This Month's Issue: President's Address Next IBO Monthly Meetings Nolan's Notions February Guest Speakers Dollars & Sense Member Profile, Sean Murphy

A Tribute to Martin Gleeson Notice Board IBO Calendar of Events Duchas: Jack B. Yeats - Irish Painter Newsletter & IBO Information

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS, James Doran

As we enter another year of programmed social, business, and cultural events; we want to encourage each of our active members to reach out to their individual communities to encourage new membership in the Irish Business Organization. We also want both new and existing members to join with your Executive Committee to help develop our major standing committees-Finance-Membership-Communications-and Programming. A member of the Executive is on each one of the committees and we would all welcome your enthusiastic support.

Our programming will include several special events this year including our famous Gala Ball. More information will be revealed at future meetings and newsletters. Our February Meeting is returning it its normal time (2nd Wednesday of the month), February 12th when our guest speaker will be Robert Walsh, Commissioner, New York City Department of Business Services.

We will also be instituting a new guest policy of charging $20.00 for all non-members and guests to attend our monthly meetings. While we regret the need to charge, it is only fair to our regular members and will offset some of our operating costs. As we did in 2002, we plan to have an event each month-including the Summer months.

We also encourage all of our members to renew their membership for 2003 and to update and review their member information profiles on the IBO new website www.ibo-ny.com

James Doran
President, IBO

IBO MONTHLY MEETINGS February Meeting Wednesday, February 12th - 7.00pm Guest Speaker Robert Walsh, Commissioner NYC Dept. for Business Services March Meeting Wednesday, March 12th - 7.00pm Guest Speaker Bill Cullen, Author and Entrepreneur

NOLAN'S NOTIONS

"Whoops-a-daisy"

Mary & I went to see "Gangs of New York" last week, the Martin Scorsese film, starring Daniel Day Lewis, Cameron Diaz and Leonardo Di Caprio, along with a host of Irish actors, many of whom have graced the stages here, of the Irish Arts Center and The Irish Repertory theatre.

We went with some trepidation, given that we had heard about how gory and anti-Irish and stereo-typically depressing it was. We were in for a surprise. It's a truly wonderful treatise on the period surrounding the draft riots that were part and parcel of the paradoxical participation of the newly arrived, thoroughly wretched and completely helpless Irish, in this nations post-natal, and fratricidal evolution, so aptly personified by the American Civil war.

I won't spoil the tale, should you not have seen it, nor will I offer criticism of its characters, but I will tell you that, despite its naked bluntness, and deprecatory violence, it should probably be mandatory viewing for anyone who might wish to understand the nemesis we all face when confronted with our part in societal discrimination and perceived racial inferiority of any part of our diasporic "Beautiful Mosaic".

I was really taken aback at my own lack of knowledge of the struggle all emigrants to this country face, whatever reason they had for coming here, whether it be famine-driven, as was the Irish case, or any of the smorgasbord of elements that happened since, driving the great un-washed of Europe, Asia, South-America and Africa up against our pristine and well-kept middle-class shores. Native Americans, Blacks, Jews, Mormons, Afghanis and Vietnamese all went through the same wringer, and suitable squeezed, emerged, a generation or 3 later, to take their place in American society.

For most the pace of change is swift, so much so, that minorities here can count in their number many who made it, the American dream, immediately, in their lifetime, to riches and social acceptability, eons beyond what they could have achieved at home in their native lands. For others, the pace is less obvious, the pitfalls more challenging, the discrimination more vicious and unintelligibly deep seated, beyond any reasonable initiation rite.

Gangs of New York is told in the first person, singular. It's a very personal and terrifying journey should you choose to imagine yourself in it. You remember, or imagine, those times you yourself felt cold, hungry, injured, betrayed or inspired. You realize, that a cow had to die, violently, so you could enjoy your steak on the barbecue, and you thank God for the modern miracles we take for granted, central heating, running water, anti-biotics, Social welfare, law and order, even Democracy!

The next day, after we saw Gangs of New York, was Martin Luther King Day, a holiday for some, a source of irritation or at worst ambivalence for others. I had to work, not that it bothered me. My kids got a half-day, (so it could be counted as a full day by the school), and the Stock market took the day off to lick its wounds.

