Sydney Garden Party : 13 November 2005

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The Australian Ireland Fund annual gathering in Sydney was held in beautiful weather this year, on the stunning grounds of Lady Mary Fairfax’s home in Double Bay. The Garden Party was sold out weeks before the event and the 530 guests were treated to perhaps the best Sydney Garden Party yet. The weather was absolutely beautiful on the day and showed us all Sydney Harbour at its best.

Entertainment was plentiful, there was a German Band, an Irish Band and of course the brilliant comedian from Belfast, Jimeoin, who donated his services for free and had everybody pondering the contents of their kitchen drawers! The Live Auction also had some fantastic items, most notably Qantas very kindly donated two business class tickets to London which were snapped up by Dr. Tom Moore. Mercedes generously donated a B Class Mercedes which was proudly displayed in Lady Fairfax’s harbourside mansion wrapped in a green silk bow. The Mercedes was bought during the live auction for $55,000 by Mr. Frank O’Connell.

Over $200,000 was raised on the day for projects of Peace & Reconciliation and Integrated Education. This could not have been done without the generous support of a lot of people but in particular our major sponsors, APN News and Media, Brendan Hopkins & Richard Herring; Qantas, Peter McLaughlin; Sydney Opera House, Dominiques Villas of London, The Classic Safari, Globecast Australia, Maureen McCarthy, Guinness, Waterford Crystal and Fosters Group.

With a full house, there were many very distinguished guests including Senator Helen Coonan, The Hon. Robert Hill, Lady Fairfax AC OBE, General Peter Cosgrove, Charles Curran AO, Sir Ron Brierley, David Clarke AO, Cameron O’Reilly and Kathryn Greiner AO.