Volume 8, Issue 6

In Newfoundland the old country is never forgotten
by James Tarrant

Photos courtesy of Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Tourism

You can't walk very far in Newfoundland before hearing an Irish dialect, seeing architecture that reminds you of Dublin or some other reminiscence of Irish culture. And Irish traditional music is no different. Ever since the provinces first wave of European immigration in the 19th century, it has more than made a significant stamp in Canada’s most eastern province.

For Newfoundland it's culture and history have always been defined by traditional music, namely shanties, and ballads sung by early European explorers and Newfoundland fishermen who entertained themselves in the bays, coves and inlets dotted along the coastline. This form of in-house entertainment also became known as kitchen parties because they were always located in that area of the home. Throughout the provinces history church hymns, military bands, fiddling, flute playing, bag piping, also accompanied vocalists, while new settlers wrote songs to reflect the everyday experiences of life on the rock (a nickname for Newfoundland, because of it’s rocky soil and its many geological formations).

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Volume 8, Issue 6

President Kennedy’s Trip to Ireland All About Family
By Michael P. Quinlin

When President John F. Kennedy made his famous visit to Ireland, June 26-29, 1963, he was enmeshed in significant global issues: the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the threat of communism in the nuclear age, and the very future of democracy itself.

But during that trip, President Kennedy also gave the world a remarkably intimate glimpse into his family roots and genealogy, and therefore into the man himself. In many ways it was Kennedy’s public enthusiasm for his ancestral homeland and his unabashed delight at meeting his Irish cousins that left the most lasting impression in the public mind, and helped to shape his persona as a world leader.

That impression – of Kennedy’s pride in family and heritage - endures today among many Irish and Irish-Americans, and is the focus of an exciting exhibit on display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

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Volume 8, Issue 6

Oh Godot
By Pat-Ann Duncan

More often than not, the fame of a writer wanes after the writer's death. For Samuel Beckett, his popularity stands secure. To mark his centennial birthday, theaters everywhere are giving new life to his works as they celebrate the man who changed 20th century theater. Brooding yet insightful, Beckett draws in audiences because his words speak to the average Joe. Troubled by loneliness, death, and the meaning of life, Beckett gave himself to his characters. "I write about myself with the same pencil and in the same exercise book as about him. It is no longer I, but another whose life is just beginning," he told The New York Times. It was his play Waiting for Godot that first struck a nerve with theater-goers and took the Dublin-born writer from the world of the unknown into the spotlight.

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Volume 8, Issue 6

2006 Oireachtas Results

Volume 8, Issue 5

Bringing Home An Irish Christmas
By Mary Sayler

With the outer surfaces tidied, heavy duty cleaning disappeared indoors where everything endured a vigorous dusting or washing. Pots and pans got scoured. Wooden shelves and furniture shone with newly polished patina. Windows and crystal glistened. The family's best lace and linens, which had been folded away since the first week of the calendar year, now made a seasonal debut into the fresh air or wash tub.

As Advent officially ushered in the season, faithful worshippers in nearby chapels and churches welcomed the "fallen-away folk" who wanted to start the season fresh with hope and songs turned toward the birth of Jesus. At home, families added morning and evening prayers to their daily routine, teaching the youngest to pray "Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name…." Then throughout the day, everyone reminded the children to keep practicing their prayers.

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Volume 8, Issue 5

2006 Ryder Cup

Straffan, a suburb of Dublin, held nothing back to secure the famous reputation of the Irish to entertain. The Ryder Cup takes place every two years and alternates venues between links in Europe and America. Despite a report in the Irish Echo about concerns of US Ambassador, James Kenny, that businesses were taking advantage of visitors and inflating prices, little notice was taken for the golf zealots. It appears that the Irish are well acquainted with the American cash cow and the ways of fiscal opportunity.

Unlike the major tournaments in golf the Ryder Cup is dramatically different in a traditionally singular sport. The emphasis is on team play. It seems way back in 1927 when golf was in its infancy and primarily a gentlemen’s sport some fellows got together and decided that there should be a national competition between Great Britain and the United States. Since the beginning Ireland has always been included in match play, Fred Daly the first in 1947. Not until 1953 was it officially noted as Great Britain and Ireland against the Unites States.

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Volume 8, Issue 5

An Irish Christmas:

Online web store has good Christmas gift selection.
www.shopirish.com

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Volume 8, Issue 4

Innovation in traditional Irish music
Dan Biemborn

In general, "traditional" music in Ireland is defined as music that comes from a certain region of Ireland and is passed down through the generations from teacher to student (sometimes father or mother to son or daughter) in a continuous line that stretches back into the past. One hundred years ago or more, this was certainly the only way that dance music could be learned. A person's exposure to the music would come entirely from hearing live acoustic performances from local or traveling musicians. Recordings of the music were not available to large numbers of people until many years later, and sheet music was rare, and considerably more expensive to the average person than it is today. The pace of change and innovation was also slower than it is today, due largely to the singular method of transition. Style and techniques (even for individual tunes) would survive the transmission process mostly unchanged, resulting in styles that were linked to a family or a small region of Ireland.

The major difference between modern times and this hazily defined traditional period is the accessibility we all have to recordings, radio broadcasts, sheet music books, music festivals, and live performances in distant areas that we can drive to listen to. The individual style of a musician is much more likely to be based on combinations of several sources than ever before - a fiddler might start playing from listening to Kevin Burke recordings and learning to use some of Kevin's techniques, followed by a few years of instruction from James Kelly, and later several years of touring with the Pogues. The result is that an individual player may choose from several sources what they like to do, resulting in a unique combination of influences on their playing.