As evening came, and I watched a biography of MLK, I realized that I had been short-changed, and concluded that all of us had missed an opportunity to celebrate the courageous peers who have gone before us, to make our lives as comfortable and some may say, as careless as they are. Maybe Rev. King did not represent all of us in those dark days, of the mid-60's (co-incidentally, almost 100 years after the Draft Riots in New York), but he does represent us now, and the aspirations of all emigrants, and the helpless, and un-represented minorities that populate the perpetual evolution of the place we rightly call the "Land of the Free"

Here's my wish…. Let's not have a St. Patrick's Day for the Irish, nor a San Genero for the Italians, no Rosh Hoshanah for the Jews, nor a Lavender day for the Gays. Instead let's embrace the MLK day, as a day to remember all those who fought for justice, education and freedom, religious and secular, for the immigrant, the poor and the under-priveliged, and especially for the millions of struggling fathers and mothers who sacrificed and slaved to put food on the table, so that their children might have a better life, here, in the "Mother of all Democracies"!

I leave you with a part of my favorite American political speech, (albeit there are others I favor from Lincoln, JFK, and even Roosevelt, Reagan and Clinton). It's the final paragraph from an address by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, April 3rd, 1968, delivered at the Masons Temple, in Memphis. I am sure if you try, you could hear your father or mother, or someone you respect, saying much the same.

" Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord".

Brian Nolan
Celtic Solutions
Tel: (201) 280 5022 - BGNolan@aol.com

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GUEST SPEAKERS - FEBRUARY MEETING
We are delighted to have Robert Walsh as our guest speaker for our February 12th Meeting. The following is a brief bio on our speaker.

Robert W. Walsh -- Commissioner
New York City Department of Business Services

On January 15, 2002, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed Robert W. Walsh Commissioner of the New York City Department of Business Services. The Department provides technical assistance and services to New York City businesses, encouraging the growth of small, minority, and women-owned businesses, administers neighborhood commercial development programs, including Business Improvement Districts and Local Development Corporations, and provides business assistance programs that include tax and energy savings, relocation assistance and aid in obtaining government contracts.

Prior to Commissioner Walsh's appointment, he was President of Charlotte Center City Partners, which he joined in 1997. The mission of the non-profit Charlotte Center City Partners, founded in 1979, is to make the Center City a safe, comfortable place to live, a convenient place to do business and an enjoyable and unique place to visit.

Mr. Walsh served from 1989 to April 1997 as the Executive Director of the 14th Street/Union Square Business Improvement District and Local Development Corporation. Under Mr. Walsh, Union Square was named as one of the most improved neighborhoods in the City by New York Magazine and has been hailed as one of the United States' best examples of civic renewal.

During his tenure at 14th Street-Union Square, Mr. Walsh created the nationally recognized Washington-Irving High School Business Advisory Council, which provides mentoring services and summer jobs programs for more than 2,700 underprivileged students.

From 1981 to 1989, Mr. Walsh served with the City of New York in the administration of Mayor Edward I. Koch. During this time, he served as Assistant Director for Citywide Services in the Mayor's Office of Operations, Chief of Staff at the Department of Transportation, and Executive Director of the New York City Urban Fellows Program.

Mr. Walsh received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (1981) and a Master of Arts in Public Administration (1983) from Fordham University.

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DOLLARS & SENSE

LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE PROTECTION PLANS

During the twentieth century, we have added 30 years of life expectancy and today, over 32 million Americans are 65+. Out of 76 million Baby Boomers, 38 million will live past 85 and many people are retiring early and living longer. Today, people must protect themselves and their families from the problems and costs associated with living longer while maintaining their dignity and well being.

What is Long-Term Care?
Long-term care provides a wide variety of services for people with a prolonged physical illness, injury, disability or a cognitive disorder such as Alzheimer's disease. It provides services aimed at helping people with chronic conditions that limit their ability to function independently. It is no longer just a nursing home policy that in the past has been associated with long-term care insurance.

Who Pays for Long-Term Care?
Nationally, one third of all nursing home expenses are paid out of pocket by individuals and their families and state Medicaid programs pay about half. Medicare does generally not pay most long-term care expenses and only the first 20 days of post hospital skilled nursing facility care are paid by Medicare. For the next 80 days, they pay all but $99 per day. Home health care under Medicare must be medically necessary in order to be paid.

What are the Odds?
Your chances of needing long-term care are about 1 out of 10 at age 55, 4 out of 10 at age 65 and 6 out of 10 at age 75.

