New immigrants attend the IWN's second newcomers' networking event

Another successful newcomers' networking event was held last Saturday afternoon at BCIT downtown. Consultant Jennifer Gerves-Keen gave a fantastic presentation on resumes and the Vancouver job search, local immigration lawyer, Gabriel Chand conducted a Q + A about visa issues, Co. Mayo newcomer, Fergal Dempsey talked about the tactics that worked for him in getting a job and President of Ledcor Industrial Group, Don Breen gave a talk on the opportunities available to young Irish people here in Canada.  Everyone joined up in Mahony's pub/Burrard Landing afterwards for a socializing pint!

Thanks to Mahony's Pub for their support and for everyone who participated in the event especially the presenters and the resource people who took time out to give career advice.

IRISH NEWCOMERS' NETWORKING EVENT
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2012
BCIT Downtown, 2nd Floor, 555 Seymour Street
FREE EVENT!


AGENDA/SCHEDULE

2 – 4 pm: HOW TO GET THAT JOB! Info on resumes, informational interview; sourcing employment plus assistance with reworking your resume

4 – 6 pm: Visa info from an immigration lawyer; an employer's perspective; networking; roundtable discussions grouped by employment sector; and other helpful info and contacts.


Registration has now closed. We are at capacity but please come along and we'll fit you in if you haven't registered.

Networking Event For New Immigrants From Ireland
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Shebeen (behind the Heather Pub) Carrall St, Vancouver

Come on down to meet new friends and expand your network of people here in Vancouver. If you’ve been here a while, come on down and share freely of your knowledge and help. This event is open to everyone.

Go to the Events page for more details.

Immigration Information Night - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Downtown Delta Suites Hotel
Hosted by: Vancouver Irish Business & Enterprise (VIBE)

A representative from the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) will give a presentation and answer questions on the latest requirements for applicants.

Go to the Events page for more details and a link to the location.

In case you've been racking your brains trying to remember the names of the various books that people read from at the literary tea, we have compiled the following list:

• Geraldine Guilfoyle read from two of her books - Cracked Conch and Marie's Story
• Fiona Finlay read from one of her own ficton pieces (we don't think it's published yet)
• Anakana Schofield read from Helen Potrebenko's 1975 Vancouver novel Taxi! and from her own forthcoming novel Malarky
  
• Mary Monks read from  Neil Jordan's Shade, Anne Enright's What are you like? and Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark

What are you reading? Would you recommend it to others?
Use the Add Comment link below to share your views.

On a rainy, Vancouver Sunday afternoon April 10th, over sixty women attended the IWN’s first literary tea - we’re dubbing it a ‘Tea and Tales’ event for now - in Langara Golf Club. With readings from Mary Monks, Fiona Finlay, Geraldine Guilfoyle and Anakana Schofield, we were led into lives and scenarios from the macabre to the comic, from the intimate to the surreal.

It was a wonderful afternoon, where we enjoyed food for the mind, the body and the soul.

A sincere ‘thank you’ to everyone that came out, and a warm welcome to newcomers to the IWN and to new arrivals to Vancouver.

Thank you also to the donors of the great door prizes, the supporters of our 50:50 draw and to the staff at Langara Golf Club for putting on such a lovely tea!

For more photos from the event go to the Photo Galleries page.

Sunday April 10th, from 3-5pm at Langara Golf Club, Vancouver

What could be more delightful than an afternoon of tantalising tales over a scrumptious tea, with a chance to browse over books and natter over novels?
The IWN’s inaugural ‘Tea and Tales’ event showcases new Irish Canadian writing; uncovers hidden gems from Vancouver’s literary past; reveals surprising perspectives into well-loved novels, and offers revealing insights into women’s lives today.
A stellar team of writers, readers, novelists and critics - Mary Monks, Geraldine Guilfoyle (writing under the pen-name Nora Ryan), Finola Finlay and Anakana Schofield – will enlighten, entertain and engage participants at the IWN’s ‘Tea and Tales’ afternoon tea.

Go to the Events page for booking information.

Please note – this event is open to non-IWN members and we especially welcome newcomers to Vancouver/Lower Mainland, book-club friends, members’ friends, etc. The intention is to create an enjoyable event with lots of opportunity both to meet new people and strike up easy conversations!
The event will also include:
•    a book signing
•    a book swop. For a small donation, participants can bring books they’d like to pass on to others, and browse and pick up books they’d like to read.
•    50-50 draw

Notes on contributors:
Finola Finlay landed in Vancouver on Canada Day, 1974 and discovered she had come home. She has worked in the BC post-secondary system for the last 25 years and during that time authored and edited turgid tomes on policy and practice. Now that she’s retired she is turning her attention to fiction and finding that it is much harder to write.

Writing under the pen name, Nora Ryan, Geraldine Guilfoyle’s two years living on a small island in the Caribbean provided the inspiration for Ryan’s first two fiction works – Across the Great Divide and Cracked Conch. Geraldine Guilfoyle also writes non-fiction under her own name.  Her website is www.noraryanbooks.com

Originally from Dublin, arriving in Vancouver in 1991 to marry Paddy Hatch, a man recently described by the Province newspaper as Vancouver’s tallest and oldest leprechaun, Mary Monks delights in the joy and status of grandmother to a bright, beautiful and happy little boy without the pains, trials and tribulations of bearing and rearing a child, and she gets back to Dublin as often as she can. Her current obsession is thrashing about in the branches of her family tree, finding all sorts of relatives she never knew she had.

Anakana Schofield is a novelist, writer and literary critic, who has contributed to various newspapers for the past decade, including The Globe and Mail and The Vancouver Sun. She has also written for The London Review of Books, Geist, and CBC Radio. AK moved to Vancouver from Dublin about 12 years ago. She also has lived in London, England. In Dublin she worked in documentary film as a researcher and worked on films shown on RTE. Her novel Malarky will be published in Canada in Spring 2012. She lives in Vancouver, where she sometimes programs interdisciplinary events around forgotten local working class narratives and labour history. She blogs at mrsokana.wordpress.com