Hanging Out With The Dropkick Murphys

Transcription

November 2007
VOL. 18 #11
$1.50
Boston’s hometown
journal of Irish
culture.
Worldwide at
bostonirish.com
All contents copyright © 2007 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.
Hanging Out With The Dropkick Murphys
The Dropkick Murphys at rest: From left, Al Barr (vocals); Matt Kelly (drums, backing vocals); Marc Orrell (guitar, accordion, piano, backing vocals); Ken
Casey (vocals, bass guitar); Scruffy Wallace (bagpipes); Tim Brennan (mandolin, accordion, banjo, bouzouki, tin whistle, acoustic guitar); James Lynch (guitar, backing vocals). Photo by Bob Perachio, BDP Photography
By Susan Gedutis Lindsay
Special to the BIR
Sunday, Sept. 30, outside
Avalon on Landsdowne Street,
beside a thick line of 20-somethings waiting for doors to open
to see the Dropkick Murphys—
the hottest band in a line of Irish
rock bands whose appeal has
crossed over to a wider audience. The Red Sox were in the
process of losing to the Twins
over the big green wall behind
us. A man in a tourist-yellow
anorak stopped me and asked,
‘One school of thought would think that what we do kind of
bastardizes Irish music. But we are also very respectful of
the roots and wear our influences on our sleeves.’
-- Ken Casey, headman, the Dropkick Murphys
“Excuse me, but what are the
Dropkick Murphys?” “Irish
punk?” I shrugged. Truth was,
I didn’t really know and that’s
why I was here. The live show
was my introduction—but then
I listened to the new album, The
INSIDE
Ronan Noone
on ‘Brendan,’
His New Play
‘No matter what, America
is still a refuge and a place of
opportunity for people all over
the world. It still represents
hope, something better. In
Brendan, one of the characters
talks about what it is to be an
American, and it is something
of a emotional discourse on
genuine American virtues
– tempered by reality. Those
values are still real.’
Interview, Page 14
Meanest of Times. Then I talked
to Ken Casey, the band’s lead
singer and founder. And I get
it now. If you run into that guy
in the anorak, tell him I have
the scoop.
(Continued on page 14)
IIC Stalwart
Gobnait Conneely
Profile, Page 4
Gearing Up
for ‘Christmas
Celtic Sojourn’
Page 15
Things to Be
Thankful For
Ceol, Page 14
Ken Casey Exults
With Jon and Mike
Ken Casey celebrates on the Fenway Park grass with Mike
Timlin and Jonathan Papelbon after the Red Sox clinched the
American League pennant in Game 7 against Cleveland. An
interview with Casey is on Page 14. Photo by Bill Brett.
Page November 2007
BOSTON IRISH Reporter
Worldwide at www.bostonirish.com
David Greaney, President
We Congratulate
the 2007 Solas Recipients
2007 SOLAS RECIPIENTS
Rev. Msgr. Thomas J. McDonnell
Gerard and Marilyn Doherty
APPRECIATION AWARD WINNERS
Richard Iandolini, President
Iandolini & Associates
Alan Pampanin
Pampanin Law Offices
Rebecca C. Minahan
Law Office of Rebecca C. Minahan
Jane Chiang, Partner
Sedna Law
John Quill, Associate
Seyfarth Shaw
Joshua Paulin
Law Office of Joshua Daley Paulin
Chris Lavery, Partner
Sedna Law
Denis Fleming, Associate
Cammarano & Associates
Eoin Reilly, Associate
Iandolini & Associates
Synergy
115 Broad Street, 4th Floor, Boston, MA 02110
Tel: 617-204-9506 Fax: 617-204-9508
GLOBAL
COMMUNITY:
OUR
COMMUNITY
SOLAS
AWARDS DINNER
7:00 pm Friday, November 9
Westin Copley Hotel, Boston
a night of inspiration & entertainment to benefit IIC
honoring Gerard & Marilyn Doherty, the Rev. Msgr. Thomas
J. McDonnell, and IIC’s pro bono attorneys for their service
to the immigrant community
Solas’07
All are invited! Tickets are $150 each and support IIC.
Call (617) 542-7654 x 26 or visit www.iicenter.org for
more info or to book tickets or make a donation online.
Irish Immigration Center
November 2007
Page ON THE TOWN WITH THE BIR
Jean McKenna O’Donnell, (above), whose jazz
vocals have entertained several generations of enthusiasts, especially at venues from Boston to Providence
and her hometown of Woonsocket, has finally assured
that her work will have staying power; she is issuing an album – her first – this month. “Full Circle,”
a selection of songs she chose, features her smooth
vocals backed on piano by Mike Renzi, on clarinet
and sax by Dick Johnson, on bass by Marshall
Wood, and on guitar by Jon Wheatley. Jean will host
an album release party with the quartet at Chan’s
Restaurant Jazz Room, 267 Main St., Woonsocket
on Thurs., Nov. 8, from 8 to 11 p.m. Admission for
the fete and the performance is $15. There is a nice
symmetry to Jean’s choice of venue for her album’s
debut: It was 30 years ago, in 1977, that she stepped
to the microphone at Chan’s, the first jazz singer in
the three-decade-long concert series John Chan has
presented at his restaurant. Music, as they says, runs
in her family. Jean’s brother, Dave McKenna, is a
legendary jazz pianist (“I play saloon piano,” he says)
whose impressive resume stretches back into the big
band era when he played with the likes of Woody
Herman and Bobby Hackett. And for years, he was
the pianist in residence at the Copley Plaza Hotel
in Boston. Jean salutes her older brother, now 77
and retired from playing, on “Full Circle” with her
rendition of his composition “Shadowland.”
On Sat., Nov. 3, six score and more children from
Ireland will take the stage at Boston Symphony
Hall to spread the message of the Cross Borders
Orchestra Ireland. Some 130 young Irish, ages
12-14, from the border counties of the North and
South make up the Orchestra. They come from all
walks of life and religions. Founded in 1995, the
Cross Borders Orchestra ensemble makes an effort
at helping to unite the once tumultuous region by
explaining to its youngest residents the necessity of
putting aside the sectarian pasts of their homeland
and working together, in this case to make music.
They are directed by Gearóid Grant, a leader in
youth-conducting in Europe. The CBOI first came
to Boston and New York in 2005 as part of a tour
that garnered them international attention. The
reviews from Boston ranked it as one of the most
unique and enthralling performances to happen at
Symphony Hall. They returned this past February
to much the same response. Boston City Councilor
Michael Flaherty so enjoyed the concert he has
become an ambassador for the group and this summer he made his debut playing the violin in front
of a fundraising reception for the orchestra. To date
CBOI has performed in five countries, and has tours
scheduled through 2011, including a concert that
year in Australia.
When they arrive in Boston the orchestra will be
joined by nearly 500 Boston-area youths who have
formed the Cross Border Choir Boston. Ten schools
from the area have pitched in with children and
assistance to prepare for this unique event. They
will be joined by a variety of talents from here and
across the pond, including world-class tenor and one
of Ireland’s best known voices, Emmanuel Lawler.
The IBEW 103rd Pipe Band, and Tatum Harvey, the
recently crowned Boston’s 2007 Shamrock Idol, will
also make appearances on stage. The performance
at Symphony Hall is the last stop on the CBOI tour,
which also included sessions in Dublin, Milwaukee,
and Chicago, and participation by more than 3,000
choir students in total.
The Holy Ghost Fathers will be holding their 23rd
annual Benefit Dance at the Irish Social Club in
West Roxbury, on November 2. Hosted by Father
Peter Nolan, the organizer of the original event in
1985, the event will feature the Andy Healey Band
for live entertainment and dance. Father Nolan is
the pastor of Most Precious Blood in Hyde Park and
has been raising money for the Holy Ghost Fathers
to continue their extensive work in Africa, South
America, and other impoverished regions of the world.
The dance has raised half a million dollars in its 23
years, and this year will look to add to the impressive total. Father Nolan himself served for 17 years
in West Africa – Nigeria and Ghana – after leaving
his hometown of Dublin. Since then he has been at
St. Theresa in West Roxbury, Most Precious Blood,
and as an administrator to St. Pius X in Milton as
Milton consolidated parishes.
Last month saw the appearance in Boston of Nuala
O’Loan, the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, who spoke at an Irish American Partnership
luncheon. Her role is to deal with complaints about
policing as an independent voice for the people of
Northern Ireland. A lecturer on law at the University
The new American Ambassador from Ireland
to the United States, Michael Collins, will make
his first visit to Boston
this month, appearing
at the American Ireland
Fund Dinner Gala on
November 15 as well as
meeting with various
other community leaders and locals. Collins
took over as Ambassador
in September, taking
residency in Washington D.C. He will meet
with Boston’s Consul
General of Ireland David
Barry when he comes to
Boston.
Marianne Bolger, Ireland Vice Consul in Boston,
greets Lorraine Christian, Press and Information
Officer, Consulate General of Ireland in New
York.
of Ulster, O’Loan has come under fire in the past
from the likes of Ian Paisley, but she has also been
praised for her work, particularly for the way her
office reported this past January on collusion between
police and loyalist paramilitary organizations.
Lorraine Christian, an official in Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, has been named Press
and Information Officer at the Consulate General
of Ireland’s office in New York City. It is the first
assignment in the United States for Ms. Christian,
who was recently married and spent part of her
honeymoon on a trip to the western United States before taking up her new role. The new press spokesperson made a trip to Boston in September, where she was greeted by Irish Vice Consul Marianne
Bolger. The two visited with local Irish community
leaders and media representatives during her brief
visit to Boston.
The British Irish Graduates in America organization will be hosting its third annual Ball on Nov. 9
at the Seaport Hotel. The event is an opportunity for
those alumni of any university of England or Ireland
to come together based on their shared educational
pasts. The British Irish Graduates in America was
founded in 2005, and has been working to bring
together people here the same way many American
universities do for their own alumni. There is no
membership but only offers for connections and various events throughout the year. This year the Ball
will also be the launch of the National University of
Ireland, Galway’s, New England Alumni chapter for
anyone who attended NUIG. Tickets for the event are
$96 and can be purchased at biginamerica.net.
Boston Irish Reporter’s Calendar
If your club or organization has an item or event for the Boston Irish Reporter calendar, send the necessary details
to [email protected] and please include a daytime contact name and telephone number.
Nov. 1 – Author Colum McCann reads from his
recent work at 7:30 p.m. at Connolly House, Boston
College, 300 Hammond Street, Chestnut Hill.
Nov. 2 – The 23rd Annual Fathers of the Holy
Ghost Benefit Dance at the Irish Social Club in West
Roxbury. (See note above for more details).
Nov. 3 – Cross Borders Orchestra Ireland performs
with the Cross Borders Choir Boston at Symphony Hall
Boston. Over 630 children will appear on Symphony
Hall stage for a night of music and culture sharing.
(See note above for more details.) Tickets available
at bso.org.
Nov. 7 – A Family Christmas by Caroline Kennedy
at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Caroline Kennedy signs copies of her new book A Family
Christmas, in which she shares the Christmas poetry,
prose, scriptural readings, and lyrics most dear to
her. The book includes personal treasures from her
own family, including her Christmas List to Santa
Claus written as a child, and a letter from her father
as President to a child concerned about Santa’s wellbeing. 2 p.m. For more information, call 617-514-1600
or visit jfklibrary.org.
Nov. 8-11 – The Ninth Annual Magners Irish Film
Festival in Harvard Square. The largest event of its
kind in the United States, the Magners Irish Film Festival features the very best of contemporary Irish film
with an array of US premieres, guest filmmakers, and
film parties. Some past “Excellence” recipients include
Gabriel Byrne and Brendan Gleeson. Acclaimed
actor Aidan Quinn is this year’s Excellence Award
Honoree. Mr. Quinn will be present at the event for
a special ceremony and career retrospective held in
his honor. For more information, call 617-713-0831
or visit irishfilmfestival.com.
Nov. 9 -- The Irish Immigration Center’s annual
Solas Award Dinner, honoring Gerard and Marilyn
Doherty, Rev. Msgr. Thomas J. McDonnell, and the
IIC’s pro-bono immigration lawyers. At the Westin
Copley Hotel, Boston. The MC is William Bulger,
with Mayor Thomas Menino as an honorary chair.
Tickets are $150. Call 617-542-7654, Ext. 26, or online
iicenter.org. … The British Irish Graduates of America
Ball at the Seaport Hotel, to work at uniting alumni
from all any British or Irish university. Tickets are
$96 and can be found at biginamerica.net. (See note
above for details)
Nov. 10 – Ancient Order of Hibernians in America’s
National President’s Dinner at the Martin Center,
Stonehill College, Easton. Jack Meehan of Quincy,
national president of the AOH, will be honored at
this event for his leadership in Irish-American affairs.
David R. Burke of Lawrence will be the 2007 Recipient
of the Sean MacBride Humanitarian Award. Tickets
are $45, cocktails start at 6, dinner at 7. Visit aoh.com
or call Richard MacDonald at 781-455-0677.
Nov. 11 – Irish Dinner Dance at Concannon’s
Village, 60 Lenox Street, Norwood, to benefit the
Boston chapter of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (Irish
Musicians Association). Music by Fintan Stanley and
Comhaltas musicians. More info at 781-899-0911.
Nov. 15 – The American Ireland Fund’s 26th Annual Boston Dinner Gala at the Boston Marriot Copley Hotel. A black tie dinner to benefit the American
Ireland Fund, tickets and more information can be
found at www.irlfunds.org/aif/boston/.
Nov. 16 – Richard Marsh, famed Irish storyteller,
shares the best of Ireland’s folklore at the Irish Cultural
Centre at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 ($10 for members).
For more information contact Mary Choppa at 603883-4820 or at [email protected]. … Gallery
Art Show Opening at Lorica Artworks, 90 Main Street,
Andover. Show opens with a reception and live entertainment by the Ceili Band from 6 to 9 p.m. A group
show exhibiting classically inspired original artwork
by Irish and American artists. Call 978-470-1829 or
visit loricaartworks.com for details.
Nov. 18, 2 p.m. – AOH Lecture Series at Doyle’s
Café, 3484 Washington Street, Jamaica Plain. Professor William Mathews, University of Massachusetts
at Amherst, presents an hour-long lecture on “Easter
1916: The Heart of the Irish Revolution.” The lecture
series is hosted by the James Michael Curley Division
#1, Ancient Order of Hibernians.
Page November 2007
BIR Profile
Gobnait Conneely, Immigrants’ Champion in Boston,
Knows Whereof She Speaks, and She Follows Through
By Greg O’Brien
Special to the BIR
The Statue of Liberty’s salutation
at the mouth of New York Harbor to
the tired, the poor, and the “huddled
masses yearning to breathe free” is the
foundation stone of the Irish Immigration Center on Temple Place in Boston,
and no one knows this firsthand better
than Gobnait Conneely. She has felt the
pain and empathizes with the plight of
immigrants, who today face a far more
divided country on the issue of immigration than when the first boats landed on
Ellis Island in 1892—the start of the
“greatest tide of incoming humanity in
the nation’s history,” as the Ellis Island
Immigration Museum calls it. In the
immigration depot’s 62-year history,
nearly twelve million landed on Ellis in
their search of freedom of speech and
religion, and for economic opportunity.
Now in the wake of recent heated debate
over immigration—and the scrapping
of the Kennedy-McCain bill, the Secure
America and Orderly Immigration Act,
which proposed stricter border enforcement and a new visa category for alien
workers performing jobs not covered in
existing categories—many in high-profile ways are calling for even tougher
measures to restrict immigration, and
that doesn’t sit well with Conneely, an
immigrant herself.
A Galway native who came to Boston
in 1980 when she was 21, Conneely is
community outreach manager of the
Irish Immigration Center (IIC) and
former president of its board. Her job,
in concert with others at the IIC, is to
assist immigrants not only from Ireland,
but from 100 countries, working to make
our nation’s immigration laws consistent
with the promise of the Statue of Liberty.
The IIC provides legal advice, information, advocacy, referrals and support for
immigrants on issues relating to immigration, employment, citizenship, housing, and social services. In addition, the
center is committed to “building bridges
of understanding and cooperation across
cultures, fighting racism and discrimination, advocating for the rights of all
immigrants and working in collaboration
with other organizations.”
So any talk of closing the borders gets
Conneely’s Irish up. “People have their
opinions and are entitled to voice them,
but immigration is what made this
country as great as it is,” she says in an
interview in her West Roxbury home,
sipping a cup of tea. “I disagree with
those who would simply toss immigrants
without any efforts on their behalf to
secure visas or citizenship. These are the
people who throughout history have been
the backbone of this country.”
She pauses for a minute, choosing the
right words, then adds with a smile, “We
immigrants are not all that bad!”
But these are tough times, she
concedes, for undocumented workers
that number an estimated 12 million
nationally—ironically the number of
immigrants processed generations ago
through Ellis Island. Close to 30,000 of
GOBNAIT CONNEELY: A storehouse of empathy at the Irish Immigration
Center.
these undocumented workers are Irish,
and an estimated five-to-ten thousand
of them live in the Boston area. To say
Conneely has her hands full at work is
to say that Mother Teresa had a busy
schedule.
There has been much angst in recent
years in the Boston Irish community
over the status of undocumented workers and those who fear their visas will
run out with no hope of renewal. “Lots
of depression,” says Conneely. “These
people feel like they have absolutely no
control over their lives, that they always
have to look over their shoulder to avoid
detection. Some of these folks are afraid to
come near people like me, who are trying
to help them—thinking, God forbid, if I
know something about them. My job is to
assist them in a humane way. It’s a tough
job, and no one promised me it would be
easy, but these are human beings and
need to be treated as such.”
There was a time many years ago when
Conneely herself reached out for such
The County Donegal Association, Boston
99th Annual Reunion & Banquet
Saturday, November 3, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
Florian Hall
55 Hallet St., Dorchester
Family Style Roast Beef Dinner
Entertainment by Erin’s Melody
with Margaret Dalton
Tickets $35.00 per person
Please join us for an enjoyable evening of entertainment and fun.
Hope to see you all there!
For tickets and info:
President Michael McCarron, 617-696-1702 or
Chairman Tom Gallagher, 781- 444-5720
Or any member of the County Donegal Association
understanding after her visa had lapsed
after two and a half years in Boston. “You
can’t blame everything on youth,” she
says with candor. “It just happened and
it was a mistake. I was an undocumented
worker, and I was paralyzed by the fact
that if I sought the help I needed, I would
be thrown out of this country, a place I
loved and felt called to be.”
So for the next ten years, Conneely
lived a life of “good behavior,” looking
over her shoulder with the stinging reality that she could never go home to visit
her parents, sister and brother. “It was
a staggering existence.”
Hope springs eternal for those who
believe, and Conneely never gave up
faith that the issue would be resolved one
day. In 1996, she applied for a Donnelly
Visa, under the sponsorship of the then
congressman from Dorchester, Brian
Donnelly, acknowledging her illegal alien
status and returned home with the hopes
the visa would be granted. It was issued
a month later, and she returned triumphantly to Boston with the assurance
of being able to visit Ireland as often as
she wanted. Ultimately she applied for
and received U.S. citizenship, “one of the
proudest moments” of her life.
One of the most bittersweet moments,
however, was the reunion with her family after a decade. It was as if Conneely
had been asleep for ten years. “My
parents were much older, my sister had
married, the country had changed,” she
says, recalling the encounter. “It was
mind boggling!”
Was it worth the pain of being away
from family for ten years? “No,” admits
Conneely, “looking back, no. But I felt
that way at the time, and wouldn’t have
done what I did unless I felt driven to
be here.”
Conneely’s family ties are tight. Her deceased father, Michael, was a fisherman
from the Aran Islands, an impressive land
of awesome cliffs, labyrinths of limestone,
meandering walls, patchwork fields and
some of the best fishing on Galway Bay.
A strict, disciplined man, in his own way,
he was a metal worker in his later years.
Conneely’s mother, Sheila, who still lives
in the family home in Galway, comes from
a Cork family of farmers.
“They were strict parents,” says Conneely, who inherited her mother’s great
caring and tolerance for others. “We lived
a simple life in Galway. We didn’t run
wild or ragged. You got up, went to school,
and came home. My parents knew where
we were every minute of the day.”
Conneely is still close to her brother,
Anthony, who owns a cab in Galway,
and her sister Sheila (Farragher), a
hairdresser in Dublin. Her sister, in
fact, visited Boston last month to watch
Conneely receive the Charitable Irish
Society’s Silver Key Award for cultivating a “spirit of unity and harmony” in
Boston and for advocating the social and
moral interests of the Irish and their
cultural heritage.
Bent on self-improvement, when she
first came to Boston, Conneely took
courses in business and accounting at
Bunker Hill Community College and
took hospitality courses at Northeastern.
She is still working on her degree. Before
joining the Irish Immigration Center,
she worked for 20 years for a property
management company in Mission Hill
and as an information specialist with
the Boston Housing Authority.
Conneely, who is single, has always
been one to move forward in her life,
but an incident three years ago stopped
her short in her tracks—the discovery
in October 2004 of a lump in her breast
that was diagnosed as cancer, and led to
a 36-month fight against the disease and
a double mastectomy. “It was extremely
traumatic, it was devastating news,” she
recalls with the horror she felt when the
lump was discovered. “My first thought
was how to keep this from my family; I
didn’t want them to worry.”
A woman of strong faith, close friends
and an abiding family, she drew strength
from those she loves. “One has to make
a decision on how you want to move
forward with news like this,” she says.
“I felt it was important for me to be
strong, and to try to inspire strength
in others.”
Conneely’s treatment necessitated a
strong dose of chemotherapy, along with
the prospects of losing her shoulderlength brown hair, always impeccably
groomed. “Gobnait’s response, say those
who know her, was in keeping with her
character: courageous, generous and
good-natured,” noted the Irish Emigrant
Online in a report on her cancer. “She
decided that if she must lose her hair,
she would tackle the traumatic event on
her own spirited terms—and it would
benefit a good cause.”
So Conneely declared a “bad hair day,”
and “Gob’s Bad Hair Day Fundraiser”
raised thousands of dollars in the fight
against cancer and for Irish immigrant
causes when her locks were cut at Phil’s
Hair Salon in Brighton.
“I was trying to make something good
out of something bad,” she notes with
characteristic sanguinity. The optimism
continues. Two months ago, she was
declared cancer free.
“My focus now is on early detection,
regular screening for all sorts of potential
cancers and diseases. I want to bring this
awareness to the Irish immigrant community,” she says, noting free screening
clinics at the IIC.
At mid-life, and with still plenty of life
left in her, Conneely is looking forward
to new challenges, new ways of helping
people. “Every day is a blessing,” she
says. “I don’t take things for granted
now, particularly time. My goal is to stay
healthy and be happy with whatever
path I choose. Life changes on a regular basis, and one never knows where
they’re going.”
That may be true, but there is great
peace in where Gobnait Connelly has
been, always following her passions and
assisting others walk through their pain.
You can see the confidence—the courage
and the grit—in the smile that breaks
across her Irish face.
Greg O’Brien is editor and president of
Stony Brook Group, a publishing and political/strategy company based in Brewster. The author/editor of several books,
he is a regular contributor to regional
newspapers and magazines, a political
columnist for Boston Metro newspaper,
and a contributor to New York Metro,
Philadelphia Metro and the Op-Ed pages
of The Providence Journal.
November 2007
Page Boston Irish Reporter’s Here & There
By Bill O’Donnell
Shannon Remains Key US Transit
Point -- It will come as little surprise
to Irish neutrality supporters there and
here that more than one million US
military personnel have passed through
Shannon Airport since the US invaded
Iraq in March
2003. That
figures out to
an average of
640 troops on
five flights a
day that have
stopped at Ireland’s western
entry point on
their way to
Iraq and other
Mideast military bases,
Bill O’Donnell
according to
the Irish Times. It has been a tenet of
faith for Bertie Ahern and his coalition
government that Shannon access for
US troops should continue unimpeded
despite broad opposition to the Iraq war
by the Irish people and the reduced but
still formidable numbers of advocates of
Irish sovereignty who want American
military off the island period.
These opponents of transiting US
troops through Shannon point to the
yearly revenues of nearly $10 million
derived from the flights, but there is
no reason to believe that a prosperous
Ireland would be doing it for the money.
Rather Bertie, a staunch ally of the US
with its 40 million plus Irish here, is
paying his dues; he cannot send Irish
troops to Iraq and politically wouldn’t
want to even if he could, but the Irish
leader can provide a valued convenience
to the US war effort that strengthens the
Irish-American ties at minimal cost to
his political base.
The British Do It Again -- A poll
asked British comedy fans to choose the
top British wits of all time and voters
came up with a listing led, unsurprisingly, by two non-Brits, Irishmen Oscar
Wilde and Spike Milligan. Everyone
knows of Wilde but few on this side of the
Atlantic are aware of Milligan, who died
five years ago after a lengthy lifetime as a
comedian, poet, writer, and outrageously
creative blithe spirit. Milligan, irreverent to the end, was a friend of Prince
Charlie but was no respecter of things
British, even royal friends. On a national
television show after receiving a lifetime
achievement award, he read a telegram
from Prince Charles congratulating him
“Oh, the sniveling groveling bastard,”
Milligan commented. The next day he
faxed the prince. “I suppose a knighthood
is out of the question then?” And later
Milligan opined that the heir eternal,
on having the crown placed on his head,
would say, “I suppose this means that
Mummy’s dead.”
The nationwide poll on wits listing
included Noel Coward and Shakespeare but also had a comedic note
of its own, picking the dour Winston
Churchill in its top five. Now that’s
funny.
Irish Diners Dialing For Lawyers
-- Shanahan’s on St. Stephen’s Green,
an upscale Irish restaurant in Dublin
owned by an American that serves fine
food and lofty prices, had a costly lesson
in customer relations recently. For first
denying the validity of a perfectly good
gift certificate that the holder was using
after a romantic evening celebrating
his girlfriend’s birthday, then publicly
embarrassing the young businessman,
Shanahan’s was ordered by the court
to pay the aggrieved certificate holder
$7,000 for slander. This was not the
first expensive legal incident that
Shanahan’s was involved in. Last year
a former waitress there was awarded
$7,000 (apparently the magic number for
damage awards) by the court for various
employment law infractions, including
sub-pay issues. I wrote about Shanahan’s
some months ago because I had good
reports on its food and ambience. I had
no idea, of course, that they had civility
problems and didn’t want to pay their
help a living wage.
JFK Library & Museum Goes Digital -- It will take ten years to accomplish
but a grant from AT&T will allow the
Columbia Point presidential facility to
“digitize, index, and archive” millions of
the Kennedy administration documents
making them eventually available on
the library website for public access.
Over 45 million photographs, videos,
film, manuscripts and other material
in the collection will be organized and
catalogued. This project will be the first
of its kind and scope in the nation’s
presidential libraries. Anniversaries
related to President Kennedy continue
to pile up as the years pass. Last month
marked 28 years since the official opening of the Kennedy Library & Museum;
next month will mark the 44th year
since JFK’s assassination in Dallas, and
this year, 2007, we remember President
Kennedy’s 90th birthday.
Christy Brown’s Birthday Recalled -- Born in working class Kimage
in inner city Dublin in the summer of
