Trad Music in Carberry's Pub Across the Sea

Woke up to all the doom and gloom financial news coming from Ireland, but am ending the day with Ceili House, traditional Irish music on RTE 1 Radio.
Each Saturday at 9 p.m. (Irish time), presenter Kieran Hanrahan visits another venue where traditional Irish music is celebrated.
Fiddles and accordions have toes tapping every Tuesday evening at Carberry's Pub (Ti Chairbre) in Drogheda, County Louth, north of Dublin. One fella explained that the tradition began 40 years ago when a few fellas got together to play. Mrs. Carberry thought a music night was a fine idea and it just continued.
Over the radio online it is easy to imagine the coziness of the pub with the damp tweed jackets, the pints of Guinness, the laughter and friends shoulder to shoulder.
A young man, Stuart Carolan, explains that he learned how to sing traditional tunes from his granny. He then sings a capella in such a gorgeous, unselfconscious tenor voice. Several lads sing in unison, "Broken-hearted I will wander...for the loss of my lover" about the "bonny light horseman" who has died and won't be coming home.
What a joy to hear the music and be transported back to Ireland. Sweet dreams.

Irish Are Left the "Good Boys" of Europe

Today the Irish government went ahead with its promise to pay 715 million euro to unguaranteed bondholders of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly the infamous Anglo Irish Bank.
Sinn Fein TDs and others in opposition walked out of the Dail, the Irish Parliament, when the body voted down their move to debate whether or not to go ahead with the payments.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the TDs that he tried but failed to convince the European Central Bank to permit the "burning" of the bondholders -- paying them back a percentage of the worth of the bonds. Kenny admitted that he does not know the names of any of these bondholders.
Irate callers to afternoon Irish radio shows made the point that some of these speculators bought the bonds at reduced rates, some as low as 20 cents on the euro and will be paid back the full worth of the bonds.
While the Greeks protest in the streets and now their prime minister calls for a referendum as to whether Greece should agree to strict terms of its bailout, the Irish have meekly done the right thing with very little questioning.
A small businessman calling into RTE's Liveline today says shopkeers are "on our knees" while there is money for the bondholders. After 31 years in business, he went to the bank for help and they told him "no." What will happen to him when he loses his business? As a self-employed person he will get no benefits. "They don't give a damn," he said.

It's 'Fiver Friday' This Friday

While the Greeks protest harsh economic austerity measures in Athens, the good Irish people are dealing with their own hard times with “Fiver Friday” on July 1.
RTE presenter Joe Duffy suggested that regular punters go out and spend an extra fiver locally on Friday to stimulate the economy. Retailers and service people responded with special offers – a meal, a car wash, a wedding photo, concert tickets, etc. – for a fiver. The offers have flooded the radio station’s phone lines. Two hundred businesses in Mullingar alone are participating.
Fires are burning and tear gas is filling Athens streets. One man explained, “We have the sun, the tourists, some vegetables and olive oil,” and no other industry. There is no way Greece will be able to pay the mammoth debt it has taken on. The cuts to pensions and social services are desperate measures for desperate times.
The threat of the same thing happening in Ireland has been put off only because the Irish people go willingly along with the budget cuts – they complain and call into the talk shows, but very few would come out on the streets like the Greeks.
Hope that Fiver Friday adds a few bob to the pockets of many Irish shopkeepers who are trying to provide for their families in difficult times.

May a Courageous Irish Man R.I.P.

