Media Release

Dublin, Apr 20: After more than two 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 at The Church of Nativity of Our Lord, Beaumont, Dublin. The excitement and happiness of meeting your old friends in person and making new ones had no bounds.

Everyone was welcomed to the celebration by Zenita Dsouza.

The event started with a Holy Mass celebrated by Fr Suresh. He performed the sacred ceremonies of Blessing the Fire and Holy water and gave a beautiful homily in his Easter message. The Holy Mass had a melodious choir. 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 was so excited to meet each other, exchange wishes, and catch up on all they had done during the restrictions in the past two years. Vijay D’Souza and Agil Lewis beautifully captured all these joyous moments.

This was the first time in 16 years of Konkans Ireland’s history, that an event was hosted by the second generation of Mangalurean families that had moved to Ireland. Avrit Machado and Hazel Prabhu hosted the entire event.

The stage was set for our beautiful little angels and the youth to showcase their talents. The performances ranged from Ballet to Bollywood dancing, singing, and performing on musical instruments. The highlight of the day was the Worship songs led by the melodious voices of Antony Dsouza and Hazel Prabhu, supported by wonderful tunes played by Prabhu Marian on the guitar and Alex Mathews on the drums.

On behalf of the Easter Committee, Veena Lasrado Machado welcomed the new members to Konkans Ireland. The new members introduced themselves and expressed their joy to see so many Mangalurean families together, and they could speak in their mother tongue after a long duration outside India.

After the performances, a sumptuous spread of Indian food by Industhan foods was waiting to satisfy everyone’s taste buds. The kids had their Easter egg hunt and were very happy to carry so many sweets home from their hunt and for their performances. There were many spot games like guessing the correct number of Easter eggs, etc., followed by a round of Housie and the Easter raffle draw. Prabhu Marian and Agnes Prabhu distributed the prizes to the winners of the competition and performers of the day.

Veena Lasrado Machado gave a vote of thanks to the participants, organizers, and families for joining the celebrations.

To conclude, everyone danced their hearts out to the Baila Beats and Masala songs.

By evening , everyone started returning back home. It was truly one of the longest and will surely be one of the most memorable functions in the history of Konkans Ireland.