The Worldwide Ireland Funds Conference 2004 was officially opened by An Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern TD on Sunday, 20th June 2004 and marked by a special celebration of Irish Theatre at the Abbey Theatre. The Conference was attended by over 250 delegates from all over the world and ran until Wednesday 23rd June.

Highlights of the Conference, included a visit to Belfast to review key projects funded by The Ireland Funds; the presentation of The 33rd AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award to Paul Muldoon, poet; and a Gala Dinner that marked the completion of the five year ‘Hope & History Campaign’.

This special evening performance was a tribute to 100 years of theatre at the National Theatre and included an adaptation from the critically acclaimed The Shaughran.

Among the guests who attended were Senator Maurice Hayes, Chairman of The Ireland Funds, Billy Vincent, Kingsley Aikins, Hugo MacNeill, Liam and Eithne Healy and actor Colm Wilkinson.

full report...

2004 Literary Award:: Photos and Report >

The Conference visit to Hazelwood College >

2003 Conference :: Photos and Report >

2004 Worldwide Ireland Funds’ conference marked an important turning point in the history of the organization. First, conference-goers had something special to celebrate. As reported in the summer 2004 issue of connect, The Worldwide Ireland Funds’ five-year, $100 million “Hope & History” campaign came to an exciting and gratifying conclusion in the first half of 2004. Total gifts to the campaign reached $111 million.

"This is a wonderful end to a wonderful story,” Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chairman of The American Ireland Fund, commented at that time. “We have a lot to be proud of,” echoed Sir Anthony O’Reilly, Chairman of The Worldwide Ireland Funds, “and a lot to be thankful for.”
Conference attendees also saw evidence of their past generosity at work, all over the island of Ireland. They visited project sites in Belfast and the Dublin area, and learned of progress made in peace and reconciliation, community development, education, and culture. At the same time, they learned of the challenges that many of the Irish people continue to face. And toward the end of the conference, they considered the current state and future prospects of The Ireland Funds: a unique charitable venture, with distinctive obligations and opportunities.

A night at the Abbey
The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on December 27th, 1904, as the brainchild of William Butler Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory. Just short of 100 years later—on the evening of Sunday, June 20, 2004—it opened its doors to participants in The Worldwide Ireland Funds’ annual conference.
At a cocktail reception hosted by The Ireland Fund of Canada, An Taoiseach Mr Bertie Ahern T.D. formally welcomed conference-goers, stressing the enormous contribution that The Ireland Funds had made to the Irish people in the preceding 30 years. Ahern—the incumbent in the European Union’s rotating presidency—was then deeply involved in the international debate over EU enlargement, and conference participants clearly appreciated the fact that the Taoiseach found time in his crowded schedule to help open the festivities.

Voices on a train
Mike Corboy
First thing the following morning—that is, Monday, June 21st— a train pulled out of Dublin’s Connolly Station setting off for Belfast Central, in the north. Michael Corboy was among the people en route to Belfast that day. Corboy, president of Corboy Investments Company of Dallas, Texas, got involved with The American Ireland Fund (AIF) in the late 1990s. He had already been involved in helping inner-city elementary schools in Dallas—an “endangered species,” he recalls—and when representatives from the AIF came calling, he was pleased to learn that childhood education was also a priority of The Ireland Funds.
At the urging of the AIF, Corboy and his business partner, Tom Tierney, agreed to organize a Dallas-area golf tournament. (Why golf? “There were too many black-tie events in Dallas already.”) One of the first things that Tierney did, recalls Corboy, was to set up a two-man Philosophy Committee, which established an overriding objective: to have fun, while also raising money for a good cause. Again, Corboy sees an overlap between his own approach and that of The Ireland Funds:“Tom passed away a few years ago, so we named the golf tournament after him.
But that was our thing: to have fun. If you’re enjoying it like anything, and if you have a passion for it, you’re going to get good at it. And that’s The Ireland Funds, too – a lovely group that cares deeply about what it’s doing, and is getting results.”
Corboy holds The Ireland Funds to the same high standard he applies to all of his business and charitable ventures. “The organization is maturing to the point where we can now start measuring results,” he says. “We have to make very sure that we’re doing the best we possibly can.”

