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2012.12.17article
History of the Irish Network Japan

History of the INJ from 1987, compiled with input of all former Chairpersons and many key members

The Irish Network Japan was set up in Tokyo in July 1987, with the first AGM in November. Its aim was to provide a centre of communication, activity and exchange for Irish people living in Japan and to foster relations between the Irish in Japan and all those with an interest in Ireland. In the early years the annually elected committees created an energetic calendar of events (as much as six per month in its heyday) and was responsible for creating the first Irish Annual Ball, Sports Day and the St. Patrick's Day Parades in Japan. The central committee moved from being all Irish people in Kanto, to predominantly Japanese in Kanto, to now where it is a Japan wide committee balanced between Irish and Japanese representatives from the regional committees.

 

  • INJ stories from the past here (Founding of, feedback newsletter, Sports Day, Ball, Charlie Haughey, Kyushu, Parade Queen)
  • Parade history here (Details of Parade Growth and more on Tokyo Parade)
  • INJ booklets here (1993 Survival Guide, 1990 Green Frontier (Japanese), GAA rules (Japanese) )
  • Further links are below

Contents

1.Landmark Events and happenings
2.Organization structure
3.Further links
 

1.Landmark Events

text to complement above table;

 

1987-1992: Apart form doing more and more events (including regular Business Lunches, introduction of the INJ Ball and Sports Days) the 'Network' starts producing information booklets for Irish in Japan ; 'An Irishman's Guide to Survival in Japan' ,  GAA explanations in Japanese and a Members Directory detailing, the Job, Phone number and both Japanese and 'Permanent' Irish addresses of each member. There was also of course the newsletter, 'Feedback'..
In the early 90s the Idea of Parade came up, eventually going ahead on what ended up being a Pioneering walk around Roppongi with a Piper and some speeches. After considering another site in Ginza, the big move was made to Omotesando in 1993. That is now the permanent home of the Tokyo Parade, and the imagination has inspired the start up of 13 other Parade locations in Japan. Some former members have since moved to other parts of Asia and helped start other Parades there, notably Singapore and Seoul.
================================
1992-1995: In terms of Events this is the busiest era of the Tokyo based INJ, with regular Business Dinners / Lunches, Ski Trips, Fuji Climbs, Christmas Parties, St. Patrick's Day events, the INJ Ball, Sports Day. All of this was communicated through the INJ Newsletter 'Feedback', which ran until 1997. At the time INJ had an Office which acted as a nerve center for everything. The Office moved around a few places ending up finally by The Black Lion Pub in Meguro, at the end of the 90s an Office was no longer used.
At this time there was a large amount of Irish coming into Japan and was just before widespread Internet and Irish Pubs, so of course the Irish in Japan were very interested in community. Around this time members paid a fee of about 7000yen to be involved with the INJ. The Fee was phased out from 1997.
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1995-1998: . Since there was now some Irish Pubs in Tokyo like Paddy Foleys, there wasn't such as much a need for the INJ to organize parties. Email mailing lists reduced the need for a newsletter, and obviously information was a lot more accessible. So the membership fee was abolished from 1997 and income is, and still is, collected from Events and Sponsors. INJ committee members put a lot of focus on The Celtic Festival, which ended up too hard an effort in 1998. Hibernian Players were still quite active, a stage was even built in the Black Lion Meguro for their performances. 
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2003-2010 : INJ begins to sprout up again committees outside of Tokyo and become a true All Japan organization. After a period of focusing mainly on the St. Patrick's Day Weekend (Parade & Sports Day), INJ begins increasing its events again throughout the Calendar year (Christmas Party, Festival Booths, day trips etc.)
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2011: With further expansions INJ is decentralized and Head committee is changed from Tokyo to an All Japan committee. INJ goes backs to its roots and sets up a committee designed especially for Emigrant Support.
 

2. Organization structure

 

3. Further Links

307 years of Irish History in Japan here 
Press clippings 1993 to 94 here
INJ history facebook page here (Thanks to Neil Day)
more to follow…..

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2012.12.14article
ゲーリック・フットボール　Japan Gaelic Football GAA

ゲーリック・フットボールやJapan GAA の魅力について

 

日本ゲーリック・フットボール・クラブ (JapanGAA) の会長、Niall McGurnaghan氏にインタビューをしました。ゲーリック・フットボールやJapan GAA の魅力についてお話をしてくれました。

     

Niall McGurnaghan氏, Japan GAA会長

July 2012

 

 ゲーリック・フットボールとは?

