Irish Heritage Festival '13

Dorchester’s Irish Heritage Festival is back for its fourth year, with a full slate of Irish music and dance performances, family entertainment, and cultural activities, as well as food and vendor booths. The festival will take place on Oct. 12 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Florian Hall (55 Hallet Street) and the John McKeon Post AmVets 146 (4 Hilltop St.); there will be a suggested donation at the entrance of $5 per person, or $20 per family, to support the event.

Among the acts appearing this year will be acclaimed Maine-based traditional Irish trio The Press Gang; innovative dancer and choreographer Brian Cunningham; Medford resident George Keith, a mainstay of Boston’s Irish music scene; and TR Dallas, one of Ireland’s best-known country singers.

The mayor in Clifden: Marty Walsh made a new friend in Henry Kenneally, 75, in Lowry's Pub on Saturday, Sept. 21. Photo by Bill ForryGALWAY, Ireland – For a few hours last Saturday, Marty Walsh was just another Yank on holiday, enjoying the sights and sounds of Clifden, one of Co. Galway’s loveliest and liveliest towns.  Your mayor had just enjoyed a sailboat ride and a quiet lunch with his partner Lorrie Higgins and two other traveling companions.

Now, as he strolled through the scenic village with other tourists, he was incognito in blue jeans, sneakers, and an old-school Red Sox ball cap; mercifully, he was off the grid, stopping to buy scones and desserts for his mother at a local bakery called Walsh’s.

The respite would not last long.

Later that evening, he began a series of public events with a Mass celebrated in his mother’s home village of Rosmuc, followed by a reception that went late into the night.

The first five days of Walsh’s first trip abroad as mayor were a blur of bonfires, parties, church services, and endless photo opportunities— with the mayor getting rock star treatment at every stop. In a few places, the frenzy to get photos with him was such that he had to be hustled into a waiting car, often by his cousin, Winnie Curran, a Boston Police sergeant who is accompanying the mayor on the trip.

View a gallery of images from the Mayor's visit to the West of Ireland.

Minister Paschal Donohoe, TD: Hailed latest US-Ireland tourism stats in remarks to a luncheon sponsored by the Irish American Partnership on Fri., Sept. 26 in Boston. Photo by Harry Brett

Ireland's chief tourism minister today hailed newly released figures showing a big jump in summer tourists from the United States as the latest indicator of a recovering economic situation in the country. Paschal Donohoe, TD, who serves as the Minister of Transport, Tourism and Sport told a Boston lunch gathering of the Irish American Partnership that he had just been given figures this morning that show that US tourist visits between June and August 2014 was up roughly 18 percent over the previous year— a figure that is approximate to about 450,000 new tourists.

"We've had about one-fifth more American tourists this summer," said Donohoe, who told the luncheon audience at the Boston Harbor Hotel that he had been awakened to the good news in a text message. Donohoe is visiting the US this week as part of a Tourism Ireland tour to key American cities.

"The reason why it's all happening is that we have a private sector who have responded to the challenge of putting together a touring offering that is second to none," said Minister Donohoe, who pointed to the statistical leap as the latest in a string of indicators of a resurgent Irish economy. Ireland has added 70,000 jobs over the last year at a pace of about 1,000 per week, Donohoe noted.
Latest projections show the Irish economy growing at a rate of about 4.5 percent, he said.