Arts and Entertainment
Ronan Tynan is a big man with a big heart. He's also one of Boston's newest residents. Having settled into his new home earlier this year, he'll be appearing locally at Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis on Aug. 6 and South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset... Read more
In the early 19th century, Ireland's musical traditions were in a state of flux. Older practitioners and their music-making were passing away, and with them, some feared at the time, would go that sign of Ireland's culture and heritage - the harp.
Boston... Read more
One of the many wonderful scenes in Flann O'Brien's novel At Swim-Two-Birds has Jem Casey, "the Poet of the Pick and the Bard of Booterstown," kneeling to assist the injured King Sweeny, a man of words in his own right: "poet on poet, a bard unthorning a... Read more
Over her long and storied career, Judy Collins has recorded everything from ancient English ballads to the latest Broadway show tunes, but her main musical influence was an Irish tenor: her father, Charles "Chuck" Collins.
The son of an Irish immigrant... Read more
A particularly satisfying moment in James Joyce’s Ulysses occurs in the third episode of the novel, when Stephen Dedalus, unhappily sharing living quarters in a Martello tower in Sandycove with the irreverent Buck Mulligan and miserably holding down a... Read more
A column of news and updates of the Boston Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest), which celebrates the Boston area’s rich heritage of Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton music and dance with a grassroots, musician-run winter music festival and other events during the year... Read more
Abbey, Druid Theatres Will Be Featured Along With World Premiere on Rose Kennedy
By R. J. Donovan
Special to The BIR
This fall, there’ll be a new cultural organization joining the Boston arts community. ArtsEmerson has been established by Emerson College... Read more
By Sean Smith
Special to the BIR
NOTE: Following is the first installment of an occasional series, “inSession,” which will profile regularly occurring Irish and Celtic music sessions in, or reasonably near, the Greater Boston area.
Tommy Doyle’s
Where: 96... Read more
Music & Dance Scene Not Like It Was, But It’s Still There if You Want It
By Sean Smith
Special to the BIR
It’s a cool, early spring Saturday night at Watertown’s Canadian-American Club, and the sounds of a fiddle and piano casually tearing through a... Read more
Over the past decade, Kelli O'Hara has earned critical acclaim as one of Broadway's most talented leading ladies. With a bell-like soprano, she most recently graced the stage at Lincoln Center playing the iconic role of Nellie Forbush in the Tony Award-... Read more
A column of news and updates on the Boston Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest), which celebrates the Boston area’s rich heritage of Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton music and dance with a grassroots, musician-run winter music festival and other events during the year... Read more
By Sean Smith
Special to the BIR
Starting a new Irish music festival just a few months before one of the biggest financial meltdowns in modern history occurred might seem an inauspicious beginning, but the organizers of the Worcester Irish Music Festival... Read more
By Thomas O’Grady
Special to the BIR
Recently, I happened upon an interview with Seamus Heaney published more than thirty years ago in the literary journal Ploughshares. Having read countless other interviews with Heaney over the decades, most of them... Read more
The actress and singer Mary Callanan is currently appearing in the campy and colorful off-Broadway hit, "The Great American Trailer Park Musical" at SpeakEasy Stage. When the curtain comes down at the end of the month, she'll move on to star in the one-... Read more
First, just to dispel any rumors or urban folklore that may be percolating: No, Hanneke Cassel has never played with U2, in concert or anywhere else.
"I wish!" laughs Cassel, a native Oregonian who has been living in Boston for the past several years -... Read more
April 8 – Rambling House, a Singing Workshop at the Irish Cultural Centre, 200 New Boston Drive, Canton. 1-888-GO-IRISH or irishculture.org. Learn about Ireland's rich history through the art of song while also learning traditional Irish songs in both... Read more
Ask just about anyone whoever experienced the Gaelic Roots festival at Boston College - "experienced" is really the most appropriate verb - and chances are you'll get an earful of fond memories and anecdotes, along with a sigh of regret that it didn't... Read more
Frankie Gavin, one of the most iconic fiddlers in the modern Irish music revival, will lead a new, dynamic version of his band De Dannan when he joins Celtic guitar virtuoso Tony McManus and innovative harpist-vocalist (and Boston area resident) Maeve... Read more
The Seaport Boston Hotel has booked legendary Irish fiddle player Seamus Connolly to perform on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, as Boston celebrates its title as America's most Irish city.
Considered one of the world's finest exponents of traditional Irish... Read more
Regaled as the grand "ambassadors" of traditional Irish music, The Chieftains will get St. Patrick's Day festivities started early in Massachusetts with performances at Worcester's Hanover Theater (March 9), the Amherst Fine Arts Center (March 10), and... Read more
