Out & About

This week's Out and About is about my trip to Ireland with the Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and his team of  businessmen from Long Island.

The group arrived in Dublin at the Burlington Hotel on Thursday morning to be met by their chauffeur for the trip to meet former County Wexford Lord Mayor Dominic Kiernan who had spent a few years working in New York before heading back to Ireland and they could not have a better man to take them around.

Their first meeting was with the Minister of the Environment, John Gormley, T.D. and then with the Ceann Comhairie (if you do not know what that means it's the Speaker of the House), John O'Donohue (if you do not know what that means it's the Speaker of the House).

They then proceeded on to meet for lunch and take a tour with An Taoiseach (that's the Prime Minister which also means he is the most important man in Leinster House - the building that houses the Irish Government) Brian Cowen.

This was a great occasion but it was also a fact-finding mission for the team from Long Island.

On Friday morning the group went to Croke Park to meet the top GAA representatives in Ireland. Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi would like to host the GAA Minor Board Convention that is to be held 2010 in Nassau County, New York.

They then travelled on to meet with the President Mary McAleese at her residence of Aras An Uachtarain in Phoenix Park.

Saturday morning, it was onto Mallow, Co. Cork where Tom Suozzi's great grandfather came from before he emigrated to America, trying to look up his ancestors. After a little bit of hard work over just a few hours he did.

He went further though in the search for his relatives, by knocking at doors; with the help of the locals in the town they helped him track down his cousins; it made his whole trip worth while and good on you Tom.

Now that he was in  County Cork it was then on to the City to meet with the Lord Mayor in the City Hall Chambers.

The Foreign Minister Michael Martin was there to greet us together with members of the Cork Corporation.

I can tell you it was a trip that will not be forgotten for along time to come.

After the visit with the Lord Mayor's, we walked on to the Beamish and Crawford Brewery who gave a special reception for the County Executive's and all the businessmen in his party together with local business representatives from Cork I'm sure you can imagine that we had a great time; it got even better as we then went for dinner at a local restaurant called the Flying Enterprise whose menu was superb, then on for a good Irish sing song at a local pub called Pa Johnson's. Now that was really good, believe me.

The next morning the party went golfing at the Old Head of Kinsale very early; don't ask me how, as we had a long day before, but they managed to fit a round in and had a wonderful time playing with the  one of the owner's  Patrick O'Connor.

The man himself,  Sir Alex Ferguson, Manager of Manchester United was in town on Monday afternoon and showed up in Nevada Smiths

Now that was something and the boys down there were very happy

The owner Tom McCarthy was so excited he could not believe his eyes; what a surprise, a visit from the most influencial man in football

As for Jack Keane, Nevada Smiths' Director of Football, it was a dream come true, and just before the the World Cup qualifiers get in to action.

See you next week.