ゲーリック・フットボールはアイルランドの国技の一つで、伝統的にアイルランド国内だけでプレーされています。競技自体はサッカーとラグビーを合わせたような感じです。

ゲーリック・フットボールのボールは円形で少しサッカーボールより小さいものです。革で出来ていて、サイズ５は男子用で、それより少し小さいサイズ４が女子用です。 ゲーリック・フットボールでは４歩まで手に持って進むことが出来、バウンドさせると更に４歩進めます。その後はソロという、足で自分に蹴り返すことをするか、そうでなければパスをします。パスはボールを手からキックするかフィスト・パス（ボールを掌か拳で打つ）をします。

 

ゴールポストはラグビーのものと同じH形をしています。ボールが H の下に入ったらゴールで、H の上を越えるとポイントになります。１ゴールは３ポイント分になります。ゴールキーパーがいて、ボールはどちらの方向にもパスできるのでフットボール（サッカー）に似てますが、オフサイドはありません。タックルは腕１つで相手の手からボールをはじき出したり、肩で押してボールを落とさせることが認められています。でも、体全体でタックルはしてはならず、また、スクラムもありません。その結果、ラグビーほど激しくはありませんが、動きが速くなります。

なんだかオーストラリアン・ルールズに似てると思いませんか。オーストラリアン・ルールズは、長年に渡って何千ものアイルランド人がオーストラリアに移民をした結果、ゲーリック・フットボールから発展したものだろうと考えられています。今ではインターナショナル・ルールズという、オーストラリアン・ルールズとゲーリック・フットボールを合わせたゲームまであり、毎年インターナショナル・ルールズ・シリーズとして2国間でプレーされています。

 

特別に楽しいこと

ゲーリック・フットボールはとてもエキサイティングなゲームで、日本では男子と女子の両チームあります。 私たちの選手はアイルランド出身だけということは決してなく、日本を含め、トルコ、アメリカ、オーストラリア、スコットランドと挙げて見ただけでも幅ひろく違った国から来ています。アイルランド人を含めて、殆どの人がゲーリック・フットボールを以前にプレーしたことが無く、皆、同じようなレベルです。プレーした経験はJapanGAAでは必要ありませんので、誰でも歓迎です。楽しんで、新しい友達をつくることが目的で、何よりも職場や教室を出て広いところでスポーツをすることは気持ちが良いものです。

ゲーリック・フットボールはプレーするのに素晴らしいゲームですが、JapanGAAでは遊びのことでも真剣です(^_^)。 トレーニングの後は大抵ビールを少し飲みに行きますが、やはり自然とゲーリック・フットボールの話題になってしまいます。でも、これは一緒にプレーをする仲間と親しくなるには最適で、トレーニングの後に友情も芽生えるかも知れません。私たちはまた、バーベキューやチーム旅行、クリスマス・パーティーなど多くの楽しいイベントも行っています。

The Asian Gaelic Games

JapanGAAの毎年恒例の大きなイベントはエイジアン・ゲーリック・ゲームスです。これは1996年以来、年に一度行われる７人制ゲーリック・フットボールのトーナメントです。日本やシンガポール、香港、台湾、ドバイ、アラブ首長国連邦、上海、韓国などアジア一帯から、デレク・ブレイディー杯とレイディース杯のために毎年競い合います。

 

昨年のトーナメントは、ソウルで行われましたが、日本チームは前年の成功（2010年のレディースカップ、男性チームの北アジアゲームでの勝利）に続くことができませんでした。いったん試合が終わっても、エイジアン・ゲーリック・ゲームスのアイルランドの伝統は終わらず、夜には様々なチームの選手たちがパーティに出かけます！ 過去２，３年は伝統的な韓国ＢＢＱを楽しんだり、香港では土曜日の夜にナイトクルーズを楽しみました。

 

今年は、エイジアン・ゲーリック・ゲームスは10月27日と28日にマレーシアのクアラルンプールで行われます。私たちは試合とパーティに備えて激しくトレーニングをしていますので、私たちと一緒にゲーリック・フットボールをしましょう！

(2012年7月)

www.japangaa.org

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2012.12.14article
日本パレードの歴史

Parade listing in Japan since 1992

ビデオ 
写真 
 

In the early 90s the Idea of Parade came up from John McKiernan (Also original editor of the Survival Guide), eventually going ahead in 1992 on what ended up being a Pioneering walk around Roppongi with a Piper and some speeches. Conor MacNamara should be credited with making it happen and also the enthusiasm of Ambassador Sharkey was inspiring to all involved. After considering another site in Ginza, the big move was made to Omotesando in 1993. That is now the permanent home of the Tokyo Parade, and the imagination has inspired the start up of 13 other Parade locations in Japan. Some former members have since moved to other parts of Asia and helped start other Parades there, notably Singapore and Seoul. About 60 marched in Roppongi, 250 in the first time in Omotesando, nowadays 1400 is the norm.

