The Canada Ireland Foundation (CIF) is pleased to announce that Barry Columb has been elected to the Foundation’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.

In addition to his leadership role at PC Financial and PC Services, Barry is also a member of the Executive Management Board of Loblaw Companies Limited.

With more than 25 years of banking experience across North America, Barry’s scope of expertise includes general management, risk management, marketing, new product development and operational functions. He possesses a wealth of experience in senior leadership and executive capacities, specifically in personal banking and operations across diverse banking institutions. Notably, as President and CEO of Citibank, he successfully developed and implemented payments programs that contributed to the expansion of retail sales for Home Depot, Staples, and Sears in both the United States and Canada.

Barry is a Director of President’s Choice Bank and President’s Choice Services. He is a member of the Canadian Bankers’ Association Small/Medium Bank Committee, and is a past Director of MasterCard Canada, Equifax Advisory Board, and the Ireland Fund of Canada.

Mark Purdy, Chairman of the CIF Board of Directors said, “We are incredibly fortunate to have Barry join our Board. He was an important contributor to the Ireland Fund’s work, and his operational and business acumen is highly respected in Canada. Barry’s passion, expertise and talent will be valuable as we ramp up to the March 2026 opening of The Corleck – the vibrant new venue for arts, cultural and heritage programming on Toronto’s waterfront that will present new opportunities for the Irish-Canadian community to explore its deep roots while also engaging the many diverse cultures that enrich the city today. I am extremely excited to work alongside Barry to realize our vision for The Corleck and the Canada Ireland Foundation.”

“I am honoured to join the Canada Ireland Foundation and to be part of its remarkable mission to celebrate the Irish experience in Canada, said Barry. I am excited to contribute my skills and experiences to the Canada Ireland Foundation and I look forward to working closely with the board to deepen ties across our communities.”

The Canada Ireland Foundation (CIF) is pleased to announce that Helen Downes has been elected to the Foundation’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Helen serves as Chief Executive of Shannon Chamber in Shannon, County Clare, Ireland. She has been instrumental in transforming the Chamber into a dynamic force for regional and economic development and business advocacy. Under her leadership, the Chamber has launched a series of strategic initiatives that foster collaboration between the public and private sectors, both nationally and internationally, significantly expanding its membership and influence.

Welcoming her appointment, Mark Purdy, Chairman of the Board of Directors said: “Helen’s vast strategic business experience and relationship building successes in Ireland will bring a welcome international perspective to the Canada Ireland Foundation. As we prepare to open The Corleck, the vibrant new venue for arts, cultural and heritage programming for the Irish-Canadian community, her talents and support will be invaluable in many areas, most especially in stakeholder engagement and HR.”

Ambassador of Ireland to Canada, John Concannon, added: “On behalf of the Embassy of Ireland, I would like to congratulate Helen Downes on her election to the Canada Ireland Foundation’s Board of Directors. Helen will bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the Board. I wish to express my gratitude to the existing Board for giving so generously of their time and playing such an important part in supporting Ireland in Canada. I wish Helen and the Board the very best during their terms. The Canada Ireland Foundation plays a significant role in deepening Ireland-Canada relations particularly in the arts and cultural space, I look forward to seeing their work continue to strengthen this relationship in the years ahead.”

Shannon Chamber represents over 330 companies spanning a wide range of industries, collectively employing approximately 20,000 people in Shannon and the wider region in which it operates. Helen plays a pivotal role in championing the interests of these members — engaging with key stakeholders, policy makers, and influencers to address barriers to enterprise growth and promote sustainable economic development at local, regional, and national levels.

Before joining Shannon Chamber, the Hospital, Co. Limerick native served as HR Business Partner at Thomson Financial (Ireland) Ltd, where she managed core HR functions and compliance with Health & Safety regulations across multiple sites.

The Canada Ireland Foundation today announced that its Founder, Robert G. Kearns, has retired from his position as Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors and as a member of the Board. Mark Purdy, a Founding Director and long-standing Board member, has been elected by the Board to serve as the new Chair.

1n 1997, Mr. Kearns began discussions with the City of Toronto to realize his vision for an urban park to commemorate Irish migrants. In May of 2000, this vision led to the founding of Ireland Park Foundation and its namesake project, Ireland Park, located on Toronto’s waterfront. Under Mr. Kearns’ leadership, Canada Ireland Foundation (formerly Ireland Park Foundation) has grown into a leading organization for Irish arts, culture and heritage in Canada.

With the new leadership of Mark Purdy, the Foundation intends to continue to build on the work started by Mr. Kearns.  The next major milestone will be the 2026 opening of the Foundation’s arts and culture venue – the Corleck. The Foundation is grateful for all of the passion, time and effort Mr. Kearns has devoted to the Foundation over its long history and wishes him all the best on his well-earned retirement from this leadership role.

