Archer delivers keynote speech at TCH annual business dinner

CONTROVERSIAL author Jeffrey Archer delivered the keynote address at the Thomas Crosbie Holdings annual business dinner in the company’s South Mall headquarters last night.

Mr Archer, a member of the British House of Lords, joins a list of previous distinguished speakers which include former British prime minister John Major, former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Porter, John Harvey Jones, Henry Kissinger, Bob Geldof and John Cleese.

The former Conservative politician and bestselling author was presented with a specially commissioned Tipperary Crystal piece to commemorate the event. It depicts an open book inscribed with the words of gaelic poet Antoine Ó Raifteirí’s poem, Is Mise Raifteirí, and was presented by TCH chairman Alan Crosbie and TCH group managing director Anthony Dinan.

All guests were presented with signed copies of Mr Archer’s latest bestseller, Paths of Glory, published in Britain by Macmillan, which recounts the story of George Mallory, the English mountaineer who led the first three British expeditions to climb Mount Everest in the 1920s.

Mallory, one of the heroes of the age of exploration, died during an assault on the summit, yet no one knows whether he perished on the way up or the way down.

Debate rages whether he was the first man to conquer the world’s highest mountain, beating Edmund Hillary by almost 30 years. In 1999, an expedition found Mallory’s body about 650 yards from the mountain’s summit.

Mr Archer has helped to raise £2.1m (e2.4m) through a series of charity auctions.

Among the guests at the TCH dinner were: Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Brian Bermingham and the Lady Mayoress Elma Bermingham; Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe, AIB investment manager Frank O’Riordan; AIB regional manager Kieran Kingston; Broadcasting Commission of Ireland chief executive Michael O’Keeffe; Webprint managing director Donagh O’Doherty; senior counsel Dr John O’Mahony; Commodore Frank Lynch, flag officer commanding the Irish navy; Brigadier General Pat Hayes, Irish Army; Cork Chamber president Joe Gantly; Cork Chamber chief executive Conor Healy; Cork City FC chairman Tom Coughlan; O’Callaghan Properties’ Owen O’Callaghan; Irish Examiner chief executive Tom Murphy and Irish Examiner editor Tim Vaughan.