Boston Irish Reporter’s Here & There

By Bill O'Donnell
September 3, 2015
Bill O'Donnell

Fine Gael, Fianna Fail in 2016 – That is a headline that a respected member of Fianna Fail is pushing, and the sentiment for change can be heard from other Soldiers of Destiny front liners.

The next election must be held before April 3 of next year, and Taoiseach and FG party leader Enda Kenny will lead and contest that election. The major question, looking ahead, is who would be a suitable junior partner with Fine Gael?

RIP: Quincy’s Beachcomber. End of an era as popular venue exits the local music scene

By Peter F. Stevens
September 3, 2015
Peter F. Stevens

Since 1959, the Beachcomber on Quincy Shore Drive has been a watering hole for patrons and the stage for some of the best traditional Irish and Irish American bands and solo artists. The news that the club has been sold and will close its doors for good at the end of September marks the end of an era for live music in and around Boston.

With the recent closing of T.T. the Bear’s, in Cambridge, and the announcement that Johnny D’s, in Somerville, will depart the music scene in early 2016 after a 46-year run, up-and-coming Irish singers and musicians will no longer have three venerable stages to use as career launching pads./

The Beachcomber’s saga began in 1959, when Jimmy McGettrick opened the club with co-owner Fred Crowley. McGettrick’s opening stake was money that he had earned by selling Christmas trees, and the price to buy the Beachcomber was $25,000. McGettrick, who bought out Crowley in 1965, was 25 when they opened the club – fittingly – on March 17, 1959. After the purchase costs, the two partners had only $285 left to stock the bar.

When he passed away in 2011 after battling brain cancer, McGettrick’s sons, Sean and Patrick, stepped in to run the club. In July, they announced that they had sold the Beachcomber to a developer who plans to tear down the building and replace it with an upscale restaurant. For countless patrons over the decades, however, there is no replacing the club and the memories of the bands and singers who raised the proverbial roof along Wollaston Beach.

Taking stock: Time for renewal in Adams Village?

By Bill Forry
September 3, 2015

A block of stores along Adams Street, shown to the right of the flags, have recently been acquired by new owners— John and Peter Lydon, who plan to make improvements to the storefronts. Bill Forry photoA block of stores along Adams Street, shown to the right of the flags, have recently been acquired by new owners— John and Peter Lydon, who plan to make improvements to the storefronts. Bill Forry photoAdams Village, a key gateway to Dorchester and a bustling crossroads of daily life, is poised for incremental but substantial improvements over the coming months and years as a new property owner is vowing to pump youthful energy and investment into the aging business district.

Civic and business leaders hope the fresh ownership will trigger a positive shift in the village scene, a monstrous collage of neon signs, clashing architecture, and just an overall shabbiness that has settled in there over the last decade.

“We’d like to see the corner come back to where it used to be,” said Sean Weir, president of the Cedar Grove Civic Association. “Most of the buildings really need some tender, loving care. Right now, there are all these neon signs; nothing matches down there. We’d like to see uniform signage and all around cleanliness. It looks so congested and dirty.”

New confidence leads to lots of smiles in Dublin

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
September 3, 2015

After visiting Ireland for a week this past June I feel I can confidently say that Dublin and most of its citizens are enjoying one big celebration of life. Spend a Saturday afternoon walking from O‘Connell Street to Grafton Street and all the way up to a bench on St. Stephen’s Green, and if at the end you don’t experience the joy and superheated heartbeat of one of the world’s happiest cities, I’d be very surprised.

Quinnipiac’s Lahey: ‘Famine’ account is a ‘mis-told’ story

Ed Forry
By Ed Forry
September 3, 2015

Quinnipiac University president Dr. John Lahey was educated as a philosopher, and landed in professional academia in the 1970s as a vice president at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, with special skills in development and fund raising.

In 1987, he answered the call from Quinnipiac and relocated to Connecticut at age 40 to become one of the youngest college presidents in the country.

Stonehill names professorship in honor of Richard Finnegan, longtime teacher, Dot native

By BIR News Room
September 3, 2015

Stonehill College has instituted the Distinguished Richard B. Finnegan Professorship in Political Science and International Relations in honor of the Dorchester native who earned his BA from Stonehill in 1964 and returned to the campus in Easton in 1968 as a member of the Political Science Department.

Evans brothers, Globe CEO, Eire Society stalwart named 2015 Boston Irish Honorees

By BIR News Room
September 3, 2015

The 6th annual Boston Irish Honors luncheon will take place on Fri., Oct. 23, at 11:45 a.m. at the Seaport Hotel/Boston World Trade Center. The celebratory gathering will also mark the Silver Anniversary of the Boston Irish Reporter.  

The 2015 honorees are: Boston Police Commissioner William Evans and his brothers, Paul, John, Thomas and James; Mike Sheehan, chief executive officer, The Boston Globe; and Margaret Stapleton, retired vice president, John Hancock Insurance and Financial Services, past president Eire Society, and longtime Pine Street Inn volunteer.

Dot’s Fenton enters NE’s Basketball Hall

By Lauren Dezenski
September 3, 2015
Lauren Dezenski

One of the most decorated players in UMass Boston basketball history will be inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in August.

Eileen Fenton, the only women’s player in the school’s history to have her number retired, will be honored in a ceremony on Aug. 8 at the DCU Center in Worcester. The Dorchester native and current resident still holds three school records, including the single-season scoring mark of 490 points in 1989-90. She graduated from UMass Boston in 1991. She is the daughter of Willie and Mamie Fenton, who are originally from Carna, Co. Galway.

Boston’s champion currach rowers have fun while winning nationwide

By Kristina Carroll
September 3, 2015
Kristina Carroll

Anne Driscoll is a member of the Boston Irish Currach Rowing Club, which will compete in a North American regatta set for Sept. 5 at Carson Beach in South Boston. Kristina Carroll photosAnne Driscoll is a member of the Boston Irish Currach Rowing Club, which will compete in a North American regatta set for Sept. 5 at Carson Beach in South Boston. Kristina Carroll photosThe Boston Irish Currach Rowing Club, one of seven teams in the North American Currach Association, has brought a centuries-old Irish tradition to the waters of Hough’s Neck in Quincy.

While the club has had a shaky history, its founder, Joe McDonagh, says the club is doing better than ever. “I’ve been involved since I came over here about 15 years ago, and the club has been up and down over the years,” he said in an interview. “It died out there for a while, and we didn’t have a good boat, so I ended up building one myself three years ago.”

That was seven or so years after Anne Driscoll first heard about the club. “I had read a story in the Boston Globe in like 2003, and had it in mind that I wanted to do this. And then when I called, it was probably 2005 or 2006, when I really had time to devote to it, I found out that the team had disbanded,” she said. “Everybody had headed back to Ireland because the Celtic Tiger was going on.”

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