Irish Teachers stage sell out St Patrick’s celebration for African Charity

Two Irish teachers from South Manchester staged a sell out St Patrick’s family night to raise funds for the Niall Melon Township Trust.

All Saints’ Catholic Primary School teachers Louise Keegan who has Leitrim roots and her head teacher Anne Scanlon from Galway staged the event on Saturday 20 March. It was held in St Mary’s Parish Centre in Levenshulme as part of this years 2010 Manchester Irish Festival and raised close to £1,300 for the charity.

The special night of family entertainment included an Irish Disco from Young, Gifted & Gorgeous DJ James Hennigan plus live music from ‘Shake the Barley’, the award winning Scally brothers and dancing displays from the ‘Keegan Kennedy School of Irish Dancing’.
When asked about how they felt the event well they said “It was a great night, everyone really enjoyed the event and I would like to thank everyone in the Irish community for supporting the event. It was great to see so many families coming along to the evening. We were over the moon with the amount of money raised on the night. We would like to thank all the performers who came along to perform on the night and everyone who brought tickets for the event.”

James Hennigan who hosted the event and kept everyone entertained on the dance floor said ”It was a great way to finish the festival and celebrate St Patrick’s feast day, it was lovely to see three generations of a family out enjoying themselves. That it was a real Irish Festival is all about and I was delighted to offer my services to Louise who does so much for the community.”

Both Louise and Anne are part of the ‘Make Manchester Proud’ group which is hoping to go over to South Africa next year on a building blitz to build social housing in the townships over there. They have to try and raise £8,000 between them to cover building materials for the project.

The event on Saturday night brought their total to just over £5,000 which was a great start towards meeting their targets. They plan to do a series of fund raising events between now and November, when they are due to fly out to South Africa to raise the full amount.

To help sponsor the Make Manchester Proud Project, or for further information, you can contact Louise on 07879290541.