Aisling can announce that our fundraising day out at the races at Royal Windsor Racecourse recently raised an amazing £70k.

It was also a great day of fun and racing as well as one of the sunniest September days on record. We have a lot of people to thank for all of that and first of all our voluntary fundraising team who made it all happen were: Gerry Keany, Tom Corkery, Sarah Finucane, John Mulvihill, Mary Leyne and Dermot O’Grady. The companies who bought tickets to the event were: Gallagher Group, Coinford, Murphy, Cappagh, Durkan, Thames Materials, Hattrick Productions, Derlin Construction, O’Donovan Waste Disposal, McCrail/RMC, Rift Group, ASM, Cara Stationery, Hitachi, Ardent Tide, Killoughrey, Banham Security and The Irish Post.

It was the first day out for our new minibus, which had been resting in Gallaghers garage in Maidstone during the Covid crisis and we must mention the contributions from Gallaghers, Murphy, Coinford, Hattrick, Banham and the Irish Post for raising the money for it last year.

We are also grateful to the Irish ambassador to Britain Adrian O’Neil and his wife the appropriately named Aisling for attending. Special thanks must go to popular Irish comedian and podcaster Jarlath Regan who was our auctioneer on the evening. Jarlath managed to squeeze thousands of pounds out of the pockets of the assembled Irish business community members who may have appeared reluctant at first but thanks to Jarlath’s charm offensive and implacable determination to fill the coffers of Aisling eventually and cheerfully coughed up. The auction prizes included an An Post Fr. Ted first day cover signed by Ardal O’Hanlon and Pauline McGlynn, various football and hurling match tickets and a giant four litre bottle of Jameson’s Whiskey generously donated by friends of Aisling.

What a day it was and thanks also to everyone who attended and the staff and management of Windsor races, particularly the bar staff who managed to learn the tricky art of pouring the perfect pint of Guinness in a tent in the heat to hundreds of thirsty Irish builders. Respect.