Editor of leading American business publication hails Limerick

AN "ENTREPRENEURIAL exchange" has been created between Limerick and one of the USA's top business publications.

The editor of Forbes Magazine Randall Lane has heaped praise upon Limerick' business community following its hosting of its landmark '30 under 30' event in the city earlier this year.

And he has revealed Irish business people involved in the event here on Shannonside will fly across the Pond this autumn.

"A promise made, an entrepreneurial exchange born," Mr Lane wrote in a piece published to the Forbes web site this Thursday.

He acknowledged the origins of the event, come as they did after a highly critical article on the publication's same page which used an old, widely-discredited term to describe Limerick City.

Mr Lane wrote that following this, the publication's staff were "bombarded with letters and tweets, mayoral protestations and newspaper editorials."

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Rather than take the "easy off ramp" of an apology, he wrote they decided to go further.

"Rather than performative words from across the pond, we would instead come visit Limerick, bring friends and see for ourselves what was going on in a city that I knew as little more than a cheeky poem," he said.

"In June, our delegation arrived for the Forbes Under 30 Forum. Forbes staffers and Under 30 Listers from America and Europe alike mixed with top young Irish entrepreneurs, along with funders, academics and local leaders," he wrote.

"The Irish have a new story to share," he surmised, "And share they did, over boat rides, rugby museum tours and pints (so many pints). Enough that our Irish friends will now be attending Forbes events in America this fall. A promise made, an entrepreneurial exchange born."