Guests go green for St Patrick’s Day
The Irish Day celebrations were filled with interesting talks, laughter, food and lots of fun.
IRISH and friends of the Irish turned up in many shades of green to celebrate the annual Irish South African Association (ISAA) St Patrick’s Day event at the Westville Country Club on Saturday.
Ray McNulty, the KZN president of ISAA, guided the revellers through a full programme of events as MC. The evergreen favourites, singer Lauren Laing and the band, Spontaneous Combustion, provided lively music.
Pupils from the Celtic Heartbeat Academy of Irish Dance KZN thrilled the audience with their displays of Irish dances – from near-tiny tots to agile teenagers.
The guest of honour, Tim Reilly, Deputy Ambassador of Ireland to South Africa, commented on the very high standard of Irish dancing they achieved.
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It was his third-time lucky reaching the event – having been stopped in his tracks from coming down from Pretoria by Covid-19 for two previous years.
In his speech, Reilly gave the audience an overview of the state of affairs in Ireland.
Deputy Ambassador Reilly also spoke of how Ireland values its close and cordial relations with South Africa and of the multi-billion trade that exists between the two counties.
He reminded the audience how, in the early 1990s, now-President Cyril Ramaposa had assisted in the Northern Ireland peace process.
“The Embassy is now working with Durban-based ACCORD, which focuses on resolving political conflicts, to model future possible political scenarios in South Africa,” said Reilly.
In his vote of thanks, Professor Donal McCracken reminded the audience that it was 30 years to the day since the first Irish ambassador presented his credentials to the then-President FW de Klerk. Prof McCracken also entertained the audience by telling them of the St Patrick’s Day banquet a century ago in Durban’s old Beach Hotel – and how in those days, long before social media, all the Irish societies in South Africa used to send each other greetings telegrams on St Patrick’s Day.
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“The first recorded St Patrick’s Day festival in southern Africa was in Cape Town 195 years ago – and some banquets became so rowdy, the police had to be called.”
The celebrating green South Africans enjoyed a full buffet lunch, had the opportunity to win some special raffle prizes – and, once again, survived and cheered at Ray McNulty’s famous and highly amusing ‘almost true’ Irish stories.
Anyone wishing to join the Irish South African Association, which has branches in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, should contact Dr Julian Buckels at secretary.dbn@Ireland.co.za.
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