The Seaport Boston Hotel has booked legendary Irish fiddle player Seamus Connolly to perform on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, as Boston celebrates its title as America's most Irish city.
Considered one of the world's finest exponents of traditional Irish music, Connolly won Ireland's national fiddle contest a record ten times and is artist-in-residence at Boston College. He is being joined by Laurel Martin on fiddle and Kevin McElroy, a multi-
By BostonIrish.com... (not verified) March 11, 2010
Tanya McRae simply describes the best title for her work in television production as "I do it all." And as anyone who works with her can attest, that's an accurate description.
By BostonIrish.com... (not verified) March 1, 2010
The Haiti earthquake claimed the life of Andrew Grene, but his legacy lives on through his twin brother – the Prodigals' Gregory Grene - and a foundation for the children of Haiti.
For 44-year-old Gregory Grene, of the popular band The Prodigals, nothing will ever be the same. His twin brother, Andrew, a well-known UN political affairs officer, perished in the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January. Gregory headed to another island, Ireland, to help bury his brother in Belturbet, County Cavan.
Regaled as the grand "ambassadors" of traditional Irish music, The Chieftains will get St. Patrick's Day festivities started early in Massachusetts with performances at Worcester's Hanover Theater (March 9), the Amherst Fine Arts Center (March 10), and the Lowell Auditorium (March 11). The band also has collaborated with Ry Cooder to produce a new album, "San Patricio," inspired by the story of the San Patricio Battalion of Irish-Americans who deserted the United States Army to join the Mexican side in the Mexican-American War of 1847.
One of the liveliest places in town this month will be Robinson Theatre in Waltham as The Reagle Players present "A Little Bit Of Ireland." Conceived and directed by Reagle Executive Producer Robert J. Eagle, the impressive revue of uniquely Irish entertainment offers something for everyone, from classic step dancing to pub music, lullabies, standards, reels, jigs, comedy and a magnificent troupe of harpists. Performances run March 12 - 14.
Performers set to appear in this year's show, the revue's 12th annual edition, include:
A student of the classics and ancient Greece, Tom Hynes delights in the story of Pheidippides, the Athenian herald who in 490 B.C. announced the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon. As legend has it, Pheidippides ran a marathon 150 miles in two days, then raced 25 miles from the battlefield to Athens to proclaim victory. "We have won," he declared. He then collapsed, dead from exhaustion.
Last month's assassination in Dubai of a major Hamas leader by a hit squad, possibly Israeli secret service Mossad agents, that included five men with forged Irish passports, has erupted into a diplomatic firestorm between Ireland and Israel. Ireland's Foreign Affairs Minister, Micheal Martin, has met with the Israeli foreign minister in Brussels to express the Irish government's outrage while the public debate continues to rage on in the press.
In a close election last month, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) of Northern Ireland elected Minister Margaret Ritchie, 51, as its "leader" to guide the party into the second decade of the 21st century. With her ascension, Miss Ritchie becomes the first female head of a major party in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland's Troubles began with its police force front and center and in a very real sense may have ended with a grand compromise on the vexing question of where the ultimate control over policing should rest.
In many people's minds, Northern Ireland's Troubles began on Oct. 5, 1968, when civil rights demonstrators marching peacefully in Derry were beaten by baton-wielding police. Images of the attack were captured by television cameras and beamed into living rooms across Ireland and Britain.
Ireland's great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger (An Gorta Mór) took place in the middle of the 19th century, caused by a blight on the potato crop in the Emerald Isle. Beginning with the harvest of 1846, and lasting fully for five years, the fungus caused the potato crop to fail. It was devastating to huge numbers of poor Irish families. A family of six could be fed for a year on one acre of potatoes; the vegetable provided all the nutrients needed to preserve life.