Out & About

What a great party I was at last Wednesday in Ireland House, this time to mark Marie Fullington's retirement. It was a blast as a lot of her old friends and colleagues turned up to wish her well and toast her for all the good work she has done down through the years for Tourism Ireland.

A few of her old bosses turned up, one notable was Donal McSullivan who headed up the Irish Tourist board in the '80s and moved on to head up Ryanair at the time... long before Michael O'Leary who now is the man of all seasons but that's for another day.

Tourism Ireland's Executive Vice President - NorthAmerica and Canada Joe Byrne made the opening remarks on Marie and got a good few laughs as he expressed how Marie did her job her way, and a very good way too I might say.

It's always nice to be at an event like this as you get to meet lots of friends that you don' tmeet too often, like Maura Nolan, David O'Sullivan, the new Consul General of Ireland Noel Kilkenny and his wife, Brian Stack, Attracta Lyndon, Maeve O'Malley, Orla Carey, Mary O'Shea and of course Marie Duffy and all the staff from both Tourism Ireland and the wider Irish Consulate in New York; oh what a night!

Donie Carroll, Don Meade and Daniel Neely perform every Saturday evening at Lillie's (13 East 17th Street). It's is easy to get to: take any train that goes to 14th St./Union Square, walk halfway down West 17th Street towards 5th Avenue and you're there... yippee!

Don't forget to say hello to the owners Tommy and Frank. The session starts at 4pm and goes until 7pm.

Anyway, the boys were not performing last weekend because they went to the Celtic Festival in Mississippi as they were topping the bill; now how about that? But the session went on with Cillian Vallely and Pat Mangan keeping the show going.

We're just back from Albany going up there by Amtrak train early on Friday morning to meet Jeff Cleary to go to the Tugboat Roundup that was on in the Town of Waterford on the Erie Canal and I have to say that it was breath taking.

You know, before I go any farther you have to do this trip and what's more, the whole area is Irish from Albany, Troy and onto Waterford it's so unbelievable it made me so proud that I am from Ireland.

When you go make sure you sail on the Erie Canel on one of the tugboats as any one of the Captains will only be to happy to give you a tour of a lifetime; I should know because I did it and do you what's more important? You're still in New York.

Now for the rest of thetrip: as you might understand we stopped at a few really good Irish establishments and one in particular, McGreivey's right in the heart of downtown Waterford which is family owned by the Rileys.

Art Senior, mom Francis Ann and son Art, who is the chef/manager and the life of the party, oh, and yes photographer. Now where would you get it? Now that's what I'm talking about; it's like home away from home.

The entertainment was excellent. Wow, talking about rock and roll they had a band called Johnny Rabb and the Jailhouse Rockers that had the whole house rockin' and all ages too I might say. Even the bartender Tim Hurst stood in behind the drums to play a few numbers, I was so jealous if you know what I mean.

I got to meet so many people on the trip it would be impossible to name them all, but I am going to name some of them starting with the Captain John Callaghan of theTugboat Chancelor that I was on of course, with first mate Jeff Cleary. We were picked up in Troy and then sailed up the Erie Canal to meet the other 35 tugboats in Waterford for the Tugboat Roundup. We then followed in a parade back down all the way to Albany the Capitol of New York State andm let me tell you what a sight it was to see... just beautiful! I still can't get over it.

Anyhow let me continue; who else did I meet? Oh yes, the Chief Engineer on the Chancelor is Jim Brennan and would you believe it, but he's from Dublin! This man is good, I mean really good; he can turn an engine upside down and back again. I nearly forgot, we had a lot of drinks on board; you know what I mean beer, wine and liquor with some sodas of course and there was lots of nice food to quench the thirst.

Now back to all the people I got to meet on our rounds: Chris Callaghan and what a man. He was everywhere making sure everything was running right with his lovely wife Liz who was helping out on on the stands that were all aroud the pier when the boats docked. It was just great to see all this happening. I also got to meet Captain Rob Goldman from the NYS Marine Highway, the Mayor of Waterford Bert Mahoney, Scott Stalker (Professor Uncle) flag officer and his lovely wife Mary, Captain Tom Ryan who was driving the tour boat, the crew of The Rusty Anchor Barge Restaurant.

They had the best of Irish music been played by the pier on another barge (I forget the name of the barge) by The Boys of Wexford folk group and folk singer George Ward who is a Legend in Waterford.

I could go on and on about this trip for the 14th Annual Tugboat Roundup... Oh I almost forgot that it was my pleasure to meet Jimmy Kielty and his lovely wife Patty. Again, Jimmy is from Dublin and his wife was wearing the Tipperary hurling shirt, the Waterford Town Supervisor Jack Lawlor, now what a trip! Well you know, someone has todo it. So many nice people.

If you need to get get away from the Big Apple you can't do better that visit the other side of New York in the town of Waterford. Tell them I sent you!

See you all next week.