PADDYISH CLUB OF AMSTERDAM
Irish expats may be abundant here, but Irish clubs can be hard to find. One of the founders of the Paddyish egroup explains how and why he took the club online. What could be easier than meeting Irish expats? All you have to do is pull up a seat at the local Irish pub, right? Given the lack of Irish clubs in the Netherlands, it would seem organised social groups aren't a necessity for the Irish community here. But some expats have found that even with Amsterdam's copious pubs, it's always helpful to be more formally introduced. "When Paddyish first started there was nothing really set-up for Irish expats in Amsterdam. That was really the driving force behind the group," says William Livingstone one of the founders of the Paddyish egroup. The idea for an Amsterdam-based Irish group was born in August 1999, when Gillian Burke advertised on the elnyx website for other Irish expats interested in connecting. William and about seven others responded to the advertisement. After some emailing back and forth, William thought of setting up a Yahoo! Group for Irish and non-Irish (or Paddy-ish) expats to meet online and sometimes "on land". "I first learned about Yahoo! Groups by joining a group called Exiles Files for people living all over the world who come from Northern Ireland," notes William. "It's quite simple to organise a Yahoo! Group? We started the Paddyish group in September 2000 and it has mushroomed to about 70 members." The group works like a message board with members posting notes and queries. Members can choose to have new messages emailed to them as they are posted or to sign onto the site to read and post. Although William and Gillian are the club's chief organisers, the Paddyish group mostly runs itself with members setting up get-togethers on their own. The group gets most of its members through word-of-mouth and its connection with the Irish Club Netherlands(Den Haag) http://www.irishclub.nl.