The St. Patrick’s dinner was held in the delightful rustic setting of the Chateau de Collex on the outskirts of Geneva on Saturday 15^th March. The committee worked feverishly on the afternoon to adorn the function room and bar with all manner of Irish banners and bunting. Arriving guests were greeted in the downstairs bar with soft lighting, and easy listening to traditional music provided by the Waterford based band Boxty brought over for St. Patrick’s weekend. We were pleased to welcome 70+ guests on the evening including H.E. Ambassador Sharkey from Bern and H.E. Ambassador O’Ceallaigh from the Permanent Irish Mission here in Geneva accompanied by his charming wife Antoinette. Many familiar faces were present but also many new ones whom we were pleased to welcome helping to boost our membership drive. The salmon provided by Sarah Browne was absolutely sumptuous as was the succulent roast lamb even if the mint sauce had its own distinct French recipe to it. The chocolate dessert was a calorie overload of mega proportions but it was well worth it. A very fine selection of local wines in copious supply flowed as freely as the conversation around the tables.

Ambassador Sharkey’s after-dinner address, filled with great humour, entertained us all and was the perfect complement to the meal. The customary raffle was very well supported and we express our appreciation to all the patrons for  the wonderful prizes and generosity: - DBM, Declan McAdams of Hyposwiss Private Bank, Genève SA, Donal O’Neill of Irish Connections, John North of Seven Arts, Frank Hennessy of Heaven restaurant, 19^th Avenue hairdressers.

After dinner we moved back down to the bar and the party literally got into full swing – the girls (mostly) out on the dance floor led by Rhona and Sarah and the lads (mostly) holding up the bar - just in case it might fall down. Fair play to Boxty – we would not let them stop as they took us on a musical tour around the 32 counties. It was well into the small hours when we wound up. An-oíche a bhí ann ar fad!

We take this opportunity to express our warm thanks to all who attended the evening and their support for the event. Likewise we appreciate the messages we received after the event. The selection of the venue was out of town and a new departure. We hope to add a selection of photos to our gallery in the near future.

Various prizes were won by various people in the draw, and Oisín McClean was the best caddy by a country mile (and not just because he was the only one!) Lunch was felt to be not quite as good as last year, but not bad all the same. All in all, an event on the calendar that never lets us down, and so, to be continued next year!

Photographs

Equipped with a backpack full of sandwiches and a very large bottle of water I was ready to tackle the annual GIA Caves Ouvertes outing, which took place on May12^th. This was clearly a very popular GIA event as some late enthusiasts queued overnight in front of the appointed meeting place, Charly O’Neill’s, to get the last tickets for the bus.

With brief instructions on tactics for the day from President Eamonn – “this is not a tour of the wine caves and how wine is made this is a tour for tasting” – I already felt that this was gearing up to be another fine performance from Team Ireland & friends. The sun was shining as the bus rolled up to Satigny, whilst Ruth Creamer (chief of operations) had to perform the head count several times in an effort to check whether we had been infiltrated by ticket touts as was strongly suspected.

“A bit dry”, “well bodied”, “very fruity”…. And these were just some comments during the head count! I could tell that huge preparation and practice had been put in for the day. We proceeded to sample some of the specialities and my favourite was the Red Devil. You could already notice the team performing as, clink after clink, intelligent discussion on textures and clarity and depth fuelled the atmosphere.

Promptly back on the bus, we feared that the driver had been corrupted as we drove up the front garden of someone’s house. Finally, after some screams that we were losing momentum, we were back on route to Russin and ready for lunch. We may have been ready but it seemed they weren’t, as now we had the only little mishap of the day as the roasted chicken disappeared very quickly in front of many hungry eyes. “Not too worry”, was the comment overheard from the Young Team Ireland crowd led by Ms. O’Halloran, “we came to drink, I mean taste , not to eat”!

Always a popular venue is Molards in Russin, as clink after clink the comments on the wine were becoming poetic to the extent that even Seamus Heaney might have feared for his Nobel Prize. On the bus again, (the coffee seemed to work), we had no hiccups this time as we promptly moved to the next destination in Dardagny. On arrival we were greeted by former GIA president Brian Wall who flew all the way from Uganda so as not to miss this annual cult event. A well experienced clinker, Brian strategically pointed us all off in the right directions. Clink, clink and more clink, we were going for gold, champagne, chardonnay, sauvignon blancs, deep reds, light reds, sparkling reds …too, too many to choose and absorb…. and all to the backdrop of Herby and his rock and roll music.

All managed to get back on the bus for the trip home without any casualties. Many reported having picked up some nice bargains and as is tradition some of these bargains were shared around the bus to help us cope with the treacherous jaunt back to Charly’s and whet our vocal chords for the very competitive singalong. The team at the front of the bus was headed by the Doyle/O'Halloran clan with those at the back ably conducted by Mr. President, Aoibheann and yours truly. Sure we  even aired our infant school songs as gaeilge, and we were still going strong as we descended upon Charly's. In we marched for analysis and debrief over a few glasses of cider and paninis from Davy “le Chef”.  Many thanks to our chief of operations Ruth for a well organised event where it was clear that everyone had a great day out. Hmmm….. how many clink-clinks did you have? See you next year!