The Top 10 Reasons Why You Don't Need Long-Term Care Insurance

10) You never get sick.
9) You are not over age 50 yet.
8) People in your family live forever.
7) You are so rich that $70,000 per year for the cost of a nursing home stay is just a drop in the bucket.
6) Your spouse and kids are all nurses.
5) You truly believe that the government will be there to help you and take care of you.
4) You own your own nursing home.
3) You are already protected by an ironclad trust, drawn up and guaranteed by the foremost attorney that says, "I will never have to pay for nursing home care costs." 2) Your brother-in-law, mom, dad, sister, brother, friend, teacher, doctor, lawyer, or psychic said, "You don't need it!"
1) You've always been real lucky!

The impact of nursing home stay or home health care needs can reduce formerly middle class Americans to impoverishment within 13 weeks. By transferring the risk of a nursing home or home health care problem to an insurance company, you can protect your hard-earned assets. There are excellent policies available that cover both nursing home and home health care needs. Congress has passed favorable legislation offering tax-favored status for the purchase of long-term care protection policies for individuals and businesses. Like most insurance protection programs, you should purchase this coverage from age 40 and up and not wait until your 60's and 70's. Seek the advice of an independent, trained professional who will be able to find the right type of coverage to meet your specific needs and hopefully fits into your budget.

John J. Doolan
Northeast Insurance Brokers
Tel: (908) 709 1550 jdoolan@att.net

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MEMBER PROFILE

Sean Murphy President, MurphGuide Entertainment
Tel: (212) 288 0607
www.murphguide.com

1. · What is your Irish Heritage
(such as Irish county, etc)?
I was born in County Bronx. My Irish heritage is from West Cork. Despite growing up in New York, I was raised in an Irish household. Both parents are from Castletownbere, Co. Cork.

2. · What is your profession or business? Owner of MurphGuide Entertainment, an events marketing company and the website MurphGuide.com.

3. · Has IBO Membership affected your business, if so how?
Yes, the IBO has provided my business with both reliable suppliers and valued customers, and equally important, good friends - how is that for an endorsement!

4. What is your greatest professional triumph?
Starting my own business from scratch after many years in the corporate world. Also I met my wife Jeannie through my business.

5. Where would you like to see yourself 10 years from now?
Running a successful business and involved in other entrepreneurial projects.

6. How do you enjoy your free time?
I own my own business, so there is no such thing as free time. I do, however, enjoy relaxing at the beach and getting together with friends and family whenever I can.

7. · Who do you most admire?
I admire my brother and my three sisters. They have all chosen diverse career paths suited to their professional strengths.

8. What are you currently reading?
I am about to start ' Road to McCarthy' by Pete McCarthy, and I recommend his first book, 'McCarthy's Bar'. For a business read, I recommend 'The Pursuit of Wow!' by Tom Peters.

9. · What do you like most about New York in the winter?
You picked the coldest week possible to ask that one! My favorite part of winter is the week between Christmas and New Year's, because everyone is relaxed and in a good mood. After that, let's fast forward to March.

10. · Your parting words?
Slainte

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A TRIBUTE TO MARTIN GLEESON

It was yet another sad day for the Organization when last November we heard of the untimely and sudden death of Martin Gleeson. Martin had been a long time member and supporter of the IBO. Like many of us in the organization, he too was saddened and shocked to hear last February of the sudden death of Pat Duffy. Martin was one of the contributors to Pat Duffy's Tribute in last year's March Issue of the IBO Newsletter. Little did we know, within such a short time we would now be paying our tribute to Martin Gleeson. We have asked some of Martin's close friends in the organization to reflect and share with us their thoughts and memories. Martin you touched us all and although you may have passed away - you will never be forgotten.

Winning with Martin…

Upon hearing the sad news of Martin Gleeson's untimely passing, I spoke to a mutual friend and cohort, Ronan Molumby, an old IBO member now living in Dublin. Reminiscing about days gone by, we laughed aloud as memories of time spent with Martin made us both remember him fondly. The fun nights of "wink and elbow language of delight" we spent in old haunts like Eamonn Doran's. With Martin around you were guaranteed a long, fun night.

Martin was not your average CPA. Yes, he was extremely competitive and ambitious but enormously friendly, likeable, honest, interesting and interested, successful, generous and proud of his heritage. Yet these were only some of his good traits.

I played in Martin's four ball at the IBO golf outing for the last 12 years. Martin always wanted to win the tournament, but we were more interested in the festivities and liquid rewards that were to be had afterward. This drove him crazy. Whatever he did, he wanted to win.

