Sister Lena Deevy steps down as IIIC head; Millar succeed center’s founder

By BIR News Room
March 1, 2013

The Irish International Immigrant Center (IIIC) announced last month that after 24 years as executive director of the center, Sister Lena Deevy LSA has decided to step down from her day-to-day responsibilities, and to take up the role of executive director emerita, effective April 1. Sister Lena will be succeeded by Ronnie Millar, who has served as deputy director for the past two years.

World Irish Dancing Championships underway in Boston

By Sean Smith
March 1, 2013
Sean Smith

Dancing feet like these will be a familiar sight when the World Irish Dancing Championships come to Boston later this month. Some 7,000 competitors are expected to take part in the event. Sean Smith photoDancing feet like these will be a familiar sight when the World Irish Dancing Championships come to Boston later this month. Some 7,000 competitors are expected to take part in the event. Sean Smith photo

Already known as a hub for education, culture, medical science, and sports, among other things, Boston will claim an additional distinction later this month: For a week, it will be the world’s capital of Irish dancing.

From March 24-31, Boston will serve as host for the 2013 World Irish Dancing Championships — only the second time in the event’s 40-plus years that it has taken place in the US (Philadelphia was the first, in 2009). Some 7,000 dancers, along with family members, friends and spectators, from Ireland, the UK, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere in the US, are expected to hit town for the competition, which will be centered in The Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Boston Hotel.

Hosting the “Worlds,” as they are popularly known, marks another chapter in a rich history of civic achievement for Boston, which was awarded the event over 20 other cities around the world, and will bring some late-winter/early-spring excitement to the area — along with, of course, a hoped-for economic windfall.

Concerts galore for St. Pat’s month

By Sean Smith
March 1, 2013
Sean Smith

Not that Greater Boston doesn’t have plenty of Irish/Celtic music events during other months of the year, but March is unique in its offerings of concerts and special performances and celebrations evoking the name of St. Patrick or other things Celtic. Here’s a look at just some of the personalities who will be in the spotlight in and around town during the next few weeks.

Obama goes Irish with chief of staff pick; Says Denis McDonough will ‘always give it to me straight’

By Ed Forry
February 7, 2013

BY NEDRA PICKLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has picked a straight-talking Irish-American with roots in Minnesota and South Boston as his new chief of staff. Trusted White House foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough, a man the president described as a close friend, will succeed Jack Lew, whom the president has selected as the next Treasury chief.

Adams accuser Price dead at 61; a central figure in BC tapes case She said Sinn Fein leader ordered ’73 bomb attacks

By Ed Forry
February 7, 2013

BY SHAWN POGATCHNIK
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DUBLIN – An Irish Republican Army veteran who accused Sinn Fein party chief Gerry Adams of involvement in IRA killings and bombings was found dead in her home on Thurs., Jan. 24, according to police.
Dolours Price, 61, was a member of the Provisional IRA unit that launched the very first car-bomb attacks on London in 1973. She later became one of Irish republicanism’s most trenchant critics of Adams and his conversion to political compromise in the British territory of Northern Ireland.

JOYCE’S DUBLIN: GONE WITH THE WIND?

By Thomas O'Grady
February 7, 2013
Thomas O'Grady

BY THOMAS O’GRADY
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
Punctuated with headlines to mark its being set in conjoined newspaper offices, the seventh episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses, “Aeolus,” itself punctuates the novel, announcing by way of its sudden typographical shift—and indeed by its first headline—that both the characters and the reader are now located IN THE HEART OF THE HIBERNIAN METROPOLIS.

As days get longer, the music heats up

By Sean Smith
February 7, 2013
Sean Smith

BY SEAN SMITH
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
While it may have only 28, or sometimes 29, days, February (along with the early part of March) can seem like the longest month: closer to spring than January, but often with cold, wintry weather and days that gradually but oh-so-slowly get longer. Fortunately, the Greater Boston area has plenty of Irish and Celtic music events this period to brighten spirits. Here’s a sampling:

What are you going to do with your life? ‘I’m going to play music,’ said Colm Gannon

By Sean Smith
February 7, 2013
Sean Smith

BY SEAN SMITH
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
There was never any doubt, really, that Colm Gannon would play music – nor any doubt as to what kind of music, nor which instrument he would use to play it. Not with a father who is an accomplished Irish accordion player, and an older brother following suit.
But then, Gannon hardly needed any nudging to take up the box. Quite the opposite.

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