A craic-ing night of comedy was had by all on 12 December at the Bloomsbury Ballroom, in London’s West End. Vince Power’s stylish art deco venue was host to the best line-up of Irish comedy talent since Dave Allan and Des O’Connor played a double header at the London Palladiium in 1972. The picture (by Malcolm McNally) shows Ardal O’Hanlon, patron and tireless supporter of Aisling, with Aisling coordinator Alex McDonnell, sharp-witted comedian Deirdre O’Kane, wacky musical funnyman Dave O’Doherty, off-his-head-but-in-a-good-way man of the moment Tommy Tiernan and hilarious Dublin comic Ian Coppinger our MC for the evening. Over 500 Aisling supporters were falling off their seats and rolling in the aisles for the entire evening thanks to the full bar and they enjoyed the comedy too which was first class. Aisling would like to thank all of the stellar cast of performers, Noel Faulkener from the Comedy cafe in Shoreditch, our stage manager for the evening who kept everything ship-shape, the staff at the ballroom and Vince Power for knocking a few bob off the fee and chipping in a couple of free tickets to next summer’s Hop Farm festival for the raffle. It was a great evening, Aisling’s best ever comedy night, in all of our 12 years trying we finally got together a flawless show. Thanks too to all of our fantastic volunteers who carried chairs into the hall, laid them all out and lifted them up at the end of the show and took them back out again, sold raffle tickets and generally helped out and looked beautiful. Thanks again and looking forward to next year already. Slan agus beannaicht to all our volunteers and supporters for a great Christmas and new year.

Alex McDonnell & everyone at Aisling