Wix Tix to see Eileen Ivers, Calley McGrane, Makem & Spain Performing at Newport Irish Festival on Labor Day Weekend

The Boston Irish Tourism Association is raffling off free tickets to the 13^th annual Newport Waterfront Irish Festival taking place September 3-5, 2011 at the Newport Yachting Center in downtown Newport, RI.

This Labor-Day festival features fiddle star Eileen Ivers, the Screaming Orphans, Makem & Spain Brothers, Calley McGrane & The Exiles and more.

To enter the contest, go to BITA's Contest Page and follow instructions. 

For a full schedule of entertainment at the Newport Irish Festival, click here. 

You can also purchase tickets online to the Festival. And there’s a special snug package available this year that provides VIP amenities and opportunities for guests.

For year round details on Irish cultural activities in the New England region, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.

Canadian band Great Big Sea performing at Lowell Music Series on Friday, August 26

Great Big Sea, the eclectic band from Newfoundland in the Canadian Maritimes, is performing at the Lowell Summer Music Series in Lowell Massachusetts on Friday, August 26, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $26 in advance and $30 the day of the concert, and can be purchased online.

Great Big Sea  has been performing for nearly 18 years, bringing to audiences around the world a unique blend of rock, pop, Celtic and original music blended into the band's distinctive sound.

For a complete schedule of concerts at the Lowell Summer Music Series, located at Boarding House Park in downtown Lowell, click here.

For year round information on Irish, Canadian and Celtic cultural activities in Massachusetts and New England, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.

For tourist information, visit MassVacation.com. 

Irish Singer Damian McGinty Wins Role on Glee Project

Damian McGinty from Derry, Northern Ireland, a member of the famous singing group Celtic Thunder, has been named the winner of the Glee Project competition, announced in Los Angeles at the conclusion of the show.

McGinty, along with co-winner Samuel Larson, will appear in guest roles in seven episodes of the hit show, Glee on Fox TV.  For coverage by Hollywood Reporter, click here.

Over 40,000 people applied for the two coveted spots last December.

"It is a huge step in my bid to be a successful recording artist," Damian said.  "I am joining such a massive force.  I feel honored, I feel amazed, I just feel incredible." 

You can follow Damian McGinty on Facebook.

For year round Irish events in Massachusetts, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.

Boston Irish Pub Black Rose Hosting Irish Music Cruise on Sunday, August 21

The Black Rose, one of America's most famous Irish pubs, is hosting the first ever Irish Music Cruise on Boston Harbor, on Sunday, August 21, 2011.

Festivities kick off at 11:00 a.m. at the Black Rose, located at 160 State Street next to Faneuil Hall. The boat leaves from nearby Rowes Wharf at exactly 2:00 p.m. for a three hour cruise around Boston Harbor, with live music by Irish ballad band Sunday's Well.

The boat returns to Rowes Wharf at 5:00 p.m, then it's back to the Black Rose, with more live music by The McTaggarts until 10:00 p.m.

Tickets to the Irish Music Cruise are $25 and can be ordered online.

The Irish Music Cruise is part of the Black Rose's year-long celebration of its 35th anniversary as Boston's favorite Irish pub, and America's too. 

You can follow the Black Rose on Facebook, and check out these other Irish pubs and restaurants owned and operated by the Glynn Hospitality Group. 

For year round Irish activities in greater Boston, visit IrishBoston.org

Irish Fiddle Star Eileen Ivers Performs at Lowell Summer Music Series on Saturday, August 20

Bronx-born Irish fiddle champion Eileen Ivers and her band Immigrant Soul, perform at the Lowell Summer Music Series at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 20, 2011 at Boarding House Park in downtown Lowell.

Tickets to the concert are $21 in advance and can be purchased online.  Tickets the day of the event are $25.

Considered one of the best fiddlers of her generation, Ivers captured a record number of All Ireland Fiddle awards, then became the musical standout in the show Riverdance, which toured around the world.  Her current ensemble of virtuoso musicians stretches the boundaries of traditional Irish music by incorporating elements of world music, rock, jazz and salsa. 

For a complete schedule of concerts at the Lowell Summer Music Series, click here.

For year round information on Irish cultural activities in Massachusetts and New England, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.

For tourist information, visit MassVacation.com. 

Tourism Group offers Free Tickets to the Newport Irish Festival over Labor Day Weekend

The Boston Irish Tourism Association is raffling off free tickets to the 13^th annual Newport Waterfront Irish Festival taking place September 3-5, 2011 at the Newport Yachting Center in downtown Newport, RI. 

This Labor-Day festival features fiddle star Eileen Ivers, the Screaming Orphans, Makem & Spain Brothers, and more. 

To enter the contest, go to BITA's Contest Page and follow instructions. 

For a full schedule of entertainment at the Newport Irish Festival, click here.  

You can also purchase tickets online to the Festival. And there’s a special snug package available this year that provides VIP amenities and opportunities for guests.