1932, the “My Left Foot” author, poet,
and painter Christy Brown would have
celebrated his 75th birthday this year. To
mark the occasion a British writer with
Irish ties, Georginia Hambleton, has
written the first full scale biography of
the extraordinary Brown, who overcame
severe cerebral palsy to write novels and
poetry and to paint and to entertain
thousands on RTE’s Late Show. The
biography is due out in Ireland and
Britain this month.
Although I spent considerable time via
e-mail exchanges and lengthy phone calls
between here and Dublin and London
with the author, I have yet to read a word
of the book, nor have I seen a review.
Meantime, the following quotes from
letters to me from Christy, I thought,
might offer readers a glimpse into the
soul and spirit of one of the most remarkable men Ireland has ever produced.
The following quotes are from Christy’s
letters that are part of an ongoing exchange of correspondence we had in the
1970s on subjects as diverse as painting,
mortality, writing and critics.
“Some people have the quaint idea
that painting is a form of relaxation ...for
me it is sheer physical strain and ordeal
with hardly any thought involved and
it is this element more than any other
that frustrates and bores me... all that
mindless dabbing on and off of paint...
feeling at the end of it all unsatisfied and
futile and wanting wildly to get back to
my typewriter.”
“I always thought that the melancholy
Gael syndrome was nothing but an
Anglo-Saxon myth romanticized to the
point of music hall banality, but now I’m
not so sure.” ...” I want to live till I am
unbelievably old but not senile. I want
to be one up on Methuselah or even, God
bless the mark, de Valera.”
“Writing is a highly ludicrous and
derisable business when it is not being
ghoulishly agonizing...Maybe it is better
to travel than to arrive which implies a
full stop, and that’s a deadly sort of thing
if you’re cursed with any imagination.”
“Critics —erudite savages —a few
literary hatchet men out to get me because I had the impertinence to write a
world best seller the last time without
any of the conventional qualifications
to perform such a feat. In my naivete I
never guessed we had such a surfeit of
would-be literary gravediggers.”
Christy Brown died in September,
1981 as he was having lunch and watching horse racing on television.
Omission -- Writing briefly last month
about meetings in Finland between Sinn
Fein leaders and others interested in
replicating the Irish peace process in
Iraq, I neglected to say that Padraig
O’Malley, an old friend and the Moakley
Professor of International Peace and
Reconciliation at the McCormack Graduate School, was the key organizer and
impetus behind the Finnish meetings.
I regret the omission.
Abbey To Get New Digs -- After
long months of frustration and uncer-
tainty, Ireland’s national theatre, the
Abbey, will have a new home in Dublin’s
docklands. A move from the Abbey’s
current home on Lower Abbey Street is
now a certainty. A 13-member jury will
select the design for the new building on
George’s Dock near the Liffey and the
Sean O’Casey bridge. The new complex,
completion date as yet unknown, will
include three theatres, rehearsal space,
shops, bars, restaurants, a cinema, and
a lecture hall.
Portadown, a Cautionary Note -The town of Portadown, a predominantly
Protestant seaside community on the
North’s Causeway Coast, has been the
scene recently of ugly anti-Catholic attacks that, when coupled with its history
of anti-Catholic sentiment stretching
back into the heart of the Troubles,
suggest to this visitor a place that I
bypass on visits northward. I love the
scenic beauty of the coastline and have
enjoyed stays in Ballycastle, Bushmills,
and Portstewart, but one quick visit to
Portadown was enough for me. The latest complaint charges members of the
Northern police (PSNI) with not intervening in a vicious public mob attack on
three Catholic men in the town center.
One of the most notorious incidents in
the past involved the controversial death
of Robert Hamill a decade ago under
similar circumstances.
While eschewing Fox’s phony “Fair &
Balances” assertions, it still seems appropriate to note that there are a number
of complaints of arson attacks and other
organized vandalism against Orange
Order halls across the North. The latest
figures from news reports and usually
reliable Unionist sources allege attacks
on 43 Orange Order buildings, nearly all
of which are unsolved to date
Gil Sullivan Gift Aids BC Irish
Studies -- One of my favorite people and
a mainstay for years of the Boston Irish
community, Gil Sullivan, has made a $1
million gift to the Irish Studies Program
at Boston College. A 1966 graduate of
BC, Sullivan recently sold his packaging
goods company and decided to make the
generous gift because, as he says, “I feel
compelled to give back because I have
gotten so much.” Gil who has never forgotten BC or BC High or his Irish roots
in Dorchester has over the years been
a quiet mover and shaker. He helped
me on worthy causes on a number of
occasions, with charitable fund raising
events, with Boston Ireland Ventures,
etc. He was also for a time the leader of
BC’s Irish Studies Advisory Committee.
I did a stint on the panel as one way of
staying close to the wit and wisdom of
Squire Sullivan.
Gil Sullivan: One of our community’s
quiet heroes.
Catalogs Create Confusion -- In
looking over an Irish gift catalog at home
recently I noticed a number of tag lines
regarding origin or provenance, where
the material was from or what country produced it, etc. For example this
particular popular Christmas catalog
( I didn’t check out its competitors, so I
won’t provide the name of this company’s
production) which advertises Irish goods
& products uses terms like ‘Imported,”
“From Ireland,” “ Shipped from Ireland,”
or “From the E U,” “Designed in Ireland,”
and so on.
In speaking with customer reps there I
failed to clear up the confusion between
products actually made in Ireland and
others that likely were trans-shipped
through Ireland or, in many instances,
such as when the term “Imported” was
used, I was told, that meant the item was
not from Ireland but was most probably
produced in Asia., which I take to mean
China. If buying products from mail
order Irish catalogs when goods are not
always made in Ireland bothers you, take
a good look at the description that ac-
companies each product and if in doubt,
call customer service and ask to speak
with a supervisor. It’s your money.
THE HOME FRONT
• “The people of the country are entitled to see democracy in action.” That
quote from Fine Gael opposition leader
Enda Kenny was a call to arms for the
Irish government to install TV in the Dail
and televise legislative proceedings so
the people of Ireland (at least those who
pay their TV license fees) can see the lads
(mostly) in action. It sounds to this cynic
like an idea whose time has come —and
gone. In my lifetime? Unity first!
• Beware of Dublin Airport for the next
several years or longer. Construction on
Terminal Two at the airport began early
in October and the project, T2, costing
at least $500 million, is slated to open in
April 2010. Officials have announced that
internal roads at Dublin Airport will be
“reconfigured.” Go West, travelers. • The number of homeless in Ireland
has nearly doubled in the past 16 years,
despite increased spending and related
private social welfare activities. Focus
Ireland, a homeless advocacy group,
is looking to the government to spend
$2.7 billion to create 10,000 new housing units.
• The Irish government has just authorized 350 Irish troops to assist Darfur
refugees as they flee to Chad and the
Central African Republic from the Darfur
genocide. The Irish experience in Africa
is a long and noble one with past service
there from the Congo to Somalia and the
Western Sahara. In late summer the
Dublin government increased its funding for HIV/AIDS treatment programs
to $135 million.
• Latest word from the Vatican rumor
mill is that Pope Benedict could visit
Ireland in April. If he comes he could
visit the North as well as the Republic.
Archbishop Sean Brady, the Irish
Primate, was recently given his red hat
and some feel that recognition of him and
the resolution of the peace process in the
North augur well for a visit to both areas.
Pope John Paul II came to Ireland in
1979 but did not travel North.
• The death rate from heart disease in
Ireland has been cut in half since 1985.
This, doctors admit, is as much due
to advanced drugs as it is to life style
changes, which move slowly in Ireland as
elsewhere. However, the number of Irish
smokers has substantially decreased, but
this has been partially neutralized by
increases in diabetes and obesity.
No Chip Off The Old Block -- When
the late Brian Lehihan, Sr. was deputy
Taoiseach and a long-time Fianna Fail
government minister, he represented the
humane wing of Irish politics. He came
to the states open and listening, visiting
Irish consular outposts and talking with
members of the Irish community, with
special concern for those caught up in
the undocumented dilemma. And Boston,
before the Morrison and Donnelly visas,
was awash with too many unsettled
young men and women.
However, it seems that young Brian
Lenihan Jr., who is minister of Justice
in Bertie Ahern’s government, has displayed a far harsher attitude towards
immigrants and the problems of immigration to Ireland today. He is proposing
that immigrants (Lenihan calls them
migrants?) must pass an English test
to stay, regardless of their status. He
also is pushing for a “No amnesty-No
regularization” policy. With regard to
the mandatory English tests, it has
been pointed out by EU scholars that
immigrants from EU countries who are
legally in Ireland do not have to pass any
Irish-mandated English test, regardless
of what high-flying Justice Minister
Lenihan says. Where in the World Can You Find News
about Ourselves & Our Town
www.BostonIrish.Com
Page November 2007
Publisher’s Notebook
Commentary
It’s a Time
It’s Not Always Front and Center,
Of Great Anxiety But the ‘It’ Factor is a Fixture in Irish Life
My home town of Dorchester and Mattapan was
once the second most populous community in Massachusetts. Census counts in 1950 showed a quarter of
a million people made their homes there. Ours were
neighborhoods connected by ethnic and religious
ties. In those years, my first school, the Charles H.
Taylor, was a meeting ground for two communities,
one Christian, one Jewish. My parents sent the five
Forry children to the public school for the first few
grades, fulfilling what they believed to be their obligation to educate us in Catholic schools only when
we could walk safely the mile or so to St. Gregory’s
Elementary School in Lower Mills.
In those years – the 1950s – St. Greg’s was the
Catholic school not just for parish children, but
also for many Milton and St.
Brendan’s boys and girls. There
were upwards of 80 children in
each classroom. Nearby, kids
playing ball at Walsh and Dot
parks would pause to watch
the colossal new hospital being
constructed along Dorchester
Ave. When, in 1953, an order
of Catholic sisters opened the
new Carney Hospital for the
Ed Forry
first time, for this Catholic child
of Dorchester, the universe was
nearly complete. From school, to health care, from
Sunday Mass to Lenten Stations of the Cross, it was
all there for my family and friends. Our church was
there to deliver whatever we needed.
Those were days when the Catholic identity of
Dorchester was in its ascendancy; children like us
lived in other parishes all across our town, and we
would meet them only in sports competition, in CYO
baseball and basketball games that caused friendly
rivalries to develop. From those years, and from that
perspective, the Catholic parishes helped create
identities, and our neighborhoods drew sustenance
and strength from the activities at these many
parishes. For us, we weren’t from Dorchester – we
were from St Peter’s or St. William’s or St. Ann’s
or St Matthew’s or St. Mark’s, or one of the other
dozen Catholic parish communities that formed the
hub of our lives.
Times have a way of changing things, and things
have changed dramatically in Dorchester. Shifting
demographics have resulted in a substantial reduction in the numbers of school-age children seeking
a Catholic education, and the Catholic Church has
embarked on the process of consolidating the number of schools, part of a program called the “2010
Catholic School Initiative.”
That process became more public last month, with
parent meetings at the eight remaining Catholic
schools, and it is expected that Cardinal Seán
O’Malley will announce his decisions about school
closings sometime this month – ironically, perhaps
around Thanksgiving. A similar consolidation in
Brockton last year merged three schools into just
one.
Taking a long look, the consolidation of the Catholic
presence has been going on in Dorchester for 20 years
and more. Once vibrant church communities at St.
Leo’s and St. William’s have been “supressed,” and
parochial schools once supported by St. Matthew,
St. Ambrose, and St. Margaret parishes have shut
down. In late October, The Boston Globe reported
that the church is nearing a decision on the future
of the Carney Hospital, and it may happen that as
many as four of the eight current parochial schools
now operating in Dorchester will shut down as early
as next June.
Of course, what is happening in Dorchester is a
microcosm of a broad self-examination the Archdiocese of Boston has begun all across its boundaries. A
parish priest told me last week that while the numbers of nominal Catholics in Boston approaches two
million, remarkably only about 15 percent of them
actually attend Sunday Mass. And as the numbers
of priests in Boston continues to dwindle, the capacity to staff parishes shrinks as well. Add to that the
growing costs of paying competent persons to staff
the wide array of Catholic facilities – hospitals,
schools, and social service agencies, for example
– a good case can be made that some fundamental
questions about our church’s priorities need to be
addressed, firmly, publically. – and soon.
So these are difficult times, even controversial,
as the Cardinal and his staff attempt an honest
assessment of their assets , and what makes sense
for the future of Catholic life in Dorchester, as well
as the rest of the archiocese. We know that there
are some changes to come, and we understand there
will be some disruption in people’s lives. We hope
and we pray – and we expect – that the decisions
will be fair and just. Over the last 150 years, our
Catholic tradition has been long and meaningful for
hundreds of thousands of people born and raised
in Dorchester, and, it is fair to say, this church has
helped make us who we are.
– ED FORRY
By Robert P. Connolly
Special to the BIR
For some it’s a holy quest, for others it’s an evil to
be avoided at all costs, and for many more living on
the island of Ireland, it is an issue that hovers in the
background, maybe to be settled some day, but not
anytime soon.
The “it” is Irish unification, and while it may
not be a burning issue in
Ireland, it also is the issue
that never goes away. Particularly around election
time, cynics may say.
Even though there is no
serious unification proposal pending on either side of
the Irish border, the issue
does retain a certain political and emotional potency.
All of Ireland’s nationalist parties, by definition,
Robert P.
maintain a commitment
Connolly
to Irish unity, with Sinn
Fein, which wields most of
its power in the North, topping the list, and Fianna
Fail, the leading party in the South, still offering up
very green sound bites.
In fact, just two years ago, Fianna Fail’s leader,
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, sought to buttress his nationalist bona fides when he said: “Unity is not just
at the heart of Fianna Fail, but in the hearts of the
Irish people.” Ahern added: “We must continue to
make history happen.”
As has been the case for decades, the chief obstacle
to Irish unity is Northern Ireland’s unionist majority, people who historically have thought that their
Protestantism, their sense of Britishness, and their
economic well-being would all be in jeopardy in a 32county united Irish state. That is why the Protestants
of the North fought home rule in the years leading
up to World War I and why they have battled so hard
to preserve the six-county political lifeboat created
by partition.
And while it may appear that Irish nationalists
bent on unification have nothing to offer unionists
beyond their heartfelt regrets, the man who has had
unification at the top of his agenda for many years
voices a surprising degree of flexibility when the topic
of Irish unity arises.
In a recent interview, Gerry Adams, the president
of Sinn Fein and in many ways the face of the republican quest for unification, stressed the need for
accommodating unionist aspirations and sensibilities. Adams even suggested that a carefully designed
structure, like a federal Ireland, might be the path
to a united future.
“As we continue to move ahead, that may mean
republicans will have to look at what type of united
Ireland we’re going to have. I’m a republican, I believe
that a 32-county republic is the best model, but this
has to be thrashed out,” Adams noted in an interview
with the Boston Irish Reporter.
“Others, not just unionists but unionists particularly, may have a different view, and we have to try
to shape a united Ireland in which unionism feels
that its rights and entitlements are protected and
guaranteed. We also have to be very firmly of the
view that everyone’s civil and religious liberties are
absolutely sacrosanct, that we have, referring to the
American model, guarantees of civil and religious
freedoms.”
Certainly, the idea of a post-unification model different from Ireland’s current unitary state is something
that has been discussed for some time.
In the 1980s, as violence tore at the fabric of Northern Ireland, nationalist political leaders from North
and South met for over a year considering ways in
which unification could “restore the historic integrity
of Ireland and end the divisions in the country.”
When the leaders issued their New Ireland Forum
Report in 1984, they looked at three models for Irish
unity: the unitary state that would resemble the
current Irish government, a federal state with legislatures in the North and South, and a joint authority
arrangement under which Northern Ireland would be
governed by London and Dublin.
The report was quickly dismissed by British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher, but many of its ideas,
and particularly its pluralist spirit of accommodation,
were woven into the negotiations that brought peace
to Northern Ireland.
Robert Savage, the co-director of the Irish Studies
program at Boston College, points out that the idea
of taking a flexible approach to unification is one that
then-Taoiseach Sean Lemass advanced in the 1950s
and 1960s.
“Lemass talked about the possibility of retaining
a home-rule Stormont parliament in the context of
a unified Irish state. Lemass and others displayed
flexibility and a willingness to think outside the box.
Lemass had a Northern policy. He recognized that
the sterile policy of referring to ‘the six counties’
was counter-productive. He was interested in some
kind of constructive engagement with the unionists,”
Savage noted.
A half-century later, the discussion continues to
percolate and political leaders continue to recognize
that the unionist tradition would have to be accommodated if unification is to become anything other
than a distant dream.
Commentary
Remembering Don Mooney,
a Man With Lots of Verve
By Martin McGovern
Special to the BIR
Donald J. Mooney, one of the most talented and
colorful contributors to Irish-American journalism,
died October 14 in Plymouth, Mass. He was 77 and
had been ill for
some time.
In 1976, Mr.
Mooney established the monthly
Boston Irish News,
which he edited
and published until he closed it in
1991. In his run
of 15 years with
his paper, Mr.
Mooney created
an alternative
voice within Irish
America, one that
challenged prevailing opinion
and broadened
the scope of politiDonald J. Mooney
cal debate.
The Boston
Irish News always charted an independent path.
It would have been easier to parrot the instinctive
nationalist line, but Mr. Mooney did not appreciate
“group think.” An American of Irish and French
descent, he refused to worship the idols of his tribe.
Instead, he probed and queried, debated and argued
about nationalism, the North, immigration, lobbying,
Irish expectations and American involvement. And,
in collaboration with a crew of solid contributors, he
did so with passion and impish cheek.
The Boston Irish News still stands as a valuable
research tool for historians and other academic scholars. Besides giving serious and unusual insights on
a turbulent and hectic era in Irish-American society,
culture and politics, Mr. Mooney’s publication had
the nerve and verve to ask awkward questions. He
deserves full credit for not just founding the paper,
but also sustaining it -- something he accomplished
after successful careers as a singer and in law enforcement.
In addition to being publisher, editor, and opinion
maker, he was also business manager, deliveryman,
and general entrepreneur.
I wrote for the Boston Irish News for almost a decade
and working with Don was both fun and professionally
challenging. Today, I follow Irish events less intensely
than I did in my Irish News days, but in hindsight, all
those stories, reports, and editorials that I wrote for
the paper played a role in my transition from being
Irish to being American.
I suspect Don would savor the paradox of me making it to the American mainstream via involvement
in ethnic debates and arguments. He loved exploring
paradoxes.
As a trained tenor, Don could carry a tune and, appropriately enough, his favorite song was “My Way.”
As editor and publisher of the Boston Irish News, he
“sang” a somewhat different song, but he did it with
no less style, verve or class than when he was crooning that Sinatra classic.
He certainly did it his way and I am proud of my
association with Don and with the paper. Most of
all, I am grateful for his friendship and for the warm
welcome that he and his family always extended to
me at 14 Franconia Street in Dorchester.
Former Boston Irish News writer and Weymouth
resident Martin McGovern is the Director of Communications at Stonehill College
November 2007
Commentary
Off the Bench
Northern Ireland Secretary of State Makes
Highly Positive Impact on Visit to Boston
By Joe Leary
Special to the BIR
The recently appointed Northern Ireland Secretary
of State, Shaun Woodward, came to Boston last
month with messages of
hope and a new resolve to
build the Northern Ireland
economy. In the past, the
arrival of a new secretary
of state would be filled with
tension, defensive talk and
carefully held events and
meetings. Not this time.
Harmony, good will, and
straight talk prevailed in
a far more relaxed atmosphere.
With the sun shining
Joe Leary
brightly outside, Secretary
Woodward spoke at a luncheon given in his honor by
50 members of The Irish American Partnership. His
performance was one of the more impressive seen from
any prior secretary of state. His remarks were delivered
with confidence and good humor, echoing the transformation now taking place in Northern Ireland.
The focus was on economic development. “I urge Irish
Americans to become involved with Northern Ireland,”
said Woodward. “The economic fundamentals are ripe
for investors and Irish Americans are well positioned
to take advantage of the peace and stability that so
many have contributed towards.”
Now 48 years old and a Labor Party Member of the
British Parliament, Woodward has held elective office
for ten years. He was first elected as a Conservative
Party member then decided not to run for re-election.
“I had been uncomfortable for some time,” he says,
and after a serious disagreement with conservative
party policy, he joined the Labor Party at Tony Blair’s
invitation. He then successfully then ran for a new seat
in Parliament. He has since been assigned several
leadership positions, culminating in his current appointment as Northern Ireland Secretary of State in
Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cabinet. Married with
four children, the eldest of whom is only 18 years old,
he says his family is his other fulltime job.
Woodward feels strongly about the positive nature
of events in Northern Ireland. When asked how much
real authority his position has over decisions made by
the new Northern Ireland Assembly, he said, “This
cuts to the heart of what devolution is all about – local
political parties taking tough decisions in the interest of
the people of Northern Ireland. I don’t have the power
to take decisions for them. Of course, in constitutional
terms, the British Parliament remains sovereign and
so can legislate on any matter.”
In other words, according to law, London still plays a
powerful role over events in Northern Ireland. This is
probably a good concept for everyone to realize. Though
some autonomy has been established, the Northern
Ireland Assembly is still accountable to London.
It is also a fact, however, that the hard, Army-enforced border between the North and South of Ireland
is no longer an impediment to cross-border communications or commerce. Though there remain pockets of
distrust, business is being accomplished that would
not have been attempted just a few years ago.
Woodward said that 70 percent of the North’s
economy involves public spending, higher than France
at 53 percent or Germany at 45 percent. The Republic of Ireland, with a booming business atmosphere,
has public spending (government, schools, libraries,
police and fire departments) of less than 34 percent
of its economy.
A good reason for Northern Ireland’s current economic situation is its previous reputation for violence.
Very few businessmen would have tried to build a new
venture in such a troubled area. Another good reason
for the disparity between the North and South is the
Republic of Ireland’s low 12.5 percent corporate tax
rate. Why should a business locate in an area with a
much higher current corporate tax rate -- like Northern
Ireland’s 38 percent?
But Woodward says that such an analysis is too
simple. There are many other factors to be considered. In fact, after loud calls from Northern Ireland’s
business community to investigate the significant
difference between the North and South tax rate, the
British Government commissioned businessman Sir
David Varney to study the issue. His report is due to
be published shortly and when it is, Woodward and
his advisers will react.
It is interesting to note that all these issues were
discussed openly and in a spirit of finding answers.
It was refreshing. Shaun Woodward’s visit to Boston
was a success.
Decline of Interest in Local Politics Sad
to Some; Opportunity for Others?
By Jim O’Sullivan
Special to the BIR
This is not the keening nostalgia for glory days. In
truth, I don’t recall them, and am not sure I would’ve
recognized them if I did. That’s the thing about glory
days (so sit up straight, Boston sports fans).
What it is, instead, is a recognition that whatever
estimable purchase in this city’s cultural fabric local
politics might have had is diminished, if it has not
disappeared altogether. There’s a Boston City Council election this month – a chance for the next Tom
Menino or Ray Flynn or Joe Moakley, all of whom
served on the dismembered body – and the buzz is
further down than subterranean.
Even the political cognoscenti, such as they are, are
ruefully apathetic about the vote. All over, there are
stories from State House elevators about formerly politically involved citizens who are unsure about who’s
running this year. These things mattered, once.
It’s part of a steady backslide in interest, one that
raises perennial complaints about fading interest in
Boston’s longtime hobby/bloodsport. What are supposed to be our pastimes? Politics, sports, and revenge?
Still breathing, seemingly, are two of three.
The 2005 Boston mayor’s race drew a long-shot
candidate against Menino, and long-view coverage
from a media that grew collectively cranky about the
contest’s mediocrity only in the waning days of the
campaign. Perhaps a more attuned political press,
present company included, could have cultivated preelection atmospherics more emboldening for viable
candidates. Then again, maybe the egg came before
the chicken.
And a political class, already diminished, is unlikely
to cotton to a City Council race when a mayoral race
fails to excite public passion.
There is no shortage of stimulating narratives and
peccadilloes to this campaign, most of which will have
been resolved by the time this column finds most
readers after the Nov. 6 election. So there’s no sense
in rehashing them here.
But there are deeper storylines at work, too, questions about how this disinterest came to be.
Maybe the “bowling alone” theory – holding that individuals are increasingly isolated, would rather bowl
alone, due to a host of social phenomena – explains
why politics is on the wane, or has fully waned. We
watch TV too much, costing us valuable neighborhood interaction time; nobody goes to civic meetings
Page anymore, anyway; who wants to go outside in some
neighborhoods; any belief in the value of government
and public life is for suckers. Pick ’em.
Or it could be that we’ve never been more involved
with politics, just that they’re not local politics. Some
neighborhoods turned out in record droves for Deval
Patrick last November, excited by the prospect of
voting for a candidate of color who championed their
own views. Districts that showed little ardor for the
latest mayoral election ran out of ballots for citizens
trying to vote for governor.
National politics, too, are more accessible than
ever. Anyone with a political jones can get their fix
