Arts and Entertainment

John Patrick Shanley has written more than 25 plays and screenplays. He is perhaps best known for the film “Moonstruck” and the Broadway play “Doubt: A Parable.”  The former, the story of a bookkeeper from Brooklyn who falls for the brother of the man... Read more
The partnership of Boston-area musicians Nathan Gourley and Laura Feddersen is proof that, sometimes, good things happen because they simply should. To start with, the pair have some significant things in common: Both are from the Midwest, both came from... Read more
Young local musicians hoping to play at Ireland’s biggest traditional music event are getting a helping hand from one of the Boston area’s most famous Irish pubs – and one of its most celebrated comic personalities.
 Realta Geala, whose nearly 20 members... Read more
The annual Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Mid-Atlantic Fleadh, held the weekend of May 8-10 in Parsippany, NJ, saw a number of Greater Boston musicians – especially younger ones – enjoy success. The CCE Boston music school’s Realta Geala youth ensemble... Read more
Braintree native Michael Ryan appears in Disney’s high-energy Tony Award-winning hit musical, “Newsies,” at Boston’s Opera House June 23 - July 5. Michael Ryan is living the dream.  It wasn’t all that long ago that the young actor was sitting in Boston’s... Read more
He may not have intended it that way, but the title for New England folk musician Keith Murphy’s fine recent solo album seems a little autobiographical. “Suffer No Loss” is a refrain from one of the album’s songs, a dialogue between a couple on the pros... Read more
You have to feel pretty good about your direction in life when you land a job in your desired field and the ink on your college diploma is barely dry. So it was with Worcester native David Doocey, who on the day he graduated from the National University... Read more
What private thoughts and information are we obligated to share with friends, family, and spouses?  A nd how does loyalty and transparency enter into the equation? Those questions and more are raised in Ronan Noone’s “Scenes from an Adultery,” the final... Read more
His work is of world importance – literally so. Padraig O’Malley is known as “the Peacemaker,” and for years, the John Joseph Moakley Professor of International Peace and Reconciliation at the University of Massachusetts Boston has worked tirelessly to... Read more
To hear the participants tell it, Part 2 of the Trad Youth Exchange was every bit as enjoyable, and successful, as Part 1. The exchange is an effort to build fellowship and understanding between Irish and American children through traditional Irish music... Read more
Bill Clinton was president, Thomas Menino was in only his second year as mayor of Boston, and Bill Belichick was soon to begin the last season of an unremarkable tenure as head coach of the Cleveland Browns on the day in 1995 when Boston-area musician and... Read more
The plays and films of Martin McDonagh could hardly be called light entertainment.  From “Lonesome West” and “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” to “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” “The Pillowman,” “In Bruges” and “Seven Psychopaths,” the Irish writer often... Read more
Doyle’s Café is a Boston institution – and more to the point, a Boston Irish institution, as anyone who has seen its Irish and Irish-American memorabilia and décor can testify. So there aren’t many more appropriate venues around for a good old-fashioned... Read more
The annual “St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn” celebration hits the magic 10-year mark this year in characteristically adventurous fashion, with performances by Irish folk-roots trio The Henry Girls, hot Cape Breton quintet Còig, New England singer-... Read more
Rockin’ Road to Dublin’ The era of Irish dance-themed stage productions, which has seen “Riverdance,” “Lord of the Dance,” “Dancing on Dangerous Ground,” and “Atlantic Steps,” among others, is not over yet: Now there’s “Rockin’ Road to Dublin,” which... Read more
The Barra MacNeils, who will perform at Medford’s Chevalier Theater on March 7, have forged a hugely successful career of nearly three decades playing Celtic music, including that of their native Cape Breton. Legendary Celtic music performers The Barra... Read more
If you’re among the thousands of theatergoers who attend performances each season at Lyric Stage Company of Boston, chances are you’ve crossed paths with Nora Conley, who is both Box Office Manager and Front of House Manager at the theater. Due to the... Read more
The Press Gang (L-R, Alden Robinson, Chris Stevens and Owen Marshall) performing at last fall’s Dorchester Irish Heritage Festival. Sean Smith photo If you were a fellow in the prime of life back about, oh, a couple of hundred years or so in the British... Read more
Ronan Noone To find yourself preparing for the world premiere of a play you’ve written is a major undertaking.  To find yourself preparing simultaneously for the world premiere of two plays you’ve written is pretty much unheard of.   Yet that’s where... Read more
The Irish music community in Boston, and well beyond, joined in grieving the death late last year of Sean Gannon, a member of one of the area’s most well-loved musical families. Gannon, a Dorchester native, died on Nov. 26 at the age of 46. He was the son... Read more

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