Ken Gorman, also en route to Belfast—and on his fourth trip to Ireland with The Ireland Funds—recalls his first encounter with the organization. He had been impressed by a young lawyer in New York who was doing pro bono work in the late 1990s for The American Ireland Fund. Then, in 1998, Gorman lost his wife, Patricia O’Connor Gorman. The young lawyer knew that the late Mrs. Gorman was proud of her Irish roots—her mother was from Thomastown, and her father was from Londonderry—and suggested that Gorman consider setting up a Donor Advised Fund with the AIF in his wife’s name.
The Patricia O’Connor Gorman Fund was created in that same year with an initial gift of $250,000. Its goal was to benefit worthwhile projects in Counties Derry and Tipperary, the home counties of Patricia’s parents. “They represented both north and south,” Gorman explains, “so this seemed like an appropriate way to memorialize her and her family, and also to help bridge that gap between north and south.” In the future, he thinks, he will focus the endowment’s proceeds on programs to benefit children:
“My wife was always interested in children. We had two, and I now have eight grandchildren. I really think that the only way you’ll eventually resolve the troubles here is through the children, so the direction I’m going to take in the future is more toward the integrated schools. It may take two more generations, but eventually, we will get there.”

Tom Corcoran, yet another conference participant traveling to Belfast that morning, became involved with The American Ireland Fund nearly a decade ago. A successful Washington, D.C.-area executive with a specialization in the defense sector, Corcoran began co-chairing the AIF’s annual Washington dinner shortly after he began volunteering time to the organization. Today, he is an AIF Board Director.
“There were two compelling reasons to get involved,” he recalls. “I was born in Ireland, so I have that natural tie. But I also like the people that I’ve been associated with through The American Ireland Fund. They’re as good a group of people as you’d ever want to work with, in terms of their motivations and their profound interest in the cause.”
Corcoran and his wife Claudia are deeply involved in a venture called Project Children, which brings Catholic and Protestant children to the U.S. for a joint experience aimed at breaking down sectarian divides. Claudia Corcoran also supports an extension of Project Children called “Young Leaders,” which brings college-age students of both religious traditions to the U.S. for a summer’s experience. In addition, Corcoran admits, he is inclined to be generous toward projects based in County Cavin. “I was born there,” he explains, “and I don’t mind showing a little partiality.”

Belfast-bound Dennis Durkin—Senior Managing Director of Insignia/ESG in Philadelphia—attributes his passion for Ireland to a number of factors. His grandparents emigrated from Ireland to the Philadelphia area shortly after World War I, he explains, and his parents took him and his older brother Thomas back to the Old Country in the early 1970s. Durkin also spent several months in Belfast during his college years, creating a new set of fond memories. But most important, Durkin recalls, was his brother Tom’s influence. Beginning in the mid 1990s, Tom—by then a pediatrician—strongly encouraged his younger brother to visit Ireland. Great golf, a great pub scene, and family ties, Tom argued: what could be better? Dennis took his brother’s advice, and once again fell in love with Ireland, subsequently making an average of a trip a year to Ireland with his wife Audrey. During this time period, Dennis was contacted by The American Ireland Fund, who asked for his help in reinvigorating the AIF chapter in Philadelphia. Dennis agreed to help organize a golf tournament for the AIF in the fall of 2001. Then, double tragedy struck. In the summer of 2001, Dennis’s brother Tom died of cancer. Next, the golf tournament’s kick-off cocktail reception was scheduled for September 11—only to be cancelled when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and other American targets.

But the Durkins rebounded. Dennis and his fellow Philadelphia-based volunteers rescheduled the golf tournament for the fall of 2002—and wound up raising in excess of $150,000. The following year, they raised an astounding $250,000, which they contributed to support the Special Olympics in Ireland.

Meanwhile, Dennis and Audrey decided to make a $100,000 gift of their own to The American Ireland Fund, in Tom Durkin’s memory. Although the Durkins suggested that the proceeds of the gift should benefit the children of Northern Ireland—honoring Tom’s dedication to caring for children—they did not further restrict the gift. This reflected the fact that they had attended several Ireland Funds conferences in Ireland, and seen the impact of various grants at street level.

