US support mounts for Obama visit to Cork

SOME of Washington’s most influential political figures have backed ambitious plans to invite US President Barack Obama to Cork.

Congressman Joseph Crowley, a six-term member of the US House of Representatives and co-chair of the house’s committee for Irish Affairs, said he is proud to support the initiative from Derry author Don Mullan and Cork’s outgoing Lord Mayor, Dara Murphy’s, to honour President Obama’s political hero, Frederick Douglass, on Leeside.

University College Cork has agreed to host an annual Frederick Douglass human rights lecture, which it is hoped will attract international speakers, and unveil a statue in his honour on campus.