Sad news this morning hearing on RTE of the death of Brian Lenihan, former Irish Minister of Finance, who died of cancer today at age 52.
Lenihan learned that he had pancreatic cancer in December 2009, in the midst of the worst economic crisis ever faced by Ireland and perhaps the western economies since the Great Depression. He continued on with both his brief and chemotherapy until his Fianna Fail party was unseated by Fine Gael in February 2011.
He took on the post of Finance Minister in May 2008, shortly before the housing and banking crisis. Under Lenihan the Irish State guaranteed all the Irish banks in September 2008.Who would have been prepared to handle the banking crisis which was itself a worldwide cancer? It was up to Lenihan to put together the massive cuts of the December 7, 2010, brutal budget.
Listening to RTE, the tributes all deem Lenihan to have been a “decent man” of great personal courage and humor who was dedicated to the work he had been given.
This comes in contrast to some politicians in Ireland, the U.S., Italy, etc., who have no personal dignity whatsoever and find themselves embarrassed and on front pages.
Maybe courage and honor and grace are old-fashioned attributes. But when a man or woman lives with courage or honor, people do take notice and mourn the passing of someone good.

Visit the Irish Hunger Memorial in NYC

For years, I knew there was an Irish Hunger Memorial set in Lower Manhattan, but hadn't made the journey to see it until yesterday.

I found a small corner of Ireland in Battery Park City at Vesey Street and North End Avenue. Here artist Brian Tolle created on a half acre a living reminder of the Irish Famine of 1845-52, "An Gorta Mor," an event which brought many, including my own great-grandmother, from Ireland to the U.S.

At the heart of the monument is a derelict Famine-era fieldstone cottage, which was brought from County Mayo and reconstructed on the site. A winding path circles small fields dotted with native Irish plants including bearberry, blackthorn, burnet rose, foxglove, gorse and heather. The yellow flag irises were just a few days past blooming.

Set along the pathways are 32 large stones, each one etched with name of one of the Irish counties. You can easily find Cork, Kerry, Tyrone, Monaghan and Armagh. Other names hide under grass or at the sides of stones.

The entire memorial is supported by a limestone plinth and overlooks a small fountain pond and the boat traffic on the Hudson River.

Quotations from Irish texts and authors encircle the outside wall of the base of the memorial. More text on the Famine times lines the walls of the passageway entrance to the memorial. Listen carefully to hear the audio presentation about world hunger during the short walk.

There was no signage on the nearby streets directing to the memorial, but the site should call to the naturally curious. The gorse was not in bloom yet, so I will have to go back to see the profusion of yellow that promises.

The Message in Dublin Was No More Negativity

After much anticipation, President Barack Obama made a triumphant visit to Moneygall, Ireland, the home of his ancestor, Fullmouth Kearney.

RTE presenters were thrilled to see him and the first lady spending 45 minutes walking the length of Moneygall shaking hands and kissing babies of the 300 residents of the County Offaly village. "These pictures will be seen throughout the world tonight," they swooned. They dreamt of the tourists who might come over this summer as a result.

But news is always ruled by timing and unfortunately the main story on our news pages, websites and early morning shows today was the devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri.

A short wrap-up and photo of Obama drinking a pint of Guinness was on page 6 of The New York Times. The evening news featured only about 30 seconds about the Irish visit. Not enough coverage to see how the Irish, who have been on their knees in this recession, were finally given something to be proud about.

There was no coverage of Taoiseach Enda Kenny's powerful speech in Dublin introducing Obama to a crowd of more than 25,000 in College Green. This was hardly recognizable as the same Enda Kenny who was shielded from opening his mouth too much in the recent elections and debates.

President Obama told the crowd, "Is feidir linn," in Irish, "Yes, we can." It was a day that gave the Irish something to cheer about, which they haven't had in several years.

Morgan Kelly Predicts Bankruptcy for Ireland

How often does a newspaper op-ed piece elicit reaction that becomes news in itself?

Yesterday, Ireland’s Governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, responded to an article by Morgan Kelly in The Irish Times (May 7, 2011) in which Kelly said, “Honohan’s miscalculations of the bank losses has turned out to be the costliest mistake ever made by an Irish person.”

Kelly is a professor of economics at University College Dublin and is credited with having predicted the Irish property crash.

