BOSTON – The Éire Society of Boston is pleased to announce the Gold Medal award recipient for 2018, Dorchester native and President and CEO of the New England Council, James T. Brett.

The award will be presented at the Gold Medal Dinner and Awards Ceremony, which will take place on Saturday evening, April 7, 2018 at 6pm at the Seaport Boston Hotel.

The Gold Medal is awarded annually to a person or persons who exemplify the best of Irish culture and ideals. It is presented to those who have made significant contributions in their field of expertise which benefit society.

James T. Brett, business leader, legislator and lifelong advocate for public policy issues, will join the list of distinguished Gold Medal recipients. In 2017, novelist, playwright and journalist, Colm Tóibín received the award, and in 2016, the Gold Medal was presented to the 8th President of Ireland, Mary P. McAleese.

“It is fitting that Jim Brett is being honored with the Gold Medal Award from The Éire Society of Boston, given his tireless work over many decades on behalf of vulnerable members of our community,” said Fionnuala Quinlan, Consul General of Ireland in Boston.

Among his many interests and achievements, Brett is a dedicated advocate for the physically and mentally challenged. He served as the Chairman of the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities and continues to serve as a member. In 2016, Congress appointed Brett to the National Council on Disability. He is Chairman of the Governor’s Commission on Intellectual Disability and serves as the Chairperson of the Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission.

Kevin Cullen, columnist at The Boston Globe and returning emcee for the 2018 Gold Medal Dinner, says, “With his compassion for our most vulnerable citizens, and for immigrants from all lands, Jim Brett embodies the best of the Irish. He gets it from his mother Mary Ann, who brought from Ireland a strength and a decency that she passed on to her children like DNA.”

Tickets for the Gold Medal Dinner and Award Ceremony are $150 per person. To purchase tickets, send a check made payable to The Eire Society of Boston, c/o 100 Sanborn Avenue, West Roxbury, MA 02132.

For more information on the Gold Medal Dinner and Award Ceremony, contact event chair, William J. Smith by email at events@eiresociety.org or call Cornelia Cassidy Koutoujian at (781) 899- 3140.

Businesses and individuals can sponsor the Gold Medal Dinner and Award Ceremony. For more information visit the website http://www.eiresociety.org/ or call (617) 852-8732.