Cat and the Moon’s music is the result of ‘the conversation we have with one another’

By Sean Smith
March 31, 2016
Sean Smith

Cat and the Moon members (L-R) Elias Alexander, Eamon Sefton, Charles Berthoud, Ricky Mier and Kathleen Parks met while studying at the Berklee College of Music.Cat and the Moon members (L-R) Elias Alexander, Eamon Sefton, Charles Berthoud, Ricky Mier and Kathleen Parks met while studying at the Berklee College of Music.The band’s name is taken from the title of a William Butler Yeats poem. Its co-founder is a protégé of renowned Sligo-style fiddler Brian Conway, one member has taught at the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle Camp, and another is a dynamic, peripatetic bagpiper. And over the past few years, the band has become a fixture at Greater Boston Irish/Celtic venues and events like The Burren, the Irish Culture Centre of New England’s annual festival, and BCMFest.

Don’t pigeonhole local quintet Cat and the Moon into the “Celtic” category, though. It’s just not that simple.

For one thing, there’s an unmistakable bluegrass strain running through their music, evident in the rolling cadence of five-string banjo and backing-on-the-offbeat by guitar. But wait a minute – now they’re playing a jazz/funk mash-up, in the Bela Fleck/”Newgrass” style, an electric bass line walking along the melody, and percussion accentuating the rhythm. And then they shift gears again, and tear through a bona-fide traditional Irish reel. Hey, did they just play Bach?

DUBLIN ABLAZE ‘Another Boston Tea Party or Battle of Lexington’? News of the Rising hits Boston’s papers in April 1916

By Peter F. Stevens
March 31, 2016
Peter F. Stevens

Patrick PearsePatrick Pearse

Fourth of four parts.

One hundred years ago, on Wed., April 26, 1916, shock and excitement gripped Boston’s Irish neighborhoods. Readers collectively gasped that day at the Boston Globe’s morning-edition headline: “Serious Revolt Rises in Dublin – Armed Sinn Fein Men Fought British Troops.”

The rebels had proclaimed “the birth of the Irish Republic.”

The dramatic story of the Easter Rising, which had been raging in Dublin since Monday, had finally reached Boston, and for the next few weeks, the city’s Irish pored over the Globe’s, the Herald’s, and other local newspapers’ front-page coverage of the valiant but ill-fated revolt led against the British by Padraig Pearse, James Connolly, and other rebels.

‘WHAT WOULD YOU DO?’ In “Rebellion,” writer and co-producer Colin Teevan challenges the audience to ponder what they would have done amid the Rising

By Peter F. Stevens
March 31, 2016
Peter F. Stevens

The three-night series Rebellion premieres on SundanceTV on April 24. The cast includes, from left: May Lacy, Elizabeth Butler, Jimmy Mahon and Frances O’Flaherty. Image courtesy SundanceTVThe three-night series Rebellion premieres on SundanceTV on April 24. The cast includes, from left: May Lacy, Elizabeth Butler, Jimmy Mahon and Frances O’Flaherty. Image courtesy SundanceTV
A history-from-the-top-down approach focuses on the leaders and prominent players in epochal events and movements, and a history-from-the-ground-up approach presents so-called ordinary people swept up in the bigger picture. In “Rebellion,” a five-part RTE miniseries airing this month on Sundance TV, the 1916 Easter Rising unfolds through the latter approach. The ambitious series, with its six million euro price tag standin as RTE’s most expensive docudrama, was filmed in Dublin in 2015.

The series opens with the eruption of World War I, and as the cataclysmic conflict deepens and Irish are cut down in droves on the Western Front, viewers experience the events largely in Dublin, Belfast, and London through the prism of three young women along with their families, friends, and lovers. All are juxtaposed against the gathering turmoil of the push for Irish independence. Idealism, tangled loyalties to family and social, cultural, and political tradition, raw opportunism – all of these themes others loom large in the production.

Directed by Finnish native Aku Louhimies and written and co-produced by Colin Teevan, “Rebellion” features a strong cast and some vivid performances. Notable among the stars are Charlie Murphy, Brian Gleeson, and Ruth Bradley – all well-known to many viewers from their turns in “Love/Hate” – and Sarah Greene, of “Penny Dreadful.”

Murphy plays medical student Elizabeth Butler, whose family and fiancé are determined to show their support for both the British war effort and for Home Rule. She goes in a decidedly different direction by joining the women rebels led by Countess Constance Markievicz. Their mission is to seize and hold Stephen’s Green and set up headquarters in the Royal College of Surgeons during the Rising. Gleeson is Jimmy Mahon, an Irish Citizen Army man in love with Elizabeth.

Trump as president would present clear and present danger to our union

By James W. Dolan
March 31, 2016
James W. Dolan

The decline of a nation usually is the result of internal forces that undermine its strength and confidence. The likely nomination of Donald Trump and the possibility of his being elected president is more than alarming; it’s perilous. I have lived under thirteen presidents and during seven wars. The election of Trump represents a clear and present danger to our union like no other I have seen.

The Irish government in crisis: The good news, the bad news

By Joe Leary
March 31, 2016
Joe Leary

Irish voters may have shot themselves in the foot in the Parliamentary election in late February. In the wake of the catastrophic recession of the last decade, Ireland seems to be confused about which of its political parties and which of its politicians it wants to lead the country into its immediate future.

They have not chosen a workable government and it may be necessary to vote again in a month or two if a major compromise cannot be achieved by the hodgepodge of political parties and independents who were elected.

Jibes top menu at Southie’s St. Patrick’s breakfast

By Jennifer Smith, Reporter Staff
March 31, 2016
Jennifer Smith, Reporter Staff

The annual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast at the convention center last Sunday delivered laughs, groans, and an enduring image of Mayor Martin Walsh wearing a dense, pseudo-fur coat that seems destined to grace screensavers across the city.

State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, hosting the annual event for the third time, led the way through a chortle-and-cringe-worthy set befitting the breakfast’s hallowed and awkward tradition of top state and city elected officials trying their hands at comedy, but surely relieved that they have less joke-reliant day jobs.

Rev. Bartley MacPháidín, at 79; Built up Stonehill College for 22 years

By BIR News Room
March 31, 2016

The Rev. Bartley MacPháidín, C.S.C., Stonehill College’s eighth and longest serving president, passed away on March 17 at age 79. In recent years, he had been living at Holy Cross House on the grounds of the University of Notre Dame. 

His funeral Mass was said at Stonehill on Wednesday morning, March 30.

Fr. MacPháidín took office in 1978 and led the college for 22 years. Under his leadership, Stonehill’s academic reputation grew dramatically and the college’s facilities and endowment were enhanced considerably.  Fr. MacPháidín affected every facet of Stonehill life, including academics, finances, physical plant, community involvement, student life, and public image. 

“Fr. Bartley was a dynamic president.  The college grew dramatically under his leadership.  He rallied alumni and friends to the Stonehill cause and translated that affection into a powerful instrument in moving the college forward. As a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, he was dedicated to the college and that deep commitment was evident in how he transformed the college academically, aesthetically, and financially, ” said Stonehill President (Rev.) John Denning, C.S.C. “Affable and with a natural instinct for making connections and building relationships, Father Bartley always understood the importance of vision and how to secure it, shaping Stonehill into a vibrant community of scholarship and faith,” Fr. Denning added.”

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