The Brisbane 30th Anniversary Luncheon 25 August 2017
The Ireland Funds Australia are currently celebrating 30 years in Australia and suitably, at the annual Brisbane Lunch, celebrations began early as guests were welcomed by the St. Peter’s Indigenous Dance Group. Chairman Yvonne le Bas officially opened the lunch at Hillstone St Lucia on Friday 25 August welcoming guests including Board Members, Prof. Iain Watson, Dr Tom Moore, Peter and Toni Ryan and Executive Director Teresa Keating. Yvonne also welcomed former Chairman John O’Neill AO and past Board Member Sallyanne Atkinson AO. The Chairman then spoke about another fruitful year of fundraising in Australia which allowed the Ireland Funds to provide significant impact through their donations to our flagship projects both here and at home.
Keynote speaker and Chairman of The Star Entertainment Group John O’Neill AO provided a fascinating insight into Star’s landmark project in Brisbane as well as rugby in Australia. The former Ireland Funds Australia Chairman also spoke about Ireland’s 2023 bid for the Rugby World Cup as well as reminiscing about his 14 year involvement with the Funds.
Known as Australia’s answer to Il Divo, La Forza ensured the crowd were singing their way into the afternoon, setting the tone for a very long lunch at the beautiful Hillstone St. Lucia Golf Club.
Our Live Auction was expertly run by Kelvin Deasy of Slattery Auctions. Thank you to our major sponsors in particular; Emirates represented by Leonie Brennan, Regional Manager for Queensland, Australian Radio Network and Ciaran Davis, Charles Curran AC and Capital Investment Group, The Star Entertainment Group and John O’Neill AO, Diageo and Paul O’Brien.
The afternoon provided an opportunity for guests to pledge to one of our more recent projects ‘Integrate My School’ a campaign run by the Integrated Education Foundation, an initiative led by Northern Ireland Actor Liam Neeson. Young Leaders Catherine Murphy from the Melbourne Committee and Jude Bolger spoke of the upcoming global 5k run on September 23 and encouraged all attendees to show their support by registering to run/walk!
Thank you to all of our table captains, sponsors and guests, quite simply our work would not be possible without your help.
