Summer 2007

Next Event

Summer Barbecue

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Mona Lake Boating Club – 6:15 pm

Entertainment by the Mona Shores Fiddlers

Photo by Hume Photography

Question: What do you call a group of young, exciting, enthusiastic, and skilled fiddle players? Answer: The Mona Shores Fiddlers! Yes, it’s time for our yearly summer barbecue picnic on the shores of Mona Lake, and our entertainment will be furnished by the Mona Shores Fiddlers!  And what a deal – only $13.50 per person for your choice of a steak or chicken dinner!  A cash bar will be available.  And remember, if it rains we are still well sheltered under the picnic pavilion’s roof. Please PLAN AHEAD and make a proper reservation for this popular event.  Without a reservation, you may not get a choice or any dinner at all.  Thank you for showing your consideration for our fellow members by making your reservation!  We will also be holding our second annual Irish CD/DVD/BOOK/TAPE SALE.  See details inside.  See you there!

 Last Events    

On May 15 about fifty of us gathered at the House of Chan for our annual education program.  Our presenter was Aedin Clements, the Librarian of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame.  Aedin spoke on the history and usage of the Irish language, and she illustrated her talk with multimedia projected pictures.  She attended Irish-speaking schools during much of her education, and she explained that learning, speaking, and studying Irish has been a great joy for her.  The Irish language had been in decline in the past because many in Ireland considered it the language of the lower classes, but it has seen a resurgence in the past fifty years.  Now several authors are publishing in Irish in all genres of literature.  Our thanks to Aedin and her husband Paul, who accompanied her.  Also, our thanks to David McIntire for providing the sound system.

On June 2 several of us volunteered and/or attended the Seamus Kennedy performance at Elks Park.  Many thanks to the Music Festival for sponsoring this event!

 Irish Green Elephant Sale Returns

     At our barbecue picnic on Tuesday, August 21, at the Mona Lake Boating Club, impresario John McFadden will once again chair our second annual Irish book/cd/dvd/tape/magazine/knicknack sale, but that is just too cumbersome to write and pronounce, so henceforth this will be called our annual Green Elephant Sale.  The idea is for us to clean out those closets, book shelves, shoe boxes, etc., of any Irish related items we want to part with, and bring those items to the picnic.  John will then price them and will offer them for sale to the attendees, and the sale proceeds go to support our activities.  Last year this sale was a success, and we hope it will be even better this year!  Remember, the key is to be ruthless in getting rid of old stuff – if hasn’t been looked at, worn, read, listened too, etc., within a year, it ain’t gonna happen and it’s time to move it out!  The only danger is that some of us leave the sale with more than we brought!  Thanks for your donations and participation!

Upcoming November Irish

Movie

      Our November Irish movie at the Muskegon Museum of Art will be on Tuesday,  November 6.  We plan on showing the grand prize winner of the Cannes Film Festival this year, The Wind that Shakes the Barley.  Directed by the legendary Ken Loach, this film takes place in Ireland during the period around 1920, and tells the history of the Irish Civil War following the Black and Tans fighting.  More details to follow later!

Michigan Irish Musical Festival Sept. 14 – 17 !

Club Volunteers Needed!

     Wow, look below at the headline acts for this year’s festival!  This line-up is a virtual who’s who of the hottest Irish music groups now performing worldwide.  Normally you would have to go to the huge big city festivals to hear this caliber of talent.

      Our club will have an official presence at this year’s festival.  We will have our own display and will be helping in the cultural tent area.  Specific plans are in the works and we will need volunteers on Saturday and Sunday to meet our commitment.  If you serve as a volunteer, you will receive a free pass to the festival for the day that you volunteer.

      On Saturday the shifts will be from 10 – Noon, Noon – 2, 2 -  4, 4 – 6, and 6- 8.  On Sunday the shifts will be from Noon – 2, 2 – 4, and 4 – 6.   Be sure to indicate the day and time you wish to volunteer.  This is great for our club and the festival.  Please help!

 Grada

Grada, from Dublin and Galway, consists of five musicians who have drawn on their wide range of influences to produce a mature sound. Their unique slant on traditional Irish music has been described as having pulsating energy and vibe.

Old Blind Dogs

Scotland’s favorite live act, Old Blind Dogs is a quintet of vital young lads with a wonderful, infectious, Celtic musicality: Jonny Hardie on fiddle, guitar and vocals; Jim Malcolm on lead vocals, guitar and harmonica; Rory Campbell on pipes, pennywhistles and vocals; Aaron Jones on five-string electric bass, bazouki and vocals; and Fraser Stone on hand percussion and drums.

The Troubles Officially End  

Martin McGuinness, the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, Peter Hain
and Ian Paisley talk in the first minister's office of the Northern Ireland assembly.

     After generations of countless prayers and unspeakable bloodshed, last May 8 saw in Northern Ireland an event which not long ago seemed impossible to all but a few visionaries – the establishment of a shared power government.  Who could have ever predicted that the most intractable of all Unionists, Ian Paisley, and one of the most radical Sinn Fein leaders, Martin McGuiness, would one day sit together to govern Northern Ireland in peace?  This achievement is of monumental historic importance for Ireland, and it did not receive in our media the full coverage it should have. There are simply too many Irish and foreign leaders whose influence must be acknowledged, but from the American side of the Atlantic there are two Irish-Americans: former President William Clinton and Sen. Edward Kennedy.  No matter what our views are about them as to other issues, they were tireless in promoting peace in Ireland, and their important contributions are recognized by all the parties.  Sen. Kennedy was a special guest at the installation of the new government.  To read an excellent account of this great day, go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2074613,00.html.  As this is being written, British troops are leaving Northern Ireland after thirty-eight years!

