During the current health crisis, the IBO is posting links to resources relevant to members and businesses coping with the impacts of the coronavirus.

We also also supporting:

Irish-American Meitheal In Support of Healthcare

Find out more at the IBO COVID-19 Resonse & Resources page HERE.

Dear IBO members and friends,

At about this time today, many of us would be turning the corner to begin our march up Fifth Avenue behind IBO Grand Marshal Niall O’Leary in the historic St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and then stroll a few more blocks for our festive post-parade party that our volunteers had been readying for our arrival.

Big plans laid low by something too small to see.

It’s not too often that we say on St. Patrick’s Day, “these are sobering times.”

I want to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s Day regardless and know we can all find our own “pot of gold” on this special day.

How about at 6:00 p.m. this evening we all raise a glass, a pint, or a cup of Barry’s Tea and offer a toast to all our IBO friends wherever you are, wherever they are.

Send us a selfie of your virtual toast and we’ll post it on IBO social media!

And when you are making your toast be sure to add a special wish to our IBO stalwart Niall O’Leary. Niall had to head home to Ireland due to the illness of his father Dan, who sadly passed away yesterday.  We all look forward to offering our condolences to Niall in person when he returns.

The pandemic we are living through is impacting everyone greatly, but some more than others. We pray all our members stay healthy, but we know many will be coping with severe business impacts.

With that in mind, we are working on two ways to help:

RESOURCES: Our COVID-19 resource page provides links to information sources for businesses and employees in managing this crisis. If you know of any website, information sources, or business articles that would be of value to IBO members, please send them to president@ibonewyork.org so we can update our list.

PROMOTION: Members, let us know if we can promote your business on Twitter.

• Perhaps you are offering a service relevant to the crisis, you have good news to share, you’ve launched a new product, offering a discount or are holding a webinar. Email the details in about 280 characters, include relevant web addresses and hashtags if you know them and we’ll post them on the very active IBO Twitter feed...or post yourself and tag @IrishBusinessNY so we can retweet.
• Or perhaps you’d like to tweet a brief 20-30 second video of yourself about your business, what you offer, what you need, that we can retweet on the IBO Twitter feed

The description of that video sounds a lot like what we do each month at the IBO Business Breakfasts, which will unfortunately be cancelled this month.

Finally, we were planning a big membership push timed to St. Patrick’s Day. We hope as many members as possible rejoin along with many new members, but we recognize that many of our loyal members are under economic stress and hope they will rejoin us when they can.

I know IBO members will form a community of support around our most impacted members…let your IBO Board know how we can help.

Regards,

John Lee
President, Irish Business Organization of New York

Governor Cuomo Announces St. Patrick's Day Parade and Celebration Committee Has Agreed to Postpone 2020 St. Patrick's Day Parade

3/11/20 ...This evening, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the St. Patrick's Day Parade and Celebration Committee has agreed to postpone the 2020 St. Patrick's Day Parade, which draws approximately 250,000 marchers and 1 to 2 million spectators to Manhattan.

"Today I had several conversations with the organizers of the St. Patrick's Day Parade to determine whether the parade should move forward in light of the evolving coronavirus situation and increased case count in the New York City area," Governor Cuomo said. "Following those conversations, I recommended and the parade's leadership agreed to postpone this year's parade due to the high density and the large volume of marchers and spectators who attend. While I know the parade organizers did not make this decision lightly, public health experts agree that one of the most effective ways to contain the spread of the virus is to limit large gatherings and close contacts, and I applaud the parade's leadership for working cooperatively with us. While the risk to New Yorkers remains low and we want to avoid social and economic disruptions, we have an obligation to take action to contain the spread of this virus."

Sean Lane, Parade Committee Chair of the St. Patrick's Day Parade and Celebration Committee said, "We thank Governor Cuomo for his decisive leadership in this challenging time. We look forward to celebrating the 259th St. Patrick's Day Parade with the entire city of New York at a later date."

Earlier today the IBO announced that it would postpone it's Post-Parade Party with plans as well to celebrate the holiday at a later date.