St Patrick's Day Foundation Launched For New York City

Many business and church leaders were present this past weekend at Bank of America's headquarters at Bryant Park in New York City for the launch of the "St Patrick's Day Foundation NYC".

The foundation launch is viewed as a major initiative in Irish America to help fund St Patrick's Day celebrations in New York and support Ireland.

This view was expressed by many present and confirmed by the large number of business leaders who have signed up to serve on the foundation's board.

In her welcoming remarks, Ann Limberg of U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management Trust said, "we are delighted to be associated with this new venture and will help in whatever way we can."

Sean Lane, Vice-Chair of the Foundation said "clips of the New York St Patrick's parade are seen all around the world. I had a client call me from China last year, saying he was watching an interview given by the Executive Secretary of the parade."

"150 million watched the Grand Marshal ring the opening bell on Wall Street for the past six years. The parade has an amazing reach; it is recognized worldwide as the greatest celebration of St Patrick's Day," he continued.

The mission statement of the St. Patrick's Day Foundation is to support the New York St. Patrick's Day Parade and related activities, and to celebrate the contributions of the Irish to American society, with student scholarships, educational initiatives, publications and an ambitious year-round program of social and culture events.

The Foundation plans to build an endowment fund which will be used to fund St Patrick's Day activities in New York City, especially the 250 year-old New York Parade which is considered the greatest symbol Ireland has in the world.

"All of you who have brought us here tonight know that we as a community are at a crossroad," said Hilary Beirne Chairman of the Foundation in his opening remarks at the launch.

"We need to decide if we want to continue to be the greatest symbol Ireland has outside Ireland? We need to decide if we want to continue to celebrate our Irish heritage like previous generations of Irish emigrants who came to this great country before us? The answer to these questions is, YES! We want to continue and we should continue!"

Beirne continued: "The purpose of this evening is to launch a new entity, a Foundation, whose responsibility is to raise the necessary funds to ensure want Irish emigrants started in 1762, that is celebrating St Patrick's Day continues in New York City.

"The Foundation will engage all sections of the community! We want everyone to help build this Foundation, so it can be in a position to support celebrations in honor of our Irish heritage and culture in this great city, New York City" Beirne said.

In an interview after the launch, Beirne noted that: "Vice Chair -Sean Lane and I had many meetings over the past ten months with various business and community leaders leading up to [the] launch.

"We want to ensure broad-based support for the foundation and we are especially delighted Cardinal Egan, Cardinal Dolan, Commissioner Kelly, Alfred E Smith to name a few, approved the formation of the Foundation along with John Dunleavy and the board of directors at the St Patrick's Day Parade."

The Chairman of the St Patrick's Day parade, John Dunleavy said that it was his job to promote and protect the parade, and that he supported the formation of the Foundation.

He wished it well and said, "it is important we support the Foundation and ensure the future of the parade for the next 250 years."

Noel Kilkenny, Consul General of Ireland in New York pledged his support for the Foundation and implored those present to do the same: "This is an important moment and it is incumbent on all of us to ensure the future of St Patrick's Day in New York City.

"This we can do by supporting the mission of the Foundation and the Foundation itself"

The event at Bryant Park was sponsored by Bank of America, US Trust and Thompson & Knight of NY and Dallas.

The launch was hosted by the Chairman of the Foundation Hilary Beirne, Sean Lane - Senior Vice President at Bank of America and Vice Chairman of the Foundation, Mary Higgins Clarke - the world renowned writer, Frank Comerford - President of NBC television, and Alfred E. Smith IV - great grandson of the legendary Alfred E Smith governor of New York and chairman of the Alfred E Smith dinner in New York. C

To contact the Foundation, or to look for additional information, go to the Foundation website
You may mail your request to The St Patrick's Day Foundation, PO Box 1058, Larchmont, NY 10538