from the big boys, with issues broader than whether
the Boston Redevelopment Authority should both
plan and develop. Want Chris Dodd’s stance on how
states should pay for universal preschool? There’s no
need to travel to the state campaign headquarters or
wait for a newspaper account of his policies. Go to the
website. Watch “The Daily Show” for an arch view.
Sign up for e-mail updates.
I’m aware this argument comes perilously close
to challenging our most cherished of local political
axioms. But a good example is the attitude of my
desk-bound buddies from college. A lot of them work
in finance, and don’t read newspapers. Most wouldn’t
have read newspapers 10 years ago. But now they sit
at desks with Internet browsers open all day, and this
stuff gets through, along with a staggering amount of
second-hand sports knowledge, pop-culture minutiae,
and insulting e-mails.
Every one of them knows who Larry Craig is, and
I’d bet most of them draw that invaluable information from an information portal that wasn’t open to
most 15 years ago.
Veteran pols are acknowledging that this year
voter turnout in Boston could hit the single-digit
mark. Even in 2005, with the mayoral race on the
ballot, the rate was only 36 percent. This year, the
council’s decision to cancel the traditional September
preliminary, outraging some who saw a power play
on the part of incumbents, precluded the traditional
head-turn that the earlier vote draws.
No one would argue, publicly, that the drop in
attention to Boston politics is good for city life. And
some might argue it’s a betrayal of our heritage. But
there are compelling reasons behind the decline, and
perhaps opportunities for the enterprising pol to explore and, even more invitingly, exploit.
Madness of War
Hits Home
By James W. Dolan
They will all be gone soon. The living link to the
greatest war in history will be severed. It will recede
into the past as the aged fallen join their comrades,
many long since forgotten.
If ever war was required, the Second World War was
as close to necessary as any of them.
It was a war in which the distinction between combatants and non-combatants was obliterated. Advanced
weaponry made it possible to target those far removed
from the battlefield. Total war made little distinction.
The obscene euphemism of “collateral damage” was
used to soften the killing of young and old.
As if “we didn’t mean it” would somehow reduce
guilt.
The soldier who intentionally kills a civilian is court
martialed but those who order an airstrike or artillery
attack on a suspected enemy target that kills women
and children, are excused. It was a “regrettable mistake.”
War is filled with “regrettable mistakes.” It is likely
that as many as half the casualties that occur in combat
are the result of strategic or tactical errors.
What is achieved when the young people of one
nation set out to kill the young people of another?
What a ghastly way to resolve human conflict. In any
other context but war, it would be condemned as mass
murder.
At least murder is usually purposefully directed; one
person has a grievance against another. In war, if a
grievance exists, it is not against the person killed. It
is against the “enemy;” the personification of an act
or policy over which those you are trying to kill have
little or no control.
All wars are defensive. Nobody acknowledges being
the aggressor. They are fought in defense of territory, sovereignty, economic interests, freedom and
independence.
War is madness. At its core it makes no sense. We
dress it up in order to justify it. Terms like honor, sacrifice, liberty and heroism are used to mask the stark
reality of human beings slaughtering each other. It is
the ultimate denial of our humanity.
We condemn murderers but praise those, who in a
different context, engage in mass killings. Is it any
wonder there are so many tortured souls that return
from war having been ordered to do what civilized
society teaches them is wrong?
We are now restrained from total war by the knowledge that the slaughter can no longer be contained.
It once was restricted to the battlefield. With new
weapons it moved beyond the battlefield and involved
the widespread death of civilians. Now it is so horrible
that nobody is safe; nothing would be left.
Will that be enough to prevent Armageddon? Have
we evolved to the point where the unthinkable will not
happen? As nuclear weapons proliferate, it is likely
that a bomb will one day come into the possession of a
terrorist organization in which basic survival instincts
are scorned.
If war is the ultimate act of violence, how can a government credibly preach non-violence while pursuing
a policy that condones the use of force to achieve its
goals? Does war become defensive and thus justifiable
simply because those in power label it as such?
The Vietnam War was fought to defend our freedom
or so we were told. Iraq too posed a threat to our safety.
Both justifications proved false.
Is there an essential difference between the low grade
warfare that occurs between gangs in our cities over
real or imagined grievances, turf disputes or rights to
drug markets, and warfare on a grander scale waged
for “noble” purposes by nations? They are all defensive, people get killed and the innocent are victims of
“collateral damage.”
Loyalty, honor, courage and sacrifice are important
virtues. They should never be spent in pursuit of unworthy objectives.
James W. Dolan is a former Dorchester District Court
judge who now practices law.
Boston Irish
REPORTER
The Boston Irish Reporter is published monthly by:
Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.,
150 Mt. Vernon St., Suite 120, Dorchester, MA 02125
[email protected]
www.bostonirish.com
Mary C. Forry, President (1983-2004)
Edward W. Forry, Publisher
William P. Forry, Managing Editor
Peter Stevens, Arts & Features Editor
Thomas F. Mulvoy Jr., Contributing Editor
News Room: (617) 436-1222 Ads : (617) 436-1222
Fax: (617) 825-5516 [email protected]
On The Web at www.bostonirish.com
Date of Next Issue: December, 2007
Deadline for Next Issue: Monday, November 19, at 2 p.m.
Published Monthly in the first week of each month.
The Boston Irish Reporter is not liable for errors appearing in
advertisements beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error.
The right is reserved by The Boston Irish Reporter to edit, reject,
or cut any copy without notice.
Page November 2007
Notes from the Irish Immigration Center
An agency accredited by US Department of Justice
59 Temple Place, Suite 1010, Boston, MA 02111
Telephone (617) 542-7654 Fax (617) 542-7655
Website:iicenter.org Email: [email protected]
DV Lottery 2009 - We receive many calls
this time of year about
the annual DV lottery
– where up to 55,000 U.S.
visas are given out every
year. This year’s online
application process has
opened and runs until the
beginning of December.
Irish immigrants are
among the winners every
year and there is no fee to
enter -- so beware of any
organization or individual
charging you money to
register. If you would like
help with your application
we offer assistance by appointment every Tuesday
and Thursday from 1 p.m.
to 6 p.m. We have been
helping Irish immigrants
accurately complete their
applications since the lottery was created. Let us
help you this year.
Dorchester Substance Abuse Drop-In
-- Is your life being affected
by Substance Abuse? Do
you sometimes think you
need to cut down on your
drinking/drug use? Are
you confused, depressed,
anxious or feel that your
fears are overwhelming?
Remember that on the
second and last Mondays
of every month the IIC’s
Danielle Bowles will be at
the Neponset Health Center (398 Neponset Ave) for
the Community Drop-In
Service from 2 p.m. to 6
p.m. and then on Nov. 12
and 26, Jan. 14 and 28,
and Feb. 4 and 25.
Call Danielle anytime
at IIC at 617-542-7654,
Ext. 14.
Silver Key for Gobnait Conneely -- Longtime IIC staff member,
volunteer, and former
Board President Gobnait
Conneely has been awarded the annual “Silver Key
Award” by the Charitable
Irish Society. Since arriving from Merview, Galway, in 1980, Gobnait’s
IIC Offers Free Health,
Dental Screening Nov. 12
The Irish Immigration Center will be offering free
health and dental screenings provided by volunteer
doctors and dentists from 3 to 6 p.m. on Mon., Nov. 12.
Traditionally, many in the Irish community visit the
doctor only when something is hurting really badly
or falling off, but the IIC is encouraging preventive
care as “a stitch in time.”
“The principle behind all of our programs is to
take care of small problems so they never become big
problems, and this is especially important with health
and wellness,” said Sister Lena Deevy, Executive
Director of the IIC. “We know that many folks, and
particularly some elderly in our community, don’t
have health insurance or may not be comfortable
going to the doctor or dentist for a check-up. We are
pleased to provide these services for free in a safe
and friendly environment.”
The health professionals will be provided through
the “Cathedral Cares” ministry of Cathedral of the
Holy Cross and among screenings offered will be skin
and dental, heart, cholesterol, and blood pressure.
Call Lauren at the IIC at 617-542-7654, Ext. 10, to
make an appointment or for more information.
dedicated and courageous
attitude to community service has made her a well
known, much respected,
and hugely popular figure
in the Irish community
and far beyond. We congratulate her for this well
deserved accolade. The
Charitable Irish Society
is the oldest Irish Society
in the Americas and quietly supports many Irish
families through financial
hardship every year. See
Greg O’Brien’s profile of
Gobnait in this issue of
the BIR.
Welcome to the folk
from Clanrye -- Just as
one group left, our final
Wider Horizons group of
the year arrived in Boston
at the end of October. So
at the same time as saying a fond farewell to the
Omagh/Donegal crew in
a glitzy graduation ceremony late last month, we
say a warm welcome to our
new team from Clanrye
training in Newry. The
young men and women
will be with us here in
Boston for the next 8
weeks completing unpaid
internships in customer
service and staying with
local families. If you see
them, please say hello.
New Citizenship Test/
IIC Classes -- USCIS last
month released the “final”
version of the new test
questions to be studied
for and answered by future applicants for U.S.
Citizenship -- applicants
from and after October of
next year. IIC is currently
midway through our series
of free weekly classes to
help future U.S. citizens
prepare for the current
test. If you have been a
permanent resident of the
U.S. for five years or more
we invite and encourage
you to contact us about
becoming a citizen.
Legal Clinics in November -- Have your
immigration and U.S.
citizenship questions
answered by experienced
attorneys at one of our
free legal clinics:
Downtown – Every
Tuesday and Thursday
from 4 to 7 p.m. in our
office at 59 Temple Place,
Suite 1010. Get off at Park
St. or Downtown Crossing
Subway.
Allston-Brighton –
Monday the 12th at 6:30
p.m. in the Kells Bar and
Restaurant, 161 Brighton
Avenue, Allston
Dorchester – Tuesday,
the 27th at 6:30 p.m.
in the basement of St.
Mark’s Parish Church
Immigration Attorneys
will be present at all clinics. IIC has been providing free immigration legal
advice for 16 years.
IIC in the Boston
Herald -- Last month we
published a column in the
Boston Herald advocating that Massachusetts
permit immigrants to
obtain driving licenses
just as New York’s governor recently did there.
A major part of our advocacy work on behalf
of the undocumented is
influencing public opinion
on immigration issues
through the media. To
get involved in our media
work or share your story
e-mail: tkeown@iicenter.
org.
Last Minute Solas
2007 Tickets! -- It’s late,
it’s late, but, yes, Solas
Awards Dinner tickets
are still available for $150
each from our website
(www.iicenter.org) or by
calling Nicole in our development department at
617-542-7654. See related
story in this section.
Matters Of Substance
Breaking Free of the Past
By Danielle Bowles
“I can’t remember a time
when I didn’t feel that I was
wrong. I didn’t know why
simple things like getting
to work on time, completing my college projects,
even spending time with
friends, I always felt like I
wasn’t good enough. I was
put on medication because
of my suicide thoughts,
which helped but I still
felt very sad and lonely. I
started going to counseling
because my psychiatrist
said I needed to. I just cried
and cried in my first few
sessions. I kept expecting
my counselor to say I was
hopeless and come back
when I could talk without
crying. I was amazed that
someone wanted to listen
to me without anything in
return, like my boyfriends
did.
“When I began to talk
about boyfriends, my counselor asked me how I felt
when I was with them. I
had to think about that.
I usually felt excited and
shocked that they were
interested and wanted to
be with me. I only ever
seemed to find crazy boyfriends. I’d meet guys in
bars or clubs, and pretending to be confident came
easy when I had a couple
of drinks. It never lasted
long; he usually found
someone else or ended up
in jail. I always thought
it was just me and that
I would always be alone.
We also talked about my
family, which I usually
hate to do. I never used to
bring anyone home. The
one time I did, my mum
was asleep on the counter
in her dressing gown,
passed out from the night
before. I never did that
again. My dad was always
working, so my sister and I
took care of mum and the
house. When I finally left
home for college, I was so
excited. I only had to look
after myself. There were
no more rows if I did something wrong, which was
usually pretty often.
“In counseling, I began to
learn that my mum was an
alcoholic and that my emotional problems now might
be related to growing up in
an unhealthy home. I can
look in the mirror now
and not feel like hiding
anymore. I may actually
graduate from college this
summer! I met someone
last month who I can go
to the cinema with and
have a laugh with. I don’t
always feel like crying
now. I know I have a long
way to go. I chat online
to other people who grew
up the same way. I hear
their stories and realize
that I am not alone. I am
writing because I want
other people to know that
no matter how unlucky or
unlovable you think you
are, it’s not true. I’m not
responsible for what happened growing up, but I
can talk about how I feel
and learn a new way to
live my life.”
If you are thinking about
Danielle Bowles
counseling for yourself or
someone you care about,
contact Danielle in confidence, at the Irish Immigration Center. Phone:
617-542-7654, Ext 14;
e-mail: dbowles@iicenter.
org.
Subscribe Today!
to the Boston Irish Reporter
Call 617-436-1222
Immigration Q & A
Warning: Beware
Diversity Visa Scams
Q. I’m about to apply for the latest Diversity Visa
Lottery. I heard that the application is very complicated
and that there are services available on-line to help
people with the paperwork. Can you recommend these
services?
A. No, there is no need for you to pay for any on-line
service to file your application. While some of these
services may not be scams, they do charge you a fee for
filing your application through them. This is
unnecessary. The lottery application is free and should
be done directly with the U.S. State Department. Go to
their web site at www.travel.state.gov for an explanation
of the process and access to the electronic application
form. The IIC can help you with all aspects of the
application, including digital photo requirements.
Some diversity visa lottery web sites may be outright
scams, either promising to increase your odds of winning
or just taking your money and providing no service in
return. There are a great many websites referring to the
lottery. A Google search for “visa lottery” results in
over 300,000 hits - again, some perhaps legitimate and
others fraudulent. It can be difficult to tell which is
which. For example, the first website that comes up on
the Google search displays images of the American eagle
and flag, the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. Capitol, and
President Bush. Only in the fine print at the bottom of
the page is there a disclaimer that the organization is
not a U.S. government agency -- which is clear in any event
because the website’s address does not end in “.gov.”
Fraudulent or not? It is difficult to say. The website
offers assistance in filing the visa application (for a
fee, of course - the amount of which is not disclosed
until the applicant provides personal information), which
may be legitimate if a waste of money. But it also
stronglyimplieswithoutanovertstatementthatusingthe
service increases the odds of winning, which is
impossible. So the prudent course is to avoid all
websites that sell lottery visa application services.
There is another issue here: Some websites may not just
take your money; they also may steal your identity and use
your credit card number, etc. to rob you. This is one
more reason to stay away from commercial on-line visa
services.
For a confidential consultation about this or any other
aspectofimmigrationlaw,contacttheIICat617-542-7654
or visit one of our legal clinics.
Disclaimer: These articles are published to
inform, not to advise. Areas of law are rapidly
changing. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services and US Department of State regularly amend regulations and alter processing and
filing procedures. For legal advice seek the assistance
of an IIC immigration specialist or an immigration
attorney.
November 2007
Page Irish Immigration Center Cites 12 for Solas Awards;
Msgr. McDonnell, 11 Others to Join the Honor Roll
By Thomas Keown
Special to the BIR
He served the parishioners of St. Augustine in South
Boston for than 20 years and remains a beloved figure
in that neighborhood. But the name and the impact of
Monsignor Thomas J. McDonnell extend far beyond the
parochial and on Nov. 9 he will join the Irish Immigration Center’s glittering honor roll of Solas awardees.
Born and raised in Mattapan, then Father McDonnell
was named a monsignor by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
But to those who know him, he was and will always be
“Father Tom.” Speaking to the Boston Herald shortly
after his elevation, the monsignor candidly displayed
the humility that, coupled with his activity, made him
a legend among those in his care: “For me every day
provides an opportunity to go out there and help someone
who needs it. What greater joy could there be?”
“We are delighted that Monsignor McDonnell will
accept our award this year,” said Sister Lena Deevy,
Executive Director of the Irish Immigration Center.
“Every year we look for honorees who not only serve
their community and the world through their work but
consistently go above and beyond what anyone could
expect. Monsignor McDonnell personifies that ‘extra
bit’. His ministry and his humility have enhanced the
lives of so many over the years we couldn’t even begin
to measure it.”
Also receiving awards at the Westin Hotel that night
will be Gerard and Maureen Doherty for their many
years of local philanthropic endeavor, and IIC’s team
of nine volunteer attorneys.
Msgr. McDonnell’s lifetime in the church took him
twice to Rome and twice to St. Augustine’s, and kept
him constantly in the battle for social justice. Ordained in Rome in 1960, he returned there in 1962
to complete his doctoral studies in theology -- with a
year at St. Mary Star of the Sea in Beverly tucked in
between. Upon his arrival back in the United States,
Father McDonnell began his long association with St
Augustine’s parish, serving there for five years before
being appointed to the faculty of St John’s Seminary in
1969. In 1978, Cardinal Humberto Medeiros appointed
him Vicar for Religious of the Archdiocese and in 1983
he was back at St Augustine’s, where he would serve
as “Father Tom” for the next 21 years -- latterly also
as priest of neighboring St Monica’s.
An eloquently intellectual man, the monsignor
reached into homes and workplaces across the city
and across social lines with the publication of regular
articles and thoughts in scholarly publications, in
the Boston Pilot and in this very newspaper, among
others. But it was perhaps his heart and passion for
the mentally and physically handicapped that put his
message of love into the most tangible form.
Honored by the ARC (formerly the Association of
Retarded Citizens) in 1992 for his outstanding contribution to those with mental retardation, he touched
souls throughout dozens of Boston communities in his
voluntary work and as Archdiocesan Coordinator of
Ministry with Handicapped People.
“I really do believe he embodies the idea of another
Christ,” said Sister Peggy Youngclaus, who helped
the monsignor form his Simon of Cyrene Society to
minister to the handicapped. “He is without doubt the
most caring and compassionate person I know.”
Msgr. McDonnell retired in 2004 and today lives as
senior priest in residence at St. Mary’s in Dedham.
The IIC’s Solas Award is a fitting honor for a man
who has shone a light above Boston for nearly half
a century. The Irish Immigration Center hopes that
you will join them in paying tribute to a remarkable
man’s remarkable service.
Last minute tickets are still available by calling
Nicole at IIC at 617-542-7654 or at iicenter.org. All
proceeds support Irish Immigration Center programs
and services.
BIR NEWS ROUNDUP
Pay Hikes for Taoiseach,
Others Provoke Loud Fuss
From The Irish Emigrant
A huge controversy has broken out over large pay
increases awarded to the Taoiseach and his ministers.
On Oct. 25, the Government accepted the recommendations of the independent Review Body on Higher
Remuneration, which will see the Taoiseach’s salary increase by 14 percent, from 272,000 euro to 310,000. The
Tanaiste’s salary goes up by 15.65 percent, to 270,000
euro and other ministers receive 12 percent increases
to 240,000 euro. The increases have drawn comparisons with the salaries available in other jurisdictions
and it was widely noted that Bertie Ahern earns more
than President Bush or the prime ministers of Britain,
Germany, and France. In fact none of the newspapers
appears to have found a prime minister anywhere who
has a larger salary than the Taoiseach. Ahern didn’t
take the criticism too seriously and, when the subject
was raised by journalists, he pointed to the fact that he
does not have the equivalent of a White House, Elysee
Palace, or 10 Downing Street in which to live. For the
record, President Bush has a salary of 280,000 euro
(($400,000), roughly the same as that of EC president
Jose Manuel Barroso. British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown receives 268,000 euro and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel earns 228,000, well ahead of the French
President or the Dutch Prime Minister but they are
all among the superrich when compared to the 50,000
euro k paid to the Prime Minister of Poland, who in
turn is about 10,000 euro better off than the Prime
Minister of Slovakia.
Opposition politicians had a field day in criticizing the
government and no doubt found few dissenters among
the general public. The argument was that whatever the
Irish
Cultural
Centre
WEDDINGS • CORPORATE EVENTS • PRIVATE PARTIES
FULL LIQUOR LICENSE • ACCOMMODATES UP TO 250
SPACIOUS TENT OVER PATIO FOR OUTDOOR PARTIES
AS WELL AS BEAUTIFUL YEAR-ROUND FACILITIES
UNIQUE COUNTRY SETTING
For personal service,
call toll free 1-888-464-7474
Now accepting reservations
200 New Boston Drive, Canton
review body came up with the Government should have
refused to implement it, at least as far as it affected politicians. Sinn Fein pointed out that th Taioseach’s pay
increase was more than the average industrial wage.
In accepting the report the Government also agreed
to large salary increases for senior public servants,
members of the judiciary and the heads of universities. Department heads received increases of up to
11.6 percent, and those in the bigger departments now
earn 303,000 euro. Judges did well, with increases
of between 15 percent and 22.4 percent. This leaves
the chief justice on the same salary as the Taoiseach.
The lowest paid judge, in the District Court, will now
receive 158,000 euro. The Garda Commissioner’s salary moves up to 250,000, somewhat higher than the
Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, who will be at
220,000. Among local government officials, Dublin City
Manager John Tierney seemed to be singled out for special treatment as his salary goes up by 36.2 percent, to
250,000 euro.
Heads of universities received salary increases of 14.2
percent, to 236,000 euro, or 19 percent, to 270,000.
In some instances the review body felt that the salary already being paid for some positions is too high
and called for adjustments to be made for the future
holders of the posts. Among those in this category are
Brendan Drumm, CEO of the Health Service Executive,
who receives 360,000 euro per year plus bonuses, and
the CEO of the National Roads Authority. For the first
time the review body considered the value of the generous pensions available to public servants and claimed
to have deducted 15 percent from what it considered
the appropriate salaries for all those under review. The
comment is seen as an indication that the benchmarking
process, which is currently reviewing the salaries paid to
the vast bulk of public servants, will offer very little by
way of pay increases.
Breads ’n Bits of Ireland
• Home Bakery • Irish Kitchen
Featuring... Scones, Irish Soda Bread, Brown Bread,
Homemade Soup, Sandwiches
Telephone 781-662-5800 • Fax 781-662-0859
e-mail: [email protected]
530 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 • 781-662-5800
The Attorneys That Attorneys Call Regarding
Personal Injury Cases
QUINN & MORRIS
Hon. Robert H. Quinn, Esq.
Former Massachusetts
Attorney General
Former House Speaker
617-423-3500
141 Tremont Street, Boston
James T. Morris, Esq.
Former Massachusetts
Asst. Attorney General
Counsel to the Speaker
Mass. House
AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS • WORKERS COMPENSATION
• CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENTS
FREE CONSULTATION • NO FEE UNLESS WE ARE SUCCESSFUL
Page 10 November 2007
Reflections
Judged On/In Love
By Msgr. Thomas J. McDonnell
As our high school teachers tried to pound into our
minds, learning a foreign language (even a dead one
like Latin) is always difficult. Moreover, it demands
a certain precision in thought and a familiarity with
the text and context. Thus a simple word in Latin “in”
could mean in, into, upon, or on. The same is true in
other languages.
Such an extensive introduction is not, I hope, without value. One of my favorite quotations is from the
Carmelite Saint and Doctor of the Church, John of
the Cross. His writings are extensive. In one of them,
there is a phrase that I have often quoted: “In the
evening of your life, you will be judged on love.”
In this interpretation, his thought seems straightforward. He reminds us of the importance of Christ’s
two commandments: love of God and love of neighbor.
In many ways, they are inseparable.
The late Holy Father John Paul II urged the
faithful at the beginning of the Jubilee Year 2000
to contemplate the face of Christ. As we turn our
eyes to the Lord, especially as He writhes in agony
on the Cross, we understand His total love for each
one of us as individuals. And we realize that the only
adequate response to such love is to try to surrender
our hearts in love to the Lord. Such is, of course, a
life-long process.
There are so many other dimensions of love. We
think of spouses’ love for one another. Such is personalized, total, faithful, and ever expanding. I believe
these same qualities must be enfleshed when we
are trying to reach out to our neighbor, especially
those in need. Love is never an abstraction. It must
be concretized. Since the pattern of our redemptive
love must be based on the Divine example, we need
to realize that our love must be concerned with the
total person, body and soul. And because we proudly
bear the name “Catholic,” we have to realize that our
love of neighbor must be ever expansive, reaching
out to all men and women.
Two thoughts might help us incorporate the latter points into our spiritual strivings. The first is to
be found in an adjective applied to God in the Old
Testament. He is a “jealous” God – jealous of His
image, which is present in every one of His sons
and daughters. And He does not wish this image to
be blasphemed by degrading poverty and senseless
starvation, as well as by violence.
The second point is to realize that when I touch a
poor or suffering person
through prayers, goodworks, and alms, I am
really coming into contact
with Christ: “ … as long
as you did it to these the
least of mine, you did it
to me (Mt. 25). Thus in
reality, they are confer-
ring a blessing upon me, allowing me to come into
contact with Christ.
On the other hand, St. John’s observation might be
meant to place more emphasis on the interior dynamic
of judgment. In this case, he would be highlighting and
emphasizing the divine perspective. We might think,
for example, of the parable of the father who waits in
love and compassion to embrace his prodigal son.
One of the most eloquent, yet simple, commentaries
on this parable was offered by the poet Charles Peguy
in his “Vision of Prayer:”
“Our Father who art in Heaven, my son knew exactly what to do
In order to tie the arms of my justice and untie the
arms of my mercy …
And now I must judge like a father. As if a father were
any good to judge. “A certain man had two sons.”
As if he were capable of judging “A certain man
had two sons.” We know well enough how a father
judges.”
When I think of the dynamic of being judged in love,
my thoughts and eyes turn to Christ, our Savior and
Redeemer. We know that the Letter to the Hebrews
observes how Christ continually intercedes for us.
For myself this truth has provided a great deal of
