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Christchurch Irish Society – Annual Members’ Christmas Lunch
Sunday 23rd November 2025
12:00pm – 3:00pm
Irish Society Hall
Join us for a festive afternoon of great company, delicious food, and Christmas cheer at the Christchurch Irish Society’s annual Members’ Christmas Lunch!
Enjoy a glass of bubbles or orange juice on arrival, followed by canapés and a two-course meal lovingly prepared to celebrate the season. This is a wonderful opportunity to come together, reflect on the year gone by, and toast to the year ahead with friends old and new.
- Tickets: $45 per person
- Includes: Two courses + canapés + drink on arrival
- Members and guests welcome!
Let’s raise a glass, share a laugh, and celebrate the spirit of community and Christmas — Irish style!
Member's Christmas LunchKylee's June/July Blog: A journey of belonging between Aotearoa and Éire.
When people ask me, "Where are you from?" I hesitate, not because I’m particularly mysterious, it’s just never a straightforward answer.
I was born and raised in Auckland, but I haven’t lived there since I left for university in Dunedin in my early 20s. Technically, yes I’m from Auckland. But does it feel like home? Not really.
Right now, we live in Christchurch. But over the past 17 years, my Irish husband and I have been constantly back and forth between New Zealand and Ireland like two very confused homing pigeons. It’s been wonderful and costly, my bank account might never recover (Honestly, the cost of international flights for a family is right up there!) but this is the reality when your life and heart are stretched across two hemispheres. When you’re married into another culture, your idea of “home” becomes beautifully complicated.
Because of our (maybe sometimes questionable life choices) We’re deeply rooted in both places, yet fully settled in neither. It’s a wild paradox: feeling completely at home in two places, and yet never entirely at home in either. Always a little bit homesick for the place you’re not.
Home, for me, isn’t pinned to a single point on a map. It lives in the rhythm of my footsteps along a quiet boreen on the Aran Islands, where summer evenings linger endlessly, the sun slow to surrender, slowly giving up and dipping below the horizon. It’s in a crowded village pub on the West of Ireland where music spills out the door, and the craic flows as freely as the Guinness, laughter rising like smoke into the rare and extremely beautiful still night.
Jean Scullion
The Christchurch Irish Club warmly invites all members to attend our upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM)
This is an important opportunity to reflect on the past year, discuss the club’s progress, elect committee members, and help shape the future of our community.
📅 Date: Sunday 20th July
🕒 Time: 11am Brunch 1pm Meeting Starts
📍 Venue: The Christchurch Irish Club
Your voice matters - we encourage all members to come along, participate, and stay connected with the heart of the Irish community in Christchurch.
Please could you let us know if you are attending by clicking on the link so we can gauge numbers for catering purposes, go raibh maith agat!
(Tickets are free)
Annual General MeetingBonfires and Sunlight: Celebrating the Summer Solstice and St. John’s Eve
As the sun begins its long, golden descent on Saturday, June 21st, 2025, if you are in the Northern Hemisphere will find yourself bathed in the radiant fullness of the Summer Solstice. At exactly 3:41 a.m., the sun will reach its highest point in the sky, marking the astronomical beginning of summer and the longest day of the year. In Ireland, where the rhythms of the land have long danced in step with the turning sun, this moment is more than a celestial event; it is a time steeped in meaning, echoing with ancient customs and a still kind of magic.
Just two days later, on June 23rd, Ireland marks St. John’s Eve, or more commonly known now as ‘Bonfire Night’ an ancient midsummer fire festival with roots older than Christianity itself. Once a widespread tradition throughout the island, bonfires would blaze across the landscape at sunset. People gathered around flames for protection, healing, and a touch of revelry. Herbs were tossed into the fire, stories were told, and some brave souls leapt through the flames, shedding bad luck and old fears with every jump.
In more recent times my memories of Bonfire Night are forever bound to the wild heart of the West of Ireland on the island of Inishmore, where the Atlantic winds carry whispers of older times. In the weeks leading up to the night, locals would quietly begin their preparations, gathering driftwood, pallets, and anything that might catch a flame, though now and then, someone might slyly slip in the week's rubbish for good measure. The fires are built high, stacked with care and anticipation, ready to greet the midsummer dusk.
Celebrating the Summer Solstice and St. John’s Eve
Dia dhuit and Kia ora to all our members, friends, and extended whānau.
"Matariki mā Puanga: Celebrating together."– may this season bring rest, remembrance, and renewal for you and your whānau.”
As the stars of Matariki mā Puanga rise once more in the midwinter sky, we are reminded of the diverse ways the Māori New Year is observed across Aotearoa. For some iwi, particularly in the South Island such as Ngāi Tahu (or Kai Tahu in regional dialect), it is Puanga the bright star also known as Rigel that heralds the beginning of the new year. In many southern regions, Puanga is more visible than Matariki, and so it is the first to be seen. Yet whether one looks first to Matariki or Puanga, the spirit of the season remains the same: a time of remembrance, renewal, and shared celebration. we want to take a moment to acknowledge this special season and offer our heartfelt wishes to you and your families.
Over the past few years, the Christchurch Irish Society has marked Matariki with special events celebrating the unique cultural fabric of Aotearoa. This year, however, after the busyness and joy of hosting the Rose of Tralee NZ Selection, we’ve made the decision to step back from organising a formal gathering. Instead, in the true spirit of Matariki, we’re embracing the opportunity to slow down, rest, and spend time with our loved ones. It feels fitting. Matariki is, at its heart, a time to pause, an invitation to honour the past, celebrate the present, and look with intention toward the future.
- May I Muse?
- Irish Documentary - A Quiet Love
- Tickets Still Available – Support Your Club!
- Meet & Greet our International Rose of Tralee, Keely O'Grady
- Kids GAA Training - Every Sunday at 10:30am
- Irish Comedians '3 Bucks Left' at A Rolling Stone on 13th March
- Theo and G Barndance this Friday evening
- Úna Ní Fhlannagáin - Irish Traditional Song Workshop
- Club Night - This Friday 21st February
- Volunteers Afternoon Tea
- Put on your dancing shoes – a Ceilidh is about to kick off!
- Happy New Year to all! Here's to 2025
- Tony Hale's Fingerpicking Delights
- NZGAA National 7's this Saturday on the Domain!
- Club Night this Friday 29th November
- Sionna returns to The Piano
- Ireland vs New Zealand this Saturday 9th November
- Members Christmas Lunch
- The Commitments Event Postponed
- Halloween Update: Parking