Reflecting on his time with the Foundation, Mr. Kearns noted, “For the past 45 years, I have indulged my passion and purpose towards promoting a more informed awareness of the deep and ancient bond of friendship that exists between Canada and Ireland.” He added, “I am incredibly proud of all we have accomplished in that time, from Ireland Park to Grasett Park and soon the Corleck – a shining jewel on Toronto’s waterfront where everyone can celebrate and share in Irish and Canadian history, heritage, arts and culture. So, it seems to me that this is the right time for me to step down from my position as Chair of the Board and to transition the role to Mark, who has served the Board and been alongside me from the beginning and throughout this journey. I am incredibly excited to see where his and the Board’s vision will take us”

“It is an absolute honour and privilege to succeed Robert as the next Chair of Canada Ireland Foundation.  I look forward to working closely with my fellow board members, our key stakeholders and the broader community to fulfill the mission and vision of the Foundation,” stated Mr. Purdy.

 

About Robert G. Kearns

After emigrating to Toronto from Dublin in 1979, Mr. Kearns established his career in the Canadian Life Insurance industry one year later. In 1983, Robert founded Kearns Insurance Corporation and continues to serve his clients today.  Mr. Kearns also became passionate about fostering Canada – Ireland historical connections, inspired by his academic background in Archeology and Greek and Roman Civilization.  In 1997, on the 150th anniversary of the Great Irish Famine, Mr. Kearns began negotiations to secure a site on the south east corner of Bathurst Quay as the site for Ireland Park. The award-winning park opened in 2007, to commemorate the Irish famine migrants who came to Canada in 1847. Under Robert’s leadership the Foundation has expanded into an organization which has surpassed all of his early expectations, now delivering a wide range of programming as well as a physical presence with Ireland Park, Grasett Park and the impending 2026 opening of the Corleck, located next to Ireland Park on Toronto’s waterfront.

 

About Mark Purdy

Mr. Purdy emigrated to Toronto from Belfast with his family in 1971. He has always been passionate about his Irish roots and strengthened his connections to the Irish community, initially, as a Director of the Ireland Fund of Canada with Robert Kearns. As part of that organization, he enjoyed being the Committee Chair of the St Patrick’s Day Lunch for three years. Mark is a Founding Director of Canada Ireland Foundation and a member of the Foundation’s Corleck Construction Committee, Fundraising Committee and a former member of its Governance Compliance Committee.  He is also an advisory member of the Northern Ireland Business Advisory Council, supporting Northern Ireland’s trade and FDI strategy to help local Irish businesses expand their presence in the Canadian market.

Mr. Purdy has spent the last 25 years in the investment industry, becoming a founding partner and chief investment officer at Arrow Capital Management Inc.  Prior to his role at Arrow Capital, Mr. Purdy held senior roles at BPI Financial Corporation and IBM Canada Ltd. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce and Economics degrees.  He was captain of the Varsity Blues Soccer team and was inducted into the University of Toronto Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. After graduation, Mark continued to play professional soccer for five years in the Canadian Soccer League with the Toronto Blizzard and Hamilton Steelers and spent time with two professional teams in England before returning to begin a business career at IBM Canada.

Mark is married to Emma Purdy, partner at Ernst & Young and PwC.  They have three children: Connor, Cameron and Alexis.

The transformation of Toronto’s waterfront from an industrial hub to a livable community has taken decades of planning and construction. Most traces of the heavy industries that once lined the lakefront have long been erased, with only a few monuments left that remind us of Toronto’s origins as a port city. Of the remaining structures, two monolithic silos bookending the downtown waterfront have yet to find a purpose in this new context, with the Victory Soya Mills Silos in the east and the Canada Malting Silos in the west still standing strong. These landmarks have been vacant and neglected for decades as the city has grown around them, but fortunately there is significant political will to reuse and revitalize both, and the rebirth of one of them is already underway.

The Canada Malting Silos stand on Bathurst Quay at the foot of Bathurst Street, where many travellers may recognize the hulking concrete mass on their way to and from Billy Bishop Airport. The property is also home to the Corleck Building, a unique Art Deco structure completed in the 1940s, which was originally the administrative offices of the Canada Malting Company. These two structures are what is left of the Canada Malting Company’s operations, who abandoned the site in the 1980s. The City has taken over the property since then, with the Corleck most recently serving as offices for PortsToronto, but the silos were left to decay and the remainder of the property left largely covered in asphalt.

Read the full article at Urban Toronto

Dear friends and supporters,

For the past 44 years, I have devoted my passion and purpose to promoting a more informed awareness of the deep and ancient bond of friendship that exists between Canada and Ireland.

As the Founder and Chair of Canada Ireland Foundation (CIF), I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished.

Together, we have created Ireland Park, Grasett Park and very soon, the Corleck – our jewel on Toronto’s waterfront and a destination in which we will celebrate and share Irish history, heritage, arts and culture with wider audiences.

Canada Ireland Foundation has never been on a better financial footing, or held in higher regard amongst all of our constituents, on both sides of the Atlantic, than we are right now. Your support and generosity has made this possible and for that I am and shall always be eternally grateful.

Therefore, it seems to me that this is the right time for me to step down from my position as Chair of the CIF Board and to transition my role to become Founder and Chair Emeritus of the Foundation in June 2025. With this timing, my successor will have the honour and pleasure of presiding over the formal opening of the Corleck in 2026.