consolation. It reminds me that when I stumble or fall
Christ remains speaking my name before the throne
of the Father. He will never abandon us. But I also
believe that Christ will be beside us at the moment
of judgment. We are in His heart. And as the Father
looks upon the wounds of His Son – wounds suffered
out of love for us – I do not believe He will reject His
Son’s pleas.
Sweet Remembrances...
• Personalized Favor Boxes
• Custom Ribbons
• Themed Chocolate Molds
• Decorated Boxes filled with our own
Handmade Chocolate and Candies
Stop by and see our collection of distinctive, delicious favors!
818 Morrissey Blvd., Boston • South Shore Plaza, Braintree
bostonchocolate.com • 1-800-722-6905
Head Down to Phillips
for a Wicked Good Time!
Thursday Night
FREE
We wire
funds to
Ireland
daily.
Checking
Trivia Night
Have fun and win prizes
Friday & Saturday Night
DJ Night with local favorite
Mike Keeley
South Shore’s Best
Sunday Brunch
Every Sunday, 10:30 - 2:30
Check out our exciting
New & Expanded Menu!
Boston’s Best Kept Secret!
Phillips Old Colony House & Freeport Tavern
780 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston/near Neponset Circle
617-282-7700
�
FREE
ATMs
�
FREE
Online Banking
& Bill Payment
GERARD’S ADAMS CORNER
772 - 776 Adams Street, Dorchester, MA 02124
617-282-6370
A STORE
Open 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., 7 Days a Week
Allston 229 North Harvard Street • Brighton 435 Market Street
Jamaica Plain 725 Centre Street • Norwood 61 Lenox Street
West Roxbury 1905 Centre Street
Member FDIC
(617) 254-0707
www.pfsb.com
A RESTAURANT
Open 6:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., 7 Days a Week
For all your catering:
functions, christenings, weddings,
banquets, funerals, anniversaries,
surprise parties, etc.
November 2007
Brett’s Boston
By Harry Brett
Exclusive photos of Boston Irish people & events
The Charitable Irish Society, hosted a three
Silver Key Awards reception on October 18 at
Boston’s Union Club. Honored were: Gobnait Conneely of the Irish Immigration Center, Carol A.
D’Arcy of Boston’s Irish Consulate in Boston and
Brian O’Donovan.
1.) Charlie Dumbaugh, Charitable Irish President
with awardees Conneely, D’Arcy, and O’Donovan;
2.) Jeff Flagg, W. Roxbury; Lauren and Peter Estes,
No. Andover; 3.)Lindsay O’Donovan, Newton; Lis
Shannon, Brookline; Olga Reisman, Brookline;
4.) Bob Murphy, Southboro, Ann O’Malley, So.
Boston; Gene Connors, Wellesley; 5.) Neil Hurley,
Somerville, Liz and Michael Connolly, W. Roxbury;
6.) Bagpiper Ed O’Callaghan, Cambridge; 7.) Rep.
Kevin Honan, Maura Connors, Wellesley; 8.) Rep.
Peter Koutoujian, Charlie Dumbaugh, president,
Irish Charitable; 9.) Murray Forbes, Beverly
Farms; Bill Pear, Beacon Hill; 10.) Ann Kieran,
Medford; Catherine Bradfield, Randolph; Neil
Hurley, Somerville; 11.) Ed Forry; Gobnait Connelly; Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry; Sheila Farragher,
Galway; 12.) Karin Dumbaugh, Beacon Hill; Paula
Carroll, Sherborn; Neil Moynihan, Cambridge; 13.)
Peter and Connie Koutoujian, Waltham; Rita and
Bill O’Connell, Duxbury.
1.
3.
2.
4.
7.
10.
12.
5.
6.
9.
8.
11.
13.
Page 11
aid
History
‘ON THIS ROCK’
John Boyle O’Reilly’s Paean to Plymouth Rock
Remains Uniquely American -- and Boston -- Irish
By Peter F. Stevens
BIR Staff
When it comes to
Thanksgiving, images of
the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians gathered at
long wooden tables piled
with platters of food are
the norm. Every November, American families
gather as those tenacious
English colonists did in
1621, and Thanksgiving
traditions do not normally reflect anything
Irish. Yet, in 1889, at
the ceremonies dedicating the national monument at Plymouth Rock,
the broad-shouldered,
mustachioed poet who
rose to deliver the main
speech was not someone
bearing the name Bradford, Alden, Winslow, or
Carver. The writer was
not a celebrated Yankee
author like Oliver Wendell Holmes. The man
who delivered the ode to
the Pilgrims was an Irishman – and not just any
Boston Irishman. John
Boyle O’Reilly had been a
Fenian, once condemned
to death by a British
military court. Only his
daring escape from a
prison in Western Australia had brought him
to the same shore where
he now prepared to honor
a vivid national symbol
– Plymouth Rock.
O’Reilly – the nationally acclaimed editor of
the Boston Pilot, essayist,
novelist, athlete, ex-British Army soldier, Fenian
organizer and rebel – had
carved out an astonishing
literary career in Boston.
In the words of an admirer, O’Reilly “was born
with the gift,” the gift of
the poet.
O’Reilly was born near
Drogheda, County Meath,
on June 28, 1844. By the
time he reached the United States in late 1869,
he had been a writer, a
soldier, a Fenian prisoner,
and a man whose life could
have served as grist for the
skills of Melville.
O’Reilly, living in Boston in an era when Irish
writers often received
the cold shoulder from
America’s literary lions,
won their acclaim with
his sheer talent as a wordsmith and was selected
in 1889 to compose and
deliver an address and ode
to “the Pilgrim Fathers”
at the unveiling of the
Plymouth Rock monument. O’Reilly not only
symbolized to the Irish of
the wards that one of their
own, a Fenian firebrand no
less, had elbowed his way
into the American world
of letters, but also that he
had surpassed a long list of
local Yankee writers.
The dedication of the
Pilgrim Monument garnered nationwide coverage by the press, and
O’Reilly was under some
pressure to deliver a poem
worthy of both his talent
and the occasion. The New
York Times trumpeted
the meaning of the day
as a symbol of how far
The Tinker’s Cart
Quality Irish Imports
Quality Irish
Imports
Kieran
ing down right
John Boyle O’Reilly: Eloquence at the Rock
at the monument among
a veritable “who’s who”
of Yankee scions – men
named Lodge, Endicott,
Long, and Mather. The
Irishman saw that “every
inch of space for hundreds
of feet about the pedestal
was occupied.”
Curry College is a private, four-year, co-educational college located on
“Visitors had been pour137 wooded acres in Milton, MA – just minutes from Boston.
ing into town all of yesterday and on the early
QUICK FACTS ABOUT CURRY COLLEGE:
trains this morning,” an
• Curry serves over 2,000 full-time, traditional undergraduate students from
observer wrote, “and prob40 states and 32 countries and approximately 1,600 continuing education
ably Plymouth never held
such a crowd before. Evand 400 graduate students.
eryone attended these
• Curry offers 20 majors and 65-plus minors and concentrations in the liberal arts
dedicatory services, and
and professional fields leading to bachelor’s degrees and three master’s degrees.
there was hardly space
• Curry’s student/faculty ratio is 12:1. The average class size is 20 students.
enough about the monu• Approximately 70% of undergraduate students receive some form of financial aid.
ment to provide all with
even standing room.”
After several testimoniin
For more information, call or visit:
als to the Pilgrims and the
(617) 333-0500 • www.curry.edu
monument were delivered,
O’Reilly stepped forward.
In a reception that proved
yet again how far the Irishborn writer had climbed in
the collective opinion of his
fellow immigrants and native-born Americans alike,
a newspaperman recorded
that “the introduction of
John Boyle O’Reilly elicYou’ll be delighted
ited much enthusiasm.”
with all the treasures we
“Mr. O’Reilly was the
have to offer. The best of
We’ll have plenty
refreshments,
poet ofofthe
day,” the reYou’ll
be Isle right in
porterthe
added.
the
Emerald
raffles, & Timothy
Leprechaun will
Papers in hand, the
delighted
withbackyard.
your own
be on hand
to meet the
kids! his
Irishman
cleared
all the treasures
throat and began to read
Travelwith
Night:
Wed.,Kennedy
March 23,
The Old
Timer Restaurant
we 7:00
have p.m.
his ode, “The PilAnIrish
Evening
Seamus
Thursday,
March
23 Clinton
Town Hall, aloud
grim
Fathers.” The
Travel to Ireland with The Tinker’s Cart.
Join us
forbest
an Irish Coffee and hear all about the
throughout
thecrowd
to offer.
The
Clinton,
MA.
7:30
10:00.
Tickets:
$10
balcony
seats,
$15
floor.
To
benefit
was riveted by the poet’s
exciting vacations that CIE offers. We’ve shown
of the you the products of Ireland now let us
words, store
each stanza a
the Connor and show
Kellyyou
Gannon
Scholarship
Fund.
Call
for
info
and
tickets.
the country!
Call
today
to
reserve
your
place.
moving and memorable
Emerald Isle
paean not only to the
right in your
long-departed Pilgrim
787 Main St. • Rte. 70 • Clinton
•
www.tinkerscart.com
men, women, and children
own backyard
who had established their
foothold in the wilderness
in 1620, but also to the very
idea of America itself as a
haven and a fresh start for
the dispossessed of the Old
World. One of the poem’s
most telling stanzas ran in
newspapers nationwide:
CURRY COLLEGE
Excellence
Education
America had come and
how much it had been
shaped by the values
and aspirations of the
Plymouth colonists. “The
joyful clanging of iron
bells, the sounding boom
of heavy cannon, and the
ringing cheers of a city’s
inhabitants greeted the
sun as it rose this morning,” the August 2, 1889,
the Times’s front-page
story related,” ushering
in the greatest day this
historic old town [Plymouth] has ever known….
The whole town had been
up for hours, and had it
rained buckets full, this
great celebration – the
dedication of the splendid
monument in honor of
the Pilgrim Fathers who
made Plymouth Rock
historic 269 years ago
– would have been carried
through to a close with as
much loyal enthusiasm as
if the celebrants had been
blessed with the fairest
day that the sun had ever
smiled upon.”
The crowd of dignitaries and citizens from all
over the nation gathered
early for the ceremonies,
scheduled to commence
at 9:30 a.m. on August 1.
“Battery A of Boston kept
its guns hard at work even
after the bells had grown
quiet,” a reporter noted.
“The cheers of the multitude outlasted both.”
As O’Reilly had labored
over his ode, he had seized
upon a theme familiar to
all the Irish who had left
their “ould sod” for the
promise of the New World:
He drew subtle comparisons to the journey of
William Bradford, Myles
Standish, and company.
Now, the ex-Fenian stood
Annual St. Patrick’s
Day Open House
Sat., Mar. 12
11 • 10-4
& Sun., Mar. 13
12 • 10-4
Special Sales
Introducing
Our• 978 365-4334
Newest
Store
d
Natick Collection
1245 Worcester Street, Ste. 2130
Natick, MA 01760
508-651-7733
787 main st. • rte. 70 • clinton • MA
www.tinkerscart.com
Here, on this rock and
on this sterile soil,
Began the kingdom not
of Kings, but men;
Began the making of the
world again.
Here centuries sank, and
from the hither brink
A new world reached
and raised an old-world
link,
When English hands, by
wider vision taught
Threw down the feudal bars the Normans
brought,
And here revived, in
spite of sword and stake,
Their ancient freedom
of the Wapentake.
Here struck the seed
– the Pilgrims’ roofless
town,
Where equal rights and
equal bonds were set,
Where all the people
equal-franchised met;
Where doom was writ of
privilege and Crown;
Where human breath
blew all the idols down;
Where crests were
naught, where vulture
flags were furled,
And common men began
to own the world.
Such lines as “the feudal bands the Norman
brought” and “vulture
flags” certainly elicited
references to the Normans
who invaded Ireland from
England long ago, in the
1170s, and began the long
and brutal subjugation of
the Irish. O’Reilly’s verbal shots at “privilege and
Crown” were redolent of
a former Fenian who had
been denied freedom in
his own land, only to find
it in that of the “Pilgrim
Fathers.”
O’Reilly recognized
that, in Boston and New
England, the Irish were
still clawing for their
own foothold in America.
His words in Plymouth
brimmed with the hope
that for the Irish, “all the
idols” of “Crown” and Anglo-American “privilege”
would fall.
On Thanksgiving 2007,
as families with Irish
bloodlines gather to celebrate the holiday, one of
such pronounced English
roots, it would be fitting to
recall the County Meath
expatriate who was selected over a Yankee pantheon of writers and poets
to dedicate the Pilgrim
Monument. Fenian and
poet, John Boyle O’Reilly
claimed a place, so to
speak, at the Pilgrims’
historical table.
November 2007
Page 13
Brett signing launches Mary Casey Forry Foundation
Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Tom Menino joined hundreds of local
residents at a book signing party held on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at the Boston Harbor Hotel for Boston: An Extended Family, a book of portraits by acclaimed
photographer Bill Brett. Book sales at the party went to benefit a new foundation named for Reporter founder Mary Casey Forry, who died in 2004 after
long battle with pancreatic cancer. The goal of the foundation is to create a
residential hospice home in the Dorchester-Mattapan-Milton area. Brett, a
longtime friend of the Forry family, joined forces with the Boston Harbor Hotel
to make the night a success. Photos by Aram Boghosian
Bill Brett signs a copy of his book Boston: An Extended Family.
This foundation is in loving memory of
MARY CASEY FORRY
Mary Casey Forry Foundation
Mary Casey Forry, a spouse, a mom and a grandmother, was founding president of Boston
Neighborhood News, Inc. and publisher of the Dorchester Reporter, and a gifted writer whose
“Urban Gardener” columns delighted scores of readers. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
in February, 2003, and lived with the disease for 22 months.
As the end of her life came near, she and her family found great comfort in the compassionate care
provided by hospice. For Mary, hers was a peaceful death. For our family, we were privileged to
welcome hospice into our own home.
But in-home hospice care may not always work – a spouse may be unable to care for a partner, or
there may be no family or friends nearby to ensure a death with such dignity.
Our family has resolved to establish a facility that can be shared by people in need. It is called a
“residential hospice,” an environment where persons can receive end-of-life care with caregivers on
duty to provide the necessary palliative care.
Our hope is to establish a hospice home in the Dorchester-Mattapan-Milton area, a place where
persons may spend their final days “close to home.” For our neighbors, it will be a place for a loved
one to die with dignity. For more details, or to offer support, please visit marycaseyforry.org
Paul LaCamera, general manager of WBUR-FM, has his book autographed.
Mary Casey Forry
Foundation, Inc.
150 Mt Vernon Street, Suite 120
Dorchester MA 02125
617-549-4642
marycaseyforry.org
Gov. Deval Patrick, Mary Casey Forry Foundation president Maureen Forry,
Bill Brett, WBZ-TV news anchor Lisa Hughes and Mayor Tom Menino at the
Boston Harbor Hotel on Oct. 16.
( 501 (c)(3) pending.)
The Mary Casey Forry Foundation, Inc. was formed as a Massachusetts chapter 180 nonprofit
corporation on September 28, 2007. The organization will submit an application for tax-exemption
under Section 501(c)(3) of the Code to be classified as a public charity. Upon receiving a favorable
determination letter from the IRS, the organization’s Section 501(c)(3) status should be retroactive to the
date of formation.
Charitable contributions to organizations described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Code and classified as
a public charity are deductible to the extent permitted by law. Donors should consult a tax advisor if they
have any questions about the extent to which a contribution may be deducted.
Book Prices: $50 each
“Boston: All One Family” and “Boston: An Extended Family”
Buy both books for only $75
Book sales benefit the Mary Casey Forry Foundation, Inc.
Name...................................................................................................................................................
Address...............................................................................................................................................
City, State...........................................................................................Zip............................................
Amount...............................................................................................................................................
Credit Card Type................................................................................................................................
Credit Card Number.........................................................................................................................
Expiration Date..................................................................................................................................
We accept Fax with your Visa or Mastercard.
Fax this order form to 617-825-5516
Mary Casey Forry Foundation, Inc.
Mary Casey Forry’s daughter Maureen serves as
Foundation president.
150 Mt. Vernon Street, Suite 120, Dorchester, MA 02125
617-594-4642 • marycaseyforry.org
Boston irish
Reporter
Boston Irish Arts,
Entertainment,
Travel & More
‘I Want People to Leave with a Click
in Their Heels and a Smile on Their Faces’
By Peter F. Stevens
BIR Staff
Ronan Noone is one of
the nation’s rising playwrights, and with good
reason. Irish-born and
raised, and a graduate of
BU’s prestigious graduate
playwriting program, he
has carved out a burgeoning reputation for finely
wrought and critically
acclaimed works, as evidenced by The Lepers of
Baile Baiste, The Blowin
of Baile Gall, and The
Atheist. Noone’s new
play, Brendan, will run at
the Calderwood Pavilion,
Boston Center for the
Arts, through November
17.
The namesake and protagonist of the play, “Bren-
dan” had lived in Boston
for some five years since
leaving his native Ireland.
In Ireland, the emotional
baggage he left behind
included a domineering
mother whose presence
permeates his psyche and
the emotional and literal
floorboards of the play.
From his “Two-Pint
Wednesdays” to his love
of classical music, the
Brendan of Boston would
be recognizable to his
family and friends back
in Ireland as the young
man they knew. Brendan, however, struggles
within himself as his new
life and routines supplant
more and more of the old,
the immigrant unable to
dispel a sense that there
is someone “in his head”
at all times and judging
each and every decision
he makes. Of course,
that someone in large
part is his strong-willed
mother.
As Brendan prepares to
be sworn in as an American citizen, he appears on
the verge of pulling himself permanently from the
land he left behind and of
assimilating completely to
his new country. Then, a
letter comes from Ireland
and all the memories and
bonds of his old turf come
through the door with
the letter. How Brendan
handles it all is funny,
moving, touching, and
ultimately uplifting.
Ceol Agus Craic
Susan Gedutis Lindsay
Things to Be
Thankful For
Ceol Agus Craic readers may have figured out that
I champion the unsung heroes. Yet, there are reasons
that the big names are big, and usually it’s not just
because they like it that way. It’s because they’re
doing something worthwhile, and with Thanksgiving coming, it’s nice to give thanks (again) to those
who consistently wind up the jig and reel machine in
Boston. They deserve it.
1. Larry Reynolds. As the voice behind traditional
music in Boston, the one that newspapers call when
they want a comment on Irish music, as an undying
support for Irish music in the city, and as the patriarch
of a musical family who continues to carry the torch,
he (supported by his wife Phyllis) is unparalleled. He
helped to found the Boston Hanafin-Cooley Branch
of the international Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, he
makes sure that there are ceili dances and sessions
twice a month in Watertown, anchors the Monday night
session at the Green Briar, and helped to found the
CCE Boston Music School, the only school dedicated
to the teaching and learning of traditional Irish music.
(cceboston.org)
2. The Irish Music Center at Boston College.
Since 1990, the center has maintained an archive of
thousands and thousands of hours of commercial and
field recordings, videorecordings, sheet music, manuscripts, photographs, memorabilia, and books about
At the end of a Dropkick Murphys show, it can be hard to tell where the stage ends and the audience
begins. Dropkick Murphys photo.
Ken Casey Talks About Loud Music,
Family, and the Irish Tradition
The Dropkick Murphys have become the choice draft
pick of major Irish festival organizers and planners
hoping to attract a younger crowd. It hasn’t always
worked as they’d hoped, according to the band’s vocalist and founder Ken Casey:
“Not necessarily in Boston, but in the past around
the country we’ve been asked by promoters to play
Irish festivals and they want their cake and be able
to eat it too—they want us to come in, bring in a new,
young generation, but then say, ‘For Christ’s sake,
turn it down. You don’t have to have it so loud.’ And
we say, you can’t have it both ways.”
Does he worry that they are straying too far from
the source? “One school of thought would think that
Handmade, Skillet Baked
Irish Breads.
Created in Ireland.
Perfected in Boston.
617-364-1798
www.bostonirishbaking.com
what we do kind of bastardizes Irish music,” he said.
”But we are also very respectful of the roots and wear
our influences on our sleeves. For every ten kids that
get into Dropkick Murphys there’s six or seven that
also listen to much more traditional forms, probably
as a result of hearing us in the first place. You can’t be
shortsighted and the older Irish generation can’t think
that it’s bands like us that penetrate that music scene
that all of a sudden it’s gonna go to hell with crazy loud
music. There’s a respect for the music within it.”
The Irish tradition is one of the few institutions
left that Casey seems to believe in—though themes of
family and neighborhood run strong throughout the
band’s newest album. Its closing song “Never Forget,”
November 2007
Celtic Sojourn Will Be Back
at Emerson Majestic in December
By Susan Gedutis
Lindsay
Special to the BIR
December scenario:
Christmas shop in Fanueil Hall, take in the
holiday lights on Boston
Common, and then it’s
just steps to the Emerson Majestic Theater on
Tremont Street, where
you can top off the day
with Brian O’Donovan
at the fith annual A
Christmas Celtic Sojourn concert, which
this year features Solas,
singer Aoife O’Donovan,
guitarist Dougie MacLean, musicians Alasdair Fraser Natalie Haas,
and Paddy League, and
dancer Kieran Jordan
with fellow stepdancers
Niall O’Leary, Darrah
Carr, and Ben Power.
As always, this year’s A
Christmas Celtic Sojourn
with Brian O’Donovan
– eight performances in
all -- will build on what
has made it successful
in the past: its coziness,
including holiday music,
songs, dancing, poetry,
and stories designed to
warm even the most blustery winter day.
According to Brian
O’Donovan, who hosts
the weekly Celtic music
program A Celtic Sojourn
on WGBH 89.7, “What we
present is the unspectactular Christmas show…
Every other Christmas
show seems to talk about
the spectacular, or the
Christmas extravaganza.
We are the exact opposition… what we want to
achieve is two hours of
respite.”
The program is fast
becoming a tradition in
Boston—the Irish version of the Nutcracker,
if you will—and that is
due in part to its warm
presentation. “Our audience likes the notion, the
absolute principle, that
they have been invited
into something, not to observe but to be a part of it.
The spontaneity, the low
key aspect, the variety of
it, and quite frankly, the
sentimentality of it,” he
said. “We are unabashed
sentimentalists when it
comes to Christmas.”
Beyond that, one of
the program’s other success is due in very large
part to the high quality of the performances.
O’Donovan brings nothing but the best to the
Boston stage. Specifically,
he has invited musicians
and dancers who can
bring the spontaneity of
an Irish house session to
the Emerson’s majestic
gold-leafed stage. “What
we do with this, is we are
gathering on stage with a
whole bunch of musicians
often who have never met
each other or at least have
never played together on
a regular basis. The way
the show works is that it’s
not a concert or series of
performances with these
musicians, but it’s rather
a gathering that they
might have, on stage, and
see what they can come up
with together.”
Historically, it’s been
up to the musicians to
think up their own music
and their own collaborations, often by phone
calls, e-mail, and in a
few rehearsals right before the event—but this
year, O’Donovan hired looked at their roster and
Solas’ multiinstrumental- realized that in the parist Seamus Egan to take ticipants cellist Natalie
on the musical direction. Haas, fiddler Alasdair
“In the past, we did it as a Fraser, Solas fiddler Wincommittee, and it worked ifred Horan, and guitarist
out fine,” O’Donovan said. Dougie MacClean, they
“We got great profession- had the makings of a full
als on stage who love string quartet. “Seamus
working with each other. is now thinking that at
But we recognized that least one of the pieces
we needed to take some can be a string quarstress off the musicians, tet piece—most likely a
who were burdened with traditional piece but arhaving to create their ranged,” O’Donovan said,
own musical arrange- pointing out that all four
ments, directions, and of these musicians have
collaborations. So, this experience with classiyear we wanted to have cal as well as traditional
someone with the caliber music. MacClean is acand creativity of Seamus customed to working in
as a musician to take that classical setting and with
on, so that the musicians string orchestra, Horan
can look at one person for was classically trained
direction.”
at New England ConserOne that Egan is cook- vatory, Haas attended
ing up, for example, is Juilliard. “We’ve got some
a great meeting of the serious firepower on stage
strings. In planning meet- in terms of classical music
JB06102STANHOPEAD
7/18/06
AM Page to
2 how
ings,
Egan and O’Donovan
and 9:56
the approach
they might arrange such
things,” he added.
This is also an expansive year in the Sojourn’s
history: the Boston concerts will be followed
by two performances in
New York City’s Town
Hall Theater, and aired
on WNET, the New York
equivalent to Boston’s
WGBH television. Also,
this year, Sojourn celebrates the release of its
very first DVD, a live highdefinition taping of one of
last year’s performances.
The program is scheduled
to be broadcast over 128
public television stations
nationally starting in
late October, with repeat
broadcasts on Sunday,
November 25, 7:30 pm,
Channel 2; and Monday,
November 26, 9 pm, Channel 44. The DVD of the
2006 show, “A Christmas
Celtic Sojourn, Live,” will
be released by Rounder
Page 15
Brian O’Donovan
Records on November 6.
More information is available by visiting wgbh.
org.
Due to heavy demand,
this year has been expanded to eight performances:
December 13th, 14th, 15th
and 16th, and December
21st and 22nd. Show
times are Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., with
Saturday and Sunday
matinee performances
at 3 p.m. Tickets are on
sale now, available at 1800-872-8997 or online at
maj.org/P2008/Celtic.
html. WGBH members
receive $5 off each ticket. Finding our restaurant is easy.
Leaving is more difficult.
154 Berkeley Street, Boston • 617-532-3827
Reserve online at www.opentable.com
Things to Be Thankful For
(Continued from page 14)
music, with a focus on documenting the
history of Irish music in America. The
center also records performances and
interviews at Boston College, and works
with the Center for Irish Programs to
sponsor Irish music events on campus,
bringing an interesting array of lesserseen but highly skilled Irish traditional
musicians to the Boston area. The Irish
Music Center is widely regarded as
the most significant collection of Irish
traditional music in America. (bc.edu/
irishmusiccenter)
3. Brian O’Donovan and Celtic Sojourn. Brian’s weekly “Celtic Sojourn”
radio program on National Public Radio
brings new Celtic music in a variety of
forms to a very wide audience. His association with WGBH and public radio
keeps Irish music neck and neck with
other “high art” forms, such as classical
music and educational programming.
In addition, he directs the ICONS (Irish
Connections) festival with the Irish
Cultural Centre and conducts hugely
popular Christmas Sojourn concerts,
as well as a Celtic Sojourn concert at
St. Patrick’s Day. (See related story on
this year’s Celtic Sojourn Christmas
concert.)
4. The last generation. There is a
large group of musicians out there who’ve
been playing Irish music since the 1940s
and before—both Irish born and first
generation Irish Americans. They played
their first notes perhaps at the Irish
Social Club in Dorchester, or the dance
halls of the 1950s, or the showbands of
the 1960s. We are lucky to have fiddlers
Brendan Tonra, Eddie Murray, Paddy
Cronin, and Larry Reynolds, flute/whistlers Jack Conroy, the late Jimmy Hogan
and Gene Frain, pianists Tom Garvey,
Helen Kisiel, Kitty D’Entremont, and
Frank Storer, accordionists Jack and
John Martin, Mickey Connolly, Joe Derrane, Tommy Barton, Pat O’Brien, Leo
Daly, Sr., Tim O’Connell, and the late,
great Joe Joyce, harmonica player Mike
Connolly—and many others who I will
be very sorry to have missed mentioning!
(Please forgive me.)
5. The middle generation. Boston
has a crop of young people whose music
careers are in full swing, and they bring
energy, fresh ideas, and a very professional attitude to Irish music. Most recently, kudos must go to the organizers
of the BCM Fest (Boston Celtic Music
Festival), which this January 11-12 will
celebrate its 5th anniversary. BCMFest
organizers and a host of dedicated volunteers each year invite musicians both
young and old, in hopes that the new generation and the tradition bearers all get
a seat at the Celtic music banquet table.
The “middle generation” also includes the
many musicians who were out playing at