One of Martin's biggest disappointments and the only other place he didn't "win", was Tara Circle. He worked incredibly hard to try and make it successful. He, amongst others, was out raising funds 5 nights a week in the early 90's, for what was to be an Irish cultural center. I enquired why he was doing it and he told me he wanted to give something back to the community. His unselfish efforts on behalf of the Irish community never received the recognition they so deserved.

His humor, passion, integrity and compassion will be missed by the many people who knew him. He is remembered fondly and with a smile.

Allow me to ask you one final question. Would it make you happy to know that you were instrumental in helping someone who needed a job succeed in getting one? If the answer is yes, you are not alone. Human beings love to help each other; it is part of our nature. So ask for help, I have never experienced having a person turn me down when I use these words: "I need your help."
Brian Healy

Time & Memories with Martin

Martin Gleeson and I worked within a few blocks of each other in N.Y.C. for the past fifteen years. He reminded me of a "Breeze" always rushing to or from the bank, to or from lunch or looking for that "temp" to start yesterday.

Even though we worked in close proximity, we rarely managed to socialize downtown. It would be dinner midtown, a meeting midtown or a dinner dance here or there and always a yearly get together at Pat Herbert's.

Those of us who knew Martin know there had to be a reasonable explanation for everything. He was a great believer in 'Cause and Effect "Well, you had to do something to fall like that'! "You couldn't get sick that quickly, what did you eat for lunch?! I'll bet he has the Angels demented looking for a reasonable explanation for his own demise, "How could that be? I was just standing there. I didn't even eat!" Between Duffy and himself, those Angels will be kept on their toes.

The week following September 11, I was attempting to gain access to my building on Broadway and while talking to a police officer I saw Martin across the street talking to another officer. He too was trying to gain access to his office on Broadway. It was my first time downtown since the disaster and I was very "upset', embarrassed almost to meet anyone. Martin spotted me and came over. Neither of us was rushing anywhere that day. We stood looking at the still burning remains of those familiar Towers and I cried and cried. When I looked at Martin I realized he was crying too. We had plenty of time and there wasn't even a place to have coffee. That will always be my fondest and lasting memory of a man I greatly admired. Take it easy on the "Heavenly Hosts" Martin. They are not all C.P.A.s.
Bernadette McManus

To Martin A Friend

"There are captive souls that live withdrawn, in the peace of their self content"
You were never satisfied to just glide along, you were always proactive.

"There are souls like stars that dwell apart, in a fellow less firmament"
You never hid from life, but fed of the needs of others, always there for them.

"There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths where highways never ran"
You were never afraid to take a risk and jump into the unknown.

"But let me sit by the side of the road and be a friend to man"
You were full of compassion and your willingness to help was what set you apart.

You will be missed; no doubt about it, but for those of us who knew you, your memory will bring a smile to our lips. You were a devil for life and lived it to the full. What a legacy. Your energy and enthusiasm were infectious. We shared many a beer and many a laugh and moments of poignancy, but the excitement you created, justified or not, is my fond memory of you. Martin, I'll bet you are moving through the heavens, like a ship under full sail, setting them all right.
Rory Barry

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NOTICEBOARD

• It's now time to renew your IBO membership for 2003.
  The annual fee is $150 per person or corporate membership for $350. Members can renew by credit card via the IBO website - www.ibo-ny.com or by forwarding check payment to,
  IBO Membership, P.O.Box 6425, FDR Station, New York, NY 10150.
  
  Special Offer - Renew for 3 Years and Save 25% on Annual Membership
  
  Renew your membership now for the next three years for just $350. This is a saving of $100 on the current annual membership fee over the next three years. The saving will be even greater if membership fees are increased over the next three years. Renew now at this great offer and your next membership fee is due in 2006.
  
  Exclusive IBO Sweepstakes Competition
  Renew your membership by March 7th and you could be on your way to Ireland
  
  Courtesy of O'Connor's Fairways Travel
  www.oconnors.com
  
  All members and new members who pay their dues for 2003 before March 7th will automatically be entered into a free draw for 2 Round Trip Airfare Tickets to Ireland courtesy of Barry Twomey at O'Connor's Fairways Travel Inc. Tickets valid for travel Sept 15th 2003 to March 7th, 2004 (excluding Christmas). Certain restrictions apply. See Terms & Conditions. Draw for tickets will take place at IBO March Meeting - March 12th.
  
  So renew now to be included in this Exclusive IBO Sweepstakes Competition.
  
  Note: All members who do not renew their membership by March 28th will be deleted from the database and will no longer have access to the Members Only Section of the IBO website.
  
