The ‘Early Years’ sketches the formative years of the Irish Cultural Society of Calgary (ICS). It was compiled in response to an...

The Irish Cultural Society emerged from the participation of the founding members in various social and cultural activities. At the...

The Irish Concerts kicked off on Saturday December 14, 1985 with a Benefit Variety Concert for the yet to be formed Irish Cultural...

The Irish Language Class was largely instigated by Hugh Neary who cajoled Dr Dick Wall into being our muinteoir. Leveraging Dick’s...

The main purpose of the Newsletter was to project the aims of the Society and promote participation in Irish community activities. We...

The Bloomsday Celebration was an initiative to enhance the ‘cultural’ credentials of the ICS and also test the premise that our...

Interest in an ‘Irish’ float in the Stampede Parade was led by Hugh Neary. Hugh took on the role of Chairman of the Float Committee. ...

The ICS Golf Tournaments organized by Aidan Creaghan began with a “Gala” Golf game at Canmore in July 1986 followed by our First Annual...

In 1986 Spruce Meadows initiated its Festival of Nations in conjunction with the Masters show jumping event in September. This Festival...

The success of the ‘social evenings’ gave us confidence to organize a more elaborate celebration for St Patrick’s Day. We shied away...

The kindness of Brian Evans was the impetus for forming a Care Committee. Volunteers visited the sick, delivered flowers and provided...

Bingo transformed our finances and was a major factor in our endeavour to establish an Irish Cultural Centre. In March 1987 we became...

Hosting the Winter Olympics in Calgary was a momentous event. The Opening Ceremony welcomed the world to our city, presenting who we are....

The first ICS Field Day and Barbeque was held on August 28, 1988 at Shouldice Park. The event was organised by the Millennium Committee...

By 1988 we were on a good trajectory for achieving our goals. Our membership had grown to around four hundred and fifty, bingo funds were...

As Luck of the Irish would have it, soon after we opened the Irish Cultural Centre a perfect opportunity arose to showcase our culture to...