Irish American Society

Irish Trivia
The first St. Patrick's Day celebration in America was in 1737 hosted by the Charitable Irish Society of Boston. The second was established in 1780 by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in Philadelphia.

A third of all Guinness sales occur in Africa and more Guinness is sold in Nigeria than in Ireland.

Dublin’s famous O’Connell Bridge is the only traffic bridge in Europe that is wider than it is long. When it was originally built, it was made of rope and could only carry one man and a donkey at a time. It was replaced by a wooden bridge in 1801 and the current concrete bridge was built in 1863.



Search our Site


IAS History

IAS Logo
Pat and Helen Burke's house in Richmond where it all began.

 

The Irish American Society of Greater Richmond was first organized on March 17th, 1992 at the home of Patrick and Helen Burke, 2400 Riverside Drive in Richmond, Virginia along with co-founders Ron and Kathleen Hendricks. For more information about the beginning of our society, please read the content of the very first IAS newsletter (May 1992) posted below. You can click on the icon below to view images of the original document. (Many thanks to the Burkes for providing this document)

 

NewsletterOpen newsletter as pdf document

 

Celtic Bar

 

Former President' of the Richmond IAS

  • PATRICK BURKE - JUNE 1992 - MAY 1993
  • RONALD HENDRICKS - JUNE 1993 - MAY 1994
  • COLUM TOIBIN - JUNE 1994 - MAY 1996
  • THOMAS O’DONNELL - JUNE 1996 - NOVEMBER 1996
  • CARROLL GRAHAM - JUNE 1997 - MAY 2005
  • CHRISTOPHER GARRETT - JUNE 2005 – OCTOBER 2006
  • DANIEL BEGLEY - OCTOBER 2006 - MAY 2007
    		•

     

    Many thanks to those past presidents for their outstanding and lasting contributions to the Society.