Harvard Praises Larry Reynolds, the Fiddler of Ballinasloe
Larry Reynolds, fiddler by Michael Quinlin This story originally appeared in The Irish Echo issue of December 17-23, 2003. The scene might have come right from an old Irish saga. On a cold winter’s night recently Gaelic scholars and Irish leaders gathered at the Loeb House at Harvard University, in a lavish dining hall seeped in tradition. With fireplace blazing and chandeliers low, forty invited guests sat down to a formal pheasant dinner and an evening of toasts, stories, laughter and a few tears in honor of local fiddler and traditional music impresario Larry Reynolds and his wife Phyllis. Reynolds was praised for his generous and unflinching devotion to traditional Irish music in Boston, a devotion that covers half a century. He follows in the footsteps of other prominent men and women to receive the honor, including poet Seamus Heaney, politician Billy Bulger, former Consul General Orla O’Hanrahan and University of Ulster president Gerry McKenna. “Larry got two standing...