Irish Traditional Music Festival, Snug Harbor, New York
An Claidheamh Soluis/Irish Arts Center located at 553 West 51st Street in New York has long been a home for Irish culture on the East coast.
Workshops offer free instruction in the Irish language, step and ceili dancing and a variety of Irish instruments. The Center’s theater has established quite an off-Broadway reputation with past productions ranging from O’Casey to Friel and last year they had an astounding success with “Away Alone” a play by Janet Noble on Irish immigrants living in the Bronx.
But aside from all that, 10 years ago the Center teamed up with Snug Harbor association to present the first Irish Traditional Music Festival.
Last year I decided to go along and see and hear for my self.
On a beautiful June morning I lined up for the Staten Island ferry, always a magical trip in itself. On this day the boat was filled with musicians, picnic baskets, children and more than one sun-burned fair Irish face.
I had a feeling this was going to be good. And it was. It was a day that made me proud to be Irish.
Before I even got to Snug Harbor, which is only about ten minutes away from the Ferry dock I could hear the music. Inside the grassy park several stages had been set up, some of them hiding in groves of trees.
At one o’clock a fiddle workshop conducted by Earle Hitchner with such legends as Johnny Cronin and Andy McGann taking part kicked off the event. At the same time a flute and tin whistle workshop led by Jack Coen with Maureen Doherty and Joanie Madden was taking place on the main stage. The musicians and participants were mainly Irish American and it was truly wonderful to sec that Irish music and dance was being so well preserved and enhanced by Erin’s sons and daughters over here.
Throughout the afternoon I stopped by workshops conducted by master musicians in accordion, Irish harp, Bodhran and any number of musical instruments used in traditional Irish play. There was step dance demonstrations, set and ceili dancing too. The evening was filled with music. The group Arcady, which included Jackie Daly, formerly of DeDanann, Frances Black, sister of Mary, and Sean Keane, brother of Dolores, were one of the many highlights in a line-up that included Eileen Ivers, Matty Connolly, Maureen Doherty, Joanie Madden and Maureen Glynn.
All day long I was struck by the high calibre of the participants. This was Irish culture at its very best. And it was so joyously given forth by people who really cared about their craft.
This year’s festival is to take place on Saturday, June 22 and for this 10th anniversary an impressive line-up of musicians, Irish and American, are in order. Fiddler extraordinaire Kevin Burke, now based in Oregon, will be joined by uil-cann piper Paddy Keenan, both played in the Bothy Band for years. Sharon Shannon (button accordion, fiddle) late of the Waterboys, Charlie Piggott and Siobhan Peoples are just some of the other who will also take part.
– Patricia Harty
The Milwaukee Irish Fest
Now here is a festival that has been around for some time, 11 years, in fact. It’s an extravaganza of Irish events that take place over an entire weekend in August, at Milwaukee’s splendid Henry W Maier Lakefront Festival Park.
This year the dates are from 4 p.m. to Midnight, Friday, August 16, noon to midnight on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday. The line-up of musicians is impressive.
Tommy Makem, Frank Patterson, The Dublin City Ramblers. and Carmel Quinn to name but few Sports activities include hurling and football matches, tug-of-war, and currach racing.
Poetry and drama also play a part, and this year’s festival organizers are offering a $500 award for a poem of Irish or Irish-American theme or origination, and are also seeking productions of short plays that explore the interaction of individuals from differing backgrounds.
The play, to be no more that 40-minutes in length, must explore the relationships between individuals or groups from differing ethnic, religious, national, tribal, clan, gender or locality backgrounds. Again a $500 prize will be presented for the winning drama to be staged at the 1991 festival.
Deadline for play submissions is July 15. The poetry deadline is July 31. Entries should be sent to John Gleeson, Milwaukee Irish Fest, Box 599, Milwaukee, Wis. 53201.
For more information on the Milwaukee Fest call (414) 466-6640.
– Nora Egan
Smokey Mountain Music
Set in the small mountain town of Elkins, West Virginia, the five-week Augusta program annually attracts folk arts enthusiasts from all parts of the country. They gather on the wooded campus of Davis and Elkins college, to learn time-honored skills directly from the source-local mountain musicians, traditional craftspeople, storytellers, herbalists and dancers. Folklore classes explore storytelling, Appalachian literature, and woodslore, while dance sessions offer intensive instruction in old-time clogging, Cajun two-steps, and more.
A series of “theme weeks”-concentrated classes focus on specific ethnic traditions spotlight the music of Ireland Scotland, Cajun Louisiana and the southern Appalachian highlands, plus such broad genres as blues, swing music, and traditional vocal styles.
Augusta’s tenth annual “Irish Week” is a celebration of the best in Irish music and dance traditions in America. An array of outstanding artists will teach classes in flute, tin-whistle, uilleann pipes, Irish harp and piano and Irish step dance, folklore and story-telling. Orchestrating these workshops are top notch instructors and performers such as Mick Moloney, a leading authority on Irish culture, his class in Irish folklore will include history, song mythology, legends, stories and proverbs.
Others scheduled to take part are Eileen Ivers (fiddle) Timothy Britton (uilleann pipe) Brendan Mulvihill and Joanie Madden (tinwhistle).
This year’s Augusta workshops are slated for July 7 through August 9. And the Augusta Festival caps the summer schedule with a full weekend of traditional music concerts, storytelling sessions, square dances, children’s events and folklife demonstrations from August 9-11.
Lodging and meals during the workshops are available right on the Davis & Elkins campus, and at nearby motels.
A 56-page catalog, outlining the 1991 program in detail is available, the Augusta Heritage Center, Box GN, Davis & Elkins College, Elkins, West Virginia 26241. Phone (304) 636-1903.
– Anthony McGee
An Education in Dance
Patricia Glynn, a native of Galway currently living in New York, is about to dance her way into history—hopefully. Between September, 1991 and March, 1992 she should have completed her final round of studies in dance education at New York University, thus making her the first such Irish teacher so qualified. More importantly, she has been given a chance to do an independent and specialized study in the field for those final months.
We say “hopefully” because Patricia has one obstacle to overcome before she makes her leap at educational history. The obstacle is money, or rather, the lack of $15,000, she needs to complete her dance education program.
Given an Irish Arts Council award, she came to New York in 1987 to pursue studies that are not available in Ireland. On completion of that work, she will return to the inner-city school in Dublin (where she has taught since 1980) and continue the dance education program that she helped set up there.
Patricia hopes that some Irish American groups might help her finance her studies. She can be contacted at (212) 995-2315.
Ireland – An In-Depth Study
The New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law (Vol. 11, No. 1 and 2) is devoted to “Ireland: Recent Developments.”
“Establishing an enduring peace free from sectarian strife and institutional bias has been an elusive goal in Ireland, especially in the North,” said editor-in-chief Di Nota. “This issue of the journal analyzes recent legal problems and addresses new idcas for reform.” Issues of the Journal are available from New York Law School, Publications Business Office, 57 Worth Street, 8th floor, New York, N.Y. 10013.
CUA’s Program in Irish Studies
A new graduate-degree program at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. offers students the opportunity to concentrate on Irish studies. The 30-credit interdisciplinary program leads to a Master of Arts degree.
CUA, has a long commitment to Irish studies. In 1896, the Ancient Order of Hibernians endowed a chair in Celtic languages and literature at the university. Classes in the Irish or Gaelic language and its literature have been offered since then, complemented by Anglo-Irish literature courses.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the June 1991 issue of Irish America. ♦
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