The Minister for Tourism, James McDaid, was promoting Ireland at the Ryder Cup in Bos- ton last week. With him (above) on Ireland night at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel are Joe Byrne, Mark Mortell, John O'Leary, Ken Schofield of the European Tour and John Dully.
The minister and his party spent two days in Brookline studying how things are done in preparation for when the circus comes to the K Club, Co Kildare, in 2005, meeting travel agents and sports people and watching some of the play. His plan to speak at the Junior Ryder Club at New Seabury, Massachusetts, came to naught, however, when his light plane was prevented by mist, low cloud and poor visibility from landing at Masphee Airport. Ireland hosts the junior event in 2001 and the minister wanted to meet this year's organisers, but after an hour of circling the airfield and two failed attempts at landing, the badly shaken party returned to Boston. The minister's speech was read by an official.