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.

‘Oh, Yo-Yo Ma, the pipes, the pipes are calling…’

By Bill Forry
January 31, 2014
Bill Forry

One of the more memorable moments of Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s inauguration ceremony at Boston College’s Conte Forum on Jan. 6 occurred during a musical interlude featuring Yo-Yo Ma, the 59-year-old Chinese American cellist who lives in Cambridge. Many in the audience anticipated that Ma might seek to tickle the mayor-elect’s Irish heartstrings, given that the official program book promised a “traditional Irish melody” as part of his medley, which also included George Crumb’s Toccata and Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3.

This is the Marty Walsh we know

By Bill Forry
January 31, 2014
Bill Forry

BY BILL FORRY
BIR EDITOR
On Jan. 6, the city and the region got its first extended glimpse of the political leader whom we’ve come to know, simply, as Marty. It was a good first impression and a reminder of why he won last fall: People want to like him.
They also want him to get better— to achieve more than even they thought he could. They still do. Like every one of us, he’s a work in progress. And that has been the case with him since Day One of his move into politics.

IRISHMEN at the CORE-3 stalwarts pass away

By BIR Staff Reports
January 31, 2014
BIR Staff Reports

Dr. William T. O’Connell of Duxbury, a podiatrist who was known to many as Dr. Bill, led an active life well into his 80s. He traveled extensively, touring Russia and South America, among other places while making 21 trips to Ireland. He skied into his 70s, and, with his wife Rita, devoted considerable time and resources to a wide range of Irish cultural and historic organizations, giving special emphasis, much time, and frequent lectures to educate, entertain and raise funds for the Deer Island Famine Memorial.

RUNNING FOR MARTIN -BAA Marathon team is raising funds to honor memory of Dorchester boy

By Bill Forry
January 31, 2014
Bill Forry

BY BILL FORRY
BIR EDITOR
A tight-knit group of neighbors and family friends will form the nucleus of the inaugural Team MR8, a squad of 100-plus runners who will run in April’s Boston Marathon in memory of Martin Richard, the eight-year-old Dorchester boy who lost his life in last year’s terror bombing attack.
Each member of the team will raise thousands of dollars for the newly formed Martin W. Richard Charitable Foundation, whose mission is “to honor Martin’s message of ‘No more hurting people – peace’ by investing in education, athletics, and community.”

Irish offer cyclists, equestrians, and walkers options aplenty across the emerald landscape

By Ed Forry
January 31, 2014

BY JUDY ENRIGHT
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
Going green doesn’t necessarily mean going to the Emerald Isle but it could.
There is much focus in Ireland today on visitors enjoying their stay without adding to the carbon footprint. Where bus tours and car travel were once the only way to see the countryside, many tourists today choose walking, cycling, and equestrian vacations.

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