2005 Budapest Burns Supper

The eighth annual Budapest Burns’ Supper – a Scottish tradition held to mark the memory of the national poet Rabbie Burns – looks like it will have raised another HUF 7 million ($37,000 at January 2005 exchange rates) for sick and needy Hungarian children.

The event on Saturday, January 29 2005, was being held for the second year at the Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal, and with Stuart McAlister, of Inter Relocation, acting as Chairman of the organising committee, and Develor’s Keith Parker as MC.

It featured all the usual staples of a Burns Supper. The meal began after the saying of the Selkirk Grace by the Rev. Ken Mackenzie, with a Hungarian translation given by Zoltán Magyar, President of the Hungarian-Scottish Society.

The haggis was piped in by representatives of the Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band – at one point also featuring Le Méridien’s general manager Adrian Gray, whose brother is a member – and addressed by former Burns’ Supper chairman Mark Muss of Interdean.Interconex.

British Embassy Deputy Head of Mission Michael Ward, using Johnny Walker Gold Label whisky, which was being launched in Hungary on the evening, gave the Loyal Toasts to Hungarian President Ferenc Mádl and the Hungarian people, and to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

By Robin Marshall