Our annual educational program is always a special event, and joining us this year will be the distinguished scholar, Professor Seamus Metress from the University of Toledo. And likely joining him will be his equally distinguished spouse, Professor Emeritus Eileen Metress.  Returning for outstanding dinner prelude music are our fellow members, Britta and Roy Portenga.

     Seamus Metress was born in 1933 and received his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame University.  He earned his PhD in Anthropology from Indiana University.  He has written more than thirty books (!), many of them in the area of Irish history and anthropology.  He is a respected expert on the Great Hunger, better known to us as The Famine, and has been widely published on that period. He is a delightful speaker.  We are extremely fortunate to have him travel to Muskegon for our club.

       Several members of the Grand Rapids Irish Heritage Society are traveling here to join us for this great program. Please give our GR friends a warm welcome!

      Last year Seamus Metress co-authored with his wife Eileen, the book The Irish in Michigan, published by Michigan State University.  You can purchase the book via Barnes and Noble, MSU, or Amazon (about $11), and have it signed at our event.  Don’t  miss this  dinner and lecture by Dr. Metress!  No reservations required.  Just bring yourself and some friends to this terrific educational opportunity!

Last Events

     On Sunday, January 27, we filled the atrium area of the Muskegon Harbor Holiday Inn with members and friends at our annual pub party to kick off our new year.  We were first entertained by our fellow members, Kevin Donovan and David McIntire.  They were followed by our headliner band, Kennedy’s Kitchen, from South Bend. John Kennedy, who is a member of our club, and his compatriots gave us a performance equal to the best we have heard, and their wide reputation of excellence is well-merited.  John’s anecdotes of Ireland and his family’s history mixed in well, too. Thank you one and all!

     On Saturday, March 15, we gathered at noon in front of the L.C. Walker Arena for our 35th annual raising of the Irish flag in Muskegon as part of our community’s St. Patrick’s Day observance.  David McIntire provided vocals, and Mona Shores fiddlers Bridgette Walsh and Hannah Loss performed Celtic music selections.  John McGarry capped off the ceremony with a reading.  Afterward, several lined up for the parade, lead by the Great Saint himself, to Racquets, for rest before the next event that day, the Irish Fest.  Many thanks to all who participated in our flag raising!

     On Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15, the Michigan Irish Music Festival sponsored another outstanding community party for St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish Fest.  The band Fonn Mor and the Heinzman School of Irish Dance, both well known to us,  attracted a full house to the new location at the Watermark Center.  Several of our members contributed their hard work and time to this event, and all who made this happen deserve our deep appreciation.  By the way, passes for this year’s Michigan Irish Music Festival are on sale now.  Find out where to buy them and see the festival line-up at www.michiganirish.org.

Upcoming Event

     On Thursday, August 21, we will be returning to the Mona Lake Boating Club for our summer barbecue and Green Elephant Sale.  More details will be in the next newsletter and always remember to check www.muskegonirishamerican.com.

R.I.P.

     Since our last newsletter our club has lost four long-time members who have passed on to their eternal reward:  Bob Sibley, Betty Crimmins, Ed Lynch, and Ed Funk.  Bob was a former member of our Board, and Ed was the first recipient of our Irish Person of the Year Award in 1999.  Let us keep these friends and their families in our hearts and in our prayers.

      From friends in Ireland our member Denny Delaney recently learned of the death in January of Fr. John O’Brien.  Fr. O’Brien had a very important impact upon our club in the 1970’s and 80’s, during our formative years.

     Fr. O’Brien was born in 1931, and was raised as the oldest of four children in Kilrush, County Clare. He came from a musical family, and at a young age his talents was apparent. When he was seven, he presented his first public solo piano performance at the St. Patrick’s Day concert in Kilrush. Eventually, he became known both as a  fine conductor and premier organist. 

     Answering his vocation to the priesthood, in 1956 he was ordained to serve in the Archdiocese of Dublin.  Throughout his priesthood Fr. O’Brien incorporated his gift of music into his ministry.  Wherever he was assigned, he personally became involved in directing music programs.  His choirs performed concerts in Ireland’s best known venues, and on Irish radio and television.  He also conducted operas and other musical events in Dublin.

     One of Fr. O’Brien’s longest assignments was at Dublin’s oldest parish, St. James. (Also the parish where the Guinness Brewery is located at St. James Gate.)  While there Fr. O’Brien transformed the choir into one of Ireland’s top musical attractions, and its reputation grew far and wide.  And that is where the Muskegon connection comes in.  In the1970’s and the early 1980’s, the 90 member St. James Choir gave concert tours in the United States, including performances in Muskegon.  In those days our young club was searching for its identity, and we hosted the choir and their orchestra here for those concerts.  We housed the Irish performers in our homes, and some of us formed life-long friendships with them.  Those experiences played an important role in coalescing our membership around our effort to maintain a close relationship with the Irish themselves, and we still do so today by bringing to our community the best we can find in real Irish entertainment and cultural education.  Fr. O’Brien was a great priest and a grand man, and he leaves a legacy of joy to all who knew him.  To learn more can you read his full life story at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr._John_O%27Brien.

Dues Notice

     If you receive with this newsletter a dues notice, that means you have not yet paid your 2008 dues of only $15 per family, still the best bargain around!  Your dues are critical to supporting our club’s activities and the newsletter, so please submit them promptly if you receive a dues statement now.  Our membership now stands at about 170, a record!  Thank you!

New Irish Counsel General in Chicago

     On a recent visit to Chicago, Neil Mullally paid a courtesy call upon the Counsel General of Ireland, Martin Rouine, who assumed his new post last fall.  Mr. Rouine has worked for the Foreign Affairs Department of Ireland for his entire employment career.  Most recently, he was in charge of re-vamping the Irish passport to protect against its forgery and fraudulent use. To his credit, the high tech Irish passport is now one of the most secure in the world, and is one of the keys to enforcing Ireland’s strict immigration laws.  Mr. Rouine began his diplomatic career as a Vice-Consul in the New York Consulate, and is now completing his career back in the USA as Counsel General in the Chicago Consulate.  Mr. Rouine’s office services most of the states between the East and West Coasts, so he and his staff are very busy.  We will be making plans for him to visit us soon.

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Croagh Patrick

       A St. Patrick’s Day news article from Ireland related the helicopter evacuation of an injured young woman climber on Ireland’s highest mountain, Croagh Patrick. Croagh (meaning “cone shaped” ) Patrick rises 765 meters or 2,210 feet on the northwest Atlantic coast of Ireland near the city of Westport. To some it may not seem like a high mountain, but those who climb it disagree.

       Since pre-Christian times Croagh Patrick was a sacred mountain, and around 440 AD St. Patrick chose its summit to spend forty days fasting as he began his evangelization of Ireland.  His fasting ended near the last Sunday of July, and since then on that Sunday, called “Reek Sunday,” thousands of pilgrims climb the mountain to reach the top, where there is small chapel in his honor.  About 25 - 30,000 people climb it that day.  Also, on St. Patrick’s Day, many thousands make the climb.  Some faithful climbers make the trek barefoot as a form of penance and sacrifice.

      The climb has two distinct parts.  The lower section is an easy uphill walk to the base of the cone.  The ascent up the cone is very steep,  and the path is over loose shale rocks and gravel.  It is this section that many are surprised by, and a sturdy walking stick and gripping soled shoes are great aids.  In this area, the descent is more precarious than the ascent.  It takes 2 - 3 hours to make the climb, and about 1-2 hours to descend.  The effort is worth it, but be prepared!