Mary McAleese, Anne Anderson to headline IrishAP January Breakfast

By BIR Newsroom
November 4, 2018
BIR Newsroom

Nollaig na mBan, or Women’s Christmas, is held each year in January throughout Ireland to celebrate women’s leadership within the family and community. The Irish American Partnership will commemorate this tradition with a breakfast highlighting Irish-American female leaders and the positive impact they have worldwide.
The 2019 breakfast will feature Mary McAleese, 8th President of Ireland in conversation with Anne Anderson, Former Ambassador of Ireland to the US.

TALKING TURKEY Fact or fiction about the mythic Feast of the Pilgrims?

By
November 2, 2018

Seasonal images of the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians gathered at long wooden tables piled with platters of food abound. You might think that Thanksgiving traditions do not reflect anything Irish, but you would be wrong in that assumption. In fact, several scholars contend that without the Irish, the first Thanksgiving might never have happened.

You can vote to eliminate the smell from the Washington sewer

By Joe Leary
November 2, 2018
Joe Leary

Washington, DC, has been called a swamp by many people, but it has now descended into sewer status and its smell is spreading throughout the world. Take for examples the horrendous personal conduct of the president, the Republican hypocrisy on the making of the rising deficit, the complete politicization of our immigration policy, and the disgraceful Kavanaugh hearings last month.

November CD Reviews

By Sean Smith, Special to the BIR
November 2, 2018
Sean Smith, Special to the BIR

Altan, “The Gap of Dreams” • One of Donegal’s greatest natural resources returns to the firmament with this, its 13th studio album. Where Altan’s previous release, “The Widening Gyre” (2015), was Irish-Americana fusion (with guest stars like Alison Brown, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Boston’s own Darol Anger), “The Gap of Dreams” is a paean to the group’s birthplace and celebrates the indispensability of music, songs, dance, and stories to past generations coping with the demands of rural life, as well as famine, conflict and emigration.

A ‘Wrong’ Play That’s Comically Right

By R. J. Donovan
November 2, 2018
R. J. Donovan

by R. J. Donovan
Special to the BIR

From the time he was a small boy growing up in Marblehead, Lucas McMahon set his sights on becoming a commercial theatrical producer. Even when he was performing in a show, he was focused on what was going on backstage, behind the scenes.

This month, Lucas returns to Boston as a co-producer of the national tour of “The Play That Goes Wrong,” coming to The Emerson Colonial Theatre from Nov. 7 to Nov. 18.

Into caves? Then Doolin Cave in Clare is a must-place to visit

By Ed Forry
November 2, 2018

If you have ever visited the magical, mystical Burren in Co. Clare, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that there’s nearly as much going on in places beneath the karst landscape as there is above ground.

DOOLIN CAVE
One such place is just north of the village of Doolin on the Wild Atlantic Way. In 1952, two young men who were visiting Ireland with an expedition from the Craven Hill Potholing Club in England’s Yorkshire Dales discovered a cave while exploring the Burren.

Says Jarlath Henderson, MD, and musician: ‘I love trauma – that’s why I sing about it’

By Sean Smith, Special to the BIR
November 2, 2018
Sean Smith, Special to the BIR

It’s not just the regular influx of high-profile, established acts – Lúnasa, Dervish, The Chieftains, Altan – that make Greater Boston such an Irish/Celtic music fan’s dream. Area venues also frequently host performers who have attained a solid following at home, and are looking to do the same in the US, like Róisín O, The Maguires, Connla, and JigJam.

A TALE OF TWO IRISH AMERICANS: US Sen. Susan Collins has faith that Kavanaugh will keep his word

By Peter F. Stevens, BIR Staff
November 2, 2018
Peter F. Stevens, BIR Staff

“Trust” them. If you have a preexisting condition, your fate may literally rest in the hands of an Irish American judge whom an Irish-American senator sent to the US Supreme Court with her pivotal confirmation vote. That senator, Susan Collins, of Maine, trusts that Judge Kavanaugh will keep his word. After all, he “assured” her face to face that he would never, ever vote to strike down mandated coverage for preexisting conditions nor to chip away at Roe v. Wade.

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