“The Ireland Funds’ work is woven right into the fabric of Irish life,” concludes Dennis Durkin. “They put their money where their mouths are, and it pays off. You can see the money at work.”

The Troubles – and a response
First stop for the passengers arriving in Belfast: Queen’s University, where conference-goers were greeted by Professor Sir George Bain, President and Chancellor of Queen’s.

Following the President’s remarks, Kieran McLoughlin— then Director Ireland, The Ireland Funds—made a presentation on “the Troubles,” as the sectarian conflicts in Northern Ireland have become known. “During the course of the Troubles,” McLoughlin said, “there were 10,000 bombings, 35,000 shooting incidents, and 42,000 people were maimed or injured, of whom three-quarters were civilians. More than 3,500 people paid the ultimate price, and lost their lives. And all this in an area smaller than the state of Connecticut. In fact, given Northern Ireland’s population, it’s estimated that one in every two people in this society has been affected directly by a maiming, an injury, or a murder.”

The Good Friday Accord of 1998 gave rise to a spirit of optimism, hope, and generosity, McLoughlin continued—a spirit which to some extent was justified. Large-scale violence largely subsided; two elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly came and went without serious incident; and the summer marching season—typically a time of high tension in the north—became relatively peaceful.

On the other hand, said McLoughlin, there are still many signs of trouble, and even of backsliding. The political process has stalled, and the assembly remains suspended. Paramilitaries thrive, and—under the protection of these armed groups—something like 150 gangs now engage in criminal activities in the North. Since the Good Friday Accord, there have been 1,600 attacks and assaults, and more than 100 people have lost their lives. A full 93 percent of public housing in Northern Ireland is segregated—a percentage that has actually risen in the last six years. Only 6 percent of the children of Northern Ireland, McLoughlin noted, are educated with children from a different religious background.

“A recent survey concluded that 68 percent of 25-year-olds in Belfast have never had a meaningful conversation with anyone from the other community,” McLoughlin said. “Another survey suggests that children as young as five years old are registering sectarian attitudes.”

McLoughlin then outlined an Ireland Funds’ initiative called “Binding up the Wounds.” The initiative seeks to raise $5 million in three years, and will focus on four specific challenges: 1) helping the youth of Northern Ireland, 2) supporting peace-makers in their efforts to bridge the gaps between communities, 3) promoting cross-community activities, and 4) helping people understand and come to terms with the horrors of the recent past.

Closing the morning’s activities was Senator Maurice Hayes, Chairman of the Advisory Committee of The Ireland Funds, and long a guiding spirit of the organization. “The war is over,” he commented. “But as people have discovered in many other parts of the world, peace doesn’t simply break out the day after an accord is reached.” He called for the creation of a network of political substructures, to help knit a fractured society back together: “We need to give people confidence in themselves. We need to help people feel safe in their communities. We need to help them feel confident that their children are safe, and that their children will get a chance in life—a chance to make a better life for themselves.” Peace cannot be imposed from the top, Hayes cautioned. It has to be built from the bottom up, based on mutual trust— which in turn is built through shared experience. The peacemakers, he said, have to be supported. Collectively, they are creating a “mosaic” of peace, in which no single piece predominates, but in which all pieces combine to create a cohesive whole.

Hazelwood: pointing to the future
After visiting project sites in break-out groups, The Ireland Funds’ conference-goers reassembled for the last stop on their Belfast tour: the Hazelwood Integrated Primary School, located on a beautiful hillside in North Belfast’s Newtownabbey district. There they were greeted by many of the school’s approximately 400 primary-school-age children, waving and holding welcoming banners.

But the well-kept grounds and the immaculately uniformed children can create a misleading impression in the visitor’s mind. For the most part, Hazelwood—the second post-primary integrated school established in Northern Ireland—is not a school for privileged children. Instead, it is an institution that seeks to bring children of all religious and economic backgrounds together for an “integrated” educational experience.