Irish Church Moves St. Pat’s Day Observance in 2008

     For the first time since 1913, in 2008 the March 17 Catholic feast day of St. Patrick falls during Holy Week, on Monday. Under church law, all feast days must yield to Holy Week and Easter.  What to do?  The Irish Bishops’ Conference wrote to the Office of Divine Worship and Sacraments at the Vatican, and received permission to move the official religious observance of the feast day to the preceding Saturday, March 15.  This change will not affect the civil holiday celebrations on March 17, which bring about a million visitors into Ireland.  This date conflict will not occur again until 2160.

Women in Today’s Ireland

     Since the late 1980’s, the number of women in Ireland working outside the home has more than doubled, up 116%.  Compared to past history, Irish women are marrying and having children at later ages.  The average age of an Irish mother giving birth is 30 years and seven months, the highest age in the European Union.  In the 1970’s the average Irish birth rate was four children per mother, now it is two children per mother.

Riverdance Phenomenon Keeps on Rolling

     Some recent stats published about Riverdance, now in its 13^th year: Over 9,000 performances; live audiences more than 19.35 million in 32 countries; global TV audiences more than 1.75 billion; 1,300 dancers; 13,000 pairs dance shoes used; 10,000 costumes worn; 50,000 gallons Gatorade consumed; 35,000 boxes tissues used; 30 marriages among company members; 5 million lbs. of dry ice used on stage in special effects; 50,000 lbs. of chocolate consumed for energy.  What a show!

 R.I.P: Dermot O’Brien 1933 – 2007

     Often when a touring entertainer passes through Muskegon, we are not fully aware of his/her history, especially when the entertainer is not the main “headliner.”  Such is the case with Dermot O’Brien, who appeared in Muskegon as part of the Tony Kenny show on two occasions. Some of us here were able to spend some time with Dermot, who was a hail fellow well met, and a delightful raconteur of stories. He died on May 22, 2007, after a long battle with lung cancer, at his beloved home in Ardee, County Louth, Ireland. Dermot had an especially full life because he had two stellar careers, one as an athlete, and one as Ireland’s premier accordion player for the past forty plus years.

       Dermot was born in Ardee in 1933.  As a young lad he developed interests both in music and in football (what we call soccer).

       His father, Paddy O’Brien, was the band master of the Ardee Brass and Reed Band, and at a young age Dermot was playing trombone in the band.  However, Sr. Malachy at the local Convent of Mercy played a mean accordion, and instructed Dermot in the instrument that would make him an international virtuoso – the piano accordion.  As he grew up he was a regular prize-winner in Irish music competitions.

        At the same time, Dermot was honing his football skills. In the 1950’s he was one of Ireland’s star football players, leading the County Leath team as its captain to the All-Ireland Championship in 1957.  That historic championship game is still talked about in Ireland, because County Louth was considered a weak underdog to the mighty County Cork team, and Dermot led his team to a dramatic come-from-behind victory. County Louth had not won the national championship since 1912.  Dermot had many other football achievements that are too numerous to mention here, and he retired from the game in the early 1960’s. Then he devoted himself fully to his second career as a professional musician, both as an accordion player and a vocalist.

        Throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s Dermot was a popular performer in Ireland. In 1966 his recording of the “Merry Ploughboy” was a million seller in Ireland, a rare accomplishment in a small country with a population under four million. He had several other hits, such as  “The Old Claddagh Ring,”” The Galway Shawl”, “Whistling Rufus”, and the “Cuckoo Waltz.”  During the those decades he had his own show on Irish television, and he performed in every major theater in England, Scotland, and Ireland, including top billing appearances at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall.  He appeared on television with Ed Sullivan, Bing Crosby, and Johnny Cash, and toured with Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, and Bill Haley and the Comets. 

         In the early 1980’s, Dermot, now married to his lovely wife Rosemarie and with a family of two sons and two daughters, moved to upstate New York, from where he toured the U.S. and Ireland.  In 1995 he joined in Dublin the permanent cast of the Jury’s Irish Cabaret show, which was under the leadership of Tony Kenny. He toured with Tony Kenny and that show for five years, and during that time he appeared in Muskegon twice.  After that he then again divided his time between the U.S. and Ireland as a solo performer.

A Visit to the Kilmainham Gaol (Jail)

 Kilmainham Gaol, located in Dublin, played an important part in Irish history after it was built in 1796. Many leaders of Irish rebellions were imprisoned (and some executed) there, and both serious and petty criminals, including women and children, were jailed there. There was no segregation of prisoners; men, women, and children were incarcerated up to 5 in each cell, with only a single candle for light and heat, so most of their time was spent in the cold and the dark. The jail served as a prison for over 140 years, and was closed by the Irish Free State government in 1924.  After deteriorating for decades, a lengthy restoration was completed and it is open for tours.  An excellent museum also exhibits memorabilia from the jail’s history and prison life. The jail has been used as a location in several movies, including Michael Collins.

    Of greatest interest to most visitors is the role that the jail played in the imprisonment and execution of 14 leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. No single event unified the Irish population for independence more than the deaths by firing squad of those leaders.  An emotional occurrence was the marriage of Joseph Plunkett to Grace Gifford in the prison chapel the night before his execution. After the wedding, Joseph and Grace were allowed to visit under guard for ten minutes, and Joseph was returned to his cell. Later, during the Irish Civil War, Grace Gifford Plunkett herself was jailed there. A trained artist, she painted on her cell wall a Madonna that can still be seen.  She never remarried, and died in 1955 at age 67.