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Volume 8, Issue 4

Anthony Kearns: The man behind the voice

For more information, visit www.anthonykearns.tripod.com

Anthony Kearns is a born entertainer. He may have snagged the title, "Ireland's Best Living Tenor", but he'll jokingly tell you that he's also got the gift of the gab, "I could rabbit on for hours. I didn't just kiss the Blarney stone, I swallowed it." His banter is casual and despite his success, he is not ready to sit back. "If the audience wants me, I'll keep coming back."

Along with his fellow members of the Irish Tenors, Anthony first broke onto the American stage when PBS aired a concert from Dublin in 1998. Up until then, the Mediterranean giants Pavorotti, Domingo and Carreras had ruled the world of tenors, but "the darlings of PBS" were fast winning over their audiences. Anthony and "the boys" took songs like "The Wild Irish Rose" out of the pub and gave them a bigger sound -- the backing of a 60-piece orchestra. A mixture of toe-tapping songs and flawless arias gave concert performances a new energy, and before long they were appearing on shows such as "Live with Regis and Kelly" and "The Today Show". This exposure gave Anthony the platform to challenge his vocal range and to branch out as a solo artist. He loves nothing better than trying out new pieces on his fans. "The audience is like a bull," he laughs, "you've got to wrestle with them."

Hands down, Anthony is first to admit that he loves being the center of attention. At an early age, he had the natural lilt of sean nos songs and would belt out music on his mother's button accordian in the family ketchen. "Sean nos songs are an ornament to yourself. They are not strict, they have no rules." At every given opportunity, young Anthony would jump at the chance to perform and never shed away from leading his classmates in song, "I suppose my lungs were in training from an early age when I headed my class and blew into the melodica."

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Volume 8, Issue 3

The Battle of the Crater
Irish miners audacious plan implodes
By Edward T. O’Donnell

The Battle of the Crater was the product of mounting fear and anxiety in the Union in the summer of 1864. Despite the fact that the Union Army was now in capable hands, with Gen. William T. Sherman closing in on Atlanta and Grant driving Lee’s army south of Richmond to Petersburg, Union morale was sagging. The war was now more than three years old and victory seemed no closer than it had in 1861. And the carnage – Grant’s aggressive drive against Lee had produced an astonishing 50,000 Union casualties. Yet despite losing 30,000 men, Lee’s army was still intact. Indeed, part of it was still on the move. In early July a detachment of Confederate cavalry under Jubel Early struck terror into the hearts of northerners when it made a surprise sprint to the north, coming within five miles of the White House before turning back.

So as the massive armies of Lee and Grant stood opposite each other, hunkered down in miles of trenches outside Petersburg, there was a palpable sense of urgency in the air. The time had come, many believed, for bold action. The result was one of the most outlandish military maneuvers of the war.

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Volume 8, Issue 2

Thomas Hickey and the plot against Washington:
Tory conspiracy to poison General Washington thwarted

On June 28, 1776, Thomas Hickey went to the gallows in New York City. He had been convicted of mutiny and sedition for his role in a plot to either kidnap or murder General George Washington. That such a plot against Washington existed seems beyond dispute. But Hickey's alleged role in it remains murky to this day.

In June of 1776, New York City was abuzz with activity and gossip. Commander-in-Chief George Washington had arrived on April 13 from Boston following the British evacuation of that city. He immediately began fortifying the city, knowing the British probably planned to invade New York as part of a grand scheme to divide the colonies. Speculation ran rampant as to when and how the British would invade. There was also talk that the British were secretly plotting a Tory uprising as a prelude to military invasion.

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Volume 8, Issue 2

The competent and confident performer
by Donagh Corcoran ADCRG

Nothing comes easy. This is not a negative thought but a challenge. Whenever we are doing something difficult those three words should be an incentive to continue. We should all have a commitment to learn new things. By understanding why they are important we grow in knowledge and effectiveness as people. Learning is graduated. Knowledge is also acquired over time and not at a particular moment. Therefore when we see a competent and confident performer as a dancer or musician we are experiencing the result of many hours of positive preparation. The word preparation is very important because each new effort to become competent is a higher state of preparation.

Competence can be attained at different levels. A beginner dancer will learn basic work. Within the range of that work he / she can be assessed on a competence scale. When teachers are dealing with such dancers they have to develop improvement strategies to extend the level of competence of each dancer. It is important therefore to consider what stage each dancer is at within the grade in which they have learned steps or elements of steps. In fact this is very important to the establishment of the correct foundation to dancing for a beginner. It is also important perhaps to stress that being in a hurry is not a successful route to being a competent dancer. It takes time to move towards perfection. While we never get there the challenge is to go as far as you can in developing technique and ability. It is the outcome of both of these that we experience in the performance by a dancer.

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Volume 8, Issue 1

An evolution of Irish dance:
the figure choreography

"It's all a big accident, one big happy accident," Mark Howard, T.C.R.G., Founder and Artistic Director of Trinity Academy explained. Trinity Academy, located our of Chicago and Milwaukee, is widely regarded as a pinnacle of innovative Irish dance. With an unprecedented 24 World titles, Trinity remains the first and only American team to have brought home gold for the United States. Howard credits Trinity's world-renown figure choreography, "The Dawn", as one of the crowning jewels of his work. "The Dawn," which won the 1998 Worlds, not only introduced new moves in the choreography department, it pushed the genre as a whole.

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Hornpipe Magazine

Irish dance, music, film and culture

Guaranteed to make you more Irish!

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