By Paddy McCarthy
I was Out&About again in New York City last week, and you know what, things are picking up and it’s nice to be meet up with a few people I haven’t met for a very long time. On Thursday I was in Penn Station and when I was there, I said to myself let me check The Bar in Moynihan Hall and see how things are, well it was busy. I got to meet Anthony Malone who looks after operations for The Bar as well as the Swift Hibernian Lounge Irish bar downtown on East 4th Street, and what a pleasant man he is. He is Danny McDonnell’s right-hand man and he knows his stuff as this place was busy. I was waiting for my editor to come along as we had a bit of work business to discuss. I was also meeting the marketing manager for Neft Vodka that is made in Austria, yes, the one and only Chris Kane. Did we have a taste? Of course we did, and it’s got a pure taste, no I am not the salesman he is and it was also nice to meet him again. Before I headed off, I had to have a Guinness that I can tell yea was pouring very well.
How are we all doing? Good I hope, as you must be getting ready for Thanksgiving Day which, to let our readers in Ireland and beyond know, is one of the biggest holidays in the United States outside of Christmas and Saint Patrick’s Day. I know you’re going to ask me what does Thanksgiving Day mean and why we celebrate it, so I’ve checked the historic archives for the information as I am also from Ireland so I had to get my facts right. Now here we go: Thanksgiving Day, an annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English Pilgrims of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people. The American holiday is particularly rich in legend and symbolism, and the traditional fare of the Thanksgiving meal typically includes turkey, bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. With respect to vehicular travel, the holiday is often the busiest of the year, as family members gather with one another. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on Thursday, November 24 this year. I am so smart with what I have just told you as I just found out myself what it really means, so you can thank me later, ahh I love this job!
Last Thursday The Ireland-US Council held their 59th Annual Dinner at the Metropolitan Club in New York City where Dermot Desmond was honored with the Award for Outstanding Achievement and Roddy Feely received the Special Recognition Award. The Irish Examiner and all it’s staff would like to congratulate Dermot and Roddy Feely, the latter of whom is retiring from the Ireland-US Council after 21 years with them.
I do need to mention the work of David O’Sullivan who is Executive Director of the Ireland-U.S. Council and welcomed the guests at the event. He is a native of Dublin, Ireland and is a former financial journalist. A resident of New York since 1977, for the past 30 years he has served as the Executive Director of the Ireland-US Council.
Through the Ireland-U.S. Council, he has maintained his strong connections to Ireland and has helped put in place programs that today represent a meaningful contribution to building and enriching those closer economic links that benefit both nations. The Council has offices in both New York and Dublin.
David has been engaged in the management consulting, marketing and communications business for over three decades. Previously, he served with Ireland’s Industrial Development Agency for 15 years serving in a variety of capacities in both Dublin and New York. In the United States, he directed marketing for Ireland’s industrial investment promotion efforts. Prior to this assignment, he managed the public affairs function for the organization in Dublin.
He has served as a consultant to GPA, an aircraft leasing firm that later became part of GE Capital. He also was a Vice President at Hill and Knowlton, a public relations unit of J. Walter Thompson, before his association with St. Vincent, Milone & O’Sullivan, a New York-based advertising and marketing communications firm where he worked for 15 years.
He was born in Dublin, Ireland and graduated in economics and politics from University College Dublin. He was a business journalist in Dublin in his early career and traveled extensively in Europe reporting on Ireland’s entry negotiations into the European Union from 1969 thru 1974.
He is actively involved with several charitable organizations including The Abbey Theatre Foundation, Inc. and the Royal Irish Academy of Music Foundation, Inc. He lives in Rye, New York.
The Irish Repertory Theatre (Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director and Ciarán O’Reilly, Producing Director) have announced casting for the return of Irish Rep holiday favorite A Child’s Christmas in Wales written by Dylan Thomas (Under Milk Wood) and adapted and directed by Charlotte Moore (The Streets of New York). Featuring music supervision by John Bell (Into the Woods, Meet Me in St. Louis) and musical direction by David Hancock Turner (The Butcher Boy), A Child’s Christmas in Wales will begin performances on December 1 on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage (132 West 22nd Street), with an opening night set for December 8, and will run through December 31.
This December, the Irish Rep offers up the sixth special return of its joyous holiday classic, Dylan Thomas’s iconic A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Charlotte Moore’s musical adaptation of this “never to be forgotten day at the end of the unremembered year” features heartwarming contemporary and traditional Christmas music interwoven with the popular story of that snowy Christmas Day in Wales.
Charlotte Moore premiered this adaptation in 2002 as part of A Celtic Christmas. The Associated Press said of a subsequent run in 2010, that the production “leave[s] the audience feeling as though they’re tucked inside a cozy, musical snow globe.” The production was revived, by popular demand, for the 2011, 2015, and 2018 holiday seasons.
The performance schedule for A Child’s Christmas in Wales is as follows: Wednesdays at 2pm and 7pm; Thursdays at 7pm; Fridays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm and 7pm; Sundays at 3pm.Exceptions: there will be no performances on Saturday December 24 and Sunday December 25. There is no evening performance on Sunday December 31. There are additional performances on Monday December 19 at 7pm; Tuesday December 20 at 2pm & 7pm, Tuesday December 27 at 7pm; and Friday December 30 at 2pm and 7pm.
Tickets to A Child’s Christmas in Wales begin at $45 and are available now through Irish Rep’s box office at (212) 727-2737 or online at www.irishrep.org.
This announcement came across my desk that I have to include in my Out&About. This organization are one of the best for all they do for their members and families. Their Gala dinner is open to everybody who would like to attend and for more information check it out below so here is the information on the event. “The Grand Council of United Emerald Societies Incorporated cordially invites you to attend our Annual Irishman of the Year Dinner on Wednesday January 11, from 7 pm to 11 pm at Antun’s of Queens Village (96-43 Springfield Blvd, Queens Village).”
The Guest of Honor will be Patrick J. Lynch, President of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York. The NYC PBA is the largest municipal police union in the world, representing the approximately 24,000 sworn NYPD members. They hold the rank of Police Officer and the front-line police officers in radio cars and on foot posts in your neighborhood, as well as those in specialized units and administrative divisions throughout the city.
Mr. Lynch was first elected PBA president in 1999, defeating the incumbent administration while serving as a precinct-level delegate in the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn. He is the longest-serving PBA president since the union obtained its bargaining certificate in 1963.
In recognition of President Lynch’s many years of service and dedication to the City of New York and his proud Irish heritage, he was elected to serve as the Grand Council of United Emerald Societies Aide to Grand Marshal for the 2023 New York City Saint Patrick’s Day Parade.
The 2023 Grand Marshal, Kevin J. Conway, has also been invited to attend this year’s gala.
The Dinner subscription is $100 per person or $1000 for a table of ten. In conjunction with the 2023 Irishman of the Year dinner, the GCUES will publish a commemorative souvenir dinner journal. Full-page ads are $250, with Covers at $600 (front inside, rear inside, and back cover), and the centerfold of the book at $600 (2 full-color pages).
See their ad elsewhere in the paper and on the sidebar of our website for all the details.
Hope to see you all again next week when I am Out&About again…