February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Ray O’Hanlon
A team of more than 50 runners from Ireland raised roughly $300,000 for diabetes treatment in Ireland by pounding the asphalt in last Sunday’s New York City Marathon.
The runners were raising the money for the Beaumont Hospital Clinic and its effort to expand and develop treatment of the illness.
Singer-songwriter Pete St. John, who has diabetes and needs four insulin injections each day, accompanied the runners as spokesman for the Beaumont Foundation.
St. John, who has penned such well known songs "The Fields of Athenry," is patron of the foundation that is planning to set up an executive committee in New York to build on the success of the marathon fund-raiser.
"I’m totally committed to the this. The clinic needs funds to expand its work," St. John told the Echo.
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During their New York visit, the Beaumont runners were hosted at a dinner given by the Ireland-U.S. Council and were guests of honor at a reception Tuesday in the Yale Club.
The Beaumont runners were not alone in their efforts to turn the Big Apple marathon into a financial windfall for Irish charitable causes. Another team of 50 runners representing the peace group Co-operation Ireland set itself a target of raising $160,000 for the group’s cross-community work in Northern Ireland and its various cross-border projects.
Kruise collects
The annual Kruise for Kids in New York this years raised a record $118,000 for Project Children, the organization that provides summer vacations and internships in the U.S. for Protestant and Catholic youngsters from Northern Ireland.
The annual Kruise for Kids took place in New York Harbor in June and last week the money raised by the event was presented to Project Children National Chairman Denis Mulcahy at a reception in the 7th Avenue Armory.
Geary Garda greeting
Ireland’s justice minister, John O’Donoghue, is to meet 100-year-old former Garda Supt. William Geary during his visit to New York next week.
Geary fought more than 70 years to clear his name after he was fired for allegedly taking a bribe from the IRA. Earlier this year, the Irish government cleared Geary of wrongdoing and restored his pension, but since he was never charged with a crime, he did not receive an official pardon. O’Donoghue is expected to explain the decision to Geary Tuesday morning.
Women talk peace in D.C.
Peace in Northern Ireland is not just being discussed in Belfast. A group of women from the North recently gathered in the Old Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, to discuss the prospects for a lasting settlement.
The gathering was aimed at promoting the upcoming global initiative to be launched through the Women and Public Policy Program of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government called "Women Waging Peace."
The conflict in Northern Ireland will be one of the topics of a nearly two-week-long effort to be held starting the first week of December in Cambridge, Mass.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to the group of women who will participate in the global networking event and said she supported their efforts which will involve more than 100 women from Northern Ireland and a number of other regions, cities and countries.
It is hoped that at the end of the conference the women will return to areas of conflict with sharpened political, media, and internet skills forming a global network for information and technical assistance to be used on behalf of various peace campaigns.
— Susan Falvella-Garraty
"Endurance" was popular
More than 140,000 people visited "The Endurance" exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York up to its closing on Oct. 11.
The exhibit, a tribute to Kildare-born Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, ran at the museum for six months and is now moving to new quarters, the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., where it will open on Nov. 16 and run until Feb. 6, 2000.
Spokeswoman Lisa Cohen said the American Museum, which is also running the exhibit in Washington, was delighted with the turnout in New York.