Midsummer Ball : June 23, 2006

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The Ireland Fund of Great Britain Midsummer Ball
On Friday 23rd June The Ireland Fund of Great Britain hosted its 18th Midsummer Ball at The Dorchester. The event was sponsored by Invest Northern Ireland, the economic development organisation for Northern Ireland.

The Dinner
Guests at the sell-out event were wined and dined in splendid fashion and the 2006 dinner committee chairs, Ivan Fallon & Kevin Pakenham, expressed their gratitude to Laurent Perrier and Chanel for helping to make the evening even more stylish.

Invest Northern Ireland
Peter Sutherland, Chairman of The Ireland Fund of Great Britain, was delighted to welcome new sponsors, Invest Northern Ireland. He paid tribute to their recent success in attracting new employers to the region. He described them as a world-class development agency and a forward-looking and responsive champion of innovation, entrepreneurship and internationalisation. Given The Ireland Fund of Great Britain's long history of grant giving to projects for young people such as The Integrated Education Fund, ChildLine Northern Ireland, and Northern Ireland Outward Bound, Peter Sutherland felt it might not be unreasonable to suggest - indeed to hope - that the successes of Invest Northern Ireland will soon be providing employment for some of the young graduates of schemes supported by The Ireland Funds.

The Ireland Fund of Great Britain Elderly Irish Campaign
The Chairman also highlighted the plight of the elderly Irish in Britain. He spoke of the too often forgotten legacy of “The Remittance Generation”, who sent an estimated £3 billion from the UK to Ireland in the post-war years. Whilst most returned to Ireland, a significant number did not fare so well and need our urgent help. He announced plans to launch a new Ireland Funds’ fundraising campaign to help both those elderly Irish people who will live out their lives in the UK, and those we can help to re-settle in Ireland. He looks forward to welcoming President Mary McAleese as Guest of Honour at next year’s Midsummer Ball (June 15 2007) to help us celebrate significant progress on this campaign for ‘The Forgotten Irish’.

The Ireland Fund of Great Britain Guest of Honour
The guest of honour was Fiona Shaw CBE whose accolades include three Laurence Olivier Awards for best actress, two London Critics’ Awards, one New York Critic’s Award for her performance in The Waste Land. She was created Officier des Arts et Lettres in France in 2000 and was awarded an honorary CBE in the Queen’s 2001 New Years Honours List. Fiona has developed a career that defies definition and that welcomes opportunities to break through boundaries and expectations on stage. The Chairman presented her with a handmade crystal case containing a rare copy of Seamus Heaney's 'The Door Stands Open', one of a limited edition produced by The Irish Writer's Centre