Media Release
Dublin, Apr 19: After more than 2 years of pandemic and government advised restrictions that forced all events to be held online, Konkans Ireland once again rose to celebrate the Risen Lord by celebrating Easter Sunday 2022 at The Church of Nativity of our Lord, Montrose Park, Beaumont, Dublin.
The sheer excitement and happiness of meeting ones old friends in person and making new ones had no bounds.
Everyone was welcomed to the celebration by Zenita D'Souza. The eventstarted at 10am with a Holy Mass celebrated by Fr Suresh. He performed the sacred ceremonies of blessing the fire and holy water and gave a very beautiful homily in hisEaster message. The mass had a beautiful choir led by Mrs. Veena Dsouza and Mrs. Helen Castelino. It was a great joy to see the youth coming forward to showcase their talents in the choir with Aviv Machado and Hazel Prabhu on the piano and Avrit Machado on the flute.
After the mass, everyone exchanged wishes and were trying to catch up on all that they did during the covid restrictions. All these joyous moments were beautiful captured from the lens of our own Vijay Fernandes. This was the first time in the 16 years history of Konkans Ireland, that an event was hosted by the second generation of the Mangalorean families that had moved to live in Ireland. Avrit Machado and Hazel Prabhu hosted the entire event.
The stage was set, from our beautiful little angelsto the new youth,to showcase their skills and talents. The performances ranged from Balletsto Bollywood dancing, singing the latest hitsand performing on musical instruments. But the highlight of the event wasthe praise and worship songsby the music band led by the melodious voices of Antony Dsouza and Hazel Prabhu backed with some wonderful tunes played by Prabhu Marian on the guitar and Alex Mathews on the drums.
The head of the Easter Committee, Veena Machadowelcomed the new members to Konkans Ireland. The new members introduced themselves and expressed their joy to see so many Mangalorean families together at one place and they could speak to their mother tongue after a long-time outside India.
After the performances, a sumptuousspread of Indian food by Industhan foods was waiting to satisfy everyone taste buds. The kids had their easter egg hunt and were happy to carry so many sweets home from their hunt and for their performances. There were many spot gameslike guessing the correct number of easter eggs, etc, followed by a game of Housie and the Easter raffle draw.
A vote of thanks was given by Veena Machado to all families for joining in for the celebrations, the participants and the organizers.
To conclude, everyone danced their hearts out to the Baila Beats and Masala songs.
Around 6pm, everyone started flying back to their nests. It wastruly one of the longest and, will surely be one of the memorable functions in history of Konkans Ireland.