A letter written by our treasurer, Peter Byrne, started us off on an exciting journey. Earlier this year Pete wrote to President McAleese and told her that he’d often played in the Phoenix Park as a child but had never been inside Aras an Uachtarain. He said that, since several of our members are not native to this island, he’d love to bring our group to Aras to introduce us to Ireland’s history and culture.

As a result of Pete’s letter our writers’ group was invited to a garden party to honour volunteers at Aras an Uachtarain. So several members of the group travelled to Dublin to attend the event yesterday. We had a wonderful afternoon and the President and Senator McAleese, staff and other guests couldn’t have been friendlier. We felt very much at ease and enjoyed every second of our time at Aras.

During the afternoon we had the privilege to meet President McAleese and Senator McAleese and to present the President with a copy of our first publication, Stories From Charlie’s Bar.  As they say, that was the icing on the cake! We hope she and her husband, who has Fermanagh family ties, will enjoy our stories and poems.