February 15, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The Gaelic American Club, in Fairfield, Conn., is 50 years old this month – and debt free.
Within the last five years, the club built its own Irish center boasting an array of distinctive features, making it one of the most impressive new Irish club buildings in the suburban northeast. During a day of celebration on Sunday, club members, led by the club’s first president, 78-year old Jimmy Corcoran of Southport, set the center’s $1 million Bank of Ireland mortgage ablaze.
In five years, the club has paid back $1.8 million in loans, including some bonds not due until 2006.
The club, which has about 4,500 members, now hopes to use money it raises for cultural and charitable projects such as the development of a pipe band, scholarship programs, classes for language, dance, music and theater, and the staging of concerts.
Sunday’s celebrations included the celebration of Mass by Bishop Edward Egan, the bishop of Bridgeport, and a concluding ceili.
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