Celebrated performers this month in Irish music

By Sean Smith
June 29, 2017
Sean Smith

July will see some celebrated female Irish/Celtic acts come to Greater Boston and vicinity:

• Mary Black, one of Ireland’s most influential and accomplished female singers, will bring her “Last Call” tour to Eastern Massachusetts this month with two performances, on July 27 at Scituate’s River Club Music Hall [theriverclubmusichall.com] and July 29 at the Cabot Theater in Beverly [thecabot.org]. Black announced a few years ago that she would wind down her performances abroad, but decided to add a second leg to her US tour. The Dublin native first rose to prominence in the 1980s as a solo singer as well as a member of the traditional band De Dannan. Her albums “By the Time It Gets Dark” and “No Frontiers” established her as an international star of folk, contemporary, and traditional genres, and led to her appearance on the landmark compilation recording “A Woman’s Heart,” along with other pioneering Irish female artists like Maura O’Connell and Dolores Keane. She has accumulated numerous honors from, among others, Irish Music Magazine, The Irish Post and Hot Press Awards.

• Another featured performer on “A Woman’s Heart,” Sharon Shannon, will play at the Irish Cultural Centre of New England in Canton on July 8. Over more than two decades, Shannon has taken the Irish accordion into many different settings, from traditional to Appalachian, country, rock, hip-hop, reggae, French-Canadian, and Portuguese music. She has collaborated with such luminaries as Christy Moore, Jackson Browne, Sinead O’Connor and, perhaps most memorably, Steve Earle on his hit song “Galway Girl.” Shannon recently released the album “Sacred Earth.” For information on the concert, see irishculture.org

For the fiddler Hanneke Cassel, Walden Pond has a special place in her heart, and in her music

By Sean Smith
June 29, 2017
Sean Smith

Hanneke Cassel has now spent half her life in Boston, and it’s fair to say she has made the most of that time: anchoring Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton sessions in and around the city; performing at venues such as Johnny D’s, Somerville Theater and Club Passim, and in special events like “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn,” the ICONS (Irish Connections) Festival, BCMFest, and shows with the Childsplay fiddle ensemble; and doing her part to inspire and mentor the next generation of Celtic fiddlers through lessons, workshops, and, especially, the annual Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle Camp.

Broadway’s Ciarán Sheehan analyzes his ‘Show Boat’ role

By R.J. Donovan
June 29, 2017
R.J. Donovan

Last summer, Broadway’s Ciarán Sheehan delivered a heartfelt performance as Billy Bigelow in “Carousel” at Reagle Music Theatre in Waltham. This month, the acclaimed Dublin-born actor, singer, producer, healer returns to Reagle from July 6-16 to star as dashing Gaylord Ravenal in the timeless Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein musical, “Show Boat.”  Boston’s Sarah Oakes Muirhead co-stars as Gaylord’s love interest, Magnolia.

Looking around, legendary fiddler Tommy Peoples says this: ‘If music is played as it could or should, it’s got everything’

By Sean Smith
June 29, 2017
Sean Smith

For fiddler Tommy Peoples, a key figure in the late 20th-century Irish music revival, Boston was a relatively brief but enjoyable interlude in a long and productive career.

A Donegal native, Peoples was an original member of The Bothy Band, appearing on its first album. He was involved in other seminal recordings of the era, including a 1977 release with Matt Molloy and Paul Brady and Brady’s “Welcome Here Kind Stranger” in 1978. He also made several of his own albums, among them “The High Part of the Road” (with Brady), “A Traditional Experience with Tommy Peoples” and “The Iron Man.” In 1998, TG4 presented him with its first Traditional Musician of the Year Award and honored him again in 2013 as Composer of the Year.

Respiratory problems forced Peoples to give up fiddling several years ago, but he has now released a concert album recorded in 2005 – at the tail end of his four-year stay in the Boston-area community of Malden. It’s a period on which Peoples looks back fondly: In a recent email from Donegal, where he returned after his time in Boston, he recalled playing music at favorite sessions in area pubs like Kitty O’Shea’s, The Burren, The Druid, O’Leary’s, Matt Murphy’s, and O’Neill’s – and with a long list of friends and acquaintances.

