By Paddy McCarthy
I have just got back from a trip to Japan after attending the Rugby World Cup in Tokyo. It was a great pleasure to go as I went with one of the most outstanding gentlemen in the Irish Community, Garrett Doyle – owner of Tuttles Bar and Grill on Second Avenue between 39th and 40th Streets.
We traveled over to see Ireland play and hopefully win the World Cup, but that did not happen as you will read in the report on our sports pages. I am not here to criticize them in how they played, I am here to say what a privilege it was to be around the Irish fans that traveled there from all over the world and especially from Ireland itself.
The Bowen family Michael his sons Emmet and Johnathan traveled from Australia and they all write for The Irish Examiner USA so you can imagine that when we all got together it was fun. We attended the Ireland vs New Zealand game on the Saturday and the Japan vs South African game on Sunday that had packed crowds and a fabulous atmosphere on both days.
We all went and toured the city of Tokyo and let me tell yea it’s just beautiful and one of the cleanest cities I have ever been to in my life. The Bowen family could not be more hospitable to us, especially Emmet as he also teaches in Tokyo and is a member of the Irish Network in Tokyo. I have to say that they know the city well as Michael the father does a lot of business in Japan.
We were also in the company of two other Australians, Alan and Maree Sherratt who are friends of the Bowen family in Melbourne Australia. It was also a privilege to meet Jim Geraghty, the Heineken marketing guru here in Japan.
All I can say is it was on my bucket list and it was all I hoped it would be and more. Well somebody has to do it and if you ever get a chance to go to Japan you should do it as they love us Irish.
The Irish Center are hosting a charity event on Saturday November 2 that should be well supported as it is for a great cause and is headed up by a very good friend of mine Donie Carroll, one of the best folk and ballad singers to have come out of Ireland. The cocktail hour starts at 7 pm, so come and join Mick Moloney, Athena Tergis, Billy McComiskey, Hayley Richardson, Donie Carroll and more for an evening of world-class entertainment. This event includes a food and wine reception sponsored by John Browne of the Grand Stand Bar in Elmhurst, Queens. John is a longtime supporter of Donie and Mick’s work with Fr. Joe Maier at the Mercy Center in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Mercy Center in Bangkok was founded by Fr. Joe Maier who has been present in the lives of the poor in Thailand and Laos since 1967 If you are unable to attend or would like to make a donation, please contact Donie directly at ducksyc@earthlink.net.
The American Irish Association of Westchester’s 45th Anniversary Dinner Dance will be held on Sunday, October 17 at The Fairways at Dunwoodie (1 Wasylenko Lane in Yonkers). Their Irish Woman of the Year is Dympna Tully of Tully Travel and the Irish Man of the Year is popular Yonkers photographer Kevin Fitzgerald. The Community Worker Award will be presented to Fr. Willem Klaver, MHM Pastor, St. John the Evangelist Church in White Plains while the Irish American Achievement Award will be awarded to the United Irish Counties Association.
Music will be provided by the Tara Gold Band. Tickets are $80.00 and reservations are strongly recommended.
The Irish Rep has done it again with another big show coming, namely Pumpgirl which will be playing in the W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre. Written by Abbie Spallen, directed by Nicola Murphy, and starring Hamish Allan-Headley, Labhaoise Magee, and Clare O’Malley, Pumpgirl will run from November 7 through December 29, 2019.
The show begins in a gas station in Northern Ireland, barely north of the border, Pumpgirl gets few customers beyond lecherous men and cruel women who remark on her tomboyish appearance. Otherwise guarded, she has struck up a friendship with “no helmet Hammy” – an amateur stock-car racer who prefers to spend time with his unsavory buddies over his wife and children.
As Hammy’s wife, Sinead, stays home alone, she simmers with rage over her isolated, disappointing existence. On Hammy’s birthday, their lives become perilously intertwined, leaving them face-to-face with a desperate future.
The Irish Repertory Theatre is proud to present this heart wrenching original story of rural life in Northern Ireland by Abbie Spallen, a multi-award-winning Irish playwright making her Irish Rep debut. Originally presented by the Bush Theatre, Pumpgirl premiered in 2006 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and made its New York debut at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2007. It won the 2007 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Stewart Parker Trust Award, and was nominated for the Irish Times Best New Play.
Buy Tickets by phone on (212) 727-2737 or online at irishrep.org.
We just got to apologize for been a little late with my Out&About this week as I was in another part of the world. See you all again next week when I am Out&About once more.