Charging attendees $100,000 for a table at its gala dinners helped one of Ireland’s best known charities increase its revenues from fundraising by 34% last year to $15.1m (€11.3m).

Delighted campaigners behind plans for the country’s newest hospice have celebrated reaching their €3m fundraising target — with congratulations from a movie superstar.

The president and chief executive of the American Ireland Fund, Kieran McLoughlin, last year received total remuneration of $586,856 (€442,241).

Three thousand jobs are to be created through the expansion of Limerick Institute of Technology as part of a €200m redevelopment.

In New York’s Lincoln Centre last May over 1,300 Irish Americans and their friends attended a dinner which, in the middle of the most difficult economic circumstances in decades, raised $4.3m (€3.5m) for the American Ireland Fund (AIF).

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will complete his five-day trip to the United States today with a visit to the White House.

To mark St Patrick’s Day, Enda Kenny will travel across the US this weekend. From Chicago, to Indiana and on to New York, he will arrive in Washington on Monday night for a dinner hosted by the American Ireland Fund.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny begins a three-day visit to the US today, the setpiece of which will be a speech to Harvard about the Irish economy and political leadership.

THE former chief executive of philanthropic organisation the American Ireland Fund (AIF) Kingsley Aikins is receiving $500,000 (€385,832) over five years as part of his severance deal with the organisation.

Taxpayers face a bill running into tens of thousands of euro under plans to buy state-of-the-art iPads for IDA chiefs.

THE chief executive of the American Ireland Fund confirmed yesterday that the fund had the most successful year in its entire history last year by raising $40 million (€28m) for Irish charities.

ENDA KENNY has never received enough credit for his environmental consciousness but during his whirlwind trip to New York he was remarkably keen to push the green agenda.

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny will meet US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner in Washington today as he attempts to rebuild Ireland’s reputation abroad.

GABRIEL BYRNE was unveiled as Ireland’s first cultural ambassador to the United States as the White House was playing host to all things green for St Patrick’s Day.

Foreign Minister Micheál Martin will meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today during a series of political and economic engagements in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has appointed an Irish business advisor as her government's economic envoy to Northern Ireland.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Micheál Martin has announced that 180 international thinkers and business experts will attend the Global Irish Economic Forum in Dublin later this month.

THE Taoiseach has written to some of the world’s top entrepreneurs and business leaders with Irish roots in an appeal to inject capital and initiative into the ailing economy.

The incoming US Ambassador to Ireland is due to present his credentials to President Mary McAleese today.

WHEN President Barack Obama met the press on Tuesday morning to discuss his budget proposals, he was sporting a green tie to mark St Patrick’s Day. “Green tie, not bad, huh?” he began.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen will continue a long-standing tradition when he presents a bowl of Irish shamrock to US President Barack Obama on St Patrick’s Day.

INFLUENTIAL Irish American Loretta Brennan-Glucksman has resigned from the board of Cork Airport.

DANCING supremo Michael Flatley has launched a scathing attack on the extent of change in Ireland and our loss of identity.

A special book celebrating the relationship between one of Ireland’s best-loved writers and Galway University was launched today.

HOLLYWOOD film star and philanthropist Paul Newman last night accepted a donation of $1 million (€738,000) to be spent on Irish children with cancer.

A leading US senator today urged the Democratic Unionists to end their opposition to sharing political power with Sinn Féin.

TWO prominent Irish-Americans have quit as directors of the charity GOAL USA following John O’Shea’s criticism of the Government’s decision to offer €1 million in aid to New Orleans.

Eight million euro has been donated by the American Ireland Fund to over 300 charities and community organisations throughout the country.