Youth will be served – again – at ‘St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn’

By Sean Smith
March 1, 2016
Sean Smith

Boston-based uilleann piper Joey Abarta will be part of the cast in the 2016 “A St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn.”Boston-based uilleann piper Joey Abarta will be part of the cast in the 2016 “A St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn.”Over its first decade, “A St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn” has made a point of featuring performers representing the younger generation of Irish, Scottish, and other Celtic music and dance traditions. And there’s even more of a “youth movement” to this year’s show – the 11th edition – which will take place on March 19 and 20 in Sanders Theatre at Harvard University in Cambridge, with additional performances at Worcester’s Hanover Theatre (March 17) and Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford (March 18).

The 2016 line-up includes The Outside Track, a “pan-Celtic” band with Irish, Scottish, and Cape Breton influences; Newfoundland traditional ballad singer Matthew Byrne; Boston-based uilleann piper Joey Abarta; and 13-year-old Haley Richardson, already established as an up-and-coming fiddler.

National Heritage Fellowship winner Kevin Doyle and the Miller Family, a trio of New England siblings, will provide the show’s dance component, while Vermont guitarist-vocalist Keith Murphy will once again serve as music director.

“When you gather musicians, singers, and dancers of this stripe, it’s often a let-down to just do one performance,” says the show’s creator and host, WGBH-FM broadcaster Brian O’Donovan. “So it’s nice to be able to add an extra date at Sanders Theatre, as well as once more go on the road, to Worcester and New Bedford. One of the things I love about the experience is the friendships and collaborations that result from ‘Celtic Sojourn,’ and I’m sure there will be plenty to come from this year.”

BC to host conference, concert to mark the Rising

By BIR News Room
March 1, 2016

Boston College will host two major events this month to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising: an international conference, “Easter 1916: A Terrible Beauty Is Born,” during March 18-20; and an Easter Rising Commemorative Concert on March 28.

The events, both free and open to the public, are part of BC’s yearlong observance of the centenary of the Rising, widely regarded as a turning point in Ireland’s struggle to gain independence from the British.

BC vs. Georgia Tech in Aer Lingus Football Classic Sat., Sept. 3, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

By BIR News Room
March 1, 2016

The Eagles of Boston College will kick off their 2016 football season in Dublin on Sept. 3 against the formidable Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech. The game in Aviva Stadium will mark the BC team’s second visit to Ireland; in 1988 the Eagles defeated , 38-24, in front of a crowd of 42,000 in the old Lansdowne Road stadium.  It is expected that 25,000 fans will travel from the US and Europe to take in the event this fall.

March Here & There

By Bill O’Donnell
March 1, 2016
Bill O’Donnell

The Popes And Their Special Friends – The news that broke recently about Pope John Paul II’s close relationship with a Polish-born American philosopher, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, revealed a rarely seen private side to Karol Wojtyla, who died in 2005. The newly released letters exchanged between the pontiff and the married woman provide a closer look at the 30-year tie that existed between the two.

‘THE NAME KNOWN TO ALL FRIENDS OF IRISH FREEDOM’ The day when De Valera hailed a New Bedford sea captain

By Peter F. Stevens
March 1, 2016
Peter F. Stevens

In mid-February 1920, people had gathered around a simple gravestone in a New Bedford cemetery where a tall, thin, bespectacled man bent down to lay a wreath in front of the marker. Etched on the face of the stone was the name of “George S. Anthony,” once captain of the whaling bark Catalpa.

Mayor Walsh reflects on the Rising

By Martin J. Walsh, Mayor of Boston
March 1, 2016
Martin J. Walsh, Mayor of Boston

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh and Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal spoke at a Boston College forum – “Reflections on the 100th Anniversary of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising” – on Feb. 22 in Gasson Hall on the BC campus. They were welcomed by the Rev. Oliver P. Rafferty, a Jesuit priest and director of B.C.’s Irish Studies Program. Following are excerpts from Walsh’s remarks:

Irish American Partnership supports Irish push to enhance science education

By Joe Leary
March 1, 2016
Joe Leary

Over the past 10 years Boston’s Irish American Partnership has sent more than $800,000 to support Ireland’s emphasis on science education for its young people who, 30 to 50 years from now, will be guiding the country’s future.

A strong educational system that produces first class scientists, serious thinkers, and aggressive businessmen and women will help to insure Ireland’s place in our competitive changing world.

The Partnership’s nationwide base of donors is providing ongoing funding for science teaching research, teacher training, and science- teaching materials.

Green is very much in for St. Patrick’s Day

Ed Forry
By Ed Forry
March 1, 2016

The stunning success of the Galway/Dublin Irish Hurling match at Fenway Park has left its imprint on the old ballyard at the Fens.
There was a definite tint of Irish green there last November as almost 30,000 spectators watched the hurlers on a rainy Sunday afternoon just hours after the stadium was packed for a Saturday night match football game between Boston College and the “Fighting Irish” squad from Notre Dame.

Greenhills Bakery marking 25 years with monthly donations

By Bill Forry
March 1, 2016

Members of the Youth Board of Directors of the Martin Richard Foundation gratefully acknowledge a $1,000 check donated to the foundation by Dermot and Cindy Quinn of Greenhills Irish Bakery. The Youth Board’s next project will be producing Easter baskets for homeless kids in Dorchester. Front row, from left: Jane Richard and Peter Datish. Middle: Annie Jackson, Denise Richard, Ava O’Brien, Liley Damatin, Jack Burke, Cindy Quinn. Back: Dermot Quinn, Henry Richard, Bill Richard.Members of the Youth Board of Directors of the Martin Richard Foundation gratefully acknowledge a $1,000 check donated to the foundation by Dermot and Cindy Quinn of Greenhills Irish Bakery. The Youth Board’s next project will be producing Easter baskets for homeless kids in Dorchester. Front row, from left: Jane Richard and Peter Datish. Middle: Annie Jackson, Denise Richard, Ava O’Brien, Liley Damatin, Jack Burke, Cindy Quinn. Back: Dermot Quinn, Henry Richard, Bill Richard.

Greenhills Irish Bakery in Dorchester’s Adams Village is marking a quarter-century in business this year by donating $1,000 per month to local charities. They started with a hometown favorite: The Martin Richard Foundation, named in memory of the eight-year-old Dorchester boy who was killed in the 2013 Boston Marathon attack.

Greenhills’ owners Dermot and Cindy Quinn presented a check on Feb. 25 to Bill and Denise Richard and members of the foundation’s Youth Board of Directors, including Martin’s siblings, Henry and Jane. The board is now working on a project to make Easter baskets for homeless kids in the neighborhood.

The Quinns opened their Dorchester store in 1993, but their business began in 1990 when Dermot started making brown breads in his South Boston apartment using his grandmother’s secret recipe from County Offaly.

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