Nor is Hazelwood as tranquil a setting as it might seem. To many residents of Belfast, integrated education is still a foreign, and even a threatening, concept. In September 2001, seven Hazelwood students were hospitalized with minor injuries when a brick was thrown through their bus window. Even today, in a time of reduced tensions, principal Jill Houston arrives on campus early to help repair damage that vandals that may have inflicted overnight.

But this day at Hazelwood was not one of tension, but rather, one of celebration and happiness. The visiting Ireland Funds’ delegation was treated to music, songs, sketches, and dances performed energetically by the assembled Hazelwood students. (The chorus’s rendition of “Bye-bye Blackbird” was a special crowd-pleaser, and the chorus was brought back for an encore performance of the song). Principal Houston then introduced Charles Curran, chairman of The Australian Ireland Fund, who formally announced a gift of $1 million by Lady Mary Fairfax of Australia to support integrated education in Ireland. The gift, Curran noted, was made in memory of Lady Fairfax’s husband, Sir Warwick Fairfax.

Kingsley Aikins, President and CEO of The Worldwide Ireland Funds, expressed his gratitude for the Australians’ generosity, and for their active support of integrated education. “There’s an old Irish proverb,” he commented, “that says you can’t plow a field by turning it over in your mind.” Action, he said, was key.

Aikins reminded the audience that although they had had an extended immersion in Belfast-based projects supported by The Ireland Funds, the Funds’ support of charitable activities extended across the entire island, and encompassed arts, cultural groups, and economic development as well as efforts toward peace and reconciliation. “It’s humbling to stand before you today,” Aikins concluded, “because everybody in this room has already made dreams come true. And I am confident that you will do so again.”

The Ireland Funds and leadership The Tuesday sessions of Conference 2004, held at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, focused on planning, strategic review, and agenda-setting.

The American Ireland Fund Chairman Loretta Brennan Glucksman opened the morning session by reflecting on the previous day’s activities in Belfast. She reported that many conference participants—inspired by Hazelwood and other models of integrated education—had approached her to advocate for an even greater involvement on the part of The Ireland Funds in the integrated-education movement. “In that spirit,” she continued, “I’m extremely pleased to be able to tell you that AIF Board Director Jack McDonald and his wife Jackie this morning announced that that they are making a $1 million gift in support of integrated education.”

Scott Nichols—Dean of Development at Harvard Law School and a mentor to The Ireland Funds during the campaign—spoke of the transformation of the organization in the past five years:

“Today, you are mission-driven. You are far more serious—although, thank goodness, you haven’t lost the fun along the way. You now have thousands of people who are donors—partners in the organization—rather than people who simply buy a ticket to a dinner. You do great things. You have a revitalized board. And you have dozens of leaders in this room alone.”

Nichols then sketched a picture of what The Ireland Funds might become in the near future: an international leader in the non-profit sector, and an example of what philanthropy ought to be in the world. He invoked a skiing metaphor, saying that The Ireland Funds had moved from the beginner’s slopes to the intermediate slopes—a transition that came with new challenges, as well as opportunities. Those challenges included consolidating the gains already made, increasing unrestricted giving, communicating more effectively with broader publics— all with an eye toward “moving on to those advanced slopes.”

The session’s next segment was a presentation by Kingsley Aikins. Aikins reviewed the vision and mission of The Ireland Funds, and summarized the status of the various Funds around the world—for example, congratulating the Canadians on the occasion of their 25th anniversary, and praising the Australians for their amazing growth and energy in recent years. He summarized the ten-year financial history of the organization and summarized the campaign’s history. Between the launch of the campaign and December 2003, the Ireland Funds received gifts from 8,856 donors, of whom 6,103 were new donors. And whereas the Funds had previously received only one gift of $1 million or greater, the campaign generated 26 such gifts, as well as 59 gifts of more than $100,000.

The result, Aikins reported, was grants of more than $80 million to approximately 1,100 organizations, all across the north and south of Ireland, including $1.3 million to the Special Olympics. “And as you saw in Belfast yesterday,” Aikins continued, “these grants were very often votes of confidence in people—people with the proven ability to get things done—as much as they were endorsements of organizations.”

