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2020 Gold Medal Dinner and Award Ceremony

The Éire Society of Boston 2020 Gold Medal Award Ceremony Saturday, October 24, 2020 Virtual Event.

Honoring 2020 Gold Medal Award Recipient Richard E. Neal, US Representative of the First Congressional District of Massachusetts, and Chairman of the House of Ways and Means Committee. Chairman Neal is head of the Congressional Friends of Ireland Committee and an indispensable friend of Ireland and Irish America. Join us for a lively and elegant evening in honor of Richard E. Neal.

Join us on Saturday, October 24, 2020 to honoring the 2020 Gold Medal Award Recipient Richard E. Neal, US Representative of the First Congressional District of Massachusetts, and Chairman of the House of Ways and Means Committee. Chairman Neal is head of the Congressional Friends of Ireland Committee and an indispensable friend of Ireland and Irish America.

5:00 – 6:00 p.m. EST Virtual Cocktail Hour (via Zoom Meetings)

6:00 – 7:00 p.m. EST Virtual Ceremony (via Zoom Webinar)

Note: You will need to register for both sessions separately. Dress is COVID Classy
Registration opens Monday, October 12, 2020

Businesses and individuals can sponsor the Gold Medal Award Ceremony and will receive recognition during the program. For more information, contact Gold Medal Dinner Committee Members: William J. Smith (617) 852-8732 or WJSBoston@gmail.com or call Paul Doyle at (781) 331-5188

Due to the ongoing pandemic the event is free to attend with a recommended $25.00 per ticket donation.

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2019 Gold Medal Dinner and Award Ceremony

Saturday, 27 April 2019, 6pm

Seaport Boston Hotel

Kathleen M. O’Toole, 2019 Gold Medalist

The Éire Society of Boston is pleased to announce the Gold Medal award recipient for 2019 Gold Medal Award Recipient, Kathleen M. O’Toole, Former Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety and Boston Police Commissioner.

The award will be presented at the Gold Medal Dinner and Awards Ceremony, which will take place on Saturday evening, April 27, 2019 at 6pm at the Seaport Boston Hotel.

The Gold Medal is awarded annually to a person or persons who exemplify the best of Irish culture and ideals. It is presented to those who have made significant contributions in their field of expertise which benefit society.

Kathleen M. O’Toole is a career police officer and lawyer with an international reputation for principled effective leadership and reform. In 2018, she completed service as Chief of Police in Seattle where she led a major transformation project, which addressed all requirements of a Settlement Agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and the City, and introduced to the force leading-edge business practices and operational strategies reducing crime and enhancing community trust.

In 2017, Kathleen chaired the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. In September 2018, the Commission presented its findings and reform recommendations to the Irish Government. Kathleen previously served as Chief Inspector of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, an oversight body advising the Irish Minister of Justice and recommending best practices for the 16,000 member Irish national police service.

In her career, Kathleen rose through the ranks of state and local policing in Massachusetts, beginning as a beat cop in the Boston Police Department assigned to numerous patrol, investigative, undercover, supervisory and management positions. She served as Chief of the Metropolitan Police, and Lieutenant Colonel overseeing Special Operations in the Massachusetts State Police. She was later appointed Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety and also served as Boston Police Commissioner.

Kathleen has worked on numerous high-profile projects in her career. In 1999, she was retained as an expert by the U.S. Department of Justice to examine New Jersey State Police practices following allegations of racial profiling. In 1998-1999, she was a member of the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland (The Patten Commission) which published recommendations that transformed policing there as part of the Peace Process. In 2009, Kathleen served on a panel that published recommendations for reforming the Northern Ireland Prison Service. She was also a member of the Independent Commission on Policing in England and Wales in 2013, as well as serving as Joint Compliance Expert overseeing an agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and the Town of East Haven, CT to guarantee constitutional policing.

Kathleen earned a BA from Boston College, a JD from New England School of Law and was admitted to the bar in 1982. She received a PhD from the Business School of Trinity College Dublin, and has attended executive programs, including the FBI National Executive Institute, the Program for State Managers at Harvard’s JFK School of Government and a senior executive program at the MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She has been a member of Board of Directors of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Committee on Terrorism and served as Treasurer of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), receiving national leadership awards from PERF and the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

Kathleen has been married for thirty-eight years to Daniel O’Toole, a retired Boston Police detective. They have an adult daughter, Meghan, who resides in Seattle.

Join us for a lively and elegant evening in honor of Kathleen M. O’Toole!