sessions nearly every night, long before
any of the BCMFest crew even arrived
in Boston. Their legends begin at the
1970s sessions at Village Coach House
in Brookline, and continue to the present
day, thanks to new venues such as the
Burren of Somerville and the many musicians who have anchored sessions there
since it opened in the mid-1990s.
6. The next generation. There’s a
core group of teens who take classes at
the Comhaltas school of music, that volunteer to help with the BCM Fest, and
that gather on Saturdays at the Burren
Youth Session to play tunes. There are
at least two dozen of them in all—and
for fear of leaving someone out, I won’t
list any names! Still, they are part of
the future of Celtic music in the city.
Let’s hope college or other post-highschool activity doesn’t cart them away
permanently.
7. Mike and Colette Quinlin and
the Boston Irish Tourism Association. Boston is recognized as an Irish
city, and so many visitors want to take
in its Irish heritage; BITA bridges the
gap for them, promoting a wide variety
of artists and organizations to the larger
tourism market. It represents Comhaltas
Ceoltoiri Eireann, the Irish Cultural
Centre, the Eire Society, various other
cultural organizations, as well as highprofile artists like Damien Rice, Delores
O’Riordan and Van Morrison, and Sinead
O’Connor and Damien Dempsey. BITA’s
mailing list includes more than 6,000
names. Mike himself moved to Boston in
1980, is a flute and whistle player, and
has published several books, including
a collection of compositions by Brendan
Larry Reynolds: Patriarch of a musical family who continues to carry the
torch. Bill Brett photo.
Tonra, and a guidebook called Irish Boston, currently in its third printing. He
and Colette maintain a website, irishmassachusetts.com. Quinlin is currently
at work on a book that chronicles how
Irish music came to the Boston market
and how it integrated and contributed
to the American sound, beginning from
the release of Thomas Moore’s “Irish
Melodies” in 1808 to the present day.
8. World Music, based in Somerville.
They are dedicated to booking some of
the more well-known artists like Mary
Black, Solas, Lunasa, and other of the
larger Irish acts. Keeping the big names
coming through ensures a higher profile
to Irish music on the overall musical
landscape.
9. The small venues who give a
chance to lesser known artists.
Public libraries, social clubs, the Irish
Cultural Centre—and while they’re a
little farther west, it would be remiss
not to mention the very active Ancient
Order of Hibernians in Worcester, who
book tasteful traditional music concerts
and also a weekly session.
10. The Mavens. Irish music enthusiasts like Bill Black of Cape Cod,
Gary Martin of Assonet, and Aisling
Keating of Groton, all of whom host
traditional music concerts, anchor sessions, and maintain a Web presence for
their respective areas. These are three
names… but there are many others. In
addition to them, there are the mavens
who don’t play professionally but who
love the music just as much as the pros.
They have read and memorized the liner
notes on every CD that’s come out since
1933, and they’re the ones you can turn
to when you want to know the name of
that tune, or wonder what set “The High
Reel” is usually played in.
11. And above all and perhaps most
important: the fans. Remember those
who’ve been dancing weekly to the old
Irish waltzes for years at the Irish Social
Club in West Roxbury on Friday nights,
often to the music of the showbands, such
as those of Noel Henry and Andy Healey.
Maybe the latter don’t cross paths so
much with the hip, young “Celtic” minded
set in the city… but their contributions
to keeping Irish music vibrant in all its
forms should not go unnoticed. These are
also the ones who love the music, buy
the recordings that the rest of the crew
puts out, attend the concerts, listen to
the radio programs… they’re the reason
that all of the above are here!
Review/Anúna Live at the Berklee Performance Center
Anúna recently stopped at the
Berklee Performance Center as
part of its national tour in support of its new DVD, CD, and
public television appearance
“Celtic Origins,” the most recent
in a chain of contemporary Irish
programs that public television
uses to help support its membership drives. Anúna’s program is
the newest member of a sophisticated family that has included
the Irish Tenors, Riverdance,
and Celtic Woman.
The DVD and CD recordings
are tight and polished, though
the live performance at Berklee
was surprisingly informal, lacking the extravagant backdrop of
the DVD, which was filmed at
Holy Cross Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio, and was greatly
amplified by the use of effective lighting, lit candelabras,
illuminated stained glass, and
smoky dry ice, all of which felt
appropriate to the group’s presentation.
Live at the Center, our view
was more static (no changing
images or interesting camera
angles to keep us visually
distracted). Instead, we relied
on music director Michael McGlynn to entertain us grandly
and loosen up the otherwise
very civilized program with
his very witty stage banter.
The environment was comfortable but compared to what
one might expect of a $40-$50
ticket price, the performance
felt just a little sparse and
incomplete. Missed in the live
performance was the full-bore
instrumental complement, especially the uilleann pipes and
the enormous booming percussion. Still, master percussionist
Noel Eccles (formerly of Moving
Hearts and today the principal
percussionist with the National
Symphony Orchestra of Ireland)
filled up the sound remarkably
with rhythm using very simple
and portable percussion instruments.
Anúna claims its Irish roots,
singing several songs in Irish
and capitalizing on what I have
before referred to as the “Celts
in Capes” fantasy, each woman
in a long black velvet dress and
hooded robe, with long, flowing
locks that conjure up the mystical, unknown Celtic past. And
like Riverdance, Celtic Woman,
and other musical productions
in its family, the girls are as
talented as they are gorgeous:
very, very. Anúna responds with
great appeal to anyone with an
appreciation for a finely tuned
choral sound awash with Irish
sound.
The program included songs
in Gaelic, Latin, Spanish, even
Czechoslovakian, all delivered
with impeccable, classically
trained vocal perfection. There
was classical, folk, neo-Irish,
and contemporary. Many of the
pieces were sacred. (Overheard:
“I feel like I should be looking
for the Holy Water on the way
out.”) Choral pieces were punctuated by a couple of indulgent
lost-love songs delivered solo
with acoustic guitar by Michael
McGlynn’s twin brother John,
who arranged and wrote several
of the group’s pieces. Though his
folky guitar solo pieces seemed
a little out of character to the
rest of the performance live,
they did seem to flow well in
the DVD production.
The more exciting aspects of
the performance were the pieces
in which the singers stationed
themselves throughout the
audience, creating a captivating and eerie surround-sound
theater experience These pieces
Ronan Noone’s Latest Work, ‘Brendan,’ Is More Than an ‘Irish’ Play
(Continued from page 14) How they react is in some
Recently, Ronan Noone
discussed Brendan, as
well as his own experiences, with the BIR.
BIR: What was the
genesis of the play for
you? Some might conjecture that a great deal is
personal, even autobiographical.
Noone: To some extent, yes, but it’s no more
autobiographical than
my previous work. The
easiest way to explain it,
I think, is that many of
my play’s characters go
through emotions I went
through as an immigrant.
cases how I reacted.
BIR: For many immigrants, there’s a strong
sense of having one foot
still planted in where
they’ve come from and
the other now planted in
America. Was it like that
for you?
Noone: I don’t feel that
tug so strongly any more,
but for many immigrants
– in varying degrees – it’s
certainly there. At some
stage, most immigrants
make the decision not to
go back. That’s when the
adaptation to America
really comes.
Part of that adaptation
is that when you visit
home, things change in
the way people view you.
In Ireland, I learned that
because of the world situation – the U.S. in Iraq and
other controversial policies – I became something
of a verbal target, “A Guest
of the Nation,” as Frank
O’Connor wrote. That’s
not a political statement
on my part, just a statement of fact.
The other fact is that no
matter what, America is
still a refuge and a place of
opportunity for people all
over the world. It still rep-
resents hope, something
better. In Brendan, one of
the characters talks about
what it is to be an American, and it is something
of a emotional discourse
on genuine American
virtues – tempered by
reality. Those values are
still real.
BIR: Those values permeate the play.
Noone: Yes, they do.
Immigrants like Brendan want still to become
Americans. I see myself
as an American writer
now – with an Irish background that will always be
with me.
BIR: The play has layers that resonate well
beyond the funny and
compelling path of an Irish
immigrant to American
citizenship.
Noone: It does. From
breaking old bonds without destroying them and
the relationship between
mothers and sons to the
smaller things such as
changing pronunciations
of words to fit in better,
the play is at its core a love
story. It’s that “rarest” of
works [Noone says with a
chuckle] – an Irish play
that’s uplifting.
It’s a comedy – no pe-
dophiles, just a prostitute
with the proverbial but
genuine heart of gold,
likable people coming to
terms with themselves,
each other, and America.
Brendan depicts how
immigrants come to America for refuge, to work
hard, and to create new
lives.
BIR: What would you
most like audiences to
take away from a night
with Brendan?
Noone: I want people
to leave the theater with
a click in their heels, a
smile on their faces, and
an understanding of some-
BIR Music
CD Roundup
Susan Gedutis Lindsay
Sinead O’Connor • Theology
In October, Sinead O’Connor performed at Boston’s
Orpheum Theater to support her newest release, Theology. Fans at the almost-full Orpheum heard hits from
her entire career, as well as several of the songs from
her new two-CD set. In contrast to those years when she
made headlines with angry diatribes against all that
she said was not God, this new release and the concert
revealed a humble, docile, and even painfully shy performer more
content to
praise what
she believes is
God. Dressed
characteristically in an
androgynous
man’s suit,
she was poised
and pulled together—quiet,
even, until she
began singing.
Perhaps now
a little more
husky as the
salt and pepper make an appearance in her crew cut, her voice was
as dynamic as ever, ranging from a hoarse whisper to
a call so strong and clear it seemed to be intended to
strike the back wall of the theater. The show included
several of her hit selections since she first came onto the
scene in 1987, including her multiple-award-winning
“Nothing Compares 2 U.” Also featured were several
songs from Theology, a release that she says is “an attempt to create a place of peace in a time of war.” CD1,
the acoustic “Dublin Sessions,” was produced by Irish
traditional musician Steve Cooney (In Tua Nua, the
Chieftains, Mary Black). CD2, dubbed “The London
Sessions,” was produced by Ron Tom and includes a
full band. She said that all of the songs on the album
are based on scripture, opening with the prayer-like
“Something Beautiful,” which offers praise and thanks,
and continues with Curtis Mayfield original, “We People
Who Are Darker Than Blue.” Ensuing songs, including “If You Had a Vineyard,” “The Glory of Jah,” and
a hidden track, “Hosanna Filio David,” continue the
trend. This all starts sounding a little preachy, but it’s
not, really. The songs play like rock ballads, and her
singing is backed by a bass/guitar/drums, and augmented with accordion, keyboard, fiddle, and whistle.
The live show wrapped up with several selections from
the recording, showcasing her recent reggae and rastafari explorations, including “The Rivers of Babylon”
with new lyrics she wrote. (Reggae bass legend Robbie Shakespeare guests on the album.) Powerful and
poised, this is a more mature Sinead O’Connor that
will surely reopen doors temporarily closed. Dublin’s
Damien Dempsey opened the show, warming up the
crowd with his always-honest, driven acoustic work.
November 2007
Performing mostly songs from his hit recording “Seize
the Day,” he will tour in support of his newer album
To Hell or Barbados in coming months. Don’t miss his
upcoming to-be-announced date at Boston’s rock club,
The Paradise. (Theology appears on Koch Records and
That’s Why There’s Chocolate and Vanilla, Sinead’s
own label imprint.)
Also new:
Kíla • Gambler’s Ballet
Maybe their best yet, this relatively short 8-song CD
features the band’s trademark psychedelic take on Irish
music, with a
combination
of grooving
original jams
and chantlike,
tribal sounding songs sung
in Irish. A Kíla
show is an experience, not a
performance—
a challenge to
capture on a
recording, but
Gambler’s
Ballet does it
beautifully.
The recording is a new mark of refinement in the
band’s acrobatic ability to move smoothly from Irish
to Eastern European klezmer sounds that are reverently tucked into a deep, make-you-wanna-dance
contemporary groove.
The Chieftains • Live Over Ireland:
Water from the Well
In this 110-minute DVD released on Eagle Vision
Classics, the Chieftains travel to geographic locales
that have influenced
them throughout their
careers. The recording includes stories,
interviews, songs, and
tunes, filmed in some
of the band’s favorite
spots all over Ireland.
Here harpist Derek
Bell, fiddlers Martin
Fay and Sean Keane,
bodhran player-vocalist Kevin Conneff,
flute player Matt Molloy, and group founder
Paddy Moloney speak
of memories of Irish
music, as well as the
band’s joys and continuing artistic challenges. Features special guests Ashley Mac Isaac, Altan, Steve Cooney, Van
Morrison, The Ballyfin Set Dancers, Tommy Peoples,
Los Lobos. (Eagle Vision Classics)
Sean Kane • A Nation of One
On the local front, Sean Kane, most recently best
Page 17
known as the
host of weekly Saturday
Irish sessions
at the Irish
Cultural Centre in Canton,
has released
an EP “A Nation of One,”
a concise and
poignant collection of
originals that
document a
man torn between two countries, loving and hating
both at the same time. The recording is available by
visiting his Web site, seankane.us.
The Dubliners • Live in Concert:
On the Road Live in Germany
This 106-minute DVD recording features an evening
of this legendary ballad
band in more recent
years, with Ronnie
Drew at the helm,
performing live to a
contemporary live audience in Germany.
Also includes a documentary “tour diary” of
sorts, with interviews
of the band talking
about their lives, their
careers, and their music. Formed in 1962,
the Dubliners’ 45 years
of shanties, ballads,
dances, tunes, and
humor are woven into
the very fabric of Irish
culture. If you love the
Dubliners, you’ll enjoy hearing “Wild Rover,” “Dirty Old
Town,” “Song For Ireland,” “Ffinnegan’s Wake,” and
other classic anthems. (Eagle Vision Classics)
FOR THE RECORD
Corrections: Because of editing errors, there
were several mistakes of identification last month in
the captions of photos accompanying Susan Gedutis
Lindsay’s set of stories: The woman pictured with
her CEOL column is Aisling Keating. The fiddlers
pictured playing at a concert atop the Childsplay story on Page 18 are, from left, Hanneke Cassel, Aoife
O’Donovan, Mark Simos, Roger Treat, Molly
Gawler and Bob Childs. The single captionless
photo below that showed Bob Childs. And on Page
19, the picture at the top of the page featured, from
left, fiddlers Debby Knight, Joe DeZarn, and Mark
Simos while Kieran Jordan and a fellow dancer
performed at far right, supported by the entire
cast of Childsplay.
BIR Music Calendar
MUSIC PICKS: LOOKING AHEAD
Friday, 11/2, 8 p.m.,
23rd Annual Holy Ghost
Fathers Benefit Dance at
the Irish Social Club, $10,
119 Park St., West Roxbury. Music by the Andy
Healy Band, refreshments,
Irish step-dancing, raffle,
cash bar. Tickets available
at Most Precious Blood
Rectory (617-364-9500) or
at the door. (See related
story, Page 3)
Saturday 11/03, 3 p.m.,
Cross-Border Orchestra of
Ireland, Symphony Hall,
Boston, $15-$30. This orchestra brings 140 youth
from Ireland, North and
South together with a choir
of almost 500 local children
representing many schools
and localities in the Boston
area. Joining the children
on stage will be one of Ireland’s leading tenors, Emmanuel Lawlor. bso.org.
For more info, call Mary
Swanton at 617-291-0525.
… 7 p.m., Glengarry Bhoys,
$15/$17, Narrows Center
For the Arts, 16 Anawan
St., Fall River, Mass. (508324-1926), ncfta.org/music.php. … 8 p.m., Finest
Father Peter Nolan– organizer Irish Social Club
Dance, West Roxbury.
Kind, Folk Song Society
of Greater Boston, First
Parish of Watertown, 35
Church St, Watertown
(fssgb.org) … 8 p.m., Oisin
MacDiarmada and Louise
Mulcahy, Katharine Cornell Theater, Spring St.,
Vineyard Haven, Mass.
(508-693-9294; 508-6936996), Kctconcerts.com.
Tuesday, 11/06, 7 p.m.,
Paddy Keenan (uilleann
pipes), Connolly House,
Boston College, 300 Hammond St., Chestnut Hill,
Mass. 617-552-3938.
Saturday, 11/10, 3
p.m. and 7 p.m., two
shows. Alasdair Fraser
and Natalie Haas perform
in 14th Annual Concert
of Scottish Music and
Dance. Theme “Across
the Ages,” highlights
artists who have interpreted and expanded the
Scottish repertoire from
the eighteenth century
to the twenty-first, and
who have enabled new
generations of fiddlers,
pipers, and dancers to
find their places in the
tradition. National Heritage Museum, 33 Marrett
Rd., Lexington (617-8616559), nationalheritagemuseum.org.
Saturday, 11/17, 8
p.m., The Greencards,
$15/$17, Narrows Center
for the Arts, 16 Anawan
St., Fall River, Mass.
(508-324-1926), ncfta.
org/music.php; thegreencards.com
December
Saturday, 12/01, 8
p.m. The Glengarry
Bhoys, (508-405-ARTS
(2787), check website for
venue: amazingthings.
org
Wednesday, 12/05,
6:30 p.m., Irish Dance
and Céilí w/Meghan Allen, Music by Séamus
Connolly and Larry Reynolds, Gasson Hall, Irish
Room, Boston College;
617-552-3938, or irish@
bc.edu.
Thursday, 12/06, 8
p.m., “A Fine Winters
Night” w/Matt & Shannon Heaton (Christmas
show) $15/18, Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge.
Sunday, 12/09, 8
p.m., Matt & Shannon
Heaton, $10, Pingree’s
Coffeehouse, First Congregational Church, 100
Winter St., Norwood.
Beginning Thursday
12/13 and running over
eight days: Christmas
Celtic Sojourn with Brian
O’Donovan, evening and
weekend matinee concerts, $25- $75, Cutler
Majestic Theater, 219
Tremont Street, Boston
(800-233-3123). See related story this section.
Beginning Friday,
12/14, with multiple
shows, The Christmas
Revels, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street,
Cambridge, Mass. (617)
In early November, a
Canadian company called
iDance (idance.ca) will
travel to Boston as part of
a trade mission of 30+ Atlantic Canada companies.
iDance, the only dance
school in Newfoundland
and Labrador (N&L) exclusively devoted to Irish
dance, was founded by
Shawn Silver, a dancer
and businessman who
together with business
manager Sara Sheehan,
hopes to establish a Center
of Irish Dance, Music and
pub
Ireland on
the move
presents
Margaret Dalton
& Erin’s Melody
Harpist Eva
The Harney School Irish
Step Dancers
Friday,
November 30, 2007
8:00 p.m. - midnight
Irish Social Club
119 Park Street, W. Robury, MA
Donation $10.00
IRELANDONTHEMOVE.COM
BRIGHTCOVE.TV (Search Ireland)
SHAMROCKNATION.COM
We Welcome Sponsors
Call 617-331-8031
Tom Clifford’s
IRELAND ON THE MOVE
P.O. Box 40, Readville, MA 02136
Many thanks to Billie
Hockett’s Celtic Calendar
(music-for-robin.org) for
much of this calendar
information.
iDance Hopes
to Learn
from Boston
EIRE
Tom Clifford’s
972-8300, Ext 22; info@
revels.org.
795 Adams St. • Dorchester
“President’s Choice”
Serving Lunch & Dinner
Every day,
7 days a week
Cultural Excellence in
Newfoundland.
While in Boston, they
will visit the Irish Cultural Centre of New England and the Irish Music
Center at Boston College
to take a look at their programs, activities, events,
and resources for the
public. They’ll also meet
with several festival organizers in hopes of bringing
their brand of Irish dance
to New England next
summer.
Silver is traveling as
a cultural ambassador
to remind Bostonians
that Newfoundland is a
premier location for Irish
dance and culture in the
world. Newfoundland
has its own brand of
Irish dance that includes
both ceili style and an
improvised version of
step dancing that evolved
most likely from the sean
nós style. Folk dancing
in Newfoundland today
is similar to that of Cape
Breton, but Silver’s school
focuses on the more formal style of step dancing
that is closely regulated
and sanctioned by T. C. R.
G (An Coimisiun Le Rinci
Gaelacha), the governing body of Irish dancing
worldwide.
Silver will perform at a
private closing reception
for the trade mission on
Wed., Nov. 7, at the Boston Marriott Quincy.
-- SUSAN GEDUTIS
LINDSAY
NEPONSET VALLEY APARTMENTS
G eraghty
ssociates
A
Studio and 1-Bedroom Apartments Available
in the desirable Cedar Grove section of Dorchester.
Studios reasonably priced at $750.00;
1-bedroom units at $925.00;
heat and hot water included.
Short walk to the Red Line. Free off-street Parking.
Washing Machines and Dryers in building.
Call Michael at 617.364.4000
Geraghty Associates, Inc.
Property managers
P.O. Box 52, Readville, MA 02137-0052
Tel: 617-364-4000 Fax: 617-364-3157
November 2007
Page 19
It’s a Real Trip Hanging Out
With the Dropkick Murphys
The Dropkick Murphys have
been around for more than ten
years with a loyal and evergrowing cult following, but
what put them on the map was
their recent appearance on the
soundtrack to the feature film
The Departed, not to mention
their Red Sox anthem, “Tessie,” which has been absorbed
into local baseball ritual like
the seventh inning stretch and
the national anthem. And their
awaited sixth album The Meanest of Times, released in September, entered the Billboard Top
200 Albums chart at #20.
So what? I saw The Departed
but was too busy watching
Matt Damon to notice the
soundtrack. I don’t follow baseball (gasp!!!), and worst of all,
I like folk music. I still hadn’t
heard them. You could blame
it on me being nearly 40, but
my friend Tim, who scored us
these highly coveted tickets and
backstage passes for the soldout show, is older than I, and
he and his wife play in punk
bands. Go figure.
The live show at Avalon on
Lansdowne was a good intro-
duction. Rumor has it that the
Dropkicks are Avalon’s biggest
draw, and this felt like a homecoming concert. This show was
a big deal, as it was to be the
last show in Avalon in its current state before it undergoes
renovation.
Having said that, one important thing to note: If you want
to actually get a good view of
the stage at a Dropkicks show
at Avalon, you have to push
your way to the front through
a mass of white arms, fluffy
sideburns, and green sox caps.
You’ll also have to dodge the
occasional body that flies by
overhead, and not be afraid to
get knocked across the shoulder
by a passing, er, dancer—dancing at the Dropkicks consists of
“moshing,” where people throw
their bodies into each other in
what looks suspiciously like a
barroom brawl. I played it safe
and stayed at the side of stage
for much of the show, where I
stood on tiptoe for a great view of
the backs of the other hundred
people that also had these backstage—er, sidestage—passes.
The live concert begins with
Sinead O’Connor’s rendition of
“The Foggy Dew” playing as images are projected on a screen,
and the concert finishes with
that Boston anthem, “Dirty
Water.” In between was a punk
rock show that was old school
Boston hardcore, to its very core.
It was loud, hard driving, high
energy, and fun. The Bunker
Hill Pipe Band came out on
stage in their kilts, black tee
shirts, and Red Sox caps to join
the band for the finale. At that
point, the stage looked more like
a reunion, and that’s typical. Despite their international status,
the Dropkicks retain a personal
feel that is more old high-school
buddy than superstar. These are
the neighborhood heroes. And
maybe that’s what makes them
so cool. More than a few bottles
flew during the show, but they
were tossed “up” not “at, as far
as I could tell—in good humor,
not as weapons.
The show ended and the
Lucky 300 shuffled backstage,
where it was still more like
an everybody-in neighborhood
open house than an exclusive
party for the beautiful people.
That’s typical of the punk movement—arising in the late 1970s,
Ronnie Drew, a Legendary Voice,
Mixes Well with Ken Casey’s Crew
One of the ways the Dropkick Murphys have song was three generations of Irish music singing
shown respect for their influences is to invite some together on one song. And it all happened seamof Irish music’s elder statesmen to join them. Their lessly. It sounds like Ronnie should be in a punk
new album The Meanest of Times, includes guest band, you know? And he’s just cool enough that
appearances by the Dubliner’s Ronnie Drew and he probably could and would pull it off.”
the Pogues’ Spider Stacy on “(F)lannigan’s Ball,”
In conversation and in the album liner notes, the
an original Boston take
band sings praises
on the famous dancehall
to Drew, who joined
brawl, “Lannigan’s Ball.”
them in studio after
This is not the first time
having been through
they’ve done that—for
a recent bout with
example, Pogues frontcancer, losing his
man Shane MacGowan
wife, and suffering
joined them on their 2000
with hip problems.
record “Sing Loud Sing
“We kept saying,
Proud.” (In the studio it
‘Ronnie are you sure
was Casey’s job to stand
you want to do this
beside notorious drinker
another time?’ and he
MacGowan and snatch
kept saying ‘I’d love to
the cigarette out of his Ronnie Drew with a few Dropkicks
do it.’ He came down
hand each time his line
and spent the day with
came, so he wouldn’t miss
us in the studio and he
his entrance.)
was so uplifting, in such good spirits, and just so
But in the case of the recent album, it was an positive about music… and here he is with all
Irish music icon who volunteered to join them. his history and tradition and all the accolades,
Ronnie Drew, lead singer in the legendary ballad he’s saying, ‘Guys I’ll sing this a thousand times
band the Dubliners, introduced himself to the band if you need me to, to get it right.’ ”
a few years back when the Dropkicks performed
Of course, Ronnie Drew only needed a couple
with the Pogues at a Dublin, Ireland gig. “Ronnie of takes. Casey said he found that inspirational.
said he really liked our take on Irish music. He “The truth be told, a lot of these people that
said, ‘I like how you’re keeping music alive and you meet that you looked up to as a kid – from
would love to work with you guys.’ ” Drew, whose my experience they’ve always let me down. For
gravelly, guttural singing became the voice of the every ten you meet like that, when you meet a
Dubliners after Luke Kelly’s untimely death of a Ronnie Drew or a Spider Stacy, it makes it all
brain tumor, is a suitable match for Casey’s growl worthwhile.”
on “(F)lannigan’s Ball.” “The whole concept of that
-- SUSAN GEDUTIS LINDSAY
it was originally a rebellion
against the rockers who had
become so superstarrish they
were no longer of the people.
Live, the Dropkicks retain that
punk feel—a sense that we’re all
in it together, with no separation of audience and band.
Still, the best way to actually
hear the band may be to sit down
with a recording, liner notes in
hand. The music is loud and
guitar heavy, and drummer
Matt Kelly hits with the same
sort of precision and power that
takes out moving targets from
2,000 feet. Needless to say, it
can be hard to hear the lyrics.
Throughout the album, however, there are folky touches
that give the band its “Irish”
sound. More than one tune in
Meanest of Times begins with
Tim Brennan’s folky banjo or
Scruffy Wallace’s bagpipes, or
perhaps a slow-sung verse—any
and all of which then get summarily plowed over from behind
by the barreling Mack-truck of a
full band. Many have compared
the Dropkick Murphys to the
Pogues, though the former
sounds less like the latter than
like the two bands’ shared influences, the Sex Pistols.
Ken Casey, the band’s lead vocalist, bass player, and founder
said, “We always consider ourselves a punk rock band first…
I like to make this analogy between us and the Pogues: The
Pogues are a traditional band
with a punk rock influence, and
we’re a punk rock band with a
traditional influence.”
Casey’s Irish influence is in
fact a few generations back—his
great grandparents were Irish
—but that bloodline runs strong
and steady as Boston’s Charles
River, and his Irish Catholic
background seems most evident
in the working class Boston
Irish values that have made the
band the hard-driving elected
spokesman for Boston’s young
generation.
“My grandparents listened
to Irish music and my mother
listened to reggae,” he said. “I
think it skips a generation. If
my mother was into Irish music,
I probably would have hated it,
because kids always want to
do the opposite of the parents.
That was the saving grace for
me. I never really at the time
felt overwhelmingly attached to
Irish music but at the same time
subliminally I knew it all from
hearing it in my surroundings
as a kid.”
What turned him on to Irish
music was the band the Pogues.
Ken said he was in his early
teens when the Pogues came
along in the early 1980s. “This
opened my eyes that it was
cool for my generation, too… I
hope that kids who hear us will
research the roots of it, whether
it be the Pogues and back to
more traditional music like the
Dubliners and Clancy Brothers,
or the origins of punk rock, like
the Clash and Stiff Little Fingers. We always try to promote
what influenced us to younger
generations and turn kids on to
both of those styles.”
He points out that though the
Pogues were adventurous and