Billy Higgins’ charitable work in Boston and Ireland in the name of love for kids who enjoy the benefits

By BIR News Room
June 29, 2017

BOSTON – Billy Higgins of South Boston returned from Ireland recently warmed by the wonderful reception he received in County Donegal where he presented a check for $20,000 to the Patient Social Fund of the Ballaghderg Preschool for children with special needs including moderate to severe intellectual disabilities and complex care needs.

The check was given on behalf of the Southill Children’s Fund of Boston which Billy founded in the early 1980s to help students in Southill, Limerick, Ireland.

The Globe is going back home

By Tom Mulvoy
June 29, 2017
Tom Mulvoy

In the wee hours of Mon., May 12, 1958, the roar of printing presses and the revving of truck engines announced the arrival of The Globe Newspaper Co. at its new home, 135 Morrissey Blvd. in Dorchester. For the previous 86 years, right up to the day before the move, the Globe had sent its editions, The Daily Globe in the morning, the Evening Globe in the afternoon, and The Sunday Globe, to its readers throughout New England from a venerable building on over-trafficked Newspaper Row on Washington Street in downtown Boston where the paper had been born in 1872.

Ireland and the Forrys: Deep connections lure us back

Ed Forry
By Ed Forry
June 29, 2017

My niece and her family from Atlanta just returned after a whirlwind 12-day visit to Ireland. It was a first-ever visit to their ancestral homeland, and, like most first-time visitors, they spent much of their days traveling in a rented motorcar, East to West, South to North, taking in as much as they could of the spectacular sights of the island.

A new Taoiseach assumes office

By BIR News Room
June 29, 2017

DUBLIN (AP)– Leo Varadkar took office on June 14 as Ireland’s youngest Taoiseach, or prime minister. The son of an Indian immigrant, he is the first openly gay politician to serve in that post. “I’ve been elected to lead but I promise to serve,’’ the 38-year-old doctor said.
Varadkar defeated rival Simon Coveney in a contest to replace Enda Kenny, who resigned. Coveney won the votes of a majority of party members, but Varadkar was backed by enough lawmakers to give him victory under the center-right Fine Gael party’s electoral college system.

With a Brighton man under arrest, Irish community on a nervous watch

By Ed Forry
June 29, 2017

Boston’s Irish community is on edge after the arrest by immigration police of a Brighton businessman who was charged with being an undocumented immigrant.

John Cunningham, the 38-year-old former chairman of the Boston Northeast GAA and the owner of an electrical contracting business, was charged with violating the visa waiver program, which allows foreigners to enter the US for 90 days. The Donegal native is said to have come to Boston in 2000 under the program, and has lived in this country without documentation since that time.

Hurling returns to Fenway in November

By Jonathan Innocent, Reporter Correspondent
June 29, 2017
Jonathan Innocent, Reporter Correspondent

Galway vs. Dublin rematch set; Tipperary will face Clare
The AIG Fenway Hurling Classic and Irish Festival will return to Fenway Park this fall with a double header featuring four of the world’s most prominent teams. The first match on Sunday, November19, the will be a replay of the first edition of the Fenway classic in 2015 with Galway facing off against Dublin, with the Dubs looking to avenge their Boston loss. The second match is being dubbed as ‘the clash of the champions’ as 2016 National Hurling League Champions Clare will go up against 2016 All-Ireland Hurling Champions Tipperary.

At an announcement ceremony, hosted on the diamond at Fenway Park, executives from each of the partnering companies were present to express their enthusiasm for bringing the exciting sport of Hurling to Fenway.

Speaking on behalf of the Red Sox organization was club president Sam Kennedy, who remembered his experience watching Hurling for the first time during the 2015 Classic match between Galway and Dublin.

“The game was incredibly entertaining and I think our fans reactions, about 27,000 of them, indicated how excited they were about what transpired,” said Kennedy.

Pages

Subscribe to Boston Irish RSS