Tickets for the Gold Medal Dinner and Award Ceremony are $150 per person.

For more information, contact Gold Medal Dinner Committee Members: email William J. Smith at WJSBoston@gmail.com or call Paul Doyle at (781) 331-5188.

Businesses and individuals can sponsor the Gold Medal Dinner and Award Ceremony. For more information visit the website https://www.eiresociety.org/ or call (617) 852-8732.

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Gold Medal Dinner and Award Ceremony

Saturday, 7 April 2018, 6pm

Seaport Boston Hotel

James T. Brett, 2018 Gold Medalist

The Éire Society of Boston is pleased to announce the Gold Medal award recipient for 2018, Dorchester native and President and CEO of the New England Council, James T. Brett.

The award will be presented at the Gold Medal Dinner and Awards Ceremony, which will take place on Saturday evening, April 7, 2018 at 6pm at the Seaport Boston Hotel.

The Gold Medal is awarded annually to a person or persons who exemplify the best of Irish culture and ideals. It is presented to those who have made significant contributions in their field of expertise which benefit society.

James T. Brett, business leader, legislator and lifelong advocate for public policy issues, will join the list of distinguished Gold Medal recipients. In 2017, novelist, playwright and journalist, Colm Tóibín received the award, and in 2016, the Gold Medal was presented to the 8^th President of Ireland, Mary P. McAleese.

“It is fitting that Jim Brett is being honored with the Gold Medal Award from The Éire Society of Boston, given his tireless work over many decades on behalf of vulnerable members of our community,” said Fionnuala Quinlan, Consul General of Ireland in Boston.

Among his many interests and achievements, Brett is a dedicated advocate for the physically and mentally challenged. He served as the Chairman of the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities and continues to serve as a member. In 2016, Congress appointed Brett to the National Council on Disability. He is Chairman of the Governor’s Commission on Intellectual Disability and serves as the Chairperson of the Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission.

Kevin Cullen, columnist at The Boston Globe and returning emcee for the 2018 Gold Medal Dinner, says, “With his compassion for our most vulnerable citizens, and for immigrants from all lands, Jim Brett embodies the best of the Irish. He gets it from his mother Mary Ann, who brought from Ireland a strength and a decency that she passed on to her children like DNA.”

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Colm Tóibín, 2017 Gold Medalist

The 2017 Gold Medal was presented to novelist, short story writer, playwright, journalist and literary critic, Colm Tóibín on 29 April, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Boston.

“We are particularly pleased to present the 2017 Gold Medal to Professor Tóibín,” says Thomas W. Carty, President of the Eire Society of Boston. “His accomplishments have vaulted him to the forefront of the Irish literary scene. His direct and thoughtful positions on matters of social importance make him a visionary spokesperson for the citizenry of Ireland and its world-wide diaspora. We look forward to the Gold Medal gala celebration this spring in his honor.”

Tóibín's work explores several main themes: the depiction of Irish society, living abroad, the process of creativity, and the preservation of a personal identity, focusing especially on identity when confronted with loss.

In 2015, Tóibín's work gained popular, world-wide recognition when his 2009 novel, Brooklyn was made into a feature film, portraying the fortunes of a young Irish woman who leaves her home in rural Ireland for a new life in 1950’s New York. The novel, a haunting tale of love, loss and familial duty, won the 2009 United Kingdom Costa Award and was shortlisted for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Colm Tóibín was born in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford in 1955 and studied at University College Dublin. Tóibín’s grandfather, Patrick Tobin, was a member of the IRA, as was his grand-uncle Michael Tobin. Patrick Tobin took part in the 1916 Rebellion in Enniscorthy and was subsequently interned in Frongoch in Wales. Tóibín's father was a teacher who was involved in the Fianna Fáil party in Enniscorthy; he died when Colm was 12 years old.

Tóibín works in the most extreme, severe, austere conditions. He sits on a hard, uncomfortable chair which causes him pain. When working on a first draft he covers the right-hand side only of the page; later he carries out some rewriting on the left-hand side of the page. He keeps a word processor in another room on which to transfer writing at a later time.

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Mary P. McAleese, 2016 Gold Medalist

The 2016 Gold Medal was presented to President of Ireland, Mary P. McAleese on 2 April 2016 at the Omni Parker House in Boston.