perhaps even shocking for their
time, the Dropkicks take that
energy one step further. Influenced by the English punk bands
such as the Sex Pistols, but
also loyal to his Irish roots, the
Pogues were formed by Shane
MacGowan to bring a rebellious
punk spirit to Irish music. But
Casey says they don’t sound so
tough to the new generation,
and that’s where the Dropkicks
pick up the ball. “Twenty years
later if you want to reach the
next generation of kids coming
up, you’d better be louder and
faster or you’re not even going
to reach them. Part of it comes
with the times… you gotta be
more aggressive.”
Ken Casey Talks About Loud Music,
Family, and Tradition
for example, is a soft message
wrapped in a very tough-sounding package: “When you got love
and we got family keep ‘em close
and don’t forget to hold them
right there in your heart…”
“It’d be so easy for a lot of
people to take the accolades
and the people who want to
be friends now and forget the
people that you grew up with,”
Casey said. “But when you’re
not selling records and you’re
not a band anymore, where are
those people going to be? All the
people that stood by you your
whole life will be there.”
For Casey, his own wife and
two young children will always
be most important. (Our phone
interview ended when he and his
family arrived at Jordan’s Fur-
niture to buy their toddler his
first bed.) ”It would be hypocritical to write about these topics
then go on tour for two years. If
we’re gone for three weeks, then
we’re home for at least a month
after that. … For that reason,
we often don’t tour as long as
we should. I mean, we have an
agent in England that is always
saying he needs to get this band
over here for more than two or
three weeks at a time, but we
say, ‘Well, you’re not gonna.’ You
may feel like you need that to
break us into the larger circles,
but if that’s what it takes, we’re
not gonna do it.”
It is refreshing to see a band
at the brink of fame and fortune making human choices,
but though Casey is not afraid
to say that the band’s success
has been his vision since Day
1, widespread fame and fortune
is not the band’s primary goal.
“We’ve always judged our success by where we were with our
peers in the punk rock world. I
guess we’ve gotten more mainstream attention since 2004,
but I feel like in the world that
we travel in, we were successful
the minute our fans kept coming
to see us at the Rat [for many
years, a punk rock destination
in Kenmore Square].”
In the end, it’s not so much
the performance or the image
of the band that seems to be
its strength. It’s what the band
has to say and how it says it:
in straight talk that resonates
well with the “average” guy or
gal. That’s what punk rock is
about. And in many ways, that’s
what Irish music has been about
historically.
“You’re more apt to find a band
[with this attitude] in our genre
than you are in some super rock
and roll band where it’s all about
the magazines and the models.
In my opinion, that’s never what
traditional Irish music was
about and it certainly was never
what punk rock was about… The
punk rock I grew up listening
to—old Boston hardcore—was
all about band and audience are
one and no one is better than
the other person. It’s a unity
kind of thing. In so many ways,
Irish music and punk rock go
hand in hand, whether it’s songs
and stories about rebellion, or
whether it’s the two greatest
forms of party music on Earth.
In every aspect, they’re just
made for each other.”
Casey refers to his fans as
“kids,” but it’s clear that he
wouldn’t complain about a
little more recognition from an
older audience. “On first listen,
older people say, “Oh, what is
this?” but they give it a chance
because they know of the Irish
influence, then it grows on them
and they start to like the more
aggressive form. At the same
time, we have so many punk
rockers who would never give
Irish music a chance. They
kind of like the melody and the
enthusiasm that goes along with
it, so we’re converting people to
both styles… you came in for one
and hopefully leave with both,
you know?”
-- SUSAN GEDUTIS LINDSAY
Thirty-Two Counties
Antrim: While checking the
Colin River in preparation for a
schools visit, education ranger
Paul Bennett came across an
unusual find, the vertebrae of
a prehistoric sea creature. The
plesiosaur, known as the sea
dragon, dates from some 190
million years ago. The seven
centimetre vertebrae was perfectly preserved in the river
bank and has now gone on display at the park. Previous finds
at the river include sharks’ teeth
and a fossil of another extinct
reptile, the ichthyosaur, but this
is the first time that evidence of
the plesiosaur has been found
in the Belfast area.
Armagh: It appears that
World Wrestling Entertainment, which is planning an
evening’s entertainment at the
Odyssey, believe that a fivemonth-old baby needs a seat to
herself. That is the experience
of David and Sharon Sneddon
from Lurgan who were hoping
to take their eleven-year-old
autistic son Kyle, with his two
sisters, the older of whom also
has special needs, to see the
show. Having paid for four tickets they were told they would
also need a ticket for little ToniAnna, despite the fact that she
would be spending the entire
performance sitting on the lap
of either of her parents. The
Odyssey reported that the policy
had been laid down by the WWE
and not by the venue.
Carlow: The official opening
of the refurbished Ben Mulhall
Memorial Park in Clonegal,
carried out by Minister of State
John Browne, had two special
guests, one of them former
international footballer Paul
McGrath. The other special
guest was, of course, Margaret
Mulhall, widow of the man who
gave his name to the facility
and who devoted so much time
to the children of Clonegal. A
new community centre and
pitches are the result of years
of fundraising by volunteers
in the area. Both the park and
the new community centre were
blessed by parish priest Father
Joe Fleming and curate Father
Brendan Howard, before guests
attended a reception in the
centre’s function room.
Cavan: The newly refurbished library in Bailieborough
was to open Sept. 29 just in
time for the annual Children’s
Book Festival. To mark the
opening a collaborative exhibition, entitled “Surface” and
grant-aided by the Arts Council,
has been mounted by Noelle
McAlinden and Roisin Duffy.
The exhibition will run until
mid-November. Meanwhile the
children will celebrate their
special week with storytellers
Niall De Burca and Billy Teare.
In addition, author Liam Farrell will relate the story of the
big bad wolf, Aubrey Flegg will
give readings of his own work
for older children, and there
will be competitions for all age
groups.
Clare: The county council
is to honor one of its special
athletes with a civil reception.
William Loughnane, from
Clooney/Quin, who competed
as a gymnast in the Special
Olympics in Shanghai, returned
home with seven medals, six
golds and one bronze. The son
of Liam and Rose Loughnane,
William entered five categories,
the pommel horse, the rings,
horizontal bars, parallel bars,
and floor. He gained his expertise at St Clare’s School in Ennis
and has said he would like to
coach gymnastics in future. The
motion for the civic reception
for William was proposed by
councillors Pat Daly, Pat Hayes
and Sonny Scanlon.
Cork: A castle burned by the
IRA in 1921 is to be transformed
into a hotel by the same com-
pany that opened the Capella
Castlemartyr in the summer.
The eighteenth century Dunboy
Castle was built by the Puxley
family who were involved in
the establishment of copper
mines in the Allihies area, but
latterly it was a total ruin with
Scots pines growing out of the
tops of the walls. The completed
Capella Dunboy Castle Hotel
will have 84 suites in addition
to a gourmet restaurant and a
leisure centre complete with
swimming pool and gymnasium.
Derry: A Letterkenny teenager who has traveled to New
York for major surgery to
reconstruct his lower jaw was
given a police escort through the
streets of the city to the Mount
Sinai hospital. Seventeen-yearold Alan Doherty was with his
parents Danny and Bernie
and last month underwent the
second stage of the treatment
in a sixteen-hour operation. His
escort by the New York Police
Department was arranged by
former councilor PJ Burke, who
enlisted the help of Inspector
Paul McCormack of the New
York Police Department, who
is himself from Donegal.
Donegal: Commuting more
than two hundred kilometres a
day is the choice made by soldier Seamus Boyle, who moved
to Arainn Mhór after his son
Paddy Joe was born three years
ago. Seamus was determined to
live on the island while working
at Finner Camp near Ballyshannon, and originally used his
own rigid inflatable to cross to
Burtonport, since the regular
ferry didn’t leave until nine each
morning. However he has now
set up his own ferry service to accommodate others on the island
who work on the mainland, and
despite the long daily journey
he is at home shortly after six
o’clock each evening to his wife
Louise and children Paddy Joe
and Gina.
Down: A monument dedicated to all servicemen who have
been killed since the end of the
Second World War, which was
unveiled in Staffordshire last
month, was constructed by a
company based in Kilkeel. The
workers at McConnell and Sons
spent some eighteen months on
the project, using approximately
one thousand tons of stone, all
sourced in Portland. The monument includes a twelve-metre
high obelisk and a curved wall
on which all the names were
engraved with the use of a
special machine. A group from
the company, including director
Wesley McConnell, traveled to
Britain to attend the unveiling
ceremony, which was carried
out by Queen Elizabeth.
Dublin: Sophie Cashell from
Balbriggan has reached the
finals of a reality television
show focused on classical musicians. The nineteen-year-old
pianist was one of thousands
of applicants to Classical Star,
a search by BBC television for
a classical musician who can
widen the music’s appeal to
the general public. Sophie and
the eight other finalists spent
three weeks at a Music Academy
under the direction of musician
Matthew Barley, and two of the
nine will be sent home each week
until just three remain. These
three will then have six weeks to
prepare for a final performance
that could win them a recording
contract.
Fermanagh: What must
surely be the most unusual monument to arise from the Troubles
was unveiled in Kinawley last
month. A digger used by the socalled “border busters,” which
had lain unused in a ditch for
fifteen years, now has pride of
place at Gortoral Bridge. It is a
monument to those from both
sides of the border, and the com-
munity who worked to keep open
border crossings that had been
closed for security reasons. Most
affected by the closures were
farmers, but they also forced
people to make long detours to
attend church or to visit friends
or relatives. A plaque has also
been unveiled at the spot dedicated to the border busters.
Galway: The transmission
of a commercial radio message
from Europe to Canada was celebrated last month in Clifden.
Guglielmo Marconi transmitted a message on October 17,
1907 from Derrygimla bog just
outside the town, which was
picked up in Newfoundland.
Attending the centenary celebrations were his daughter
Princess Elettra Marconi and
his grandson Prince Guglielmo.
A book by Princess Elettra about
her father was launched during
the celebrations. Other events
included a guided walk of the
Marconi station, an operatic
concert and a royal gala ball.
Kerry: When Maureen Cronin of St. Brendan’s Terrace in
Killarney celebrated her 70th
birthday her children knew
there was no point making it a
surprise party as their mother
was bound to find out. However
she did have one surprise the
following day, from a man who
had been unable to join in the
celebrations at the Killarney
Avenue Hotel. Attending the
half past ten Mass the following morning in the cathedral,
Maureen was both surprised
and embarrassed to hear Father Kevin McNamara invite
the entire congregation to sing
Happy Birthday to her. In addition to her family, Maureen’s
ten grandchildren were also
at the party, as were her two
sisters, Carmel and Peggy, and
her brother Timothy.
Kildare: Liam Flood, a retired
bookmaker from Maynooth, has
won his 25,000 euro entry fee
to a televised poker game with
an outlay of just $68. The Ladbrokes Poker Million VI will be
televised soon, when the sixtyfive-year-old will play against
top European poker players in
the hopes of progressing to the
finals in December and a share
of the top prize of 2,150,000
euro. Liam, who was born in
the house beside the Salmon
Leap, had shops in Maynooth,
Celbridge and Tallaght, and
has also successfully owned
racehorses. Last year he made
a total of 200,000 euro through
poker but emphasizes that he is
not a professional player.
Kilkenny: Over the Bank
Holiday weekend Kilkenny experienced its first food fair when
Savour Kilkenny ran over four
days. Officially opened by John
McKenna of the Bridgestone
Guide Books, the fair featured
a gala dinner, a Tennessee
Ho-Down and a cookery demonstration by Kilkenny man
Garrett Byrne, now head chef
at Chapter One in Dublin. One
of the highlights of the weekend
was a gingerbread village on
display at The Tholsel. This
was created with the help of
local schoolchildren, who were
led in the project by art director
Drew Snider and Derek O’Brien
of Coco Zen.
Laois: Local poet Pat Boran,
who is a previous winner of
the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry
Award, last month unveiled a
seat beside the canal bank in
Vicarstown to mark the 103d
birthday of the Monaghan poet.
A unique monument has been
created to the poet’s memory by
McKeon Stone from Stradbally
and its placement on the canal
bank is a joint initiative between the Patrick Kavanagh
Appreciation Society and the
Vicarstown Youth Club. The
seat is complemented by three
sister stones and the unveiling
ceremony included readings of
their own work by children from
local national schools.
Leitrim: Seven Credit Unions
in the county, along with the
County Enterprise Fund, have
come together to fund seven
first year third-level students
to the value of 1,000 euro each
in memory of the late Josie
Martin. Josie, a prime mover
in the Credit Union in Leitrim
and in the restoration of the
Shannon Erne Canal, will be
remembered in the Josie Martin
Scholarships for Leitrim College
Students which was launched
recently in his home town of
Ballinamore. The launch took
place in Kennedy’s Glenview
House and among the speakers
was chairman of the County
Enterprise Fund John Harte
and Gerry McGee, who spoke
on behalf of the Credit Union
movement.
Limerick: Anyone with
ambition to take on the best
in the world of snooker should
have been at the Hilton Hotel in
Limerick late last month when
former champions Ken Doherty
and Ronnie O’Sullivan were
scheduled to give a demonstration. Members of the Victoria
Snooker Club were to take on
the maestros, and part of the
evening was given over to an
auction of one frame for a member of the audience. This was
the third time that Ray Scullion
from Castletroy had organized
a charity snooker night, and
this year the proceeds will go
to Down Syndrome Ireland. The
Hilton Hotel gave the venue for
the evening free of charge.
Longford: The Ballymacormack Community Development
Group, which was formed following the completion of the
parish’s community centre, has
a number of ambitious projects
in the pipeline. These include a
sports and recreational facility,
the construction of a children’s
playground, and the provision of
an all-weather pitch to include
a children’s playing pitch and
a walkway track at Stonepark.
After completing fundraising to
buy a site for the sports facilities,
the group has now purchased a
site on which to build a house
which will be the first prize in
a monster draw which will also
include a car, an Australian
holiday, and a shopping spree
in New York.
Louth: A chance meeting at
an airport has led to a Dundalk
man appearing in cartoon form
in the Beano comic, along with
Rodger the Dodger. Gerry Foran from Muirhevnamor was
chatting to Alan Digby, editor
of the Beano, at Heathrow
and told him he was a lifelong
fan of the comic. He also managed to convince the editor to
include him in an edition and
the comic’s cartoonist drew his
character after looking him up
on his website. He is known in
the comic strip as Gerry the Poet
and at one point the character
announces his intention to walk
home to Dundalk. He was to appear in the Hallowe’en edition
at the end of the month.
(Continued next page)
Ireland’s Weather
Reported Monday,
October 29, 2007
by Liam Ferrie
Little to complain about
Monday was damp but three fine days followed
before wind and rain hit us on Friday. It did clear up in the
afternoon and Saturday was mostly overcast before we were
hit by more stormy weather on Saturday night. Sunday started
bright and sunny but gave way to occasional showers.
Showery conditions will continue on Monday but that should
be followed by mostly dry weather although some rain is
possible on Friday before a bright, cold and frosty weekend.
Latest Temperatures:
Day 11C (52F).................Night 5C (41F)
November 2007
News Direct From Ireland
Archbishop of Armagh and
Primate of All Ireland Dr.
Sean Brady is to be made a
cardinal, the Vatican announced
last month. It is almost exactly
11 years since the 68-year-oldold native of Laragh, Co. Cavan,
took over as Archbishop of Armagh from Cardinal Cahal Daly.
The appointment means that for
the first time Ireland will have
three cardinals although Cardinal Daly and Cardinal Desmond
Connell are too old to vote in a
papal conclave. Dr. Brady was
“taken aback” at the news and
saw his appointment not just an
honor for him but “an honor for
the Church in Ireland” and “an
expression of the Pope’s confidence in the progress achieved
in the North.”
In welcoming the news President Mary McAleese described
Archbishop Brady as “a man of
great personal integrity, kindness and goodness, a man who
leads by personal example.”
Messages of congratulations
were also received from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern; from the
leaders of the three other main
churches in Ireland, Archbishop
Alan Harper of the Church of
Ireland, Dr John Finlay of the
Presbyterian Church, and the
Rev. Roy Cooper of the Methodist Church.; and from the
Office of the First Minister
and Deputy First Minister
at Stormont.
In other church news of
note, in his private chapel in
Ballina, Bishop of Killala Dr.
John Fleming last month received into the Catholic Church
Anita Henderson, the wife of
the Church of Ireland Bishop
of Tuam, Killala and Achonry.
Mrs. Henderson’s husband
and family accompanied her
to the chapel. The event has
been given the unanimous
support of both bishops. In a
joint statement they said, “Her
decision, made after much heartsearching, deserves the respect
of us all and we trust that all
people of goodwill will share in
this.” They also referred to “a time
of unprecedented hospitality,
friendship and collaboration
between our local churches.”
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
was at the Royal Irish Academy on Oct. 14, the 125th
anniversary of the birth of
Eamon de Valera, to launch a
new book about the former Taoiseach and President written by
historian Diarmuid Ferriter.
“Judging Dev,” said the Taoiseach, will help restore some
balance to the legacy of his
predecessor, about whom there
has been much negative comment in recent years. Ahern
spoke of de Valera’s “inspiring
leadership” in difficult times but
referred to what he saw as his biggest failure -- his inability to end
emigration. The author said he
believed it was time to bring
Eamon de Valera back in from
the cold. Those who claimed
that our longest serving Taoiseach “had done little that
was useful and much that was
harmful” offered, he argued, “a
very damning and very inaccurate judgment.” The book has
been published to complement
a new nine-part television
documentary, using the same
time title. The series, which
will be introduced by the author,
started on RTE on Oct. 28.
The Government has decided to make compulsory the breath-testing of
drivers involved in serious
accidents, except where medical
requirements dictate otherwise.
The general reaction is that this
is something that should have
happened long ago and Fine
Gael claims to have forced the
Government’s hand on the issue;
the announcement came just
hours before the Dail was due to
debate a FG motion on the matter. Minister for Transport Noel
Dempsey claims that gardai were
already instructed to carry out
breath tests following an accident
and the proposed legislation
Thirty-Two Counties
Mayo: A bid to raise 100,000
euro by a group of radio presenters was so successful that they
eventually raised 178,000 euro
for Mayo Roscommon Hospice.
The presenters from Midwest
Radio included Teresa O’Malley,
Tommy Marren, Angelina Nugent, Viv Brennan, Chris Carroll, David Cawley, Paul Claffey,
and Padraic Walsh. They carried out the seven challenges,
including two record breakers;
they held the biggest ever radio
quiz and also organized the longest line-dance on a racetrack.
A car boot sale, a mystery tour,
a factory talent show and the
production of a three-act play
were also accomplished, while
perhaps the biggest challenge
was the staging of four variety
shows on the one day in the four
corners of the county.
Meath: Chief executive of
Tayto Ray Coyle admits that
his herd of buffalo, kept on a
farm just outside Ashbourne,
started out as a bit of a hobby
with 28 imported twelve years
ago, but now the farm has 264
animals. Ray has now applied
to develop the farm into a major
visitor centre that will incorporate some three and a half
kilometres of a walking trail and
will feature twenty-two points
of interest. One of these will be
a replica Native America village
with a lodge that can seat 140
children, and other stops on the
route will feature wild boar,
and a lake.
Monaghan: After ten years
chasing the title, Christina
McMahon from Carrickmacross
has become the new Ladies
50kg World Kickboxing Cham-
pion. Christina had to travel
to Belgrade to meet her opponents from Turkey, Russia
and Italy before squaring up to
Reke Kempt from Hungary in
the final. In other years she has
been runner up on one occasion
and the winner of the bronze
medal on six occasions, so this
was a special win. Christina was
a member of the Irish National
Kickboxing Team which also
brought home one silver and
two bronze medals.
Offaly: The present record
for the number of siblings taking part in a marathon stands
at thirteen, with the Weisse
family from Wisconsin having
this year broken the record of
twelve set by the Irwin family
from Donegal. However the record was to be challenged again
in the Dublin City Marathon
late last month (after the BIR
deadline) when fifteen siblings
of the O’Donoghue family from
Birr were to take part in the run,
sponsored by Lucozade Sport.
And two members of the family, Noel and Mary, came from
America to take part. The brothers and sisters, aged between
thirty-two and fifty-two, will be
running to raise funds for Down
Syndrome Ireland.
Roscommon: Late last
month, as part of the People
in Need fundraising effort,
those members of the Army
Reserve who are based in Boyle
donned their uniforms to carry
a stretcher through the towns
and villages of the county. The
stretcher was carried from Boyle
on a route through Elphin,
Strokestown, Tulsk, Ballinagare, Frenchpark, Ballaghaderreen, Loughglynn, Castlerea,
Ireland Today
Emigrant’s Siobhan King
Marries a Man of Clare
She Met In Boston
The wedding took place in Co. Mayo last month of Siobhan King, a former editor of the print editions of The Irish
Emigrant. It was while Siobhan was working in Boston that she met her future husband, Padraig Garrahy of Co. Clare. The marriage took place in the
Church of Our Lady Help of Christians in Swinford. The
couple plan to live in the Co. Mayo town from where Siobhan will continue as compiler of our online business publication, Professional
Ireland. Coincidentally, while Siobhan traveled abroad to meet
a Clare man, her mother Mary emigrated to London in the
1960s and also met a Clare man, Mick King.
will just put this on a statutory
footing. It is known, however, that
drunk drivers have frequently
escaped prosecutions because no
breath tests were carried out after
accidents, some of them fatal.
This situation has added to the
distress of the victims’ relatives.
On a visit to Ireland
organized by the Dublin
Chamber of Commerce,
Governor of Maryland Martin O’Malley spoke of the
benefits to the capital of
having a directly elected
mayor. O’Malley was seen as
highly effective during his six
years as mayor of Baltimore and is
often spoken of as a future American President. The idea of Dublin
having a directly elected lord
mayor may come to fruition in the
foreseeable future as Minister
for Local Government John
Gormley is known to favor the
idea.
It emerged last month that
officials at the Department
of Transport had been informed
in mid-June that Aer Lingus was
planning to transfer four Heathrow slots from Shannon to Belfast. The first intimation came
the day before the Minister
for Transport Noel Dempsey
Minister was appointed but he
wasn’t iformed until the end
of July. Opposition politicians
chose not to believe that Dempsey
was unaware of the situation and have attacked him
to the point of calling for his
resignation. The secretary
general of the Department,
Julie O’Neill, is to investigate
the matter and is expected to
conclude that the omission was
a simple mistake. Dempsey’s
immediate predecessor, Martin
Cullen, has denied any knowledge of the memo, which arrived
at the Department in on June 13.
First Minister Rev. Ian
Paisley and Deputy
First Minister Martin
McGuinness met a group
of senior business people
from the US last month
when the group arrived on
a two-day fact-finding visit
during which they attended a
lunch at the Belfast Harbour
Commissioners. Originally
the organizers of the visit expected four or five companies to send representatives,
but in the event, 20 large
US corporations took part in the
exploratory mission.
The BBC is hoping that
the loss of 110 jobs in the
Page 21
North, to be staggered over
a number of years, can be
accommodated by voluntary
redundancy. The losses are part
of a station-wide cut in staff of
2,800 by the broadcaster.
One of a number
of cases of birth certificate fraud relating to
children born in the Rotunda Hospital was highlighted on RTE’s
Liveline programme last month.
A mother who went to register her
son’s birth was told that it had already been registered, by an Irish
woman and a Romanian
man. Although the couple
were detained, the fact
that the CCTV cameras in the registry office were out of order that
day meant there was insufficient
evidence for conviction. Now the
mother’s only recourse is a DNA
test, which she cannot afford.
Age Action Ireland
has introduced a new
DIY service for older
people, a “care and repair”
service by means of which small
repair jobs around the house will
be carried out by volunteers.
The scheme has begun in both
Dublin and Galway, with older
people paying only for the cost
of materials and the shortfall
being made up by a 250,000 euro
Irish Life fund. The volunteers
will confine their activities to
relatively simple tasks from
changing a light bulb to installing
a smoke alarm. For more complex
jobs a register of recommended
tradesmen will be maintained,
and knowledgeable volunteers
will advise the old person on
likely costs.
OnememberoftheIntergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, which has shared
the Nobel Peace Prize with
former US vice-president Al
Gore, is a scientist from Ahogill,
Co. Antrim. Professor Neil Adger
is professor of environmental sciences at the University of East
Anglia and has been involved in
climate research for the past 15
years.
From Mayo to Wicklow
Roscommon, and Knockcrockery and on to Athlone. Among
the organizers of the venture
were Commandant Pat Bruen,
Sergeant John Fahy, and Lieutenant Hugh Lynn.
Sligo: Following the recent
visit to Sligo of Michael Flatley,
where he launched Sligo Live,
the mayor Jonathan McGoldrick
proposed to the council that the
dancer be granted the Freedom
of the City. This was adopted
unanimously and last month
Councilor McGoldrick received
confirmation that the honor is to
be accepted. The conferring will
possibly take place in February,
although no date has yet been
set, and it is understood that
Flatley will be accompanied by
his parents; his father is a native
of Culfadda. Other recipients
of the Freedom of Sligo include
Mother Teresa and Senator
Michael Yeats.
Tipperary: Minister for Social and Family Affairs Martin
Cullen last month performed
the official opening of a new
24-million euro rural home
and farm for adults with disabilities. The complex is based
at the Camphill communities
facility at Knocklofty near
Clonmel and will soon take in
its second group of new residents. It is built on a three and
a half acre site donated by local
farmer Donal McGrath, whose
son Marcus was one of the first
residents. And at the ceremony
the proceeds of a fundraising
ball held by Clonmel Lions Club
were presented to the centre by
The Tipperary Association for
Special Needs.
Tyrone: Dungannon’s Castle
Hill was the site of an archaeo-
logical dig last month by the
television crew from Time
Team. The crew wwas investigating the remains of the castle
as well as an adjacent cottage
that has been unused since the
mid-nineteenth century. The
castle, the main residence of
the O’Neills, was burnt at the
beginning of the seventeenth
century as the English army
advanced into Ulster. While in
Dungannon the television crew
also launched the Northern
Ireland Archaeology Forum, a
body formed to raise awareness
of the archaeological heritage of
the North.
Waterford: At the old National School in Butlerstown
last month, a ceremony took
place to commemorate Father
Rufus Halley, who was killed in
the Philippines six years ago. At
