The Eire Society of Boston presented its annual Gold Medal Award to the well-known radio host and musician Brian O’Donovan at a reception and dinner on Thurs., June 12, at the Neighborhood Club of Quincy. He and his wife Lindsay live in Cambridge. They have four children: Aoife, 31, Ciaran, 29, Aidan, 27, and Fionnualam 21.

 Following are the text of the citation honoring a man who has spent the past four decades promoting Irish traditional music and other Celtic music in the New England region and excerpts from his remarks:

Tommy Kelly is four years old. This week, the rest of his kindergarten classmates from Saint John Paul II Catholic Academy in Neponset are where they should be: enjoying their first full days of summer vacation at the sands of Tenean and Nantasket or planning for a week or two down the Cape with their families.

Tommy has just returned home after a grueling three-week stint in the hospital, where he’ll probably spend a good stretch of his summer as well.

Pandemnonium reigned inside The Banshee Pub on Dorchester Avenue last month as the United States defeated Ghana, 2-1, in World Cup tournament play. Strangers hugged, women were hoisted onto shoulders, and splashes of beer sprayed the room.
A small contingent of Ghana supporters on site were offered heartfelt handshakes and conciliatory embraces as images of their vanquished countrymen flashed on the bar’s ten flatscreens.