Three Network / Samsung: The Connected Restaurant

Powered by the Three network, in partnership with Samsung, this unique restaurant gave Irish families the opportunity to come together to share a Christmas meal like no other. This year's Connected Restaurant connected Dublin with the most famous city in the world with a long-standing Irish connection, New York. Open for three days from Friday 6th - Sunday 8th December, The Connected Restaurant, helmed by American-Irish chef, Flynn McGarry, gave families the chance to experience Christmas dinner as if they were sitting at the same table while being over 5,000 kilometres apart.
Agency: Boys+Girls, Dublin

Building on the success of the first Connected Restaurant last year, which connected Dublin to Sydney, America proved the ideal location for the second year of the experience. Ireland has a storied history of immigration to the USA with particularly strong links to New York. For New York-based Irish emigrants, unable to return home, the restaurant created the opportunity to reconnect with friends and family in Ireland. One such family hadn’t been home for Christmas in almost a decade. Paul, originally from the Clare Limerick border, together with his American wife, Tara and their young daughter, Maeve, got to share Christmas dinner with Paul’s parents. It was a particularly special meal, as Paul’s father is suffering from a rare bone marrow cancer. Their story was captured by award-winning Irish documentary film-maker, Ken Wardrop, director of the acclaimed ‘Making the Grade’.