Irish Massachusetts

For fans of TV epic  Game of Thrones® , check out the  Winterfell Festival  on September 16, 2018, along  the coast of Strangford Lough in  Northern Ireland .  The one-day festival,  on the grounds of the 820-acre Castle Ward estate, doubled as the Stark family ancestral home for most of Season 1 of Game of Thrones. In addition to walking in the footsteps of Ned Stark, Lord of Winterfell, festival-goes can experience the sights, sounds and smells of a medieval village, with skilled blacksmiths, silversmiths and weavers at work. Also in store, the King’s Tournament Games, featuring skilled horse-riders performing enthralling film-set stunts and tricks fit for entertaining royalty. Plenty of ‘Thrones’ costumery, full contact jousting, sword fighting, falconry and medieval fare such as roast hog and venison pie, washed down with cider and ale, add to the atmosphere. Home to more Seven Kingdoms locations than any...

Haley Richardson  Rockport Music presents Brian O'Donovan's Celtic Roots & Branches concert at 5 p.m. on Sunday, August 26, 2018 at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, Massachusetts. Tickets to the show are available online.   For this year’s concert, O’Donovan presents a range of traditional and contemporary artists from around the Celtic world, including singers, dancers, and virtuoso instrumentalists. They’ll be playing a mix of traditional tunes and more contemporary songs from the Celtic tradition, as well as some French Canadian, Acadian, Appalachian, Balkan, and American tap music.  Among the artists: Robbie O'Connell & Rose Clancy; Keith Murphy; Joey Abarta; Haley Richarson and dancers Kevin Doyle and Evelyn Miller.  Here is a schedule of upcoming concerts presented by Rockport Music . 

    Visitors to Boston and Bostonians themselves can enjoy music, dancing and movies right on Rowes Wharf along the Boston Waterfront, thanks to magnificent  Summer in the City  series hosted by Boston HarborHotel . For two decades, Summer in the City has been a special gift to visitors and residents alike, with music on Tuesday (Pop-Soul), Wednesday (Rat Pack Sinatra) and Thursday (Blues Barge), then Friday classic "Movies by Moonlight," a perfect way to relax into the weekend. The musical line-up is excellent, with some of the region’s top local bands performing.   The series continues through the month and ends on August 31 with a movie screening of Out of Africa starring Meryl Streep. The  Boston Harbor Hotel  (BHH) at Rowes Wharf is an exquisite hotel overlooking Boston Harbor . The active wharf is busy in the summer, with regular tours and cruises by Massachusetts Bay Lines and Odyssey Boston.  The food is amazing, ...

Rockport Music  presents the Nashville-based string band  Della Mae  at the  Shalin   Liu   Performance   Center  in Rockport on Wednesday, August 15, 2018.   Tickets are available online .  Since forming in Boston in 2009,  Della Mae  was named IBMA’s Emerging Artists of the Year in 2013, GRAMMY Nominees in 2014 for their debut album on Rounder Records, named among Rolling Stone’s “10 bands to watch for in 2015.” The band has traveled with the US State Department to over 18 countries spreading peace and understanding through music.  Here is a schedule of  upcoming concerts at the Shalin Liu Performance Center .  For year round details on Irish, Celtic and folk music in New England, visit  IrishMassachusetts.com . 

Norwegian Air has direct flights this summer from T.F.Green Airport in Providence RI to Belfast, Cork, Dublin and Shannon.  Read the full story in Travel & Culture Magazine , published by Boston Irish Tourism Association (BITA), as well as stories about what to do in Ireland when you arrive. Also, read about Rhode Island's Irish community . You can read the summer issue of Travel & Culture online , or pick up a free copy at visitor kiosks, Irish venues and museums in New England.