 107th anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Latvia. The service was led by Rev. Imants Miezis of the Christ United Evangelical Lutheran Latvian Church in Ireland. Songs rang out in several languages, and Irish philatelist Denis Fahey drew particular interest with his presentation of a rare collection of postage stamps and historical documents from Latvia's independence period (1918–1940). "When everyone gathers together, there's shared energy in the air that you cannot experience in daily life," reflected LatWest leader Skarleta Mukane.