The Charitable Irish Society celebrated its 282^ndAnniversary with an elegant dinner at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel with our President Carleton H. Laporte, Jr. as Toastmaster.  The festivities began with a reception during which our members and guests were able to meet Honorable Anne Anderson and Sean Kyne, T. D. Minister of Gaeilge, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, and Representative John J. Mahoney, Thirteenth District, Worcester.  Ms. Anderson, who was Ireland’s first woman Ambassador to the United States, delivered an informative keynote address relating Ireland’s diplomatic efforts to secure comprehensive immigration reform on Capitol Hill.  President Laporte presented Ms. Anderson, our 2019 Life Achievement Award Honoree, with a hand-blown glass bowl featuring an etching of Boston Public Garden.

The evening also featured the Boston College Heightmen with a program of popular Broadway show tunes as well as Irish classics, the Parting Glass and Danny Boy. The trio of Kathleen Guilday, Mark Roberts and Laurel K. Martin also played a number of Irish tunes during the dinner. Mary Conroy Henderson led the assembled guests in the Irish and American national anthems.

The centenary of Ireland’s Declaration of Independence of January 2019 and President Eamon de Valera’s visit to Boston the following June was marked by a new addition to our collection of historical posters (see below) with one showing the Irish President addressing 50,000 Irish American supporters at Fenway Park as well as a photo of President de Valera welcoming to Aras an Uachtarain in 1964 two future Charitable Irish Society Presidents, Dr. John P. Rattigan (1974) and John P. Rattigan, Jr. (1983).  Catherine Shannon gave a short account of de Valera’s Boston visit and the involvement of society members in its organization.