For year round details on Irish cultural activities in the New England region, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.

Novelist J. Courtney Sullivan is Profiled in Boston Sunday Globe

Writer J. Courtney Sullivan, whose second novel Maine chronicles the lives of a Boston Irish-American family over three generations, was profiled in the Boston Sunday Globe by reporter Robert Knox in the August 14, 2011 issue of the paper.  

To reach the article click here. 

Sullivan grew up in Milton, Massachusetts, a long-time Irish-American enclave, and currently lives in Brooklyn NY.  Her first novel was Commencement.

For year round details on Irish cultural activities in Massachusetts, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.

For tourist information visit MassVacation.com.

Rickie Lee Jones Performs at Lowell Summer Music Series on Friday, August 12

Songwriter and singer Rickie Lee Jones is performing at the Lowell Summer Music Series in Lowell, Massachusetts on Friday, August 12, 2011.

Jones came to prominence with her hit song Chuck E.'s in Love and her first album Rickie Lee Jones, won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

The concert takes place at Boarding House Park, 40 French Street, in downtown Lowell at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets are $35 the day of the concert and can be ordered online.

Special guest and opening act for the show is Occidental Gypsy. 

See a complete schedule of concerts coming up at Lowell Summer Music Series.

For more cultural activities taking place in Massachusetts and the New England states, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.

For tourist information visit MassVacation.com.

Civil War Concert at the Forbes House Museum in Milton on Sunday, August 14

The Forbes House Museum in Milton Massachusetts is presenting a Civil War Concert on Sunday, August 14, 2011, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m..

Music is being provided by Dixon's Gold, led by musician Scott Shelter. 

The Forbes house was the home of Robert Bennet Forbes, a wealthy sea merchant of the 19th century who is best remembered for his missions of mercy to the famine-ravished Irish in 1847, when he sailed the USS Jamestown to County Cork with a ship load of supplies and food.

For more about Boston Irish history, visit IrishHeritageTrail.com

For cultural events taking place in greater Boston throughout the year, visit IrishBoston.org.

Irish Documentary Blazing the Trail is screening at the Rhode Island Film Festival on Sunday, August 14

Blazing the Trail: The O'Kalems in Ireland, a documentary directed by Irish film scholar Peter Flynn, is showing at the Rhode Island Film Festival on Sunday, August 14, 2011 at noon.

The documentary takes a look at the early films made in Ireland between 1910 and 1915 by a group of American film pioneers working for the Kalem Company in New York.

Flynn, who is co-founder of the Irish Film Festival Boston, (IFFB) is a faculty member at Emerson College in Boston. You can follow the IFFB on Facebook.

For more information on Irish cultural activities in New England, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.

Boston Police Pipe Band opening for Gaelic Storm at Wilbur Theatre on Thursday, August 11

The Boston Police Gaelic Column of Pipes and Drums, the Boston Police Department's bagpipe band, is performing with  Gaelic Storm, a traditional Irish music ensemble, at the historic Wilbur Theatre in downtown Boston on Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.

Tickets to the concert are $25-$45 and can be purchased online.

Since forming in 1992, the Boston Police Gaelic Column has become one of the region's most popular Irish bands, traveling throughout New England and also to Ireland regularly to perform.

Gaelic Storm formed in 1995 in Los Angeles and since then has performed around the world.  Their music was on the sound track to the movie Titanic.

For more details on Irish cultural events in Boston, visit IrishBoston.org.

Reagle Music Theatre of Boston Presents Sound of Music, August 5-14, in Waltham

The Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston is presenting The Sound of Music from August 5-14, 2011, starring Broadway star Patrick Cassidy as Captain Von Trapp and Sarah Pfisterer as Maria.

Tickets to the show range from $35 - $57 and can be purchased online.

Located at 617 Lexington Street in  Waltham, Massachusetts, Reagle Theatre is an award-winning regional theatre company, founded in 1969, that features Broadway stars performing alongside local talent.

Last spring, Reagle received four awards at the 15th annual Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) ceremony for best theatre in the region.

For a schedule of upcoming shows at Reagle Theatre, click here.

For year round cultural activities in Massachusetts, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.

For tourist information visit MassVacation.com.

JFK Library Celebrates 50th anniversary of the Cape Cod National Seashore, August 7

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s signing the Cape Cod National Seashore Act, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, along with PEN New England and the National Park Service, are hosting a celebratory event on Sunday, August 7 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. at the Salt Pond Visitors Center in Eastham on Cape Cod.

Former Senator Paul Kirk will introduce the proceedings, and local authors Rebecca Goldstein, Alice Hoffman, Kermit Moyer, Dale Peterson, Steven Pinker, and Richard Russo will extol the beauty of this unique shoreline, its dunes, its habitats and wildlife that President Kennedy preserved by signing this landmark bill in 1961.

For more information on the JFK Library, click here.

For details on year round cultural activities in Massachusetts, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.

For tourist information visit MassVacation.com.