One of the major planks to our fund raising is holding events for our supporters in both Northern Ireland and Great Britain. On June 25th we sat down 120 for dinner at Finnebrogue House. The catering was done by Simon Dougan of Yellow Door and the wines were kindly sponsored by Duncan Spence through his Rickety Bridge estate in Cape Province, South Africa. Both are long standing supports of the charity. The weather was kind and our guests had drinks at the front of the house before going in to the wonderful fare served up by Simon and his team. Our main course was guinea fowl, cooked to perfection, no mean feat for 120. We sat in the saloon, entrance hall and dining room.

Anumber of our guests came from England. Three tables from County Antrim took advantage of hiring a bus for the evening. The dinner was within a week of the anniversary of Waterloo, so we took advantage of the date to encourage serving members of the forces to wear uniform, giving further colour to the evening. Guests were greeted by a bugler and piper, with roving musicians adding to the atmosphere.

A silent auction on the evening raised well in excess of £10,000 which represents a meaningful sum in our grants programme.