Out of Order- Belfast Orangeman issues 'warning' on speaking Irish language

By Bill O'Donnell
February 27, 2014
Bill O'Donnell

By Bill O’Donnell
Orange Order’s Ignorance Not Helpful – The Derry Journal was spot on when they criticized a senior Orangeman for issuing a “word of warning” to Protestants against learning the Irish language. The Belfast County Grand Master, George Chittick, claimed that speaking Irish was “part of the republican agenda.” The Journal editorial on Feb. 17 called the Orange warning “disgraceful and unsurprising” and ill-informed about Ireland’s native language.

For Boston and Ireland’s West, a better connection

Ed Forry
By Ed Forry
February 27, 2014

By Ed Forry
Even as officials of Tourism Ireland count up the successes of last year’s promotion for “The Gathering Ireland/2013,” the island of Ireland government is gearing up for a new way to encourage North American visitors to put the Emerald Isle into their travel plans. The big tourism push this year centers around the designation of Limerick as Ireland’s “City of Culture Year.” This year alone, the city expects to be the venue for some 200 performances and exhibitions.

The senator is preparing breakfast- History in the making: Dorcena Forry to host St. Patrick’s Day fete

By Ed Forry
February 27, 2014

Congressman Stephen F. Lynch and Rep. Nick Collins joined State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry and Dorchester’s Donna Gittens, left, at Castle Island in South Boston on Sunday as the elected officials filmed video in preparation for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast. Forry will host the event on March 16. Photo courtesy Sen. Forry’s officeCongressman Stephen F. Lynch and Rep. Nick Collins joined State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry and Dorchester’s Donna Gittens, left, at Castle Island in South Boston on Sunday as the elected officials filmed video in preparation for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast. Forry will host the event on March 16. Photo courtesy Sen. Forry’s office

On Sun., March 16, the date of this year’s traditional St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast in South Boston, state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry will make history. Her first turn as the host of the much-ballyhooed event will provide a political, cultural, and gender “hat trick” at a venue in South Boston that has always been where the Boston Irish “boyos” ruled the podium. As a Haitian American woman, a resident of Dorchester, and the first non-Irish-American host, Dorcena Forry will turn three stereotypes of the breakfast on their heads.

Seamus Heaney tribute planned April 13 at Bridgewater State

By Bill O'Donnell
February 4, 2014
Bill O'Donnell

On Aug. 30 last year, the world lost one of its greatest literary figures, the poet, writer, and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney. Although he hailed from Ireland, Heaney spent many years in the Boston/Cambridge area, a number of them as Harvard University’s Boylston Professor. He made many friends in his years here, doing poetry readings and participating as a valued member of the local community. He was a popular figure at many area universities, including Bridgewater State and Boston State, where he developed close and lasting friendships with students and faculty.

Walsh: Compromise still possible in South Boston parade impasse

By Gintautas Dumcius
February 1, 2014
Gintautas Dumcius

Mayor Marty Walsh said during a radio appearance on Friday there are ongoing discussions about including pro-LGBT groups in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in South Boston. In an interview on WGBH’s “Boston Public Radio,” Walsh said he was hopeful that a compromise can be worked out, since there are fifty-plus days before the parade starts in March.

BCM Fest Thrills 1,100

By Sean Smith
January 31, 2014
Sean Smith

The 11th annual BCMFest (January 10 and 11) drew more than 1,100 people to Harvard Square to see some of the Boston area’s best Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton musicians, dancers and singers. The festival, a program of Passim, began the night of January 10 with the “Roots & Branches” Concert in Club Passim and the Boston Urban Ceilidh down the street at The Atrium; both events were sold out.

L.A.’s Abarta has found a new home in a place where ‘things are going on’

By Sean Smith
January 31, 2014
Sean Smith

Piper a fixture in local music scene
BY SEAN SMITH
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
Coming to Boston represented both a commitment and a leap of faith for Joey Abarta.
By his early 20s, the Los Angeles native was already an accomplished uilleann piper, having toured with the likes of Mick Moloney and Athena Tergis. But if he was going to make Irish music his full-time vocation – and all manner of signposts and tea leaves seemed to indicate this was what he should do – he knew that, as his friends told him, “I needed to be where things were going on.”

Leigh Barrett up for challenge in Sondheim’s ‘Company’

By R.J. Donovan
January 31, 2014
R.J. Donovan

BY R. J. DONOVAN
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
With wit and neurotic comedy, Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” stirred things up when it premiered on Broadway in 1970 following an out-of-town tryout right here at Boston’s Shubert Theatre.
Lacking a linear storyline, it was one of the first “concept” musicals. Written as a series of vignettes focusing on the reality of adult relationships, the show appears to have no chronological order. And unlike many traditional musicals, it steers clear of delivering up a tidy “happily-ever-after” ending.

For Irish American Partnership, 2013 was truly a year to remember

By Joe Leary
January 31, 2014
Joe Leary

BY JOE LEARY
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
Public documents to be filed with the IRS and many state agencies throughout the United States reveal that The Irish American Partnership headquartered here in Boston raised nearly $900,000 in the year 2013, a 25 percent increase over 2012.
Expenses were less than 20 percent, allowing for more than $700,000 to be sent to education and community groups in Ireland. The Partnership concentrates its support on smaller schools in rural Ireland, with a focus on school library building and science teaching materials.

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