On March 14th, The Ireland Funds’ Boston Young Leaders hosted an exuberant crowd of 450 at their annual St. Patrick’s Celebration. Keeping with The Ireland Funds’ tradition of top venues, the Young Leaders, their friends and The Ireland Funds’ supporters were welcomed to the Wharf Room at the Boston Harbor Hotel. Overlooking Boston Harbor, appropriately up-lit in green, equipped with multiple bars including two very popular Guinness bars and well-stocked food stations, the room was filled with laughter, stories, feverish bidding on hotly-contested auction items, and a short but impactful speaking program and video. Popular Boston-based, Irish band “Devri” kept the night upbeat and Irish.
Steve Greeley, The Ireland Funds New England Director and Vice President of Development, opened the program by highlighting the close relationship between Boston and Ireland as evidenced by the night’s celebration. After describing The Ireland Funds’ mission of supporting critical Irish-based non-profits, Steve highlighted the work of Blossom Ireland, a Dublin-based non-profit assisting intellectually-challenged young adults as they strive for independence and critical life-skills, with a video that told the story of the organization’s work.
Seán Kyne TD, who represents Galway West & Mayo South in the Dáil and who serves as the Government’s Chief Whip and Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, spoke next and pointed out the large number and variety of critical non-profits supported by The Ireland Funds. He thanked the Boston Young Leaders for their support. He also updated the guests on recent Irish developments, noting the challenges raised by Brexit.
Steve then thanked the event’s Committee members for surpassing their goal and asked the leadership team of Co-Chairs Shannon McAllister (J.P. Morgan), Clancy Galgay (Mintz Levin), Rowan McFeely (STAG Industrial), and Jen Corcoran (Joseph J. Corcoran Company), to join him at the podium where they each shared their remarks.
Thank you to all our sponsors and supporters, particularly Patron Sponsors: Newmark Knight Frank, State Street Corporation, and Suffolk Cares as well as Benefactor Sponsors: Claremont Companies, Eversource Energy, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Grand Coast Capital Group, The Mac Intyre Family, Optum, and Putnam Investments.
Thank you to the 2019 St. Patrick’s Celebration Co-Chairs: Jennifer Corcoran, Clancy Galgay, Shannon McAllister, and Rowan McFeely and Committee: Steve Alibrandi, Paul Archibald, Emily Beale, Jonny Beale, Ryan Bradley, Tim Brett, Patrick Burek, Anthony Cahill, Patrick Carney, Jr., John Carroll, Jeff Carter, Miceal Chamberlain, Michael Collins, Jr., Terence Connell, Colleen Connolly, Ryan Connolly, Cathleen Connors, John Cronin, Ellen Donovan, Shane Early, John Flaherty, David Foss, Holly Foster, Matthew Gaughan, Annie Geraghty, Jimmy Geraghty III, Casey Giudicelli, Jack Greeley, Michael Greeley, Tommy Greeley, Mike Griffin, Chris Hagan, Sean Hannigan, Matthew Harrington, Sean Judge, Steven Keady, Theresa Kelleher, Justin Kelly, Nora Kennedy, Mike Lynch, Patrick Malone, Aengus McAllister, Carolyn Molloy, Matt Nelligan, Kerry O’Regan, Ryan Palmer, Rob Perkins, Caitlin Power, Pat Savery, Billy Scannell, Stephanie Steele, Colin Watters.
Photo Credit: Maura Wayman
