Irish Massachusetts

The  Groton Hill Music Center  in Groton, Massachusetts is welcoming world renowned Celtic duo Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas to perform live at its Concert Hall this Saturday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. The Boston Irish Tourism Association has a free pair of tickets to the concert. See  details for entering the contest , or  purchase your tickets here . Fraser is considered one of Scotland's premier fiddlers, with a distinguished career spanning 30 years.  He has received numerous awards, radio and television credits, and performances on top movie soundtracks such as Last of the Mohicans and Titanic. Hass is one of the most sought after cellists in traditional music today. Hass is a Juilliard School of Music graduate and has performed and recorded with the world's top acoustic musicians, including Mark O'Connor, Natalie MacMaster, Liz Carroll, Solas and Altan. The duo's extraordinary live performances are matched only by their achievements as educators, with Alasdair

Photo Courtesy of Massport The next time you are exploring the Boston Irish Heritage Trail and numerous Irish-American landmarks in Boston neighborhoods, check out the Thomas J. Butler Memorial Park in South Boston. It part of Massport’s parks and open spaces that offer year-round green spaces to local residents and visitors. The park opened in 2017 in memory of Massport’s longtime director of external affairs and lifelong South Boston resident, Tommy Butler, acclaimed as a longtime government official and beloved a visionary community leader. Read about the opening ceremony . Photo Courtesy of Massport Located along 917-975 East First Street off of Farragut Road and minutes away from Castle Island, the 4.4-acre multi-use park contains a path for runners and walkers that is lined with trees and flowers, along with seating and lighting, a separately enclosed dog park, and bike rakes. The Thomas J. Butler Park is open from dawn to dusk and there are parking spaces nearby, and a b

U.S Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs Joe Kennedy III is speaking in Boston on Thursday, October 17, 2024 at the Young Partners Speakers Series hosted by the Irish American Partnership .  The event takes place from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Mintz Law Office at One Financial Center in downtown Boston. Reserve your seat here . Joe Kennedy III speaking at an Irish American Partnership event President Joe Biden appointed Kennedy as U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland in December 2022. The appointment fulfills a promise to Irish-Americans Biden made during the presidential campaign in 2020, wherein candidate Biden promised to "support active U.S. diplomatic engagement to advance the Northern Ireland peace process." Formed in 1986, the Irish American Partnership (IAP) is dedicated to connecting Irish America and friends of Ireland to their heritage through targeted giving.  Read about IAP's history . "We invest in education, community development, and pe

Martina Curtin  Congratulations to Boston Irish cultural leader and businesswoman Martina Curtin, who received the 2024 Community Champion Award from the Irish Echo Newspaper , a national weekly based in New York City. The award is being presented to Curtin and eight other recipients at a ceremony at Rosie O'Grady's Restaurant in New York on Friday, October 11. Born and raised in County Clare, Curtin is currently Board President of the  Irish Cultural Centre of Greater Boston , the first woman to hold the position.  The Centre was founded in 1989 to celebrate Irish culture and heritage in the Greater Boston Area, and today is the largest Irish organization in New England. She is also co-founder of  Mná Mheiriceá , a women's networking group founded in 2023 by women for women.  On the business front, Martina founded  CHC Home Care , a boutique home care agency enabling clients to receive nursing care in the comfort of their own homes.   Irish Echo Profile of Martina Curtin I

  (October 10, 2024) - This weekend and throughout October, literary and popular culture fans and scholars from across the United States and around the world are heading to Lowell, Massachusetts for the annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac 2024 Fall Festival , taking place on October 10-14 in the city Kerouac famously memorialized in his writings. The event is organized by Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Inc. (LCK!), a non-profit group whose mission is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of Jack Kerouac’s life and literature.  David Amram The Jack Kerouac Fall Festival features dozens of events, including live jazz, films, poetry readings and open mic events, literary discussions, book signings and tours of Kerouac's childhood haunts, including the French Canadian cemetery where many of Kerouac’s family members were buried.  Legendary jazz artist David Amram, who collaborated with Kerouac, is performing Saturday night at the Back Page Cafe + Bar in Kearney Square.  Photo cou

Poet Eavan Boland, Photo Credit Arts + Health (October 9, 2024) Ireland's acclaimed poet, essayist and educator Eavan Boland (1944-2020) has broken the glass ceiling once again, becoming the first woman to have a building named after her at Trinity College Dublin in its 432 year history. More details here . The distinguished poet, who earned her BA with First Class Honors in English Literature and Language at Trinity in 1966, helped change the patriarchal, parochial Ireland of her youth by creating a voice for Irish women and children that had barely existed in Irish poetry. "I know now that I began writing in a country where the world woman and the word poet were almost magnetically opposed," Boland wrote in 1995, in her award-winning book, Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in our Times. "In the old situation which existed in the Dublin I first knew, it was possible to be a poet, permissible to be a woman, and difficult to be both." During h