Patrick Heffernan
Patrick Heffernan, emigrated from Ireland to Canada on July 31st, 1980 with his wife Lillian and their two sons – Ronan and Neil.
Patrick and Lillian had wanted to create a better life in Canada for their young family and Patrick wanted to fulfill his ambition of working full time as an Interior Designer. They settled in London, Ontario - as they had family living in the city - and have been here ever since!
Patrick joined the Irish Benevolent Society around 1990 after being encouraged to do so by a friend - Larry Heffernan. Larry and Patrick knew each other through the old Irish Club and Larry was a big supporter of developing our Irish culture in London and promoting Irish dancing in particular.
The IBS was a much less formal organization back then and Patrick remembers attending ad hoc meetings at such places as the Knights of Columbus and the Shriners to discuss St. Patrick’s Day events.
Patrick became President of the Irish Benevolent Society in 2004 and it is important to point out two integral parts of his legacy during his term as President were allowing women to join the organization for the first time and developing the initial website.
Patrick is very involved with the logistics of the annual St. Patrick’s Day luncheon. In fact, he has been driving force behind setting up the room for the lunch and taking everything down every year since the late 1990s. As you can appreciate this has been a huge commitment and a massive endeavour each and every year on his part and he has no plans on giving it up!
With the exception of one year, he has also been the MC of the St. Patrick’s Day event since around 2000 and the luncheon benefits every year from his sense of humour and his determination to keep everything on schedule!
It is a great honour to install Patrick James Heffernan, as an Honorary Lifetime Member of the Irish Benevolent Society.
Congratulations Patrick.