About Us

Patricia (Paddy) Penn

No need for an introduction here as you all know Paddy. Nicknamed 'The Scalpel" in squash cricles for her precision shot making. Paddy is the original host of the "Homage to the Spud" and the only truly Irish member of the organizing group. The irish stew at the event will have been crafted by Paddy's hand and if we are all lucky, Paddy will entertain us with her rendition of the Ballad of William Bloat. If you've never heard it you're missing something special.

Cleck HERE for a preview of the ballad.

Ian Humphreys

"I was born In Liverpool down by the docks etc.."

For those of you who don't know Liverpool has a rich Irish heritage - Scousers, as Liverpudlians are known, declare the city to be the capital of Ireland, north and south. You don't have to go to a generic "theme-pub" with an Emerald name to find an "Irish House" in the 'Pool.

This is no great surprise as Liverpool has been the gateway into England for the Irish for centuries. Ferries still run regularly between Liverpool and Dublin and Liverpool and Belfast.

Not only is 2008 the United Nations International Year of the Potato it is also the year that Liverpool will don the mantle as European City of Culture.

Click HERE to watch the video and find out more

Stacy Hall

The family name is Neilsen so more than likely she is of Viking ancestry and if we are to believe the stories of the Vikings, their presence in ireland was somewhat unwelcome. The significance of the Vikings in Ireland can't be overstated. Many Viking settlements in Ireland developed and grew into towns. Their town of Dubhlinn had a thriving Norse community by the second half of the 800s, and had become the principal supplier of slaves in the British Isles. In time it became a great merchant town, until it was defeated by an Irish attack in 902. After that, the Vikings moved their power base to the Isle of Man and to the growing territory that the Vikings were carving out of Anglo-Saxon England. So if nothing else the Vikings helped to establish one of the cultural centres of ireland.