Kylemore Abbey has history, and much, much more

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
August 31, 2012

Resplendent: Kylemore AbbeyResplendent: Kylemore Abbey

If you’ve traveled through the West of Ireland, you have almost certainly stopped to visit Kylemore Abbey, built in the 1800s by Mitchell Henry for his wife, Margaret. Kylemore is one of Ireland’s top tourist attractions for so many reasons—the fascinating history of the castle and the Henry family’s many contributions to life in Connemara, the wonderfully well-stocked gift shop, delicious meals and snacks in the Mitchell cafe and Tea House, the restored Victorian Walled Garden, beautiful Neo-Gothic Church, and the vast array of programs held on site during the height of the tourist season.

Five years out, Annalivia adopts new persona: Celtic-Americana

By Sean Smith, Special to the BIR
August 31, 2012
Sean Smith, Special to the BIR

Few bands go looking for the metaphorical crossroads, but once they encounter it, there’s no turning back. So was the case last year with Annalivia, the Greater Boston-based group that since its beginnings five years ago has drawn plaudits for its intelligent union of Irish and other Celtic and British Isles traditions with American roots music, plus a gradual incorporation of original material.

The band underwent a membership change, as fiddler Brendan Carey Block and string bassist/banjo player Stu Kenney departed, and fiddler-vocalist Mariel Vandersteel, with solid foundations in Celtic and old-timey/Appalachian as well as Scandinavian music, joined co-founders Flynn Cohen and his wife Liz Simmons, and fiddler-vocalist Emerald Rae. With a string of performances this year that includes New Bedford Summerfest, BCMFest, One Longfellow Square in Portland, Me., The Basement in Northampton, and the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas, and now, their brand new CD (and third overall), “The Same Way Down,” Annalivia has moved well along from the crossroads of 2011.

For J. Barry Driscoll, insurance man, perseverance is a trump card in life

By Greg O’Brien, Special to the Reporter
August 31, 2012
Greg O’Brien, Special to the Reporter

J. Barry DriscollJ. Barry Driscoll

Barry Driscoll has taken good notes on life for 82 years now and the sketchpad of his character lays out both a standard for success in a business set up to serve others and a lesson in what a gut will to persevere can make happen, the cornerstones of the insurance business he founded more than a half century ago at a rented desk in a downtown Boston high rise: the J. Barry Driscoll Insurance Agency.

The young man of 1960 took an industry known for its tedium and core densities, and made success in it personal. So personal, in fact, that today four of his children own and operate The Driscoll Agency, one of New England’s leading insurance firms, while still learning from a role model of a father who comes to work every day, yet still finds time for his second love—a round of golf.

Causeway Coast Way offers a walk to savor

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
August 31, 2012

BY LIAM FERRIE
SPECIAL TO THE BIR

North Antrim, Ireland -- The Giant’s Causeway, with its unusual rock formations and brand new visitor center, is worth a visit, even if it is only during a brief stop on a round-Ireland coach tour. For those without time constraints there is so much more to savor along this stretch of the north Antrim coast.

Report on a week at ‘Olcottage’

By By James W. Dolan, Special to the Reporter
August 31, 2012
By James W. Dolan, Special to the Reporter

It was built on a bluff overlooking Vineyard Sound around 1900 by a wealthy mining executive and was one of the first structures on what at the time was a lonely stretch of beach between Woods Hole and Falmouth not far from Nobska Light. The history of the place rippled through all its quirky nooks and crannies. It spoke of the many families that had enjoyed times of fun, laughter, and the simple joy of just being together.

A Catholic Northern Ireland?

By Joe Leary, Special to the BIR
August 31, 2012
Joe Leary, Special to the BIR

The school population in Northern Ireland, through University level, has been heavily Catholic for many years, so it is only a matter of time before there will be a Catholic majority in the six counties.

Northern Ireland as a culturally Catholic area for the first time in almost 500 years will present unusually difficult political problems that will need to be handled carefully by all sides.

Academics and trend experts can argue about when this dramatic shift will become reality, but very few doubt that it will occur within the next five to ten years.

Dot boxing club a family affair

By Bill Forry
August 31, 2012

Two years after their well-respected boxing gym was abruptly displaced from its Uphams Corner home of 12 years, the Grealish family is back in Dorchester with a new space on Freeport Street. The gym, which shares space with another fitness club in a second-floor walk up at 79 Freeport St., has been open for about two months, but is already buzzing with activity.

Immigration begins Deferred Action application process

By Staff
August 31, 2012

On Aug. 15, US Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting applications for deferred action for young people brought to the US as children. Deferred action is a temporary immigration status that protects immigrants from deportation and provides them with permission to work. If granted, it is available for two years, and there may be a possibility of renewing the status.
CIS has issued a new form and instructions about how to apply for deferred action, and has set up a website for more information about the program: uscis.gov/childhoodarrivals.

Introducing ‘Trad Kids’

By Sean Smith, Special to the BIR
August 31, 2012
Sean Smith, Special to the BIR

For Boston-area Irish musician Shannon Heaton, invention was the necessity of motherhood. In the first weeks after her son Nigel was born two years ago, Heaton – like many a new parent – often found herself up at all hours for feeding, changing, and comforting. To help herself stay awake, Heaton made fanciful sketches of frogs and toads, and invented little stories about them for her own amusement.

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