Arts and Entertainment
BY SEAN SMITH
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
When it comes to World War I, Martin Butler will give you fair warning. “I can talk about it for hours,” says the Tipperary-born musician and singer who has been active in the Boston-area Irish music scene for years.
There... Read more
BY SEAN SMITH
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
There are, of course, many reasons why Celtic musicians decide to team up. What brought the Boston-based duo Rakish – fiddler Maura Shawn Scanlin and guitarist Conor Hearn – together was less an affinity for hot fiddle... Read more
BY R. J. DONOVAN
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
Karola Ruth Siegel was born in Wiesenfeld, Germany in 1928. Not too many years later, she watched as her father was dragged off by the Nazis. With hundreds of other children, she was shipped off, alone, to an orphanage... Read more
BY SEAN SMITH
Tommy Fitzharris and Dónal McCague, “The Bank of Turf” – Fitzharris is an All-Ireland flute (and concertina) champion from Co. Laois; McCague is a fiddler from Co. Monaghan whose credits include appearances on the album “Our Dear Dark... Read more
‘The Infinite Dark’ on tap at Boston College April 4
)A fascinating union of song, music, poetry, and story-telling – with influences from Irish, Scots, and European folklore and tradition – is to be found in “The Infinite Dark,” a project centered on... Read more
Marcia Palmater is dead at 80
BY SEAN SMITH
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
Boston lost one of its foremost Celtic music connoisseurs recently, with the passing of longtime radio broadcaster Marcia Young Palmater on February 9. She was 80.
Ms. Palmater shared her love... Read more
BY R. J. DONOVAN
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
The philosopher George Santayana warned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Hub Theatre Company of Boston is launching its seventh season this month with Helen Edmundson’s “The Clearing,” a... Read more
BY R. J. DONOVAN
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
The philosopher George Santayana warned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Hub Theatre Company of Boston is launching its seventh season this month with Helen Edmundson’s “The Clearing,” a... Read more
Bualadh BOSton, the annual Irish literary festival, will return this month with another accomplished lineup of writers and poets who will discuss their work in a series of three events at the Harvard Club on Fri., April 5, and Sat., April 6.
On Friday at... Read more
For Laurel Martin, the Irish traditional music she plays on her fiddle isn’t simply about notes on a staff, or melody, or rhythm. It’s also the suggestion of images, places and times, and the presence of the people who have inhabited the music.
“There... Read more
Manus McGuire, “The Copperplate Sessions” • McGuire, a member of such bands as Buttons and Bows and Moving Cloud, grew up in the firmament of the Sligo fiddle tradition, but as a young man embarked on a trip to Canada that exposed him to other fiddle... Read more
Manus McGuire, “The Copperplate Sessions” • McGuire, a member of such bands as Buttons and Bows and Moving Cloud, grew up in the firmament of the Sligo fiddle tradition, but as a young man embarked on a trip to Canada that exposed him to other fiddle... Read more
Manus McGuire, “The Copperplate Sessions” • McGuire, a member of such bands as Buttons and Bows and Moving Cloud, grew up in the firmament of the Sligo fiddle tradition, but as a young man embarked on a trip to Canada that exposed him to other fiddle... Read more
“Why would you want to study Irish?” is a question that Irish language learners are often asked. What I like most about Irish Gaelic is how it gives you access to an amazingly beautiful, living culture and, in a deep way, access to Irish history and... Read more
Ireland’s Friel Sisters, Cape Breton/Scottish fiddle-piano duo Katie McNally and Neil Pearlman, and Quebecois mainstays Yann Falquet and Pascal Gemme, along with New England guitarist-vocalist Keith Murphy, are the featured acts at this year’s 12th annual... Read more
It would seem like an unlikely collaboration: Lúnasa, the masterful traditional Irish band known for its enthralling, layered instrumental arrangements, and Natalie Merchant, who headed up the cornerstone alt-rock group 10,000 Maniacs for several years... Read more
Mackenzie Lesser-Roy was about to enter her junior year at Boston Conservatory when she was offered the opportunity of a lifetime - to play Girl, the female lead in the 2016-17 national tour of the musical “Once.” She left school to join the show.
Many... Read more
Colm Keegan was born into a musical family – his father and five brothers all singers – and he has not strayed from his lineage. With a background in both traditional and choral singing, the Dublin native is best known for his nearly four-year stint with... Read more
The Galway Irish-Americana quartet We Banjo 3 returns to the Boston area this month with a show on Feb. 9 in the Somerville Theater at 8 p.m. “WB3” consists of two pairs of brothers, Enda (tenor banjo) and Fergal Scahill (fiddle, bodhran) and David (... Read more
Childsplay, “The Bloom of Youth” • Hard not to feel bittersweet about the latest release by this all-star fiddle ensemble, because it heralds the end of a grand two-decades-plus partnership.
Childsplay comprises two dozen or so musicians – many from... Read more
