It’s opening night for Disney’s “Aladdin” at The Boston Opera House. A distinguished looking gentleman with silver hair stands in the lobby with friends. Several thousand ticket holders pass by him, never realizing the subtle impact he’ll have on their evening.
That gentleman, Tim Montgomery, is president and CEO of New Venture Media Group, publishers of Playbill Magazine in Boston.
Superstar Irish accordionist and visionary Sharon Shannon’s return to The Burren Backroom series highlights this month’s offerings of Irish/Celtic music in the Greater Boston area (and vicinity).
The Irish Cultural Centre located in Canton, MA is a mecca for touring Irish musicians, dancers and up and coming Irish band. At their recent festival they hosted Ireland’s leading bluegrass group “JigJam” and Super trad group from Galway “BackWest.”
Medford native Eric McDonald, 31, has become one of the more prolific performers in the Boston and New England folk/traditional music scene. Now based in Portland, Me., McDonald – an accomplished guitarist, mandolinist and vocalist – has played in a duo with Scottish/Cape Breton-style fiddler Katie McNally and as a member of contra dance trio Matching Orange, among many other collaborations, and more recently in Irish/Celtic trio Daymark and the long-running Scottish band Cantrip. He’ll be appearing with the latter group on Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. as part of The Burren’s Backroom series.
Funeral services were held on July 20 at St. Theresa church in West Roxbury for Gobnait Conneely, who died on July 11 after a long illness. A native of Mervue in Galway, where as a young woman she was crowned “Miss Galway,” Ms. Conneely emigrated to Boston in 1982 at the age of 21, and was undocumented for more than 10 years. In the 1990s she received a “Donnelly Visa” and later became a US citizen, an event she said was “one the proudest moments of my life.”
The Catholic parishes of South Boston will join together in celebrating the rich history of St. Augustine Chapel & Cemetery beginning on Sept. 15, with a 4 p.m. Mass celebrated by Cardinal Sean O’Malley. The chapel, now in the care of the Gate of Heaven and St. Brigid Parish Collaborative, is still a very active worship site celebrating funerals, baptisms, weddings and a weekly Saturday vigil Mass.
By Colin A Young, State House News Service July 31, 2018
Colin A Young, State House News Service
As it tries to steady its ship amid myriad controversies, the Massachusetts State Police announced late last month that it is bringing former secretary of public safety and Boston Police commissioner Kathleen O’Toole on board as a management consultant. O’Toole will work on a pro bono basis to counsel State Police Col. Kerry Gilpin on the “recruitment of qualified and diverse candidates for employment and professional development and leadership training for existing personnel,” among other issues.
Make no mistake: Christine Hatch, Aisling Keating, Melinda Kerwin, and Nancy Beaudette are grown-up women, with families and jobs and other adult stuff like that.
But every so often, the four are happy just to be girls.
Kelly Girls, that is.
Marking the end of an era in local law enforcement, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans retired from the Boston force on July 30 to begin a new position as executive director of public safety at Boston College. Mayor Martin Walsh named a black officer, Superintendent-in-Chief William Gross, as the new commissioner of the 2,200-officer Boston Police Department.