The Gazette 1989

GAZETTE

JULY 1989

Having done everything possible in relation to our principal objective and re-qualification now being within our sight, the members of the Committee and I decided that we would like to hold a Charity Ball in order to raise funds to benefit poor young Irish immigrants in London, of whom there are, sadly, very many. I believe that successful Irish professional people in London owe a very large amount of our success to the good education which we received in Ireland and the privileged positions from which we started. There are, sadly, many other young Irish people in London who did not start w i th the same benefits and privileges and I feel very strongly that those who have succeeded should help those who, if they received the right advice and help, might also make a success of their lives in London. The Irish Youth Foundation, which has oper- ated for several years in Ireland helping young people, is in the process of setting up a branch in England and we decided to give the funds raised by our Ball to them to be used for a specific purpose to be approved of by us to assist poor young Irish immigrants. We we re abso l u t e ly over- whelmed by the very generous support which we received from Irish firms of solicitors and other Irish institutions. Most of the major firms of solicitors made donations towards the Ball. The major donors were McCann FitzGerald, Arthur Cox and Aer Lingus. McCann FitzGerald is already operating a successful London office and we hope that Arthur Cox will soon follow suit! We also received generous donations from Max

Abrahamson, Eugene F. Collins, William Fry, Gerrard Scallan & O'Brien, Hill Samuel Bank Ltd., and Matheson Ormsby Prentice. Our souvenir programme, produced especially for the event and printed at no cost by Ray Cotter of Rayprint, Dublin, attracted a great deal of interest and advertisements were taken by the major Irish banks and other Irish financial institutions wi th offices in London. London recruiting agents also seized the opportunity to advertise in our programme, as did P J Carroll, "The Irish Times", and "Image", the leading Irish social magazine. We are pleased to report all the money f r om t he dona t i ons and the souvenir programme will be going direct to the benefiting Charity. We devised a special form of "corporate table" and tables were quickly taken by Aer Lingus and Bank of Ireland. William Earley of McCann FitzGerald's London office also hosted a corporate table and another corporate table was hosted by A & L Goodbody, who now also have an office in London. Murray Sweeney solicitors of Limerick and Dublin flew an entire party to London for the event and also very generously donated a magnificent piece of Waterford crystal as a raffle prize. The first prize in the raffle was donated by Aer Lingus and other major raffle prizes were donated by Law Placements and Ryanair. We were especially pleased that so many English lawyers attended the Ball and a special word of thanks is due to Keith Oliver of Peters & Peters, London, who took an entire table and who also acted as host for a group of Belgian law

students, who happened to be in London for the weekend and whom he invited to the Ball. At 2.30 am the magnificent setting of the Natural History Museum provided the backdrop for the rendition of "Mo l ly Malone" by the Belgians, which they had rehearsed especi- ally for the event! Due to the very generous dona- tions and the success of our souvenir programme and raffle, we managed to raise £10 , 000 (sterling!) for the Irish Youth Foundation, which is no mean feat for a first attempt at charity fund raising! We are entirely grateful to the Irish f i rms of solicitors who supported our Ball and apologise for the fact that its occurrence on an Irish bank holiday weekend pre- vented some others from coming. The Ball was a t r ememdous success and will certainly become an annual event on the London social scene! We hope that those who could not come this year will be able to attend next year. Special thanks are due to all the organising Committee of the Ball: Anne Blayney, Roderick Bourke, Anne Counihan, Philip Lee, Patrick Long, our Hon. Secretary Adrienne McCann and Victor Timon. The person who helped me most wi th the organisation of the Ball was Philip Lee, who has now returned to the legal profession after several years as an oilman w i th "Shell". I do not think it inappropriate to single him out for my special thanks, as I probably would not have survived the pressures of the weeks immediately prior to the Ball w i t h o u t his assistance and support! •

Doyle Court Reporters Court and Conference Verbatim Reporting 2, Arran Quay, Dublin 7. Tel: 722833 or 862097 (After Hours) Excellence in Reporting since 1954

2 32