January 2012 - Round 4

Winner - Patrick McMenamin

Although both Patrick McMenamin's parents are Irish,  the co-owner of Budapest's most popular Scottish bar, The Caledonia, is a true Scotsman and the first Scot to brave the GOTG stage. Patrick has spent a total of seven years living and working in Budapest and is the first to admit that his Hungarian could be better. But he does know his veg! He can order carrots and onions with the best of them. A former youth worker in Scotland, this inimitable Scotsman has gabbed in all sorts of places - Murrayfield Stadium, the Cardiff Arena, and the European Parliament amongst them - but he readily admits that Smiley's could be the toughest venue of them all. Speaking from his bar last week, Mr McMenamin had this to say:  'Mary Murphy must have got me at a weak moment. But as it's for such a great cause, she had me by the short and curlies. I am nervous and excited at the same time.'

January 2012 competitors

Miriam O'Hara is from Myshall, Co. Carlow. She originally studied Nua Ghaeilge and History in NUI Maynooth and  worked as an Irish/Music/Geography/History/Maths/Physics/CSPE teacher for three years. She loves all forms of watersports - surfing, windsurfing, canoeing and kite-surfing - and spends most of her summers in Mayo. When  not in Mayo surfing, you can find her playing tag rugby. She's now studying Pre-Med in Budapest and hopes to study medicine next year. Maybe Budapest, maybe not.

Richard Holmes has lived in Budapest for ten years. Originally from Birmingham, UK, he is married to the lovely (and very lucky!) Eszter. Richard likes living in Budapest, drinking beer with friends, Aston Villa, things that make him laugh (including his own jokes), TV, books, and music. He tries to play golf and likes to be sporty and get fit when has the energy. He loves singing and dancing, and playing hide and seek with his 19-month-old daughter. Richard is also interested in economics and history, cares about the environment and wants to more for good causes (like the GOTG!). He runs his own Financial Planning and Wealth management business here in the city.

_Mark Downey arrived in Budapest in 2000. Hailing from Dublin he's an engineer by trade and an adventurer by nature. His life and career have taken many twists and turns in the last few years and he's recently been spending a lot of time in Szeged. He's just become a dad for the first time and is now enjoying  seeing life from a whole new perspective. An active member and former President of the IHBC, and a founding member of Budpest's St Patrick's Day parade, Mark has no trouble marrying the two cultures and fluent in both languages, he's rarely stuck for a word or two...

_According to his mother, Gaston Vadasz was the most beautiful baby born in the hospital in Budapest in 1944. The Nazis came..the Russians came...the Russians stayed, and the Vadasz family had to stay till 1956, when they escaped, ending up in the USA with the other huddled masses yearning to be free. Gaston had the opportunity to come back to the 'Old Country' as a Broadcast and Media Manager in 1994 and helped to build the first Commercial FM station in Budapest--Juventus Radio. For the last 11 years, he has run an advertising agency, was in the wine business, and is part owner of a company that raises and trains Peregrine falcons and falconers to protect grapes and airports against harmful birds and bird-strikes. For the last two years, he's been a film actor and landed a minor role inAsterix and Obelix God save Britannia, as a Roman senator and just recently in Ken Follett's HBO mini series,  World Without End, as the Archbishop of Canterbury.