the nineteenth century school,
now to be known as The Father
Rufus Halley Centre, a plaque
was unveiled in the presence of
Father Halley’s family, friends,
and colleagues, some of them
old classmates from Waterpark
College. The unveiling of the
plaque, which was organized
by a group of parishioners,
followed a Mass in St. Mary’s
Parish Church.
Westmeath: It might seem
to the residents of Athlone
that all the development was
taking place on the east side of
the town, but soon it will be the
turn of the western section, with
the launch last month of the
Bastion Court development in
Connaught Street. Frank Kelly
is behind the development,
which will comprise 79 apartments with associated crèche,
medical centre, and retail
units. And close by, on Pearse
Street, developer Damien Kelly
has plans for a 3-million euro
shopping mall which he hopes
to have open by March of next
year. A further boost to the area
will be the proposed extension
to the Shamrock Lodge.
Wexford: When White’s of
Wexford brings back again this
year an outdoor ice rink, they are
taking the precaution of putting
in place an overhead cover. Last
year conditions at the rink were
problematic due to the changeable weather, but this year that
should not be a problem when
the rink opens at the beginning
of December. It will be available
until January 6 to everyone
over the age of six, and will
also have a protective barrier
to help those not so steady on
their skates. An art competition
for schoolchildren will ensure
that at least two classes, one
primary and one secondary, will
have a complimentary hour of
ice skating.
Wicklow: The Tidy Towns
committee in Rathdrum is
already looking ahead to next
year’s competition and has
worked hard to reopen the former Mass path at the back of
the old VEC school. They spent
some 4,000 euro on the path,
removing undergrowth and
laying and rolling heavy stone.
A fence has also been placed in
position at the foot of the path
and they propose to erect a gate
at some future time. Other work
recently carried out, according
to committee chairman Seamus
O’Toole, involved cleaning up
the path from the plough green
down to St. Mary’s and St.
Michael’s Church.
Traveling People
Galway Man Said to Have Bought Ashford Castle;
Price for Mayo Landmark Put at 70-Million Euro
By Judy Enright
Special to the BIR
The rumor has been
floating around Ireland
for some time, but it does
now appear as though
the Ashford Castle Hotel
in Cong, Co. Mayo, once
owned by a group of 45
Irish-American investors,
has been sold to a Galway
developer.
The sale price most
often quoted for the spectacular 13th-century hotel
is 70-million euro, and
the reputed purchaser is
Gerry Barrett, a former
schoolteacher and now a
successful developer who
heads up Edward Holdings. He has a massive
property portfolio and has
completed many high-end
projects, including Scotch
Hall shopping center in
Drogheda, the tony, fivestar “g Hotel” in Galway,
the four-star “d hotel”
in Drogheda, and Barna
House luxury apartments
on Galway Bay, to name
just a few.
Back in April, Cróna Esler, a reporter for Western
People newspaper, wrote,
“Speculation has been rife
in the South Mayo/North
Galway area for some
time that the magnificent
13th-century castle has
been put on the market
by its Board of Directors. However, the hotel’s
General Manager, Niall
Rochford, is adamant
that this is not the case.
Speaking exclusively to
the Western People, Mr.
Rochford explained that
for a hotel of the caliber
of Ashford Castle, it is no
surprise that there is a
constant flow of bids from
interested buyers. But,
the manager was quick to
note that the Board have
not made a decision to sell
the lavish hotel and surrounding 360-acre estate.”
Six of the 45 investors sit
on the hotel’s board.
Rochford told Esler
that the Irish-Americans
have owned the 83-bedroom castle and 360-acre
grounds since 1985 and,
he said, “to be honest, I
wouldn’t blame people for
wanting to submit an offer
on such a trophy property.
There is always speculation about the castle being
for sale and being sold but
I can categorically deny
these reports and state
that the hotel is certainly
not sold.”
However, a spokesman for Tourism Ireland
in New York City said
last month, “Ashford is
definitely sold. A local
developer bought it… the
same person who owns the
g Hotel in Galway.” That
person is Barrett.
Ashford, once owned
by members of the Guinness family, graces the
shore of beautiful Lough
Corrib and was built in
1228 by the Anglo-Norman de Burgo family after
they defeated the native
O’Connors of Connaught.
The castle remained the
principal stronghold of the
de Burgos until 1589.
In 1852, Ashford’s new
owner, Sir Benjamin Lee
Guinness, extended the
estate to 26,000 acres,
built new roads, planted
thousands of trees, and
added two large Victo-
rian-style extensions. He
later bequeathed Ashford
to his son, Lord Ardilaun,
an avid gardener, who
oversaw the development
of massive woodlands and
rebuilt the entire west
wing of the castle. Since
then, Ashford has been
owned by numerous families and was sold in 1939
to Noel Huggard, who
opened Ashford’s doors as
a first-class hotel.
In 1970, Ashford was
bought by John Mulcahy, who ordered a complete restoration and
expansion, doubling its
size, building the golf
course and developing the
grounds and gardens. He
sold the property to the
Irish-Americans some 15
years later.
I stayed at Ashford
several years ago and,
honestly, it is by far my
favorite castle hotel. It is
small enough to be personal and somewhat intimate, the staff is cordial
and gracious, the grounds
are beyond magnificent,
there are activities galore
from walking and boating
to falconry and golf, and
the meals are delicious.
You don’t feel like just a
number here as you do at
some castle hotels. Hopefully, Mr. Barrett and his
designers will be mindful
of the comfortable but
elegant charm of Ashford
and make changes that
are in keeping with its
rich historic past.
Ashford is truly a lovely
property and a stay there
– or even just a stop for
tea -- is highly recommended.
EYRE SQUARE
We read in The Irish
Times last spring that
Eyre Square in Galway,
which recently underwent
a lengthy and controversial facelift, has been
nominated this year’s
Academy of Urbanism
of Great Britain and
Ireland awards in the category of Great Place. Also
short-listed were Dublin’s
Meeting House Square in
Temple Bar, the Quayside
in Newcastle and seven
other areas in the UK.
The winner will be
announced this month,
after an Academy team
visits each site. Meeting House Square was
one of four public spaces
developed for Temple
Bar and was designed by
Paul Keogh Architects,
members of the Group
91 architects. Temple
Bar was also short-listed
in the category of Great
Neighborhood and in this
category the competition
includes Soho in London
and Castlefields in Manchester among others.
The theme for this year’s
awards is Space, Place and
Life and the key criteria
include governance, local
character, distinctiveness, user friendliness,
functionality, commercial
success and viability, and
environmental and social
sustainability
The Academy’s contenders
for the principal award,
European City of the Year,
include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Budapest, Berlin,
Graz, Helsinki, Istanbul,
Lyon, Stockholm and Turin. Dublin was in conten-
Ashford Castle, which graces the shore of beautiful Lough Corrib, was built in 1228 by the Anglo-Norman
de Burgo family after they defeated the native O’Connors of Connaught.
tion last year but lost out
to Edinburgh.
INFLATION
It’s good to know that
we aren’t the only country
that’s struggling with
inflation. A recent story
in The Irish Times noted
that a jump in oil and food
prices took September
euro zone inflation above
target for the first time
in a year. “The European
Union’s statistics office
confirmed that consumer
prices in the 13 countries
using the euro rose .4 percent month-on-month for
a 2.1 percent year-on-year
rise, up from 1.7 percent
in August. That was in
line with market expectations based on Eurostat’s
earlier estimate.”
The European Central
Bank wants to keep annual inflation just below
2 percent and did so
during the 12 months to
August, raising interest
rates amid an economic
upswing to the current
4 percent from 2 percent
in 2005.
Many economists, the
newspaper said, believe
the bank will not raise
rates further “because
of the strong euro and
an expected economic
slowdown, partly due to
the global credit crunch,
which has already sharply
boosted market lending
rates.”
ELECTION TIME
Well, it is election season and I loved this story
from The Irish Independent newspaper last May,
saying John Healy, 69, a
retired Irish farmer, has
traced his roots from his
home in Moneygall, Co.
Offaly, straight to Barack
Obama, some of whose
ancestors emigrated from
Ireland more than 150
years ago. It seems that
Healy, whose family has
lived in the same house in
Moneygall since 1750, had
an ancestor named Sarah,
who married Joseph Kearney, a shoemaker, in
1760. Their son, Fulmuth
Kearney, who is Obama’s
third great-grandfather,
left Moneygall for New
York in 1850. Great stuff,
huh?
DOOLEY VACATIONS
I was interested to see
that my favorite Irish car
rental company – Dooley
- has launched Dooley
Vacations, a web-based
company with all packages
available online at dooleyvacations.com. Travelers
may also book through
the call center at 877-3319301.
Some of the most popular packages include:
• Emerald Package from
$359, that includes hotel,
five nights B&B, car rental
(for more info, visit dooleyvacations.com/vacations/
ireland-independent-emerald-package);
• Sites & Cities Escorted Tour from $399,
that includes, two nights
in Galway, two nights in
Dublin, coach, meals and
more. For more information, visit dooleyvacations.
com/vacations/ireland-escorted-sites-cities
As I’ve written before, I
have rented from many car
companies in more than 30
years of visiting Ireland,
and I have become a true
believer in Dooley Car
Rentals for the quality of
the vehicles and their outstanding service. It sounds
like their vacations will be
great, too.
TRAVEL
Whenever you decide
to visit Ireland, be sure
to stop by your favorite
travel agent or the Aer
Lingus website (aerlingus.com) for the latest
direct flights and ground
deals. Flights and deals
are also offered by US
Airways (usairways.com)
and several other airlines,
but often involve layovers
in Chicago, Newark, New
York, Philadelphia and
elsewhere, adding several
hours to the trip but also
reducing the cost. For seasonal happenings, check
out Tourism Ireland’s
website (tourismireland.
com) and Failte Ireland’s
site (failteireland.ie.).
Kinsale County Cork
20” x 30”
2005
by Vincent Crotty
229 Lincoln Street (Rt. 3A) Hingham, Massachusetts, 02043
800-752-9389
Hours: Tues. - Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., Sunday noon - 5:00 pm
email: [email protected]
www.aisling-gallery.com
The Irish Language
by Philip Mac AnGhabhann
I must begin this column with an apology. There
was a typographical error in the last column. The
word for “wet” is fluich, not “Oluich.” This was my
mistake, not the Reporter’s.
We are studying adjectives and at the end of
the last column I put some formulas for you to
remember.
If X is Y then there is no recognition of gender in
the adjective.
What this means is that if “X” (“something” or
“some person”) is described as “Y” with some form
of the verb tá, the adjective remains the same for
both masculine and feminine nouns.
For example, the word for “day,” lá, is masculine
and the word for “night,” oiche is feminine. In a
sentence like “The day is beautiful” and “The night
is beautiful” there is no change in the form of the
adjective.
Tá an lá álainn. Tá an oiche álainn.
Any other combination of feminine noun + adjective as in “If X + Y does something to Z” or if “Z
does something to X + Y then the adjective must
change by being lenited (“aspirated”).
This is along way to say, if the noun + adjective
is used as the subject or object of a sentence or if
any other verb beside some form of tá is used then
the feminine noun lenites the adjective.
Hence, you better review the forms of tá or bí to
be sure that you know them. Remember that these,
as all Irish verbs, go on the front of the simple sentences. That is why they are capitalized.
Present: Past: Future:
Positive Tá Bhí
Beidh
Negative Níl Ní raibh
Ní bheidh
Present: Past: Future:
Question?
An bhfuil?
An raibh?
An mbeidh?
Neg. Question?
Nach bhfuil?
Nach raibh?
Nach mbeidh?
Raibh is pronounced /roh/, beidh as /bee/, bheidh
as /wee/ or /vee/ and mbeidh as /mee/.
Here are some new words. The generic word for
“meat” or “flesh” is feoil /fyol/ so the meat or flesh
of a particular animal or fowl will end in -oil; cearc
/kyerk/ “hen,” circeoil /KIRK-yol/ “chicken meat”
– both feminine nouns – the adjective friodhta
/FREE-tuh/ means “fried” and arán “bread,” a
masculine noun.
Remember also that when you lenite an f, it
becomes “silent.”
D’ith Séan an arán friodhta.
/yee SHAWN uh AH-ran FREE-tuh/
“Sean ate the fried bread.”
D’ith Séan an circeoil fhriodhta.
/yee SHAWN uh KIRK-oyl REE-tuh/
“Sean ate the fried chicken.”
The assumption is, of course, that you already
know if a noun is masculine or feminine. The
assignment of the term “gender” is purely arbitrary.
It would be better to speak about “classes” of nouns.
However, since most books and dictionaries continue
to use the term “gender,” we will have to continue
with it. Most nouns are masculine. It is easier to
make generalities about the feminine. Here are a
few clues:
1. If you use a dictionary, there will be an m. or f. after the noun.
2. If you hear some one speaking and in a com-
bination noun + adjective and the adjective is lenited, the noun will often be feminine.
3. Generally feminine nouns include those …
a.that are obviously feminine - women’s names, words like “hen” or “mare” although cailín “girl” is an exception.
It’s masculine!
b.most of the names of nations and languages:
c.most nouns that end –e or –i and a
consonant such as muintir “people,”
bainis “wedding;”
d. nouns that end in –oig, –ail, and ach or –acht.
Recall that there are always exceptions! A good example is cailín “girl” which, although it meets two
of the criteria above, clearly referring to a female
and also ending in –ín, it is masculine. You just
have to learn them.
Words that have come into Irish over the many
years of contact with English and/or new words like
raidió “radio,” clog “clock” an bricfásta “breakfast”
are generally assigned to the masculine category
although there are still exceptions - téip “tape” is
feminine.
The majority of nouns are masculine so from now
on in this course I will mark feminine nouns as f.
Nouns not so marked you may take as masculine.
Let’s see if you can correctly assign gender to
these nouns: 1.) Éirinn “Ireland” 2.) balla “wall”
3.) banalatra “nurse” 4.) bás “death” 5.) geata
“gate” 6.) fuinneoig “window” 7.) garda “policeman” 8.) feoil “meat” 9.) páirc “park” 10.) mna
“women” 11.) oíche “night” 12.) roilig “cemetery”
13.) tine “fire” 14.) náisiún “nation” 15.) paidir
“prayer” 16.) tarbh “bull” 17.) suipéar “supper”
18.) Nollaig “Christmas”
Answers: 1.) f 2.) m. 3.)f. 4.) m. 5.) m. 6.) f. 7.)
m 8.) f. 9.) f. 10.) f. 11.) f. 12.) f. 13.) f. 14.) m.
November 2007
Page 23
Celtic
Cross
Words
The Irish
crosswords are
a service of an
Ireland-based
website which
provides Irish
Family Coats of
Arms by email.
You are invited
to visit
www.
bigwood.com/
heraldry
IRELAND IN CROSSWORDS ©-bigwood.com
ACROSS
1. Loud reference to English city of ‘dreaming spires’
in Mayo town known for its woollen industry. (7)
4. Con rang up the ancient Irish lake island fort.
(7)
8. After tea apparently, that is to say, secure with
cord. (3)
9. Nine at odds with natural consequence. (6)
11. Owned that one was a victim of a trick commonly.
(3)
12. Mark took the cars out. (4)
13. Lied about being unemployed. (4)
15. Quantity of land in Clare acreage. (4)
16. Reverberating mountain nymph heard in Ballymote choral production. (4)
17. No chip cooked for the Polish piano man. (6)
19. Get ball Gary, it’s over in the small Kilkenny town
where Black Thomas was captured in 1600. (11)
22. There’s nothing in the hairdressers’ becoming a
bar. (6)
23. Ale, we hear, one for the last road? (4)
24. High feature in Glencar church. (4)
27. Put together or back to back to fix firmly in the
ground. (4)
29. “ —— bean rows will I have there, a hive for the
honey bee.” Yeats. (4)
30. “What charm can soothe her melancholy What
— can wash her guilt away?” Goldsmith (3)
32. Sound head needed in West Cork village by the
River Ilen and Roaring Water Bay west of Skibbereen. (6)
33. Fun commonly describing a substance that is
neither solid nor liquid. (3)
34. Lamp burner not up much in Leinster county town
on slopes of Ballyguile hill where Captain Halpin of
the ‘Great Eastern’, which layed the transatlantic
cables, was born. (7)
35. Lose way to green in Longford village near Ballymahon where Leo Casey, the balladeer lived. (7)
DOWN
1. Fade hair (anag.) Antrim N.E. extremity of Ireland with view of Scotland, also known as Benmore.
(4,4)
2. Open box he smashed led to him hating strangers.
(9)
3. Peruse the book we hear, in a rush at the side of
the water. (4)
4. American company is initially the third I article
indefinitely. (1.1.1.)
5. Revolutionary takes a note from 3 down. (3)
6. Northern Region leaders take in frozen water, that’s
more agreeable. (5)
7. Tag ran when laundered in Donegal lake with a modern Celtic Cross where St. Colmcille was born . (6)
8. Thus force tour around Dublin’s centre of justice
which was shelled during the Civil War. (3,4,6)
10. Mine turned over at the extreme end. (3)
14. Six grin about maiden in a Megastore on the quays
in Dublin. (6)
17. All can come over to Kilkenny town where O’Carroll
and 800 men were slain in 1408 by the English. (6)
18. Curt rites will suffice as a criticism. (9)
20. Dry liner crumbles in Fermanagh village on the
upper Lough Erne near Trasna Island. (8)
21. Embargo at this time in Wexford old town, the first
corporation town built by the Normans. (6)
25. With a circular base tapering to a point in Kilcormac on ice. (5)
26. Irish third level educational institution seen initially
included in art colleges. (1.1.1.)
28. Nordic city referred to in Portnoo slogan. (4)
30. In time past in Buncrana golfing. (3)
31. “ — towns that we believe and die in; it survives, A
way of happening, a mouth.” W.H. Auden - In Memory
of W.B. Yeats. (3)
CROSSWORD SOLUTION ON PAGE 30
Irish Sayings …
Theres no need to fear the wind if your haystacks are
tied down.
A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea.
It’s better to bend than to break.
A ship often sank beside the harbour
ADVERTISEMENT
Photography by
Image Photo Service
• Weddings • Anniversaries
• Banquets • Portraits
• Reunions
• Groups • Families
• Special Occasions
(781) 843-7430
The official photographers of the Boston Irish Reporter
Boston Irish Reporter Book Review
The Mysterious Murder Of Major Dennis Mahon
Journalist Peter Duffy’s
Gritty and Absorbing Saga
Reveals Much About the
Great Famine Through the
Prism of a Notorious Killing
of a Reviled Landlord
By Peter F. Stevens
BIR Staff
The oft-used adage is that
“truth is stranger than fiction”
In the case of The Killing of Major Dennis Mahon, Peter Duffy
proves that, in literary terms,
truth is often more compelling
than fiction. A well-known
journalist and award-winning
author, Duffy delves deeply into
one of Ireland’s most fascinating murder mysteries, into the
Great Famine’s Strokestown
Massacre, and into the dark
backdrop of the Famine itself.
What emerges is a riveting
historical, emotional, social,
and human saga.
Peter Duffy is the author of
the critically acclaimed World
War II history The Bielski
Brothers. He writes for numerous publications. including The
New York Times, The Village
Voice, and Newsday.
Among Duffy’s ancestors are
people who hailed from Co.
Roscommon, and he knows the
turf of his new book well. The
Killing of Major Mahon opens
with a terse and chilling account
of the murder, which unfolds as
the Great Famine is ravaging
Ireland and Major Denis Mahon
is traveling along his estate: “In
the early evening of November
2, 1847, an Anglo-Irish landlord
and two other men were driving
a horse-drawn carriage through
his property when a single gunshot [a shotgun] was fired from
a ditch on the right side of the
road. With lead balls and slugs
piercing his torso, Major Dennis
Mahon fell backward, his hat
tumbling from his head. His
lifeless body came to rest in the
arms of the coachman, Martin
Flanagan, who had yielded his
place to his employer at the
beginning of the trip. … In the
next instant, Dr. Terence Shanley [who had grabbed the reins]
noticed a second shooter to the
left of the vehicle. The man
aimed his gun and pulled the
trigger. The weapon misfired.
The two nearly indistinct con-
New U.S.
Book Releases
Forgotten
Ellis Island
The Extraordinary
Story of America’s
Immigrant Hospital
By Lorie Conway
Forgotten Ellis Island: The Extraordinary Story of
America’s Immigrant Hospital is the first-ever history of
the Ellis Island hospital, immediately one of the world’s
largest public health hospitals when it opened in 1902.
As increasing waves of new immigrants, beckoned by
American industry’s need for labor, arrived at Ellis
Island in the late 1800s,
the strain tested the capacity of the facility’s hastily
constructed wooden dispensary. Immigrants with
typhus, cholera, diphtheria,
favus, and other virulent
diseases were shuttled to
neighboring hospitals, raising the possibility of deadly
epidemics. Federal authorities ultimately decided to
build a state-of-the-art
hospital complex on Ellis
Island that would serve as
the nation’s first line of defense against immigrantborne diseases.
The hospital was unquestionably the world’s boldest
institution of its kind – it stood ready to treat virtually
any disease found anywhere on the globe. Forgotten
Ellis Island, however, is as much about the human
stories of the immigrant patients as about the immigrant hospital itself. Conway’s account is laced with
the personal perspective of immigrants for whom their
first encounter with America was the medical screening on Ellis Island. Some of the newcomers were sent
back to their country of origin on grounds they were
too sick or weak to become productive citizens. Others,
mostly of Italian and Jewish descent, were deported
because flawed psychiatric testing identified them as
“feebleminded.” But a far larger number of those sent
to the Ellis Island hospital were nursed to health by
its dedicated medical staff, and allowed entry.
Since 1998, and with the support of three National
Endowment for the Humanities awards, the author
has been researching the archives and oral histories at
Ellis Island, the United States Public Health Service,
the National Archives, the New York Public Library,
and personal collections of former patients and medical staff. The book includes interviews with those who
passed through the hospital as children and recall their
spirators then dashed into the
darkness.”
From all corners of Mahon’s
estate, a horde of starving
Catholics stood as potential
suspects. The major had forced
some 3,000 of his 12,000 tenants
from his land, paying the passage of some aboard leaking,
barely seaworthy “coffin ships”
that were bound for America,
tossing a paltry bit of pocket
change to some to leave their
white-walled, thatch-roofed
hovels peaceably, and sending
the local sheriff to forcibly evict
all who bucked the landlord.
Mahon’s murder sent shock
waves though the entire island,
terrifying other landlords and
hardening their stances against
recalcitrant tenants. The furor
spread internationally, eliciting
responses from Queen Victoria,
the prime minister, the pope,
and both the anti-Irish press
and the defenders of the island’s
desperate, starving Catholic
peasants.
Duffy’s absorbing, skilled
narrative the captures the full
impact of the murder – assassination, in some quarters
-- and both its literal and symbolic roles in An Gorta Mor,
the potato blight that killed up
to a million and sent millions
more to America and other
part of the globe. Culling rare
primary source material that
include Major Mahon’s private
correspondence and reams of
Co. Roscommon police and court
documents, Duffy examines
not only the truth surrounding
Mahon’s murder, but also his
personal hand in the dreadful fates of thousands of his
tenants. At the same time,
Duffy weaves a gut-wrenching
account of the harshness and
desperation of life for Mahon’s
tenants. Empty bellies, no roof
above their heads, and fear of
ever-present death only slightly
less frightening as the prospect
of the coffin ships – all resonate
in the book’s pages.
In explaining the book’s
genesis, Duffy notes that he
was drawn by “the secret
knowledge that was carried by
my great-great-grandfathers,
two of whom fled Ireland as it
suffered through a multi-year
famine in the middle of the 19th
century. What did they witness? With this spur, I glanced
through a few histories of the
Great Irish Famine of 18451850 to learn what happened
in Roscommon, the mid-island
county where [Duffy’s ancestors] Michael Duffy and John
Keogh hailed from. Before long
I stumbled upon the notorious
story of Major Dennis Mahon,
an Anglo-Irish landlord from
Strokestown…
“The impulse for writing this
book was to learn more about
the Famine by investigating the
great, unsatisfactorily solved
crime of Irish history….The
conclusion from all this is obvious: The Famine is not settled
history.”
What is also obvious is that
The Killing of Major Denis Mahon is a brilliant work of fastpaced, unforgettable history.
Peter Duffy’s work is must reading for its insights into the human toll of the Famine through
a turf’s-eye view of perhaps the
most notorious and controversial
murder of that tragic era. Today, Ireland’s National Famine
Museum fittingly rises from a
corner of Major Mahon’s former
Strokestown tract.
The Killing of Major Denis Mahon, by Peter Duffy,
Harper Collins, hardcover,
ISBN 0060840501 and ISBN
13:9780060840501, 384 pages,
$25.95.
A sampling of new and recently released
books of interest to Boston Irish Americans
experience as patients. In addition, excerpts from the
oral histories of ward matrons, doctors, nurses, and
patients enliven the story of a public institution caught
in the politics of immigration. Illustrated with many
never-before-published photographs, Forgotten Ellis
Island is a powerful tribute to the best and worst of
America’s immigration history.
Lorie Conway is an independent film producer and
writer. Her work has been recognized with the Peabody, DuPont, and Cable Ace Awards. In 1993-1994,
she held a Harvard University Nieman Fellowship.
Her work on Forgotten Ellis Island was supported
by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and
includes a soon-to-be-released documentary film on
the immigrant hospital at Ellis Island. She lives with
her family in Boston.
Smithsonian Books, hardcover, ISBN 0061241962,
208 pages, $26.95.
My Lady Judge
A Novel
By Cora Harrison
The Irish author Cora Harrison unveils her first
book in a new mystery series. The novel is a tale of
murder and intrigue set in 1509 A.D. In My Lady
Judge, Harrison’s protagonist is Mara, a Brehon or
judge appointed by King Turlough Donn O’Brien to keep
order in the Burren, a stark,
otherworldly landscape of stone
hills on Ireland’s western coast.
Canny, charismatic, and fiercely
independent, Mara is known for
her efficiency in settling legal
cases and overseeing the sentencing of criminals on behalf
of the king and clan chieftains.
When her assistant Coleman
disappears, a search turns up his
body days later, with a dagger
in his neck. Mara knows that
someone, perhaps even a person
close to her, must have seen the
crime, but no one’s talking.
As Mara quickly discovers, Coleman had his hands in
a number of schemes and had been unlawfully enriching himself, creating enemies throughout the Burren.
But as Mara gathers together the strands of the case,
she finds that the crime doesn’t stop with one killing,
and that her own life is now in danger. A fascinating
and original historic mystery with a winning heroine
and an evocative setting, My Lady Judge takes readers into a society of surprisingly complex social rules
and ancient ceremonies, and sets the stage for further
Burren mysteries.
Cora Harrison is a former teacher who lives just out-
side of the Burren, in Ireland’s Co. Clare. She’s written
several tales on Irish history for young readers.
St. Martins Minotaur, hardcover, ISBN 0-312-368364, 311 pages, $24.95.
Fighting
For Dublin
The British Battle
for Dublin, 1919-1921
By William Sheehan
The British Army faced shootouts in cities, ambushes on rural
roads. It was a typical twentiethcentury conflict, as shown by the
British account of the campaign
in Dublin.
To this is added an extract
from the intelligence history of
the campaign, brief biographies
of key British commanders and
officers killed on Bloody Sunday.
Familiar names and events
described include the arrest of
Kevin Barry, the wounding of
Dan Breen, the burning of the
Custom House and arrests of de
Valera and Erskine Childers.
Dufour Editions/The Collins Press, paperback, ISBN
978-1-905172-43-6, 176 pages, $22.95.
The Last
of the Name
By Charles McGlinchey
Charles McGlinchey (1861-1944) lived his entire
life on the Irishowen Peninsula in Donegal. Never
married, he outlived his brothers and sisters, none of
whom left an heir. In the 1940s
and ‘50s, McGlinchey would visit
schoolmaster and friend Patrick
Kavanagh to talk about his life
and times. Kavanagh wrote it
down.
Thirty years later Brian Friel
edited the material to form a
book. This is an astonishingly
detailed tapestry of life in the
northwest of Ireland in a period
now beyond the grasp of living
memory.
Dufour Editions/The Collins
Press, paperback, ISBN 978-1905172-46-7, 144 pages, $22.95.
November 2007
Page 25
BRoston Irish Reporter
B
ook Briefs