Aikins thanked the Irish Advisory Committee—headed by Senator Maurice Hayes—for its profound contributions. “You are our quality control,” Aikins said, “You are the ones who make our ‘stamp’ the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”

In conclusion, Aikins reiterated Nichols’s comments about the challenges now facing The Ireland Funds. The organization needs to increase its unrestricted-gifts stream, Aikins said, while continuing to cultivate designated gifts. It needs to keep adjusting its business model to minimize its reliance on a relatively small number of major events and a small number of key people. It needs to translate loose affiliation into commitment to the organization: “Nearly 40,000 people come to our events every year, but most of them aren’t really connected to us. In a sense, it’s a problem for us, but it’s also a terrific opportunity.”
But in all of that, Aikins said, “we don’t want to lose our very special esprit de corps. We have spirit, fun, a sense of our own uniqueness. And that, too, is something that we can and should build upon.”

Celebration!
The party was held at the U.S. Ambassador James C. Kenney’s residence in the center of Dublin’s Phoenix Park. Loretta Brennan Glucksman took the floor to introduce the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, who complimented the assembled guests for realizing the ambitious goals of the Hope & History Campaign:“Five years ago, when I had the honor of launching officially that campaign, I thought your ambition was very well on the far side of extraordinary. That’s my way of telling you, politely, that I thought you were completely bonkers. But it was doable, because of your relentless extraordinary commitment. So I congratulate you, and especially your amazing chairman, Loretta Brennan Glucksman, to whom I want to offer the thanks of all of Ireland. “

McAleese congratulated The Ireland Funds on their success, which she attributed to a “deep and true understanding” of the Irish people and their circumstances.

The President thanked the assembled guests in particular for their support of the 2003 Special Olympics—an event, she said, that had left her with “the best memories of a lifetime.” She went on to say that Ireland today is able to celebrate the successes of its “children at home,” whereas in the past, the nation could only celebrate the successes of its “emigrant children.” She described a new partnership between those two groups, working together to create what she believed would be “the most successful, peaceful, prosperous, creative, and imaginative Ireland ever.”“We are not there yet,” she concluded, “but with your help, please God, and your fidelity, we’ll surely get there.” The last word on The Worldwide Ireland Funds’ 2004 Conference rightfully belongs to Loretta Brennan Glucksman, who both opened the conference at the Abbey Theatre and brought it to its climactic conclusion at the Gala Dinner Celebration.

“We do this,” she says, “because there is a pull to Ireland that is like no other. It is like an emotional umbilical cord. It brings us back, and it keeps us close.”

Author Jeffrey L. Cruikshank, president of the Milton, Massachusetts-based Cruikshank Company, visited Ireland during the course of the Hope & History campaign and wrote for various campaign-related publications.

Schedule of Events 2004

June 20 Sunday
E V E N I N G
Welcome reception and unique performance celebrating the centenary
of Ireland’s National Theatre for all overseas guests and the
Irish Advisory Committee at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin

June 21 Monday
M O R N I N G
Travel to Belfast to visit key projects funded by The Ireland Funds
and to meet with leaders of the city and community

There will be a presentation at Queen’s University, Belfast, of our funding strategy in Northern Ireland for the next three years. It will focus on projects that encourage integration between the divided communities with a particular emphasis on young people. The day will finish with a special presentation by the children of Hazelwood Primary School before we return to Dublin by train.

We will visit the following projects:
174 Trust
Habitat for Humanity
The Spectrum Centre
Women’s Information Group
Cultúrlann
The Vine Centre

E V E N I N G Return from Belfast

June 22 Tuesday
M O R N I N G
Strategic planning session in The Shelbourne Hotel for The Ireland Funds’ Directors.
Alternative programme for other delegates

E V E N I N G Black-tie gala dinner to close the five year Hope & History Campaign and presentation of the AWB Vincent Literary Award

Ireland will be the capital of the golf world when it hosts the Ryder Cup at The K Club in 2006.

Conference golf aficionados are invited to get an early taste of Ryder Cup fever when The Ireland Funds host their very own version pitting the European conference contingent against the delegation from North America.

As an added bonus, The K Club’s Arnold Palmer-designed South Course will be in peak tournament condition as The Smurfit European Open commences the following day.

Cost includes all greens fees and Awards Reception at The K Club hotel following competition.