Powers of persuasion are a key part of the skillset Sophie Colgan has developed over the years. The Co Down woman, who graduated with a communications degree from Ulster University in 2014, has put them to good use in her adopted home in the US, with a common thread of supporting not-for-profits and Irish-American organisations in New York in various marketing, PR and fundraising roles.
Those skills are now being employed in Colgan’s growing business as a charity auctioneer, a role that sees her regularly taking the floor at gala dinners in the Big Apple, San Francisco, Boston, Connecticut and Dublin, among other places, to raise funds for charitable causes.
“It’s all about connecting with people in the audience,” Colgan says. “I use my Irish humour and I like to disarm people with jokes. It’s a little like being a stand-up comedian and it can be challenging. People have already paid for their tickets and heard speeches about the work of the charity and now someone is coming out and asking them for money, so half the audience will be rolling their eyes.
“I like to bring a lot of energy and craic and tell a story about the amazing experience they can have if they bid successfully. You really have to charm the crowd – and, being Irish, I think that comes naturally to us. It’s also very rewarding as you are raising money for such worthwhile causes.”
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Colgan’s entry to the charity auctioneering world came when she met Lydia Fenet, a former senior executive with Christie’s auctioneers, who runs her own agency and who has worked alongside celebrities including Elton John and Bruce Springsteen. Fenet agreed to take Colgan into her academy, taught her the tricks of the trade and put her on her books.
Keeping on top of a room of several hundred people, often well into an evening in which they are letting their hair down, is among the challenges Colgan sometimes faces.
“You have to be able to read the room. There’s a fine line between a good buzz and mayhem. If it is mayhem, you have to embrace it, so I’d get down into the audience and join the party. You can’t be like a schoolteacher on the stage telling people to shush,” she says.
Colgan is no stranger to the cut and thrust.
In a previous role, she worked in a marketing position for the American Irish Historical Society, which has run a museum dedicated to the diaspora on Fifth Avenue since the 1930s. When the museum closed in controversial circumstances and the building subsequently went on the market, Colgan was a leading figure in a campaign to stop the sale, organising a petition that was signed by 40,000 people.
The cause was then taken up by New York attorney general Letitia James. The building is no longer for sale and a new board has been established to revitalise the society.
[ New York AG intervenes over American Irish Historical Society buildingOpens in new window ]
Losing her position at the society was the catalyst for Colgan to set up her own consultancy, providing marketing, public relations and fundraising services for clients including the Irish Arts Centre and CIE Tours.
A major part of her work is with Barretstown Foundation USA, raising awareness and funds for the charity that was founded by actor Paul Newman.
Colgan has immersed herself in the New York Irish community since her arrival. She quickly joined the Manhattan Gaels GAA club, and a key early role involved helping the American offshoot of suicide prevention support group Pieta House, called Solace House. Joan Freeman, the founder of the organisation, encouraged her to enter the Rose of Tralee Festival, partly as a way of promoting the charity, and she was the New York Rose in the competition in 2015.
I talk to my family regularly but I do miss being with them
Colgan is now married and lives in an apartment in New Jersey with her Galway-born husband Brian Glynn, who runs a construction company called Glynn Group.
“We live in Hoboken, where Frank Sinatra grew up. It’s a lovely town. You have more space than you would have in the centre of New York but you also have a panoramic view of Manhattan. There are lovely restaurants, bars and walkways,” she says.
“We can get the ferry across the Hudson and be in Manhattan in six minutes or in 20 minutes on the bus. It’s cheaper to live here and you pay slightly less tax in New Jersey.”
Away from work, she plays GAA in the summer, practises and teaches yoga and enjoys keeping fit and travelling with her husband whenever she can.
I get to go home fairly often and I’m lucky to be in a position where I can get on a flight and be home in five hours. I’m conscious that not every Irish person here can do that,” she says.
“I talk to my family regularly but I do miss being with them. I came from a lovely part of Ireland around the mountains of Mourne, and when I get home I love to go swimming in Carlingford Lough.
While she enjoys all the attractions of living on the edge of New York, Colgan does miss some aspects of Ireland.
“I miss the relaxed pace of Ireland where we have a very good balance and we take things as they come. In New York, everything has to be done yesterday. You sleep a little less here and there are later nights and earlier starts.”