Note : Aomori, Kumamoto, Matsue, Tsukuba, Okinawa are/were independent of INJ, but we support(ed) them as much as possible.

If you have any comments about this article please send them here

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2012.12.14article
More stories from the INJ Past

Founding, Feedback, INJ Ball, Sportsday, Hibernian Players, Kyushu, Charloer Haughey in Japan

Thanks to various co-founders and former Chairpersons for providing information for this. Also linked here is an Article by Kenji Hall about the making of the Parade Queen competition.
General Parade History here

Below includes; Feedback, INJ Ball, Sportsdays, Hibernian Players and Charlie Haughey in Japan

Founding of the INJ

The initial idea of the INJ was said to have been discussed after some get together of FAS Graduate Programme members in the Rising Sun pub (Members included Michael Garvey, Liam English, Tim Carew, Dave Thomas, Sile Ni Fhearraigh, Padraic Delaney, Greg Timmons, Dr. Paul Phelan, Jim Cashman), people saying that it was a good idea but we had to ensure it was not just a FAS initiative and that it included all of the Irish in Japan, and all of that leading to the meeting in the IDA ground floor offices in the TBR building which kicked it off. The meeting in the TBR building was set up and initiated by Mick. Both himself and Liam were IDA employees.

The first AGM was held in November, and so INJ as a structured organization started then. Padraic was elected Chairperson, and Tony O'Connor as Secretary. Another key member of the early days were Declan Collins, also with the IDA, who arrived after the initial launch and brought his experience of the Irish Network North California (started in 1986) . Some other early meeting were in Sophia University, thanks to great support from Fr. Donal Doyle, winner of the first INJ Personality of the Year Award. Must be noted that one of the biggest contributors to Irish society in Japan, Neil Day, had just arrived in Japan and attended the first AGM too.
Feedback
The INJ newsletter was started by Padraic Delaney and Tony O'Connor towards the end of 1987. The 2 both worked as graduates in Obun Printing and had access to publish the magazine. At its peak Feedback was being delivered once a month with 16 pages of info that kept the community up to date with not just INJ events, but all Irish related goings on in Japan. After 10 years the Internet killed off the need for the newsletter; mailing lists and websites took over.

Some covers of feedback here.
Charles Haughey visits in 1989

1989 April : Taoiseach of Ireland, Charles J. Haughey's visits Japan.
With the Irish community being so small and very few community activities and organisations, the visit by the Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey to Japan in April 1989 was a major event for the Irish with added significance for those involved in representing Irish culture and business in Japan. 'Charlie' was greeted like a pop star then and was a great boost to the morale of the Irish living in Japan in spite of domestic political strife at home. The Taoiseach's visit preceded the 'Celtic Tiger' boom that was later to develop in the early 1990s. At that time the Irish government was struggling with unemployment rates close to 20% and inflation well above 15%. In any case, the visit by 'Charlie' brought a huge number of Irish people together who were living in Japan at the time including members of the Irish Network Japan.
INJ Annual Ball
The INJ was the first to bring the the concept of the 'Irish Annual Ball' to Japan with the first INJ Ball held in 1988 at the Tokyo American Club, near Roppongi. The first event was principally organised by Philip Greenan, Padraic Delaney, his wife Gwen and Sile Ni Fhearraigh and being the first they were very courageous to go ahead and take on this challenge. It was a scary undertaking as it was such a pioneering action with no one really knowing if people would attend or if costs would be covered. Happily it was very successful. Celebrating Irish culture with friends in our host country Japan, one of the features was the 'Irish Personality of the Year' awards. The INJ Ball usually held towards the end of the year has since given way to the now successful Emerald Ball, usually held the night before the Tokyo Parade. 
INJ Sports Days