“With the Irish Government on track to owe a quarter of a trillion euro by 2014, a prolonged and chaotic national bankruptcy is becoming inevitable,” Kelly said in his Times piece. “Ireland is facing economic ruin.”

“While most people would trace our ruin to to [sic] the bank guarantee of September 2008,” he explains, “the real error was in sticking with the guarantee long after it had become clear that the bank losses were insupportable.”

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s mistake in guaranteeing most of the bonds of Irish banks…was “obvious” and ridiculous,” Kelly said. A few months later, Patrick Honohan was appointed Governor of the Central Bank….and had the opportunity to reverse Lenihan. But instead, Honohan deemed the bank losses to be “manageable.” Honohan “appeared to believe that Ireland was still the export-driven powerhouse of the 1990s, rather than the credit-fueled Ponzi scheme it had become since 2000….,” Kelly said.

Honohan went over Lenihan’s head and stated on November 18 on RTE Radio 1 “that Ireland would need a bailout of tens of billions”. “Rarely has a finance minister been so deftly sliced off at the ankles by his central ban k governor,” Kelly said. “And so the Honohan Doctrine that bank losses could and should be repaid by Irish taxpayers ran its predictable course with the financial collapse and international bailout of the Irish State.”

Kelly says that the IMF “presented the Irish with a plan to haircut €30 billion of unguaranteed bonds by two-thirds on average. Lenihan was overjoyed, according to a source who was there, telling the IMF team: ‘You are Ireland’s salvation’.”

Kelly says the “haircut was vetoed by U.S. treasury secretary Timothy Geithner who, as his payment of €13 billion from government owned AIG to Goldman Sachs showed, believes that bankers take priority over taxpayers.”

Kelly concludes, “…the IMF was forced by the obduracy of Geithner and the spinelessness, or worse, of the Irish to lend their imprimatur, €30 billion of their capital, to a deal that its negotiators privately admit will end in Irish bankruptcy.”

Kelly writes, “Back when the euro was being planned in the mid-1990s, it never occurred to anyone that cautious, stodgy banks like AIB and Bank of Ireland, run by faintly dim former rugby players, could ever borrow tens of billions overseas, and lose it all on dodgy property loans.”

Kelly predicts “Ireland’s government debt will top €190 billion by 2014, with another €45 billion in Nama and €35 billion in bank recapitalization, for a total of €270 billion”…this for a country of only about 4 million people, half the population of New York City, and with a reported 100,000 planning to leave the country this year. The bill comes to about €120,000 per Irish worker, Kelly says, or “60 per cent larger than GNP.”

As a result, Kelly reports, “the banks that lent to the Irish Government are at risk of losing most of what they lent. In other words, the Irish banking crisis has become part of the larger European sovereign debt crisis.”

Kelly says that government default of its debt would be for Ireland “that trades on its reputation as a safe place to do business, a bankruptcy would be catastrophic.”

Kelly says that Ireland’s national survival requires that “Ireland walk away from the bailout. This in turn requires the Government to do two things: disengage from the banks, and bring its budget into balance immediately.”

Kelly predicts that the current Fine Gael Government won’t follow his advice and that the result will be bankruptcy. Fine Gael and Labour will fall into disrepute and the next election, “after the trauma and chaos of the bankruptcy” will be nothing like the “dull and predictable” one that took down Fianna Fail.

At such a juncture for Irish society, one would hope there is someone at the helm with training in economics and not just smiling and back-slapping. The ship is getting very close to the edge of the earth.

Easter Rising Commemoration

Friends of Irish Freedom held a celebration of the 95th anniversary of the Easter Rising at The Green Tree Restaurant in the Bronx, N.Y., on April 24.
Msgr. Patrick Moloney celebrated Mass for those gathered at the Friends of Irish Freedom's celebration of the 95th anniversary of the Easter Rising at The Green Tree Restaurant in the Bronx, N.Y.
Kelly Donnelly Ramsey of Derry was one of the guest speakers at the Friends of Irish Freedom's celebration of the 95th anniversary of the Easter Rising at The Green Tree Restaurant in the Bronx, N.Y. Ramsey is the sister of Gary Donnelly and she spoke of her brother's experiences as a POW in Maghaberry Prison in County Antrim, as well as harrassment of her family by the PSNI.

