Robert Muse, family man, defense lawyer; at 92; Peter Muse, Esq., dies 16 days after his father

By BIR News Room
January 7, 2013

Robert Muse, who, with his wife Mary of 68 years and their family of 11 children, 38 grandchildren, and 9 great-gfandchildren, was honored at the Boston Irish Reporter’s Boston Irish Honors luncheon in October, died on Nov. 29. He was 92 years old and made good use of virtually every day in his long life.

Irish community stalwart Kathleen Lawlor dies

By BIR News Room
January 7, 2013

One of the Boston Irish community’s brightest lights was extinguished a week before Christmas with the death of Kathleen Lawlor, who leaves her husband John, five children – Mary, Maeve, Paul, John, and Owen – four grandchildren, and two brothers, Paul and Brian Kingston.
In her youth Kathleen was beautiful, brilliant in scholastics, a gifted step dancer, and enamored of all things Irish. She had degrees from Newton College and Boston College, represented Boston in Ireland’s international Rose of Tralee pageant, and later was a teacher.

Cameron admits to British role in Finucane murder

By BIR News Room
January 7, 2013

By Associated Press

LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron last month condemned actions by British agents in the 1989 death of the Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane one of the most bitterly disputed killings of the entire Northern Ireland conflict.

Cameron cited a long-awaited report on the slaying that said there was a shocking level of state collusion with an outlawed Protestant group in the murder of Finucane in his Belfast home as he was having Sunday lunch with his wife and three children. He specialized in defending Irish Republican Army suspects.

SALUTING THE IRISH EXPERIENCE

By Bob Donovan, Special to the BIR
January 7, 2013
Bob Donovan, Special to the BIR

Frank McCourt’s ‘The Irish And How They Got That Way’ Opens Jan. 24 at Davis Square
by R J Donovan
Special to the BIR
Frank McCourt, born in Brooklyn and raised in Limerick, will forever be known as the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Angela’s Ashes.” What may not be as well known is that he also wrote the musical revue “The Irish And  How They Got That Way,”  which premiered at the Irish Repertory Theatre in 1997.  Recounting the tumultuous history of the Irish experience, both on the Emerald Isle and here in America, the evening is a colorful tapestry of music and dance with a healthy dose of irreverent humor added.  The musical numbers include:  “Galway Bay,” “The Rose of Tralee,” “Finnegan’s Wake,” “Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?,” “Harrigan,” “No Irish Need Apply,” “Skibbereen,” and others.

Irish treasure: Harry Clarke’s stained-glass windows

By BIR News Room
November 30, 2012

By Judy Enright
Special to the BIR

It’s hard to fully appreciate the amazing colors and complex details in the late artist Harry Clarke’s magnificent stained glass windows The Immaculate Conception window (1925) in St. Mary’s in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo. (Judy Enright photo)It’s hard to fully appreciate the amazing colors and complex details in the late artist Harry Clarke’s magnificent stained glass windows The Immaculate Conception window (1925) in St. Mary’s in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo. (Judy Enright photo)

It seems appropriate in this holiest of seasons to draw special attention to the incredibly detailed and brilliant stained glass windows designed and created by Irish artist Harry Clarke at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Clarke was born on St. Patrick’s Day 1889 on North Frederick Street, Dublin, where his father, Joshua, had a stained glass and ecclesiastical decorating business. The younger of two sons (brother Walter was exactly one year older), Harry left school at 14 to join the family business after his mother, Bridget, died. He took night classes in stained glass and won several scholarships, which ultimately led him to study the art in London and France.

A Q & A with Clannad’s Moya Brennan

By Sean Smith
November 30, 2012
Sean Smith

Forty years ago, a quintet from Gweedore, Donegal – siblings Moya, Pol, and Ciaran Brennan, and their twin uncles, Noel and Padraig Duggan – first made its way into the Irish music scene, joining a generation of influential performers like Christy Moore, Andy Irvine, Paddy Keenan, Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, Michael O Domhnaill, Donal Lunny, Paul Brady, Kevin Burke, Frankie Gavin, Dolores Keane, and many others who helped reshape Irish traditional music.

‘Sojourn’ notes a decade of delights

By Sean Smith
November 30, 2012
Sean Smith

It’s a bona-fide Boston holiday tradition that, 10 years along, has now captured wintertime fancies in other parts of New England.

This month, “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn” celebrates its first decade of bringing to the stage an inimitable blend of Celtic music, song, dance, and storytelling, with a series of performances from December 15-22 at venues in Worcester, Providence, Rockport, and Derry, NH, as well as the Cutler Majestic Theater in Boston.

‘Christmas Revels’ sets sail with Irish bent on a better life

By R.J. Donovan
November 30, 2012
R.J. Donovan

Symbolizing the holiday season as indelibly as the welcoming fragrance of evergreen, “The Christmas Revels” returns to historic Sanders Theatre in Harvard Square from December 14 - 27. This year, the participatory theatrical solstice celebration that is filled with joyful music, dance, comedy and carols will focus on Irish immigration.

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