1990s : Back in the early 90's, the Goannas Australian Football team and team Ireland played quite a few games of compromise rules football (mixture of Irish and Aussie footie) culminating in the launch of the annual Ned Kelly cup around 1992. The Ned Kelly cup is now a feature event of the current Sports Day held every year in Yokohama. The first Ned Kelly cup final was held at an American military base with the Irish winning.
INJ's 1992 St. Patrick's Day sports day was held at Ueno-Gakuen university grounds in Saitama, working with the now defunct Tokyo Irish Harriers Club who in fact were responsible for creating the first edition of the St. Patrick's Day Sports Day around 1990. The INJ was able to strengthen the games and to feature Irish football and hurling contests. In 1992 the games included the feature event of hurling with the sliotar thrown in by the then Ambassador James Sharkey, mixed Irish football, penalty shoot-out, tug-of-war, three-legged race, sack race and of course plenty of Irish food and drink.
The 1993 Sports Day was again another level up in terms of organization, it was held then in Kanto-Gakuin.
Nowadays the Sports Day is run by Japan GAA.
The first hurling match in Japan – the Munekata Cup – sponsored by Barry Tea, with the provision of Team Strips.
Some photos avaialble here
Kyushu Irish Network
From co-founder Keiran Marsden – The Kysuhu Irish Network, although being modelled somewhat on the Irish Network in Tokyo, was completely independent. We used to send each other information about events in our respective regions and include these in our monthly newsletter. Also then INJ chairperson Michael Chin made a trip to Saga for our inaugural meeting which for us was a great show of support. We received a lot of support from the embassy and various Irish businesses with activity in Japan at the time.

We founded the network in 1994 and it remained active in some form until at least 2001. Founding members were Keiran Marsden and Koichi Araki, owner of the first Irish pub in Kyushu. We ran several events including hosting a reception for the Irish team participating in the Universiade in Fukuoka in 1995. (Universiade is an Olympics like event for universities). We also coordinated getting Irish supporters to attend the various competitions.  
In 1996 we co-hosted a visit by the Irish Ambassador, Declan O'Donovan. The visit included meeting local politicians, a visit to the company who employed several FAS placements (of which I was one), a visit with Imaizumi Imaemon XIII who is a Living National Treasure in Arita and other social events with members.
Our primary focus was connecting members throughout Kyushu by organizing mostly cultural events in different area's and meeting up with other Irish and friends of Irish. A key point was promoting Ireland to the local populations.
After I left Japan it continued for some time and the name was changed to Kyushu Celtic Network to expand membership and scope to our Celtic brethren. 
www.geocities.ws/qicn2000/index-2.html
 

Hibernian Players
The Players did many shows to great acclaim, article about the first play Sive is here and below is an article from Feedback after doing the Roddy Doyle play Brownbread;

Brownbread – A Casts-Eyes view
by Michael Chinn
It is hard to describe the elation felt by every member of the cast and crew of Brownbread at the end of our last performance, following a one week run at the Tokyo British Club and in Hamamatsucho. It wasn't joy at reaching the end of what had been a mammoth undertaking for all involved, but rather the sheer enjoyment of having brought laughter to so many people who had been our audience.
I believe few of us realised just what we were letting ourselves in for when Martin Reilly sent out the clarion call for actors and crew in early April Some (myself included) had no intention of acting at all – I just wanted to help with the lights – but somehow eleven budding thespians were fated to pick up Roddy Doyle's scrip and take to the stage. The fame, fortune and glory of performing to our adoring public awaited us, and only three things stood in the way: rehearsals, rehearsals and rehearsals.
It is an unfortunate fact of the famed 'actor's life' that the average performer doesn't get it right first time, or even second, third or tenth time! Rather, behind every show there is a lifetime of practice – ad nauseam – accompanied by the stress which comes of forcing the brain to endure endless repetition of words and actions. Innocent conversations would start to sound like passages from the play, with cast members subconsciously switching into character to add humour to their words. However, despite the mental trauma, we pulled through and (we hope) brought Brownbread to life on stage. Of course, while the cast were busy bonding and coming to terms with their psyches, the many people who made up the crew were busy set designing and coming to terms with the need for Barry's teabags and cans of Harp.   However, no stone (or mammy's cupboard in Ireland) was left unturned in the search for props, costumes, music and all the other paraphernalia of the stage. As the weeks progressed towards July, the bedroom of a Barrytown house started to take shape, the dull Dublin sky outside grew ever more melancholy and the sounds of US Marine helicopters overhead all the more like Vietnam. The cast also started to look the part, as everything from Marine uniforms to a bishop's cassock appeared as if by magic from some undisclosed source, and the male actors were let into the magic secrets of make-up.
As is always the way, the performance dates hurtled towards us faster than a speeding Shinkansen and soon we found ourselves waiting in the wings for the opening music…Well the rest, as they say, is history. This just about brings us back to where this story started – at the end – and should give you some idea of how Brownbread was dragged kicking-and-screaming into the glow of the spotlights for certainly one of the most enjoyable, thrilling and fulfilling weeks of my life, and that of everyone else involved as well. The cast truly relished the whole experience (well, most of it at any rate) and we hope that the audience enjoyed our performances. However, there was of course much more to Brownbread than met the eye Behind the scenes, lurked the army of supporters, helpers, doers and advisors who really got the show on the road. Although this is an inadequate opportunity to say thank you to all those who helped out with Brownbread (they number several dozen people), the cast would like to thank everyone who put up with our whining over the past few months, and who allowed us to concentrate on the acting, while others looked after the difficult stuff. Especially, thanks to Martin Reilly, the producer, who made things happen, and to Adrienne Reilly, who made us make things happen. Thanks also to Tim Harris, who is to blame for casting us in the first place, to the INJ committee for all their time, and to the Tokyo British Club for their support during rehearsals. Finally, thanks to you, the people who came to see us do Brownbread.
 

