Lögberg-Heimskringla - 28.01.2005, Qupperneq 7

Lögberg-Heimskringla * Föstudagur 28. janúar 2005 « 7
Heather Alda Ireland, Consul General of Iceland in Vancouver, BC, and her husband William
Edmund Ireland, in her office at their home.
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Vancouver, BC
“This is a busy public-re-
lations job, a very interesting
one, and I’m on a learning
curve,” says Heather Alda Ire-
land, Consul General of Iceland
in Vancouver, BC.
Heather was appointed
Vice-Consul in 1994, and when
Harold Sigurdson retired the
following year, she took over
his responsibilities as Consul.
She has been the Consul Gen-
eral since 2001 and was the
secretary for the consular core
for five years. “There are over
70 countries represented here
and this is a growing diplo-
matic area,” she says, and adds
that there are 33 career consul
generals in Vancouver. “When
I was the Secretary of the core,
I raised the profile of Iceland
among the diplomats and I have
made a lot of diplomatic friends
from around the world.”
Once a month, the consuls
in Vancouver have a joint meet-
ing and the five consuls for the
Nordic countries meet twice a
year. “The phone calls for infor-
mation have decreased because
of the Internet, but regularly
people call and ask about vari-
ous things regarding Iceland,”
Heather says. “When asked if
there is a tourist office for Ice-
land in Vancouver I try to solve
the problems, because I have in-
formation regarding Icelandair
and tours in Iceland and so on. I
also look after passport renew-
als for Icelanders in Vancouver
and Victoria, sometimes eight
to 10 a year. Therefore I meet
the Icelanders in the area, and
people who want to know more
and more about Iceland all the
time. A few times I have given
speeches about Iceland at uni-
versities, libraries and Iceland
House as a part of the job.”
Between 1909 and 1976
seven books of poetry by Gut-
tormur J. Guttormsson (1878
- 1966) in Riverton, Manitoba,
were published, all in Icelan-
dic. In 1993 Heather selected
and edited the book Aurora, a
collection of English transla-
tions of Icelandic poems rep-
resenting a cross-section of her
grandfather’s work. Her parents
were Bergljót Guttormsson and
Jóhannes Sigurdson from Oak
Point. Guttormur was bom in
Canada, but her other grand-
parents emigrated from Ice-
land. Heather was bom in Win-
nipeg. She is married to lawyer
William Edmund Ireland. They
have three children and they
moved to Vancouver in 1970.
Heather is a professional
singer and has performed on
stage, radio and television in
Canada and Iceland. She is on
the board of a male voice choir
and the plan is to go with them
to Iceland in October. “They
have been on BBC, have been
heard all over Europe and as
a result they have been invited
to sing at a festival in Iceland,”
she says.
In 2000, Heather was
awarded the Order of the Fal-
con. “I’m proud of being a
representative of Iceland,” she
says, and admits that people of
Icelandic descent are not as vis-
ible in BC as in Manitoba. “Yet
people here are very curious
about Iceland, and more so in
the last few years with the press
they have seen, articles in news-
papers and coverage on radio
and TV. My parents did get to
Iceland but the first generation
of the immigrants did not have
the finances to ever go back. 1
often quote my amma Jensína
Júlía Daníelsdóttir, who was 10
when she left, and often said:
“Af/g langar til aðfara heim til
Islancls.” She never did. Guttor-
mur went twice as the guest of
the Icelandic govemment, but
she did not go with him. In their
retirement years my parents
got to go to Iceland and now 1
have been there five times. My
grandparents planted the seed
and now I think my afi is smil-
ing down.”
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