Biggest ever Irish American fundraising dinner breaks all records-- American Ireland Fund New York event one for the record books

Kieran McLoughlin, President & CEO of The Worldwide Ireland Funds and Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chairman of The American Ireland Fund, brief Michael D. Higgins President of Ireland on the milestone announcement that The Worldwide Ireland Funds Promising Ireland Campaign has overtaken its $100 million goal 19 months early.

The biggest fundraising dinner in the history of Irish America or indeed Ireland, took place last night at the Lincoln Center in New York.

The American Ireland Fund raised a staggering $4.3 million blowing away all previous records.

They also announced they had reached their $100 million fundraising goal 19 months early.

I was glad to be present at an Irish milestone that did not involve record debt, unemployment or some other bad news that has bedeviled the Irish in these trying times.

Looking around the packed Lincoln Center venue where over 1,300 had gathered, it seemed every prominent Irish American business man and woman from the New York area was in attendance—a resounding vote of confidence in the AIF and the work they do.

The AIF was rightfully, shouting from the rooftops that Irish America has delivered once again for Ireland’s most worthy charities and in the process confirmed what a giving hand Irish American have.

The Ireland Funds' Chairman Loretta Brennan Glucksman, announced that the Promising Ireland campaign to raise $100 million for charities had not only reached its goal 19 months ahead of schedule, but had also exceeded its target.

Chief Executive and President Kieran McLoughlin revealed that the campaign total now stands at over $120 million.

All this was achieved during the toughest economic times in recent history which makes it even more impressive.

I’m glad that the new Irish president Michael D. Higgins was present to see and hear the extraordinary news. He can certainly bear the glad tidings back to an Ireland awash in negativity where any good news is surely deeply appreciated.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan was the guest of honor on the night and he spoke impressively of his own Irish journey, his people were famine-tossed arrivals in America in the 1850s and now he runs the largest bank in the world with over 238,000 employees.

Despite his incredible rise he has never forgotten those Irish who risked all in order to make it possible for him in America.

Both Loretta Brennan Glucksman and Kieran McLoughlin deserve enormous credit for reaching the milestone.

The AIF under them is simply an organization that outgrown its elitist image and has become far more responsive and attuned in both America and Ireland to community needs and wants.

They have $ 500 million in their sights now, after announcing that the overall total raised by the Ireland Funds since inception is now $430 million

Other VIPs attending included Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg; New York Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly; Speaker of New York City Council, Christine Quinn; Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel; and celebrated author Colum McCann. Martha Stewart was also in attendance.

I spent a fascinating few minutes with former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt who had certainly made the headlines recently in a spectacular divorce case.

He and brother David, now a major investor in Ireland, were clearly enjoying the night.

It was that kind of evening, there’s nothing quite like a rip roaring Irish party, especially when there is something to celebrate.

The AIF has done Ireland and Irish America proud.

New Irish president impresses major Irish Americans -- President Michael D Higgins lays out vital role of emigrant Irish for Ireland audience in New York

Michael D Higgins speaking at the IN-NYC (Credit:James Higgins) 

Ireland’s new president, Michael D. Higgins, is a public intellectual turned politician, the best since Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president.

Intellectuals do not do politics normally, which makes Higgins an unusual case to begin with.

But last night at the American Irish Historical Society in Manhattan, the glittering building on Fifth Avenue across from the Metropolitan Museum, Higgins proved how wise the Irish electorate were in choosing him.

It was no easy crowd to please, a pastiche of Manhattan Irish great and good, many jaded by years of such events.

But you could hear a pin drop during his remarks.

Higgins, 71, delivered the annual Thomas Flanagan lecture with aplomb and vision, making favorable comparisons in many minds with his predecessors Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson.

You don’t get more complimentary than that.
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New Irish president impresses major Irish Americans


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Well maybe you can -- Don Keough, Chairman emeritus of the AIHS board and former Coca Cola President and Notre Dame Chairman stated that the Higgins comments were the best he had heard on the relationship and would reverberate in history and would be studied by future historians.

Fulsome praise indeed from the man who many consider the unofficial leader of Irish America.

The theme was the Irish need and ability to reinvent themselves at a time when the country desperately needs to do so again.

Higgins stressed that the Irish abroad were a vital part of that reinvention, that the very act of emigrating forces a major reinvention and remaking of the self to begin with.

Higgins stated that the Irish in Ireland had much to learn from the ability of the Irish in America to surf those treacherous waters, to reinvent themselves and climb up from starving Famine refugees to the pinnacle of American life.

He also showed how Irish America had helped save aspects of Ireland and its culture. Francis O’Neill, a Chicago policeman, had collected and saved thousands of Irish airs and musical pieces and sparked the later Celtic music revival music for new generations.

He noted that without the support of men like John Devoy and John Boyle O’Reilly, Irish self-determination such as it is would never have been achieved.

Higgins spoke of the despairing tone of the editorials in the Times of London after the Famine when they realized the Irish were spread to the four winds and the memory of what Britain has done during the Famine would never be forgotten. The Times was indeed prescient in that.

Higgins will play a vital role in Irish and Irish American relations these next seven years of his presidency. He is able to articulate and identify the ties that bind and his presidency will be an important buffer against little Irelanders who want nothing to do with the Diaspora and denigrate it every chance they get.

Higgins clearly thinks very differently and his trip to America is making that clear.

As Doctor Kevin Cahill, President General of the AIHS, stated, “President Higgins represents the nobility - and mobility – of the Irish people, both at home and abroad.”

The universal respect for him came from “his unquestioned command of all aspects of the culture of his people, and from the respect and affection that he had won across the political spectrum.”

Indeed.