Back to the Old Days in the North

Sad news came from Omagh in the North of Ireland this weekend that Ronan Kerr, a young policeman, died when he got in his car and a bomb beneath it exploded.

Kerr, a Catholic, was a member of the North's reconstituted Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI, which had replaced the infamous RUC. Only since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 have Catholics been allowed to join the force. News reports attribute the bombing to republican dissidents who want to dissuade Catholics from joining up.

I have had the opportunity to photograph political murals in Belfast and Derry in the North of Ireland over the past eight years. To my eye, there is peace amid a still raw history. The political murals, such as the Derry mural above, tell that story vividly. Only days after my first visit to Derry, a car bomb was found in the city centre near where I had walked. There is still injustice that does not get reported.

There are still those who are dissatisfied with the Good Friday Agreement. Men and women who were imprisoned and/or on hunger strike have told me they wonder what it was all for if they haven't achieved a united Ireland.

But what I hear this morning on Irish radio is disgust with the cowardly act of killing a 25-year-old as he got in his car to go to work.

Hopefully there are ways for people to express their dissent in non-violent ways. There needs to be, in all fairness. Whoever committed this act has brought only widespread condemnation and the name of "terrorist" on themselves. What were they thinking?

Last Leaders Debate Before Irish Election

Watched on RTE via computer last night the last party leaders debate before the Feb. 25 election in Ireland.

Enda Kenny (Fine Gael), Michael Martin (Fianna Fail) and Eamon Gilmore (Labour) each put his case before the Irish people in the bid to become Taoiseach.

After opening statements, RTE's moderator, Miriam O'Callahan, began the questions.

Kenny, who leads in the polls, insisted that the IMF deal must be renegotiated. "We still don't know the full scope of the stress test on the banks," he said, and won't until the end of March. It could turn out that Irish taxpayers will be due for 100 billion euros in debt from the banks, he warned. Kenny called the situation a "penal taxation level."

Gilmore, whose party may go into coalition with Fine Gael, said, "The choice on Friday will determine the future of the country for the next 20 years." He promised that under Labour, "no family will lose their home" and those with incomes under 100,000 will have no new taxes. Gilmore called the current Irish economic situation "the biggest mess that anyone has ever faced." He offered Labour's program of "three pillars" of jobs, reform of the political system and "fairness."

Gilmore also called for renegotiation of the IMF deal, "a straitjacket on future governments."

Martin was left to defend his Fianna Fail party and to cast suspicion on Fine Gael's "five-point program." "It doesn't add up," Martin said of Kenny's plan to cut government spending by 6.5 billion euros. Kenny is "codding the people by saying there will be 6.5 billion savings, but gives no detail."

As for the IMF deal, Martin said, "Anyone who says they can unilaterally re-negotiate is not honest."

Martin defended Fianna Fail's actions by saying that if the bank guarantees had not been made, "it would have been catastrophic to the banking system."

Kenny countered by saying that if he is elected he will "close down Anglo and Irish Nationwide before the end of the year and sell AIB." He said, "We have enough banks as it is." As things stand, small businesses cannot get "a penny from banks in credit," he said. "It is absolutely critical. We are going nowhere unless we can extend credit to small business."

'We must get the two main banks up and running," Martin said. "AIB and Bank of Ireland have to survive."

In an email to a friend in Cork yesterday, I wished that the best man would win. She replied, "We are all still trying to figure out who is the best man to win the election on Friday -- they are all equally good at spin and ineffective at managing our lovely country."

