Caring about Ireland at Christmas

By Joe Leary
November 30, 2012
Joe Leary

The people of Ireland are struggling. Incomes are lower, taxes and fees are higher, unemployment is 14.8 percent, and tens of thousands of young people are once again leaving. After enjoying a booming economy for a brief time a few years ago, Ireland is now severely burdened with enormous debt caused by risk-taking speculators and greedy bankers.

To prevent a total collapse of the Irish economy, in November 2010, the government acted with the advice and backing of the world’s financial leadership and guaranteed all Irish bank debt. It is this debt that hangs over Ireland today.

Regrets, hopes from an IRA man

Ed Forry
By Ed Forry
November 30, 2012

When Martin Ferris was a young man in Tralee, Co. Kerry, he was a member of the Kerry GAA Under 21 football team that won the 1973 All Ireland championship for his age group.

He had joined the provisional IRA in 1970, and in 1975, he was arrested and jailed for nine months in Portlaoise prison on robbery charges; a year later, he was imprisoned briefly on charges as an IRA member. In 1984, he was sentenced to ten years for his role in the infamous Valhalla incident, where a Boston-based trawler was caught transferring an arms cache to the ship Maita Ann off the coast of Kerry.

Pat Walsh, union chieftain, ‘fighter to the end’

By Bill Forry
November 30, 2012

On Election Day, while most of Dorchester was beating a path to the polls, one of the neighborhood’s political heavies lay dying in a bed on Neponset Avenue. Pat Walsh had been gravely ill for many months and had told all who would listen that he was ready to go. But, even on his deathbed at age 90, he kept close track of “the game” he loved— especially the brewing showdown for US Senate between Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown.

Pick a town, pick a time, and Ireland will delight you

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
November 2, 2012
by Judy Enright Special to the BIR One of many things I love about Ireland is that each time you visit, you are likely to be surprised by something that you haven’t before seen or experienced. Each season and location brings its own set of special delights and events. LOUGH INAGH This fall, I visited Lough Inagh Lodge Hotel (loughinaghlodgehotel.ie) in Connemara – my favorite small hotel and a convenient jumping off spot for photographic forays into the stunningly beautiful surrounding area. The hotel has 13 double bedrooms, is comfortable and welcoming, and the food is delicious.

Childsplay en route to Lexington this month

By Sean Smith
November 2, 2012
Sean Smith

Childsplay, the all-star fiddle ensemble featuring many musicians with ties to the Boston area, makes its annual visit later this month to the National Heritage Museum in Lexington and perform three concerts.

The group – whose repertoire is taken mainly from Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, French Canadian, Scandinavian, and American folk traditions – will appear at the museum on Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m., then return on December for two shows, at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Cathie Ryan’s time to look within

By Sean Smith
November 2, 2012
Sean Smith

It has been an eventful last few years for Cathie Ryan. Among other developments, she moved back to the US after living for nine years in Ireland, got inducted into the Irish American Hall of Fame in her native state of Michigan, was named as Irish Female Vocalist of the Decade by liveireland.com, and recently released “Through Wind and Rain,” her first album since 2005 – all of this taking place in the 25th anniversary year of her debut as lead singer with Cherish The Ladies, which put her firmly in the spotlight as one of the Irish music scene’s most endearing and talented performers.

Playing the Grinch at the Wang

By R.J. Donovan
November 2, 2012
R.J. Donovan

When “Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” brings its tinsel and bows into The Citi Wang Theatre for a two-week run (November 23-December 9), it’s unlikely you’ll recognize Jeff McCarthy in the lead role.

It’s not that you haven’t seen the six-foot-two baritone before. He’s got 250 theater productions under his belt, eight starring roles on Broadway – including “Les Miserables,” “Chicago,” “Side Show” and “Urinetown” – six feature films, and almost four dozen TV appearances to his credit.

Irish Role In Australia Changes

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
November 2, 2012

Almost a century and a half has passed since those early convict ships filled with the Irish sailed from English prisons like Dartmoor and Portsmouth bound for Australia. The Fenians constituted the first wave in the 1860s of a British solution to a British problem: What to do with the overcrowded prisons filled with minor criminals, many of whom were Irish convicted of petty crimes amidst the anti-Irish fervor of the day? The answer was to create a prison colony in distant Australia to accommodate the criminal Irish, in a phrase: to “export” the problems at home.

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As Abbey Theatre looks ahead, it is asking for help fulfilling its mission

By Ed Forry
November 2, 2012

Abbey Theatre in Boston: Director and CEO of the Abbey Theatre, Fiach Mac Conghail, Shelly O’Neill, the Irish actor Bosco Hogan, the Irish actress Brid Ni Neachtain, Tom O’Neill, and Bryan McMahon, chairman of the board of the Abbey Theatre.Abbey Theatre in Boston: Director and CEO of the Abbey Theatre, Fiach Mac Conghail, Shelly O’Neill, the Irish actor Bosco Hogan, the Irish actress Brid Ni Neachtain, Tom O’Neill, and Bryan McMahon, chairman of the board of the Abbey Theatre.Officials and two artists from The Abbey Theatre were in Boston last month for the launch of a support group for a charitable foundation to support the enterprise.

The Oct. 18 launch was held at the Beacon Street home of Tom O’Neill, who has been named the first president of the Boston Irish Abbey Theatre Association as the Dublin-based theatre approaches its 110th anniversary next year.

The Abbey Theatre Foundation is a New York-based 501 © (3) non-profit organization that supports the work of the Abbey Theatre in Ireland and in the United States.

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