  
• Congratulations to Kerry Monahan, President, Concept Printing on receiving national certification as a Women Business Enterprise through the Women Presidents' Educational Organization. WBE certification by the WPEO and WBENC is accepted by over 400 national corporations. The organizations help women entrepreneurs to build business with major corporations.
  
  
• We are saddened to report the death of a former founding member of the IBO, Jack Tobin. Jack is known to many of our long time members and was very involved in the growth of the organization in the early years. On behalf of the membership, we extend our sympathy to his family and friends on their loss.
  

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IBO CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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DUCHAS

Jack B. Yeats - Irish Painter, 1871-1957

To those only vaguely familiar with the Irish painter Jack B. Yeats, the name often invokes recollection of his elder brother, the poet William Butler Yeats. Indeed for some, Jack B. Yeats is often seen in the shadow of his Nobel-prize winning sibling and he is discussed anecdotally as though a mere footnote in his more famous brother's life. But to do so is a grave injustice to one of Ireland's most notable and gifted artists. So different were the muses that visited these two brothers, and so unique was Jack's own creative vision, that there can be no valid argument that the painter ever benefitted professionally from the bard's fame.

In the gifted Yeats family, Jack would have been exposed to painting almost from birth. His father, John Butler Yeats, remains a regionally important painter from around the turn of the last century. Jack's own early work was almost documentary in nature. He recorded simple pastoral and urban scenes, illustrating ordinary life in flat, almost drab, low-key color schemes without any particularly expressive expressive qualities. Lighting, such as it was, lacked any lively atmospheric character as though seen through the triple filters of turf smoke, grey skies and the omnipresent Irish drizzle. These early paintings offered no hint of the dramatic changes that would emerge in his work painted after 1935.

Yeats' mature style is painterly in the truest sense of that word. Although still figurative, his subject matter was now expressed fluidly with bravura exuberance for both light and color. Gone were the dull greys and miserly browns in favor of intense primary colors applied generously and with great intuition. The more precisely drafted and pronounced outlines of his earlier paintings were forsaken in favor of shimmering allusions to form and substance more reminiscent of movement or dance than of any traditionally static compositional methods. Indeed it is the seeming imprecision of his forms that convey such a strong sense of vitality in this work. Yeats' bold and vigorous application of buttery impasto daubs worked, almost sculpted in fact, with pallette knives and other small tools, realized powerful imagery in an almost perfect merging of form and content.

Had Yeats lived at another time or in a different country, his originality and inventiveness might have been more widely acclaimed. In the 1930's and 1940's, however, mainland European culture was enamored with the intellectually derived advancements of the modernists who eschewed representational painting in favor of formal investigations and a purer abstraction. Although Yeats remained true to the long history of figurative painting, he imbued this rich tradition with an excitement for pure color and a painterly dynamism. In his fluid, gestural application of oil on canvas, his mature work explicitly reveals and celebrates the very act of painting itself.

Yeats never belonged to or actively participated in any of the prevailing artistic movements that might have enhanced his acceptance and fame internationally. Working in Ireland, a country not known for having a strongly visual-artistic milieu, he was, fortuitously perhaps, afforded the opportunity to develop his own style in relative isolation. It only remains, for us, to enjoy it.

Brian Connolly
Zivkovic Connolly Architects
Tel: (212) 807 8577
zivarch@aol.com

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About The IBO: The Irish Business Organization of New York, Inc. is an non-profit, non-denominational organization, which seeks to promote, foster, and advance the business interests of Irish and Irish American business people in the tri-state area.

The IBO News is the official newsletter of the Irish Business Organization of New York, Inc. It is published 10 times per year. This newsletter is distributed to members of the IBO, guests from recent IBO meetings, and other individuals from the NY-NJ-CT business community.

Newsletter Staff
Philip McGuaran, Belvedere Communications, 212 726 0150

Steve Collins, Webb Communications, 212 695 7022 ext 313

Timothy Daly Bogner, Tel (718) 729 4847

Allan Cullen, Stevens Printing Services, 631 584 3501

Brian Connolly, Zivkovic Architects, 212 807 8577

Jim McGuire, TeleDotCom, 212 675 6565

Contact Information:

The Irish Business Organization of New York Inc.

FDR Station, PO Box 6425
New York, NY 10150-1901

Tel: 212 750 8118
Fax: 212 747 1820

email: info@ibo-ny.com
www.ibo-ny.com

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