 

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2012.12.10article
アイルランドのクリスマス

私は、アイルランドでのクリスマスがとても楽しみです。

アイルランドのクリスマス

私は、アイルランドでのクリスマスがとても楽しみです。

私が子供だった頃１２月２５日は大変楽しみでした。クリスマスには人々がプレゼントを交換するからです。

私は１２人家族で一番の末っ子です。

 

私の父は毎年クリスマスツリー　を買ってきます。それを私たちは１２月１８日クリスマスの一週間前から家のリビングに飾ります。クリスマスツリーの下には私のプレゼントが置かれます。兄や姉は私に沢山のプレゼントをくれました。プレゼントはラッピングペーパーに覆われていて中身をみる事は出来ませんでした。私は一週間プレゼントを開けるのを待たなければならなかったのです。私はとてもワクワクしていました。

 

私の母は　毎年クリスマスの食事を用意するのに大忙しでした。彼女は私たち家族の為に沢山の食料を買ってこなければなりません。私たちは毎年七面鳥やハムをクリスマスに食べました。母はたくさんのケーキやデザートも作りました。彼女はとても大変だったでしょう。私はキッチンにいる彼女が作る料理の匂いや彼女の笑顔をいつも思い出します。私は彼女を手伝う事が好きでした。

 

クリスマスイヴの夜はサンタクロースが私たちの家を訪ねてきます。そこで私の姉、兄そして私はサンタクロースや赤鼻のトナカイの為に食事や飲み物を準備しました。夜９時になり私たちはベットに入ったのですが眠れません。私たちはサンタクロースについて、とても興奮していたのです。私たちは夜中の２時まで起きていました。私たちは窓から空をみて星の間からサンタクロースを探しました。　私の姉や兄は彼を決して見たことがない。でも私はいつも彼が冷たい空を横切って行くのをみたのです。

 

クリスマスの日私たちは朝６時に起きました。私はいつも一番早く起きて兄や姉を呼びます。彼らが起きると私たちは父や母のベットルームへ行きます。私たちは母と父を呼びますが、彼らは決して起きませんでした。まだ早い時間で彼らはとても眠かったのです。

彼らを呼んだ後は　階下へ行きます。とても暗くて寒いクリスマスの朝でした。

しかし兄や姉そして私は気になりませんでした。私たちはサンタクロースが私たちに何を持ってきてくれたのか、とても興奮していたのです。私たちはキッチンを走り、リビングルームの前で止まりました。中に入る事を恐れたのです。多分サンタクロースがそこに居たでしょう。しかし私たちはあまりにも興奮していたので、ドアを押し開けました。サンタは居ませんでしたがプレゼントがあります！私たちは走りよってプレゼントを開け、一日中そのプレゼントで遊ぶのです。

 

私のお気に入りのプレゼントはサンタがくれた、ぬりえとクレヨンでした。私はクリスマスの日一日中それらに色を塗って楽しむのでした。

 

１１時になると私の家族は教会へ行きました。私たちは教会でお祈りをして、美しいクリスマスソングを聴きました。それはとても素晴らしいのです！

 

アイルランドのクリスマスは、どのお店も営業していないので私たちは教会の後家へ帰り再び玩具で遊びました。それから午後３時になると盛大なクリスマスの食事を食べました。食後はテレビで沢山の映画やポップショーを観ました。そして夜まで沢山のいとこが私達の家に訪ねてきました。それから私の兄たちは歌い始めます。そして私達も一緒になって歌うのでした。

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