For the first time in over three years, The Ireland Funds Australia had the absolute pleasure of spending an evening with our friends and supporters at our Melbourne Dinner on Friday 26 August 2022.
Joined by over 130 guests we were welcomed to The Science Gallery at The University of Melbourne. We firstly had the opportunity to view the brand-new exhibition Swarm a space that uncovers the very essence of human behaviour and questions what drives us to be social.
We then moved to the Black Box theatre where our Chair Yvonne Le Bas welcomed guests and thanked our major sponsors and supporters including The Science Gallery, Glen Dimplex Australia, Diageo, Alloggio Charles Curran AC, The Star, Miriam Innes, Thomas O’Neill our Board Members, Governors, Associates, Benefactors and Young Leaders.
Yvonne gave an update on the work of the Fund here in Australia over the past 35 years and the impact the Fund has made in Education, Community Development and Arts and Culture projects acknowledging how extremely hard the pandemic has been on the fundraising capabilities of the Fund and most importantly for the projects we support, many of whom have been very severely impacted, but have shown resilience and determination.
Thanks to a very generous major donor our June 2022 Grant round at $2.1 million was our largest ever. Helping others is the reason why we exist, you can view the people and projects we have supported via our projects supported page.
We were then treated to lively insights from Professor Ronan McDonald who holds the Gerry Higgins Chair in Irish Studies at the University of Melbourne and is also Vice President of the Celtic Club.
Next we were entertained and amazed by the Trinitones cappella ensemble all the way from Trinity College Dublin, we all enjoyed their incredible performance, a highlight of our evening.
A huge thank you to our auctioneer Angela Limanis from Ray White for conducting our live auction where we saw some hotly contested bidding, especially for the beautiful charcoal drawing created specifically for our event and donated by talented artist Miriam Innes who joined us on the night.
We then moved upstairs to enjoy our Dessert, Irish Coffee, and Bailey’s, whilst enjoying each others company to the sounds of the Baker Boys and some dancing.
We greatly appreciate our incredible MC Seamus Bradley for keeping us on track during the evening.
From the bottom of our hearts, we thank our table captains, sponsors, and supporters for everything you do, it is because of your ongoing generosity that we are able to continue the work that we do.
We were so thrilled to once again come together face-to-face to celebrate with our friends and supporters to have fun all whilst giving back.
Thank you
Very best wishes,
Teresa Keating
Executive Director
The Ireland Funds Australia