Mary P. McAleese served as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. She was the second female president and the first from Northern Ireland. She earned a Law degree from Queen’s University Belfast in 1973 and today remains a member of the Irish Bar. McAleese described her presidency as “building bridges,” regularly visiting Northern Ireland during her two terms. Throughout her career, she received numerous awards and honorary doctorates, and is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers who seek to mobilize the highest-level women leaders for collective action on global issues of critical importance to women.

To read the full text of President McAleese's remarks at the 2016 Gold Medal Dinner, download the PDF here.

 

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Catherine B. Shannon Ph.D., 2015 Gold Medalist

The 2015 Gold Medal was presented to Dr. Catherine B. Shannon on 25 April 2015 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston.

Catherine B. Shannon Ph.D., Professor Emerita of History at Westfield State University, has taught Irish, British and European History. She is the author of Arthur J. Balfour and Ireland, 1874 -1922 (1988), and The Churchills in Ireland: Connections and Controversies (2012). She has published writings on the role of women in the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process, and was actively involved in the 1980’s- 1990’s in the search for a peaceful solution. Dr. Shannon was the first woman president of the Charitable Irish Society of Boston and served as president of the Eire Society of Boston. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the American Conference of Irish Studies for over a decade. In 1999 she was among 15 Irish-Americans from Massachusetts to receive a “Dreamer of Dreams” award from the Irish Voice newspaper. Dr. Shannon received the Solas Award from the Irish International Immigration Center and the Irish Heritage Award from the Irish American Partnership, both based in Boston. She is currently researching Ireland’s Great Famine and Boston’s 1847 humanitarian response to the crisis.

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Gold Medal Honorees

2020 Richard E. Neal

2019 Kathleen M. O'Toole

2018 James T. Brett

2017 Colm Tóibín

2016 Mary P. McAleese

2015 Dr. Catherine B. Shannon

2014 Brian O'Donovan

2013 Sr. Lena Deevy, LSA

2012 Seamus Mulligan and Ronan Tynan

2011 Mary Robinson

2010 Edward W. Forry

2009 John Cullinane and Michael Donlan

2008 Professor Padraig O'Malley

2007 Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith

2006 Peter Meade

2005 Joseph F. Leary

2004 Peter & Carmel O’Reilly

2003 Dr. Robert O'Neill

2002 Hon. William M. Bulger

2001 Hon. Desmond Guinness

2000 Rev. Bartley MacPhaidin, CSC

1999 Professor Thomas O'Connor

1998 Frank Patterson & Eily O'Grady

1997 Hon. George J. Mitchell

1996 Brian P. Burns

1995 Phil Coulter

1994 Hon. Brian J. Donnelly

1993 Dr. Margaret MacCurtain, OP

1992 Eoin McKiernan

1991 The Chieftans

1990 Herbert Kenny

1989 Maureen O'Hara

1988 John F. Collins

1987 50th ANNIVERSARY

Maeve O'Reilly Finley
Thomas Flanagan
Dr. Sean McBride
Tommy Makem
Dr. Michael McElroy

1986 Mary O'Hara

1985 Hon. Charles J. Haughey

1984 Anna Manahan

1983 Barnard Hughes

1982 Seamus Heaney

1981 George Edward Ryan

1980 John Hume

1979 Hon. Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr.

1978 Leon Uris

1977 Edward Benno Hanify

1976 John D. J. Moore

1975 William V. Shannon

1974 Mary Lavin

1973 Bob Considine

1972 Hon. John W. McCormack

1971 Siobhan McKenna

1970 Hon. Eugene McCarthy

1969 Patrick and Aimee Butler

1968 John Huston

1967 Most Rev. Jeremiah F. Minihan, D.D.

1966 Cornelius Ryan

1965 Rev. Martin P. Harney, S.J.

1964 Helen Landreth

1963 Dr. Brian O'Doherty

1962 Joseph Gannon

1961 Padraic Colum

1960 Rev. Terrence L. Connolly, S.J.

1959 James Augustine Healy

1958 Hon. Daniel T. O'Connell

1957 Hon. John Fitzgerald Kennedy

1956 Very Rev. Robert I. Gannon, S.J.

1955 John Ford (Sean O'Feeney)

1954 Rt. Rev. Michael J. Houlihan

1953 Hon. Henry Lee Shattuck

1952 Joseph Edward Carrigan

1951 Hugh O'Neill Hencken

1950 Richard Cardinal Cushing

1949 Hon. James McGurrin

1948 James Brendan Connolly

1947 Joseph Dunn

1946 Fred Norris Robinson

1945 Charles Donagh Maginnis