It was always my dream to inspire the worlds of government, business, academia and the arts, to join together to reach a shared goal.

With new energy and vision, I can see a time in the near future, when the Foundation will have a presence in major population centres all across Canada, as well as in Ireland.

Because of your support, kindness, generosity and enthusiasm, the best days of Canada Ireland Foundation are in the years to come.

Sincerely,
Robert G. Kearns
Chair and Founder

What will become an international trail of Irish famine victims began in St. John’s this week, a reflection of what the country’s ambassador calls the strength of the Irish diaspora in Newfoundland and Labrador.

A trail of bronze shoes, cast from real antique shoes discovered bundled in the thatch of a 19th-century cottage in Ireland, will stretch from Canada to as far away as Australia.

Ambassador Eamonn McKee says by the time it’s completed, it’ll be the longest heritage trail in the world, marking the journey of Irish famine victims as they dispersed around the globe.

“They were looking for new homes and new futures, essentially for survival,” McKee said. “It’s a really historic event.”

More than 100,000 Irish immigrants fled after a destructive mold ruined potato crops across the country. They crossed to St. John’s on ships over the Atlantic, often in crowded and unsanitary conditions.

Read the full article on CBC News

The Canada Ireland Foundation (CIF) is pleased to announce that Ms. Eileen Costello has been elected Vice Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, effective May 1.

Eileen is a Partner in the Municipal and Land Use Planning Group at Aird & Berlis LLP. Eileen has provided invaluable expertise to the CIF as the Chair of the Corleck Construction Committee. The Corleck is a heritage building on Toronto’s waterfront which will become a vibrant new venue for arts, cultural and heritage programming for the Irish-Canadian community.

“Eileen’s talent and expertise provides the right leadership at the right time for the Canada Ireland Foundation,” said founder and Chair, Robert Kearns. Eileen was instrumental, as Chair of the Board of Governors at The Corporation of Massey Hall & Roy Thomson Hall, in shaping Toronto’s cultural landscape through a once-in-a-generation renovation of the historic Massey Hall. We are fortunate to have her guidance as we complete the Corleck.

At Aird & Berlis, Eileen assists clients with acquiring development approvals for a broad range of projects and advises municipalities on all aspects of the statutory and regulatory scheme which governs land development and regulation in the Province.

Eileen is the author of The Ontario Heritage Act and Commentary and regularly advises private property owners and municipal governments in respect of property designations, Heritage Conservation, Districts and property standards bylaws to address designated properties.

Toronto’s waterfront is getting a new arts venue courtesy of the Canada Ireland Foundation, who is giving new purpose to what was once an administrative building for a malting company.

The designated heritage building used to belong to the Canada Malting Company, and will now be used for art, culture and heritage programming.

The foundation is dubbing it “the Corleck.” The Corleck is an Irish stone idol that was found by a farmer in the first or second century AD. The three-faced head is made of limestone, and is believed by many today to represent the trinity of the past, present and future.

Read the full article on CTV News Toronto

Blink, and you just might miss it, but a tiny new park in Toronto is offering a brief but rich lesson about the city’s history — a story that very much mirrors the world we live in today.

Officially opened this past July, Grasett Park is among the smallest public parks in Toronto, measuring just 130 square metres in area.

Grasett Park is the second collaboration between the city and Canada Ireland Foundation on a public space celebrating Toronto’s response to a wave of Irish migrants fleeing famine in the summer of 1847. Over 38,000 migrants almost tripled Toronto’s population of just 20,000 that year, many arriving sick and in desperate need of medical care.

Complementing the similar themes of Ireland Park on the waterfront, this park can be found at the corner of Adelaide Street West and Widmer Street, a site where temporary fever shacks were erected as Toronto’s first purpose-built General Hospital lacked the capacity to handle the influx of new arrivals suffering from typhus.

Read the full article on BlogTO

 

Imagine a hot night in the summer of 1847. Lantern light creeps out through the doorways of a shed where Irish refugees, newly arrived in Toronto, lie sick with “ship fever.” Curtains of cheesecloth, placed to keep out insects, billow in the breeze. And through the door walks a figure: George Robert Grasett, a local doctor who has volunteered to treat the new arrivals.

Many of those newcomers, who left home to escape the Irish Potato Famine, would not survive their time in hospital. Ship fever, now known as typhus, would take their lives – and also those of Dr. Grasett and a dozen other medical personnel. Now, 174 years after Dr. Grasett’s death, a downtown Toronto park is commemorating him and his colleagues – medical professionals who showed up to fight a deadly disease, and sacrificed themselves.

Grasett Park, which officially opens Friday on Adelaide Street West in Toronto, brings this history back into view. “It’s a story of incredibly courageous people who do the right things, notwithstanding the objections of people in their social milieu,” said Robert Kearns, head of the Canada Ireland Foundation, which helped create the park. “That is a fantastic story of the early history of our city: Of welcoming people and accepting people.”

Read the full article in the Globe and Mail