Bloody Sunday Victims' Brothers Tell Their Story

On the evening after Brooklyn's 39th and last Bloody Sunday March and Mass, two Bloody Sunday victims' brothers joined march organizers and participants for dinner and conversation.

John Kelly and Gerry Duddy had traveled from Derry to be part of the Bay Ridge Irish American Action Association's last march. After 39 years, the 14 unarmed civil rights protesters who were killed by British Army Parachute Regiment soldiers on January 30, 1972, were finally vindicated by the release of the Saville Report on June 15, 2010.

Over dinner, Kelly and Duddy, explained how the victims' families waged an unrelenting campaign to have their loved ones declared "innocent" of any wrong-doing on that Bloody Sunday. They took on the British government and won. "We were a thorn in their side," Duddy said.

Kelly, who was the elder brother of 17-year-old Michael Kelly, said that he never gave up over 38 1/2 years for his mother's sake. His brother's death was devastating for her, and sadly she died before the report was released.

Their lives were taken over by the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign of which they were both founding members. Postcards, letters, visits to politicians, "any door that was open" kept their cause alive through the years between the Widgery Tribunal whitewash and the commencement of the Saville investigation more than 20 years later.

Duddy, whose 17-year-old brother Jackie was killed, was himself 14 years old on the day of the march. "I went this way and my brother went that way," Duddy said. If it had been the other way, and Gerry had been shot, he said, he knows his brother would have done the same for him in seeking justice.

Kelly said that on last June 15, when the families went to the Guildhall in Derry to read the final Saville Report, they had no idea what to expect. Within a few minutes, though solicitors let them know that it was good news -- the "innocent" verdict they had been seeking for years was there.

It was pure joy to look out on the thousands in the Guildhall Square when the news was shared with the world. The families looked out on the crowd and knew the news was spreading worldwide with the great press coverage there.

Kelly invited anyone who visits Derry to stop by and see him at the Free Derry Museum in the Bogside where the Bloody Sunday story is told. He said that some British visitors have come in and are appalled at what happened on January 30, 1972, and apologize to him. But he tells him, it is the government not the people who needed to apologize.

Kelly did say, though, that the families are not finished yet. They want to see the soldiers who were responsible for the murders of their unarmed relatives to be prosecuted. This has nothing to do with monetary compensation they stressed, but everything to with justice.

Last Bloody Sunday March in Brooklyn

Brothers of two Bloody Sunday victims joined the Bay Ridge Irish American Action Association for the last Bloody Sunday Memorial Mass and March in Brooklyn on Feb. 13.

This was their 39th annual memorial of the January 30, 1972, unprovoked killing of 14 unarmed Irish civil rights marchers by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment in Derry, in the North of Ireland.

Jack Kelly and Gerry Duddy, founding members of the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign, came from Derry to join marchers through the streets of Sunset Park to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica for 1:15 p.m. Mass.

Marchers carried white crosses with the names of Michael Kelly, Jack Duddy, William McKinney, Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, Gerald McKinney, William Nash, James Wray, Michael McDaid, Gerald Donaghy, John Johnston, Kevin McElhinney, John Young and Hugh Gilmore.

The Clann Eireann Pipe Band led the march from the Irish Haven on Fourth Ave. Father Francis Mulvaney, C.Ss.R., of O.L.P.H. walked along with longtime memorial organizers Mary Nolan, Mary Lennon and Martin Brennan.

Before Mass at O.L.P.H., Jack Kelly, brother of Michael Kelly, described what it was like for families of Bloody Sunday victims last June 15 with the release of the long-awaited Saville Report, which vindicated the victims as “innocent.”

The report acknowledged: no warning was issued to the thousands who marched that day; contrary to their claims, the British Army was not responding to gun attacks or stone throwing; many died while helping other wounded marchers; and the British Army lied and covered up its actions of January 30, 1972.

