Event Report – Welcoming Ireland’s Paralympic Team – an IJCC & Narita City event collaboration

On Sunday 15th August, the IJCC held the event “Welcoming Ireland’s Paralympic Team – an IJCC & Narita City event collaboration”.

Moderated by an IJCC director Aisling Barry, the IJCC president Yoshihiro Tsuchiya made opening remarks. The Ambassador from Ireland to Japan Paul Kavanagh welcomed the guests, and we also had remarks from Mayor of Narita City Mr. Kazunari Koizumi and Vice Mayor Kenji Sekine.

We were also joined by the chairs of 3 Irish organization in Japan: Mr. Emmett Bowen the chair of Irish Network Japan, Mr. Graham Martin-Sullivan the chair of Japan GAA, and Ms. Rieko Yamashita the chair of CCE Japan. They gave Ireland’s Paralympic Team warm words of support.

We had an Irish music session by 3 musicians: Ms. Ayako Okunuki, Mr. Hirofumi Nakamura and Mr. Helix Sonnyboy. They played live from Kyojin Stew House at Togoshi Ginza, and participants enjoyed the fantastic music session.

To close, we had remarks from the chef de mission of Paralympic Ireland Ms. Neasa Russell and vice chef de mission Ciaran Flynn. Neasa also introduced their athletes, and the athletes introduced themselves and talked about their ambitions for the Tokyo Paralympic Games.

The recording of the event is available below.

https://youtu.be/LRVz2cT1RKQ

We sincerely thank Ireland’s Paralympic Team and Narita City for collaborating and joining the event.

And thank you very much to all participants for joining the event.

We are looking forward to seeing you next time and hope you enjoy the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.