Irish Massachusetts

With a name like Sean Casey, you’re bound to get a good greeting in Red Sox Nation, which had its not-so-humble beginnings in the early 20th century when Michael McGreevey led a band of raucous Sox fans – many of them Irish – called the Royal Rooters. But the newest Boston Red Sox player is a popular guy wherever he’s been in his illustrious major league baseball career. The convivial big-leaguer with the sunny disposition has always had an upbeat, outgoing personality. Over the past 12 seasons the chatty first baseman has honed his conversational skills with thousands of players from across the league who have landed on his base. Last year a Sports Illustrated poll of the players themselves voted Casey “the friendliest player in baseball.” And he’s known around the league as the mayor because of his approachable demeanor. Of course, Casey is much more than a master conversationalist and all-around good guy. He’s a three-time All Star and National League MVP who has played for the Cinc...

Tourism Group Announces Irish Festival Season in Massachusetts (Milton) – The Boston Irish Tourism Association released its annual schedule of Irish, Scottish and Celtic festivals and concerts taking place throughout Massachusetts this summer. The outdoor festivities celebrate the state’s vibrant Irish culture and heritage, and feature many of the world’s best traditional musicians, singers and dancers. “Americans and Canadians looking for the very best Irish music don’t have to travel to Europe this summer – they can find it right here in Massachusetts,” said Michael P. Quinlin, president of Boston Irish Tourism Association. “And because of how Irish music and dance have integrated with other traditions over many generations, these festivals also feature a lively mix of Cape Breton, Scottish, Appalachian, Canadian and American folk music too.” The festivals run from June through September and take place in every part of the state, from th...

COOKING FOR THE KENNEDYS New book recalls favorite Kennedy recipes and stories By Michael P. Quinlin One of Neil Connolly’s biggest assignments as an award-winning chef was to bake a birthday cake at a family gathering. It wasn’t an ordinary cake, or an ordinary family. The occasion was Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy’s 103rd birthday, and included dozens of siblings, children, grandchildren and elders who had come together at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport. “I walked into the dining room with the cake – lighted with all the candles – and everyone started singing Happy Birthday,” said Connolly, who served as the personal chef to Sen. Edward Kennedy and his mother for nearly twelve years. “When the candles were blown out, the room quickly filled with smoke. Senator Kennedy said, ‘Neil, take the cake outside before the fire alarm sounds.’ Needless to say, the party moved to the living room.” Connolly’s passion for cooking and preparing creative cuisine found a good home at the Compound, wh...

Taking a Pass on Corned Beef By Michael P. Quinlin In Boston, corned beef and cabbage is being edged off the St. Patrick’s Day menu, replaced by more exotic dishes like Wild Irish Rabbit, Spring Lamb and Irish Potato Cakes with fresh Salmon. These dishes are part of this year’s 4th annual Gaelic Gourmet Week in Boston, a moveable feast of upscale culinary events in the city’s finest hotels, restaurants, pubs, museums and theaters. The culinary feasts focus on Ireland’s relatively new status as a culinary destination, and puts Ireland’s leading chefs alongside their counterparts in the United States and Canada, where the gathering of chefs can share culinary techniques, recipes and traditions. The menu also reflects the changing tastes of Irish-American culture, which had somehow gotten mired for decades in a belief and practice that Irish food was strictly a boiled affair. Tourism Ireland and the Boston Irish Tourism Association are co-sponsors of the event, along with the Irish Dairy...

Irish and Celtic Festivals Abound in Massachusetts This Summer (Boston) – Irish fiddlers, accordionists, flutists, pipers, singers, dancers and storytellers are out in force this summer at outdoor festivals throughout Massachusetts, America’s most Irish state. From Cape Cod and Canton to Blackstone Valley and Springfield, organizers say the demand for high quality Irish and Celtic music has never been stronger. Among the world class musicians performing in Massachusetts this summer are fiddle stars Eileen Ivers, Kevin Burke, Liz Carroll and Seamus Connolly, accordion maestro Joe Derrane, uilleann piping master Paddy Keenan, and traditional music super groups from Ireland like Altan and Dervish. Here is a list of the Festivals: The 5th annual Cape Cod Celtic Festival June 21-24 has “a killer line-up this year” says festival chairman Lew Taylor, featuring all-star duo Liz Carroll and John Doyle, singers Aoife Clancy and Robbie O’Connell, Mance Grady, a renowned master on the ...

By Michael Quinlin When a six foot, four inch, 275 pound professional football player who goes by the moniker Mean Joe Greene offers effusive praise of a certain individual, it's a good idea to sit up and listen. "Through 31 years of trust and respect, our relationship has transcended that of boss and player," Greene said before a packed room of sports stars, family and friends, and national media. "Dan is a best friend. He's a man of great character and integrity. He loves and confesses God. He loves and cherishes his family." The recipient of Greene's heartfelt testimony was Dan Rooney, head of the Pittsburgh Steelers and patriarch of America's first family of football. The occasion was Rooney's induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000. His father Art Rooney, founder of the Steelers franchise, was enshrined in the Hall in 1964. "You can read about Dan's altruism through his service and through his many charitable and civic ...

From Ballinasloe to Boston, people know the name Larry Reynolds, and why won’t they? The gregarious, genial fiddle player has been a central figure in Irish music circles for over half a century, and has been perhaps the major influence in popularizing Irish traditional music throughout New England. Reynolds has lived in the Boston area since 1953, emigrating from Ballinasloe, Galway as a young man, fiddle case in hand. He quickly got into the thriving dance hall scene along Boston’s Dudley Street in Roxbury, playing with musical greats Paddy and Johnny Cronin, Joe Derrane, Brendan Tonra and others.  Over the years, Reynolds has led traditional Irish music sessions regularly at places like the Green Briar Pub in Brighton and the Canadian American Hall in Watertown. The late Congressman Tip O’Neill used to call him whenever the Cambridge pol needed to unwind and sing a few old-style Donegal songs that only Reynolds and his good friend fiddler Seamus Connolly knew. Political chieftai...

The Boston Public Library has awarded its biennial Alicia Monti Research Fellowship this year to Michael P. Quinlin who will use the time to create an annotated bibliography for the Library's extensive collection of 19th century Irish music. Quinlin's research at the Library will cover the works of important Irish musicians and composers like Michael Kelly, Thomas Moore, Michael W. Balfe, and Patrick S. Gilmore, whose works helped to shape Boston's musical life in the 19th century. He'll also chart the library's inventory of sacred music, folk music, classical music, and minstrelsy and vaudeville songs that are Irish-influenced. According to Diane Ota, curator of music at the BPL, the one-month fellowship is intended to stimulate the use of the library's special collections and manuscripts and to provide new or additional access to original sources. The library's Music Department is well known in scholarly circles for its Allen A. Brown Collection of more th...

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...

  HON. JOHN JOSEPH MOAKLEY of massachusetts in the house of representatives Wednesday, March 17, 1999 CONGRESSIOAL RECORD Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, it is fitting that on the feast on St. Patrick I rise to pay tribute to the Irish community of Boston and Massachusetts for building a poignant memorial to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine. The Boston Irish Famine Memorial sits at the corner of Washington and School Streets, near Downtown Crossing, just a few blocks from where Famine Irish refugees originally settled in the 1840s. The memorial's place along the city's Freedom trail serves as a constant reminder of what the Irish and others sought when they braved oceans and continents to reach the United States of America. Ireland's Famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1849, drove over 100,000 Irish refugees to the shores of Boston, where they arrived impoverished, sick, and traumatized by one of the great catastrophes of the 19th Century. Their rise from famin...