Kelly thanked the faithful in Brooklyn for their “support of the Bloody Sunday families” through the years. After 38 ½ years of waiting, Kelly said, “the admittance of the truth was one of the greatest moments of my life.” The seven years waiting for the publication of the Saville Report was frustrating, he said. The last witness had been heard in 2004. The report took 5 ½ years to write compared to three months for the original Widgery Tribunal report, a whitewash of the events of Bloody Sunday.

On June 15, two members from each family entered Derry’s Guildhall at 10:30 a.m., where they were given the opportunity to read the Saville Report, which finally acknowledged their relatives were innocent.

“We took on the might of the British establishment and won,” Kelly said. “What we have always known was acknowledged.” Kelly did note there was still the matter of acknowledging that the RUC had planted nail bombs in the pockets of victim Gerald Donaghy. “The Saville Report still left this lie,” he said.

Nevertheless, the release of the report prompted British Prime Minister David Cameron that day to call the shootings “both unjustified and unjustifiable.”
Cameron admitted in a British House of Commons statement, “What happened should never, ever have happened. The families of those who died should not have had to live with the pain and hurt of that day, and a lifetime of loss. Some members of our armed forces acted wrongly. The government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the armed forces. And for that, on behalf of the government – and indeed our country – I am deeply sorry.”

“It was a brilliant day, a day I will never forget,” Kelly said.

Two weeks ago, Derry held its own last Memorial March, with 30,000 participating, Kelly said. “We will still have a Memorial Mass,” he said. “We will still continue commemorating the memory of our loved ones.”

Father Colm Campbell, founder of the New York Irish Center, concelebrated Mass with Father Mulvaney. The Bloody Sunday victims had “lived the Gospel of hungering and thirsting for justice,” Father Campbell said in his homily. He commended the families who through “39 frustrating years of seeking justice, never gave up.”

As each of the 14 names was called out during the prayers of the faithful, Gerry Duddy, brother of Jackie Duddy, echoed in a strong, loud voice, “Innocent.”

Coming Elections in Ireland

Brian Cowen, Irish Taoiseach, has stepped down as leader of Fianna Fail opening the way for new elections and a change in national leadership.

God knows who will take his place. Michael Martin of Fianna Fail? Enda Kenny of Fine Gael? A coalition of Labour with Fine Gael?

After months of the desperate voices of the Irish public, who have been strangled by harsh budget cuts, something had to change. Young families are leaving daily for Canada and Australia. Who will be left there to pick the country up off its knees and rebuild?

As an occasional visitor and photographer of Ireland, it has broken my heart to hear these stories daily on RTE on my computer here in Brooklyn. Hope the Irish people are given a good choice and have a chance for some kind of future so their children can stay in Ireland.

Even in the Cold the Oil Is Too Dear

In a weak voice, Mary told RTE's radio presenter Joe Duffy that she was back in her bed under an electric blanket at 2 p.m. trying to stay warm as Ireland suffered for another day of bitter cold and snow. She wasn't going to turn on the oil heat until later in the evening because in extreme recessionary times, this pensioner weighed the cost of oil against her own comfort and made the choice. Mary had the radio and a book for company and said she was doing fine.
After last week, with the IMF coming in and taking over the country's finances, the Irish couldn't catch a break. What followed was bitter cold here in the first week of December.
And then I read about the emigration of the young Irish families to New York or back to New York in many cases.
Years ago I naively asked older Irish-born people in Brooklyn why they ever left such a gorgeous country. It was for jobs then and it's for jobs now.
Heartbreaking. Will this new generation ever get the chance to go home?

