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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!
•
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