Out & About

The party flies first into Dublin for meetings with the Taoiseach Brian Cowen at the Oireachtas (Parliament) and the President of Ireland Mary McAleese at the Aras an Uachtarain located at Phoenix Park, Dublin.

His party are then traveling to Cork on Saturday morning, stopping at Mallow, County Cork, to visit the place where Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi's grandfather came from, and where he will  meet and greet some of the local politicians, parish priests and some of the residents for a few hours before driving on to Cork City where he will meet up with the Lord Mayor of Cork at the City Hall.

A special reception has been arranged at the Beamish & Crawford Brewery that night to welcome him and his party and allow him to meet Cork businessmen associated with Cork Corporation and County Council members. Now, how is that for news.

We paid a visit to a few bars and restaurants around Manhattan this past week, stopping at Slattery's of Midtown. Slattery's has a great upstairs restaurant for private parties and meetings and is on 36th Street between Madison and 5th Avenue.

Across the street is the Galway Hooker which is always bouncing with the cream of the crop, filled with nice people from the business circles of New York and definitely a place to be seen in.

We did look for Anna and Johno, two of the partners, but it was so busy that we missed them as both floors were full.

Then we headed up to see our old friend Peter at Tonic East Bar & Restaurant. This establishment has three floors, including rooftop outdoor dining with lunch specials starting at $5.95.

We headed on up for a visit to see our friends at Papillon Bistro & Bar, which is on 54th Street in midtown. Papillon has great atmosphere on both floors with outdoor seating. I can tell you it was buzzing again. Thanks to Tommy Burke and the lads for fabulous welcome.

The UCD Michael Smurfit Business School had a Sixth Annual New York Benefit Dinner at the Metropolitan Club on Tuesday night with Honorees Margaret Brennan, the reporter with CNBC and Timothy Keaney the CEO of Asset Servicing with the Bank of New York Mellon.

This event is always one of the best nights out in New York. Some of those attending included John Sharkey, Chairman & CEO of Kane, Saunders and Smart, Brian Ruane, EVP & Head of Financial Institutions for The New York Mellon, Governor Hugh Carey, Thomas Moran, Chairman and CEO of Mutual of America, Susan Davis,  Chairman of Susan Davis International and Kathleen Murphy, CEO of US Wealth Management

You can see who we were rubbing shoulders - as you can see it was with the Rich and Famous

I must thank Orla O'Malley for the invite.

On our way around town we met up with Pat Burke from the Pig 'N' Whistle on West 47th street just off Time Square who is getting ready to welcome a large group from County Longford that are  over for a few days.

I am sure there will be some late nights and a few hangovers.

Just got the news that Noel and Tilly McPartland (from Mayo) of the Recovery Room Bar & Restaurant at the Mineola Train Station on Long Island went down to Clearwater Florida for a few weeks... some people have all the fun.

See you all next week.