Bad News from a Beautiful Country

All morning long I hear the dire news from Ireland via RTE News on my computer. Will the EU or IMF come in to rescue Ireland from insolvency? The horrific costs of proposed budget cuts have edged up further and further as Finance Minister Brian Lenihan drops bigger and bigger crumbs leading up to the December 7 (a Day of Infamy?) Budget announcement. Word is that even the pensioners may share in having their benefits cut. All this coming up to Christmas and the time when people will be searching their pockets to pay their ESB bills or for oil to heat the house.
All this and the global economic doldrums have lowered the number of tourists to Ireland this year by 850,000. I know the feeling. The gorgeous coastal vistas along the Slea Head Drive in Dingle are often in my mind, probably because they are in frames beside my computer. They will have to do for now until I feel more free about spending on travel.
If you would like to check them out or would like to have a 2011 calendar of Irish scenes visit my new online store at
http://www.cafepress.com/ShopAllIrelandPhotos?nocache=yes

Let's hope that 2011 is a better year for Ireland and for us all.

Invitation to Visit the North of Ireland

For six days at the end of September, travelers entering Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan could choose Belfast in the North of Ireland as their destination.

Discover Ireland, in an effort to draw visitors to the six counties of Antrim, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry, Armagh and Down, filled Vanderbilt Hall with exhibits, music, food and story telling from the region Sept. 24-29.

A multi-media exhibit on the Titanic, which was built in Belfast, described a newly developed tour of what was once the city's bustling shipyard. Generous displays of tourist literature and maps were on offer to help in planning a trip to enjoy Belfast's rich history and traditional music heritage, both found in pubs such as Kelly's Cellars.

During breaks from Irish dancing performances, actors presented history lessons on the walled city of Derry, chefs gave cooking demonstrations -- the Irish palate has graduated from beef, potatoes and veg --and Kabosh, the award-winning Belfast theater troupe, entertained.

Some lucky traveler will win two tickets to Belfast,courtesy of Discover Ireland, and will have the chance to experience a part of Ireland not often on the tour guide's agenda.

Last Friday Night at 1stIrish Festival

I really want to say something positive about "Three Irish Widows versus The Rest of the World," Ed Malone's one-man performance at Stage Left Studio as part of the 1stIrish Theatre Festival.

Last year I saw three 1stIrish productions and loved each one for its professionalism, fine acting and intimate theatre space. So, I was really looking forward to "Three Irish Widows."

Cheryl King greeted audience members warmly as they arrived at the 6th floor of 214 W. 30th Street in Manhattan, the new site of her Stage Left Studio performance space. The "black box" space, which is really painted red, accommodates an audience of about 20. we settled into our folding chairs in the front row with great anticipation.

Malone, who also wrote "Three Irish Widows," based the play on his mother and two aunts back home in Cork. After losing her husband, each woman sets out to look for love. The dearly departed were not always dearly beloved we learn.

Malone uses each woman's real name, so lucky they have not seen it performed, because the tales about their adventures in New York, Spain and India range from humorous to crude. It leaves you feeling embarrassed for his mother most of all. It seems that Malone is processing some of his own issues about growing up and a bout of alcoholism at the expense of Maura, Breda and Margaret.

The stage is completely bare except for a very frenetic, curly-haired Malone dressed in cargo shorts and an old plaid shirt.

I would love to return to Stage Left Studio to see another production with a little more heart and a bit more art.

Festival of Irish Theatre Returns

Great news for lovers of Irish theatre...1stIrish 2010 steps off on September 7, offering performances by Irish playwrights at venues across New York City.

Leading up to the celebration was a production of Frank McCourt's "The Irish...and How They Got That Way," which opened on July 14 at the Irish Repertory Theatre. The production, which commemorates the first anniversary of McCourt's passing, was well-received and has been extended to September 26.

What I enjoyed about last year's festival was the high level of acting and the intimate settings. I actually sat on the stage for one production. Now I'm looking through the schedule of this year's offerings to see what I can afford to attend.

The reviews for "Wife to James Whelan" at the Mint Theatre have been very positive. The playwright, Teresa Deevy (1894-1963), may have been forgotten in some circles but this production has some very modern themes of choices between love and ambition.