I
,
P
F
eviews of books recently published in reland edited by
is tinged with envy, according to
O’Connor, as Hillary has gone
on to aspire to the presidency.
The various scandals which
Tony Blair had to overcome are
well-documented, including
the death of David Kelly, the
honors-for-cash scandal and
Cherie’s involvement with Carole Caplin, but the act that he
feels (in common with thousands
of others) was Blair’s downfall
was his alignment with George
W. Bush in the invasion of
Iraq. O’Connor’s account of
Blair’s relationship with Bush
is one of the more interesting
aspects of this book, drawing
attention as he does to the two
very different approaches to
positions of power. Far from
Blair’s “Call me Tony” apThe Darlings
proach to his subordinates, Bush
insists on protocol and has
of Downing Street
banned both swearing and
By Garry O’Connor
alcohol in his presence. The
Garry O’Connor bases his r e s u l t , w h i c h O ’ C o n n o r
examination of the ten years in has rightly pointed out, is
which the Blairs occupied 10 that President Bush has
Downing Street on their mutual the respect of his colleagues
narcissism and on each being while Blair failed to earn
a mimetic double of the other. the same degree of respect.
This mimesis, he contends, A couple who loved the publicbegan from the moment they ity attendant on their exalted
met and continued uninter- position, but a couple who also
rupted during the leadership e pressed a wish to keep their
years. The author emphasizes family life private, sent out
throughout the book the influ- many mixed signals. Cherie
ence of Cherie Blair on all the in particular pleaded privacy
decisions taken by her husband. while courting the press on
While he may, as he asserts in many occasions, and O’Connor
the preface, “confess to a certain points out the frequency with
confusion” as to where his own which she placed her children
political beliefs lie, there is no in the public eye. However in dodoubt that he grew to have ing so he is also guilty of invading
little respect for Tony Blair as a the privacy of the four children
leader, and even less for Cherie. himself, particularly in the case of
He seems to have a particular Kathryn, the only daughter; he
dislike for the prime minister’s refers to her tendency to put on
wife, constantly referring to weight and also makes much of
episodes in which she belittled her difficulties in fitting in at
her role. For some reason he school. In writing about the
feels it an important point to parents, personal comments
let us know that Cherie weighed about any of their children could
thirteen pounds at birth, surely and should have been avoided.
an irrelevant detail. He does, What emerges from “The Darhowever, give interesting back- lings of Downing Street” is a porground material for both Tony trait of a couple totally involved
and Cherie, each of them able and supportive of each other, a
to count actors among their couple who loved the limelight,
immediate forbears, and he and who fought to retain the power
frequently draws parallels with that kept them in the spottheir leadership methods and light. It also paints a picthe notion of show business. ture of a couple whose amIn this he draws an interesting bition perhaps outweighed
comparison with Bill and Hill- their ability to administer
ary Clinton, a couple on whom the power accorded to them as oche claims the Blairs modeled cupants of 10 Downing Street.
Politico’s, ISBN 978-1-84275themselves and whom they continue to admire. Although in the 202-9, 351 pages.
case of Cherie this admiration
Bestsellers in Ireland
Paperback Fiction
1. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards - Penguin
2. In My Sister’s Shoes, Sinead Moriarty - Penguin Ireland
3. Whitethorn Woods, Maeve Binchy - Orion
4. Faith, Lesley Pearse - Michael Joseph
5. Somewhere in Between, Ruth Gilligan - Hodder Headline
Ireland
Paperback Non-fiction
1. Michael O’Leary, Alan Ruddock - Penguin Ireland
2. Marley and Me, John Grogan - Hodder & Stoughton
3. Ross O’Carroll-Kelly’s Guide to South Dublin, Ross O’CarrollKelly - Penguin Ireland
4. Overheard in Dublin, Sinead Kelly and Gerard Kelly - Gill &
Macmillan
5. The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins - Black Swan
Hardback Fiction
1. In My Sister’s Shoes, Sinead Moriarty - Penguin Ireland
2. Somewhere in Between, Ruth Gilligan - Hodder Headline
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling - Bloomsbury
4. Creatures of the Earth, John McGahern - Faber & Faber
5. On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan - Jonathan Cape
Hardback Non-fiction
1.The Secret, Rhonda Byrne - Simon & Schuster
2. Irish History Minipedia, Seamus Mac Annaidh - Parragon
3.Ireland, David Lyons - Grange
4. Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home, Rachel Allen - Collins
5. Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes, Rick Stein - BBC
Books
Michael O’Leary
- A Life in Full
Flight
By Alan Ruddock
Michael O’Leary is seen by
many as a successful but brash
man, ruthless in business, scurrilous of tongue and ever on the
lookout for publicity, and Alan
Ruddock’s book confirms this perception. From an early age, having experienced periods of penury
due to his father’s lack of
success as a serial entrepreneur, O’Leary determined to
make money. And making
money the conventional way,
slowly but surely gaining his qualifications as an accountant and
rising through the ranks of the
Dublin firm Stokes Kennedy
Crowley, was not the way he
intended to go. He left the
company to open up first one
and then two more newsagents
in Dublin and quickly made a
modest fortune, while at the
same time demo strating his
undoubted business acumen. Deciding to open one of the
shops on Christmas morning, he
trebled the price of batteries and
marked up a number of boxes of
chocolates; by the end of the day
he had made 14,000 sterling.
His introduction to the working world of Tony Ryan was as
a behind-the-scenes financial
manager, and he would remain
in the background for a number
of years, even when he began to
work with Ryan’s fledgling airline. But it was when he stepped
in to turn the ailing low-fares
airline to profit that he began to
come to public notice, and this
was also the point at which his
major battles with Aer Lingus,
the government, and the unions
began. Ruddock’s description of
the deals O’Leary managed to finalize, the confro tations with his
opponents, and, in particular,
his ongoing feud with the then
Minister for Transport Mary
O’Rourke, add life to a narrative
that at times becomes bogged
down in statistics of profits,
passenger numbers, and relative
costs of aircraft. The picture
that emerges is one of a totally
focused businessman who has
no time for the niceties of life,
whose sole goal is to be the best
at what he does, but who does
appear to have the good of his
country at heart.
Of his private life there is
little mention, reflecting the
care O’Leary has taken to keep
his public and private personas
entirely separate. We hear of
his first attempt up the aisle,
and with slightly more detail
of his eventual marriage and
the birth of his son, and this
secrecy is in strong contrast to
the extrovert who has variously
dressed up as a highwayman
and as Santa Claus to put his
message across to the media. If
ever a company became concentrated in the personality of one
man it is Ryanair, but Michael
O’Leary insists that he is not
indispensable and that there is a
auline
errie
solid layer of management ready
and able to take over. Whatever
the future for Ryanair, Michael
O’Leary, for all his abrasiveness,
opportunism, and questionable
taste, will be remembered by
many as the man who brought
air travel within the reach of the
ordinary citizen.
Penguin Ireland, ISBN 978-1844-88055-3, 440 pages.
Do You Want
What I Want?
By Denise Deegan
As with Deegan’s previous
novel, “Love Came Tumbling”,
there is an unevenness in the
structure of this story that
gives a rather glib and obvious introduction to both the
main characters and the main
premise, but in this instance the
narrative gathers pace towards
the conclusion, giving a more
satisfactory reading experience. The couple at the center
of the story, Louise and Rory,
typify many of Ireland’s young
couples; both have excellent
jobs, and neither is in a hurry
to make a commitment to either
marriage or children. A lifechanging experience for Rory
turns their relationship on its
head and indirectly leads to a
series of events which culminate
in both eventually realizing
their respective aims. Deegan
has once again focused on the
difficulties of family relation-
ships, with even one apparently
stable and happy background
harboring problems that continue into adulthood; through
the characters of Rory, Siofra,
and Owen she portrays in an
interesting and convincing manner the way in which the family
dynamic, once set, tends to continue way beyond childhood. Other
family situations are explored:
the one-parent family, the separated couple, and the place of
a foster-child in the extended
family. But the dominant theme
is the desire, or otherwise, to
have a child of one’s own and,
as is often the case, the one who
wants no further family becomes
pregnant while the person with
an overwhelming desire for a
child seems unable to fulfill the
dream. Throw in abortion and
pregnancy by means of sperm
donation and the emphasis on
the out-of-synch ticking of biological clocks is complete.
Narrating the novel entirely
through the present tense is
not totally successful, but where
it does succeed is in the account of
the birth of Grace; extremely premature and leaving her mother
fighting for her life, the tiny
newborn somehow validates
and gives dignity to all that has
gone before.
Penguin Ireland, ISBN 978-1844-88095-9, 358 pages.
Anzacs and Ireland
By Jeff Kildea
Kildea’s account of the Anzacs
(Australia and New Zealand
Army Corps) during World War
I looks at their activities both
on the field of battle where they
were o ten fighting alongside
Irish battalions, and on leave. For many of the soldiers, Ireland
was the preferred place in which
to spend their leave, since it was
the farthest point from the fighting they could reach in the time
available to them. Of course,
many of the soldiers from
Australia and New Zealand
had connections with Ireland, some of them being Irish
born and others of Irish parentage. Kildea mentions a number
of specific cases of Irishmen
fighting with the Anzacs who
were subsequently awarded
medals for bravery. One of these
was Martin O’Meara from County Tipperary, who was awarded
the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery; he had devoted
himself to retrieving wounded
soldiers from no-man’s-land
despite severe shelling. There
is, however, something of a
shadow cast on the extent of
his bravery when the author
reveals that O’Meara was confined to a mental institution on
his return to Australia, being
described as both homicidal and
suicidal.
A significant portion of the
book is devoted to the Dardanelles engagements, with
Gallipoli the pivotal battle for
Australians to this day. The
author takes pains to include
the part played by the Irish
battalions in this campaign, and
makes the point that for both
Ireland and Australia it became
an important reference point in
the formation of their respective
nations. For the Australians it
was an affirming moment of nationhood, while for many of the
Irish who had supported the idea
of sending soldiers to the conflict,
it was the point at which they
began to doubt the rightness
of their decision. The location
of the narrative passes briefly
through London and comes to
rest in Ireland, where some
Anzac soldiers on leave found
themselves, often reluctantly,
being pressed into service
against the rebellious Irish
during the Easter Rising. However, many of them also
enjoyed being tourists in the
country, and traveled to spots
which are still on today’s tourist
map - Killarney, Blarney Castle,
and the Giant’s Causeway are
among the places visited by the
soldiers who had both the time
and the money. For some,
however, Ireland became a last
resting place; Private John
Joseph Cahill died in England after being wounded in
France and after his death his
uncle brought his body home to
be interred in the churchyard
in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork. Appendices detailing the names
of Australian soldiers on Irish
war memorials, and First
World War graves of Australian
soldiers in Ireland, together
(Continued on next page)
BRoston Irish Reporter
B
ook Briefs
I
,
P
F
eviews of books recently published in reland edited by
with notes on each chapter and a number of apt
illustrations, give an unusual slant on Ireland’s
part as provider of both
fighting men and a place
of refuge during the First
World War.
Cork University
Press, ISBN 978-185918-422-6, 295 pages.
I Never Fancied
Him Anyway
By Claudia Carroll
A total suspension of
disbelief is necessary for
the reading of this novel
unless, that is, you are
a firm believer in psychics. For that is the gift
bestowed on Cassandra,
who has been having what
AUTO BODY REPAIRS
(617) 825-1760
(617) 825-2594
FAX (617) 825-7937
Free Pick-Up & Delivery Service
150 Centre Street
Dorchester, MA 02124
she calls “flashes” since
she was a small child and
who has embarked on both
a journalistic and a television career as the novel
opens. Having overcome
that hurdle, however,
the reader will be entertained by the three main,
and totally different,
characters. There is
Cassandra herself, often receiving unwe come
knowledge of what will
befall people, the fabulously wealthy Charlene
who seems to have much
in common with the
character of Rachel from
“Friends,” and the ecologically-aware Jo, who
provides the grounding for
her two friends. Added to
the trio is Marc with a C,
the gay man who acts as
mediator when the friends
fall out. And they do, of
course, over men, and it
is the relationships begun
and ended, predicted and
nurtured, that form the
basis for Claudia Carroll’s
novel. It provides no great
insights, the characters
are a little too stereotyped
to be totally believable,
but the author maintains
a lightness of tone that
makes for a satisfying
read.
Bantam Press, ISBN
978-0-593-05556-4.
The Mayo
Evictions
of 1860
By Gerard Moran
Gerard Moran of the
Department of History in
NUI, Galway, has written
an account of events in
Partry, Co. Mayo in the
mid-nineteenth century
that transformed Father
Patrick Lavelle from a
“rather wayward parish
administrator into one
of the most militant and
radical members of the
Roman Catholic Church.”
What emerged in the years
after the Famine was a
struggle for the control
of the people between the
two main churches, with
a prominent part being
played by the evangelical Irish Church Mis-
“Serving Greater Boston since 1971”
1060 N. MaiN St., RaNdolph, Ma 02368
phone: 781-961-1692
fax: 781-986-8004
www.miltonmonument.com
O
C
R
E
T
I
I
T
E
H
A
D
D
O
E
A
N
I
X F
N
A
R
O
I
H
P
P
C
E
H
A
O
D
B
O
A
L
C
N
N
N
I
H
W
I
C
L
Y
A
O
R
O
E
K
L
P
I
A
O
C
A
G
A
O
R
T
E
A
N
S
G
E
I
O
R
C
A
N
R
B
N
T
D
R
E
I
E
C
R
O
T
T
Y
C
H
R
T
A
R
T
G
A
S
L
G O
U
L
R
E
L
I
E
South Shore Plaza
250 Granite Street
Braintree, MA
781-848-8609
Nashua Mall
4 Belliveau Road
Nashua, NH
603-598-5240
1898 Centre Street
W. Roxbury, MA
617-323-4644
The Marketplace
80 Mall Road
Burlington, MA
781-272-1044
R
R
S
O W
S
Y
U
R
N
I
E
C
L
A N
E
U
N
I
O
H
L
S
O
L
A
B
R
D
F
C
E
A
R
errie
by the late Cardinal O Fiaich as “the Patriot Priest
of Partry.”
Nonesuch Publishing,
ISBN 978-1-84588-581-6,
142 pages.
Selling Your
Home
By Con Nagle
sions Society. Their
practice of ensuring that
the children of their tenants attended their Protestant schools, on pain of
eviction, was vigorously
opposed by both Lavelle
and Archbishop McHale
of Tuam. The need for
control, particularly during a time of perceived
lawlessness in the area,
led to Bishop Plunket
evicting a number of his
tenants for what could be
seen as spurious and personal reasons, which invited condemnation from
Britain and the United
States as well as within
Ireland.
The author’s account
of the attempts of the
evangelists to encourage
“jumpers,” a phase and a
phrase with which many
are familiar to describe
those who turned from Catholicism to embrace the
Church of Ireland, introduces the less well-known
soubriquet, the Second
Reformation. But the
main thrust of this short
history is the character of
Patrick Lavelle, described
Con Nagle is himself
an estate agent but, to
give him his due, he does
devote some of this book to
the subject of the private
sale of a house. However
most of it stresses the role
of the estate agent and the
importance of selecting
the right agent for the job.
From this point he takes
the vendor step by step
through the process, including marketing the
property (and the importance of the For Sale
sign), and how to prepare
it for viewing. Presuming
that the marketing is being carried out by the vendor, the author gives lists
of phrases commonly used
by estate agents to describe properties both
inside and out. The legal
steps that need to be
taken, the actual process
of either a private sale or
an auction, and the problems that may arise are
also covered, and a list of
the terms involved in the
sales process is a particularly useful addition. From his own years
as an estate agent Con
Nagle also shares some
of his own experiences,
which help to lighten
what might otherwise
have been a rather dry
narrative.
O’Brien Press, ISBN
978-1-84717-037-8, 207
pages.
Enright captures
Man Booker Prize
for ‘The Gathering’
PUZZLE SOLUTION FROM PAGE 26
F
auline
N
SAVE $$$ ON YOUR HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE!
YOU MAY QUALIFY FOR UP TO A 33% DISCOUNT
JUDITH M. FLYNN
Insurance Agency, Inc.
Call me for a quote today!
Judie Flynn • 617-296-0350
1152 Washington Street, Dorchester Lower Mills
DUBLIN -- Anne Enright has been named the
winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize for her
novel “The Gathering.” The Dublin-born author
had been considered an outsider for the 50,000
sterling award since the shortlist was announced
but the judges found her description of a somewhat
dysfunctional grieving Irish family to be “a very
powerful, uncomfortable and even at times angry book.” The author herself described the book
as “the intellectual equivalent of a Hollywood
weepie.”
In offering her congratulations, President Mary
McAleese said, “This is a most deserved affirmation of the talents of Anne Enright, an imaginative and insightful writer who continues the long
tradition of literary richness which flows from Ireland.”
Office: 508-432-8600, x30
Fax: 508-432-8336
Direct: 508-776-7416
Email: [email protected]
Toll Free: 888-432-8607
Website: JTConway.com
JACK CONWAY
Realtor
SALES RENTALS APPRAISALS • 468 Main Street, Harwich Port, MA 02646
November 2007
Page 27
Carty on Sports
Staunton No Longer the Man
FAI Set to Ax
Dundalk Native
After Short Term
By Ken Carty
Special to the BIR
The executioner has
been waiting in Dublin
for the past two months
and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI),
it appears, is ready to
mercifully end the Steve
Staunton experiment.
The quiet Dundalk man,
who played with such
passion and conviction
for his country, has been
unable to get the most
out of his current caste of
wannabes, having gone
6-5-6 since his appointment in January 2006.
The Green’s recent 1-1
draw with 68th-ranked
Cyprus in late October before a disinterested crowd
at Croke Park appears
to have been the final
straw for FAI President
John Delaney and rest
of the association’s board
of directors, who are now
looking at forking over
some $2 million to buy
out the final two years
of Staunton’s contract.
Staunton, who, when
prompted, said he would
not walk away from his
post, is understood to
feel let down by Delaney,
claiming the FAI supreme
promised him upon his appointment that he would
stand by him even if the
European Championship
campaign had ended disappointingly. However,
following a disjointed
qualifying campaign, in
which Ireland has posted
a mark of 4-4-3 with
one game to go (Nov. 17
at Wales), the FAI decided enough is enough.
The hard part is now beginning for Delaney & Co.
Given the fixture congestion that exists in Europe
today, players regularly
pass up the opportunity to
represent their countries.
What Ireland needs now is
a strong-willed character,
someone out of the Jack
Charlton or Roy Keane
mold, to coax and cajole a
disaffected cast of players
- not to mention the Irish
sporting public - into believing in the cause. Easier
said than done.
GAA trying to avoid
players strike -- The FAI
isn’t the only organization
dealing with personnel issues. Top officials from the
Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and members
of the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) have been
meeting to try to avert a
players’ strike in 2008.
Following various country
meetings, it now looks
certain that the executive
committee of the players’
association will propose
strike action in the New
Year unless the two sides
can come to an agreement
on how to spend $10 million in government grants.
GAA president Nick Brennan has remained steadfast over the association’s
stance that it cannot
directly distribute the
grants, as proposed by
Bertie Ahern‘s government. He does, however,
reiterate that the GAA is
supportive of players being given grants directly
by the Irish government,
which instead wants to
pay the money to the GAA
as part additional infrastructural funding with
the GAA re-distributing
the money to the players.
“We’ve negotiated, we’ve
discussed, we’ve bent over
backwards. We’ve been
amenable, we’ve acquiesced, we’ve gone around
the houses on this particular issue and yet nothing
has been implemented,”
said GPA chief executive
Dessie Farrell. “The players have just said ‘enough
is enough.’ In all likelihood we will be conducting
a ballot and recommending, based on the feedback
from players, that strike
action is taken. We hope
it won’t come to that but
in the event that everyone
remains in an entrenched
position, the players feel
that they’re left with
no other alternative.”
Good news, bad news for
Irish boxers -- There was
plus and minus news to
report for Irish boxers last
month.
First the down: Heavyweight Kevin McBride
suffered a setback in his
bid for the world heavyweight title when he was
stopped in the sixth round
by Polish veteran Andrew
Golota at Madison Square
Garden in New York on
October 6. Monaghan
native McBride, 34, who
defeated Mike Tyson over
two years ago, rocked
39-year-old Golota in the
first round, but the Pole
survived the onslaught.
Golota switched to southpaw in the sixth, and left
McBride (34-6-1) in all
sorts of trouble before
the fight was stopped
two minutes and 42 seconds into the final round.
McBride, a former Irish
Olympian, had been hoping to fend off the challenge of Golota to claim
the IBF North American
heavyweight title and position himself for an eventual shot at a world title.
The up: Derryman John
Duddy (22-0-0) continued
his march toward a world
title fight with holder
Kelly Pavlik following
a second-round rout of
overmatched Prince Arron in Dublin on October
21. Duddy is scheduled
to fight again in Belfast
on December 8, inching
him closer to a meeting
early next year with
the highly rated American, who was recently
crowned WBC and WBO
middleweight champion.
The Notebook: At the
quarter-pole mark in
Scotland, Celtic and their
Glasgow archrivals Rangers are tied for first place
in the Scottish Premier
League with identical
7-2-1 records. The Bhoys
recorded a historic 2-1
Champions League win
over defending champions
AC Milan at Celtic Park
back on October 3 but the
game ended on a sour note
when Milan keeper Dida
was set upon by an idiotic
Celtic fan who invaded
the pitch and proceeded
to tap the Brazilian on
the shoulder before running back into the stands.
Following the confrontation, Dida comically
slumped to the ground
and needed to be removed
on a stretcher. UEFA,
however, showed little
mercy to the play-acting
and suspended the AC
Milan keeper two games
for unsportsmanship. For
their part, Celtic were
fined $50,000. … Down
south, Manchester United
and Liverpool appear to
be getting their respective acts together. ManU
thumped Aston Villa 4-1
on October 20, to move into
second place in the English
Premier League with a
mark of 7-2-1. Right behind
the Red Devils sit Liverpool with seven wins and
four draws in 11 games.
In preparation for their
USA Rugby Super League
play in the spring, the
Boston Irish Wolfhounds
Rugby Club competed in
the Stewart Shield competition this fall, where
they registered a 4-0 mark
with wins over the New
York Athletic Club, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh,
Potomac, and Old BlueNew York City. … In
the Massachusetts State
Soccer League’s Second
Division-South, Brightonbased Kinvara is making
a run for first place with
a 10-5-1 record with a few
games remaining. Visit
mssleague.net for more
information.
Review: Ánuna
at Berklee Center
featured finely tuned close intervals that sometimes
clashed intentionally, creating an ethereal sound that
transformed the Performance Center into a living,
breathing cave hidden 100 feet beneath the Burren.
Another piece that is as gorgeous live as on the recording
is Miriam Blennerhassett’s rich and mature contralto
solo on “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls.” Her singing
was the highlight of the entire evening.
The concert ended with clusters of the audience on
its feet in a standing ovation, and the group finished
up with two pieces—the well-known Irish chanted song
“Fionnghuala,” followed by John Denver’s “Annie’s
Song.” The latter was a bit baffling—not because of its
inclusion, for as they said in the DVD, the song is an
American anthem—but because it did not showcase
the group’s vocal power. If arranged with the careful
harmonies that first put Anúna on the map with Riverdance, it could be simply showstopping. Instead, it was
a comparatively uncomplex arrangement, with twins
Michael and John and singing duet (Michael warned
the audience that he was suffering with a chest infection that hampered his voice)—backed by the “oohs”
and “aahs” of the full chorus.
In comparison to the live performance, the recording and DVD have far more polish, more reverb, more
carefully edited banter. Live in performance, Anúna
was an a cappella show except for interludes and accompaniment from concert harpist Chilali Hugo and
violinist and Pam Anderson-lookalike Linda (Lampenius) Brava.
Overall, the elements that didn’t seem to hang
together well live were a non-issue with the recording, which felt complete and cohesive. The recording
is backed with a larger complement of instruments
that give it a full and enjoyable sound. While the flow
from song to song in the live show felt just a little
stumbling at times, no one could fault the performers or the performances; Anúna’s singers singers are
excellent and maintain an easy, likeable manner that
warms the venue instantly. But, overall the live show
might do better to entertain its intended audience if
more stage effects were employed to visually excite
the presentation.
The Massachusetts Office of International Trade & Investment (MOITI) joined with Enterprise Ireland,
Invest Northern Ireland and the Consulate General of Ireland to host a reception October 18 at the
UMass Club in Boston. Pictured are (l-r): Patrick J Bench, Comm. of Mass.; Gary Hanley, Invest Northern Ireland; Consul Generaal of Ireland David Barry; Congressman Richard Neal; Consul General of
England Dr. Phil Budden; Jon Mahoney, Director of Life Sciences, Comm., of Mass; and Sean McEllin,
Enterprise Ireland (Harry Brett photo.)
Ireland Called ‘Friendliest’ Country
According to the new
edition of Lonely Planet
Bluelist 2008, Ireland is
the world’s “friendliest”
country, the annual title
in which the publishers
attempt to capture the
best in travel for the coming year.
Among the reasons
given for placing Ireland
at the top of the list of
Friendliest Countries is
its “deliciously dark sense
of humor” and “welcoming
attitude toward strangers.” There is also praise
for “that famous ability of
the Irish to find craic in
boom or bust times.”
Ireland is followed by
the United States, then
Malawi, with Scotland
making it onto the list at
No. 9.
Your family’s future
is our legacy
$300,000 COVERAGE
One hundred years ago, local attorney and future Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
founded SBLI as a way to offer families high-quality life insurance at a low cost.
As generations of families can attest, SBLI’s mission remains the same today.
Give your family peace of mind for tomorrow
at a cost that you can afford today.
For a free no-obligation quote call
1-888-GET-SBLI
www.sbli.com
Ext. 5804
20-Year Level Term Policy, Preferred Plus Rates*
Guaranteed level monthly premiums, fixed at age of issue
Age 35†
Age 40†
Age 45†
Age 50†
$14.88
$20.10
$34.71
$52.20
* Based on current estimates, approximately 30% of applicants are likely to qualify for
Preferred Plus non-nicotine rates.
† Age nearest birthday
Monthly premiums available by EFTS only. Some conditions may apply. Policy Forms B-36,
B-46 series.
SBLI and The No Nonsense Life Insurance Company are registered
trademarks of The Savings Bank Life Insurance Company of Massachusetts,
Woburn, MA. © 2007. All rights reserved.
November 2007
“Mrs. O’Brien”
by Vincent Crotty
229 Lincoln Street (Rt. 3A) Hingham, Massachusetts, 02043
800-752-9389
Hours: Tues. - Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., Sunday noon - 5:00 pm
www.aisling-gallery.com
Page 29

Hanging Out With The Dropkick Murphys

Transcription

Similar documents

MJs Westin-kit-2011

Digital Marketing Trends 2015 - Dundalk

MCTEGGART IRISH DANCERS Saturday, July 28

Flyer of this event

One Sheet - CMI Entertainment

MPH Jarveys Irish Night web

Grand Canal Theatre - Theatre Forum Ireland

An Allegory - Crawford Art Gallery

dinner - Oliver St. John Gogarty

The Other Paper - Historic Dublin Restaurants