The Okanagan Irish Society is a registered non-profit Society and our constitution, and by-laws are governed by the section B of the Society’s Act of British Columbia. Our mandate is to promote the Irish culture within the Canadian mosaic and look after our own in a non-political and non-sectarian manner. We currently have over 110 members and we arrange a variety of social function annually for our members and their friends – social dinner/pub night/ sing-along gatherings, Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day dinners and BBQ’s. For over thirty years we have had a benevolent fund which assists those of our members who are ill or in need.
The Society contributes annual bursaries to young Irish dancers involved with the three Irish Dance Schools operating in the Okanagan.
In addition, a number of our members are musicians and singers. They formed a group called “Ceol na hÉireann” literally “Music of Ireland” and are aligned with the Okanagan Irish Society. They entertain at many of our functions, entertain at a number of senior facilities throughout the Okanagan and perform a fundraising concert for the past several years in the fall in aid of a local charity. Any time they are asked, they entertain unless previously committed.
At our Annual General Meeting held on November 7, 2023, a few new board members, Pat and Kathy Greaney stepped up as Director at Large and Communications Convener. Your board of Directors for this year are Vincent Sherry, President; Randi Peters, Treasurer; Brenden Studer, Social Convener; and Ethna Tutt handles Membership. We are always looking for new faces to help us plan our Society activities so if you feel you have skills to share, we are happy to welcome you.
Once a month we host a coffee morning at a local coffee shop to get together to catch up with everyone. We also have a monthly Trivia Pub Night and have tried out a few local pubs to see which one we like best. We joined in at pub in downtown Kelowna for a crib night in July and we are looking into making our next Trivia Pub Night in August a strictly Irish-themed one at local pub downtown. We’ll keep you posted.
We had a lively and delightful St. Patrick’s Day Event on Saturday, March 16 with 63 participants at St. Edward’s Parish Hall in Lake Country. Tracy Gray, our Member of Parliament for Kelowna-Lake Country attended as well. The buffet food was plentiful and delicious, and we are planning to secure the same caterers and venue for next year. Ceol na hÉireann our singing group and Irish band treated us to a traditional céilí with dancers from Blakey Okanagan Dance School. We typically confer one Ita Duncombe Memorial Bursary each year at St. Patrick’s Day and this year we were able to award two bursaries in honour of Brigid Ita Duncombe Byrne to two young dancers to contribute to their development in Irish dancing. Ita Duncombe believed in our Irish culture and promoted it within our Canadian mosaic. Leanne Kelly attended our St. Patrick’s Day dinner and concert with her fiancé Matt, and she enjoyed it so much that she agreed to join the board. We are very happy to have her skill set added to our board as Director at large.
Our Spring Senior lunch was at Freddy’s Brew Pub at McCurdy Corner on April 23 with approximately 20 attending. All who attended enjoyed great fellowship. We hope for more next time around.
On Sunday, May 26 we held a hamburger and hot dog BBQ at the Farm in Ellison, which was very well attended, and we enjoyed fine weather in their orchard and sing-along by Ceol na hÉireann. It was another great opportunity to get together in the great outdoors and listen to our exceptional and talented band and share food and fun. We will have another BBQ and get together there on Sunday, September 15. Details forthcoming.
This spring we were contacted by Darren McAndrew from Vancouver to help plan a Sports Day for the Youth Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). These games were suspended over the last few years of Covid, and we were happy to assist the organizers to bring them back to Kelowna. They held Gaelic games here on Saturday, June 22 expecting about 80 people, children and their families from Victoria, Vancouver, Kamloops, Edmonton, Calgary and Kelowna for their Youth GAA games. The games were at Parkinson Recreation Centre Fields, and it was delightful and fun, watching kids aged 4 – 10 participate in football skills and games, sack races, tug of war, egg and spoon races, two-legged races, and hurling skills and matches. We assisted them in planning the dinner venue and entertainment for the evening event.
We were finally able to have Cathy Geagan, the Consul General of Ireland based in Vancouver visit us this same weekend of June 21 & 22. We wanted to showcase all the good things the Okanagan Irish Society is doing to promote Irish culture and events in the area and luckily her visit coincided with the Youth GAA games. The Irish Government generously provides us with a grant to assist in our promotional activities. She is a delightful and lovely lady and our President, Vincent Sherry made sure she got a good feel of the Okanagan spirit that weekend. She says she’s definitely coming back again.
After the Youth GAA sports day on Saturday, that evening everyone gathered at Rusty’s Sports Lounge for dinner and a concert by our Ceol na hÉireann and three Irish dancers from the Castilla Irish Dance School in Penticton. Cathy Geagan was also impressed by the band and the dancers. It was more than amusing to see a line of about 10 little boys no more than 8 or 10 years of age line up in front of the stage to watch intently a sprightly and pig-tailed young girl dancing her heart out.
On Monday, June 24, 13 members of the Society gathered at Pretty Not Bad Sports Pub in downtown Kelowna to watch the final game of the Stanley Cup. Although the outcome wasn’t what we wanted we still had a great time watching an exceptional hockey game and plan to go back to the pub again as one of the co-owners, Jack Carey is Irish, don’t you know.
On Saturday, June 29, the Okanagan Irish Society had a booth at the Westside Multicultural Day in West Kelowna, and we welcomed many visitors throughout the day and were happy to inform them of our activities, talk about Irish history and trivia, and get 13 new people on our communications distribution list. Many thanks to the volunteers who came out, Randi Peters, Pat and Kathy Greaney stayed for the day and Vincent Sherry, Ethna Tutt and Mary Reynolds also came out to spend a few hours letting people know of our 40+ year history here and the exceptional reach of the Society and our membership.
We have experienced health issues and sadness this past year too with two of our members having major surgery. Vincent’s wife, Joan Sherry and Audrey Regan are thankfully on the mend now and will need time to fully regain their strength but we’re happy to report they are doing well.
At the request of the McNamara family, Ceol na hÉireann, past and present members, the McNamara family and their friends had an evening for Joe McNamara, at Michaelbrook Golf Course on Tuesday, June 11. It was a small gathering as Joe tired easily at that stage of his illness. Sadly, Joe succumbed to cancer on June 26. He was a long-time member of Ceol na hÉireann and his sonorous voice will be so utterly missed.
Our resources to provide these events rest solely with volunteers willing to help to put them on for our members and guests. We invite you to join us. We have a lot of fun and our members and especially our band Ceol na hÉireann as well as entertaining at our activities, also perform at senior facilities throughout the Okanagan as requested.
For membership in the Society contact Ethna Tutt, 778-480-4996 or email ethnatutt@hotmail.com
To contact our President Vincent Sherry vandjsherry@gmail.com
The three Irish Dance Schools in the Okanagan are as follows:
Blakey School of Irish Dance https://www.facebook.com/blakeyschool/
Castilla School of Irish Dance https://www.castillairishdance.com/
Ticalie Irish Dance Academy https://www.ticalieacademy.com/
Okanagan Irish Society https://www.facebook.com/okanaganirishsociety