At the Stage Left Studio you can catch "Three Irish Widows Versus the Rest of the World," which sounds like a hen party version of "Eat Pray Love" with the three named widows traveling to Spain, New York and India in search of adventure and romance.

In "Hue and Cry" two Dublin cousins come together at a family funeral, and of course, all that emotion boils over in this Irish Repertory Theatre production.

A symposium about Irish theatre featuring leading actors, directors and playwrights comes near the end of the festival on September 25 at NYU Glucksman Ireland House.

For a full schedule check out www.1stirish.org. You'll find it hard to whittle your choices to just a few.

1916 Easter Rising Commemorated in the Bronx

There was a great turnout for the Easter Rising Mass and Commemoration celebrated at the Green Tree Restaurant in the Bronx on Easter Sunday, which was dedicated to the men and women who fought for Irish freedom.
The celebration of the 94th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland was organized by Sean Oglaigh na hEireann and Friends of Irish Freedom.
Msgr. Patrick Moloney celebrated Mass for the gathering. He reminded them that “it was not an accident” that “just a handful of men would choose Easter to rise up” as Easter is a day of resurrection. “Our country is and was a land of saints and scholars, a holy island.” In a strident voice, Msgr. Moloney said the “mandate of 1916…has not yet been accomplished.” He said the civil rights that Bobby Sands died for have not yet been attained in the north. “Keep up the good fight. Keep the banner high,” he said calling for an “Ireland united and free…a nation once again.”
After Mass and before the guest speaker, the original 1916 Proclamation was read in Irish and in English by Maurice Brick and Michael McDermott, respectively.
Cathleen O’Brien, an organizer of the commemoration, also reported to the gathering on abuses in the north including PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) harassment through use of Section 44 to “stop, search and arrest” in republican areas.
Special guest was Lorna Brady of Strabane, County Tyrone, younger sister of John Brady, 40, who died in custody at the Strand Road Barracks in Derry on October 3, 2009. Brady, a well-known republican, had served 18 years in Long Kesh and Maghaberry prisons. He was due for release in November 2009 and had been out on weekend parole when he was involved in a dispute with a brother-in-law. He was picked up in Tyrone by the PSNI/RUC and taken to Derry. The next morning, Brady’s solicitor, John Finucane, visited him. Finucane left Brady in a legal consultation room for 15 or 20 minutes. When he returned, Brady was dead. The PSNI claimed that he had hung himself with shoelaces from a window.
Lorna Brady said that her family strongly disputes the claim that Brady committed suicide, saying that he was in good form when Finucane left him. She said this was the latest in a pattern of harassment of the Brady family which has included death threats of all including an 8-year-old child. Brady said it was an attempt to “demonize” people like her brother who were “true republicans.”
“I am here today to campaign for truth and justice,” said Lorna Brady, who is waiting for results of a PSNI investigation into her brother’s death. “We do not have the rights proclaimed in 1916….Do not forget those who live in Ireland under British rule. Support groups like [Friends of] Irish Freedom and the Republican Network for Unity.”

Here in New York, it's not just Happy St. Patrick's Day or week, but a whole month of parades.

Yesterday, the Brooklyn Irish American Parade Committee led contingents of bagpipers, ste dancers, Hibernians and school children through the streets of Park Slope. Onlookers filled the curbs along Seventh Ave. on a gorgeous second day of spring. The Luck of the Irish has smiled on the parades this year with unseasonably warm days.

Among the marchers were Mary Nolan leading the members of the Commodore Barry Club of Brooklyn, which was founded in 1951. Irish human rights activist Cody McCone marched behind the Shamrocks Gaelic football club banner. The AOH gentlemen from Flatbush and young ladies from the St. Saviour H.S. Gaelic Society, who are parade regulars, strode down the avenue.

Hopefully, the Bay Ridge St. Patrick's Day Parade on Sunday, March 28, in which our friend Mary Lennon will serve as an Aide to the Grand Marshal, will be favored with the same gorgeous weather.