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.

Rockport Music presents the Canadian Celtic folk rock band, Enter The Haggis , in concert at the Shalin Liu Performance Center at 8 p.m. on July 19.  Tickets are available online or at the venue. Based in Toronto, the band has released eight studio albums.  Their original songs such as One Last Drink, Down with the Ship and Gasoline have become folk rock anthems.  Here is a schedule of concerts at Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport this summer. Find year round details on Irish and Celtic activities in New England by visiting IrishMassachusetts.com . 

Boston's  Irish Famine Memorial  was unveiled before a crowd of 7,000 people on Sunday, June 28, 1998 at the corner of School and Washington Street along Boston's  Freedom Trail  and  Irish Heritage Trail . The $1 million Memorial commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine which occurred in Ireland between 1845-1849, killing nearly one million people and forcing another two million people to emigrate to  Boston, New York, Halifax and other eastern seaboard cities. The memorial project was headed by the late  Thomas J. Flatley , along with  Michael Cummings  and others from the Boston community.  At the time of the memorial's unveiling, Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson wrote, "I hope people who come here reflect on the survivors.  And remember, we are the survivors of the survivors."  Since Boston's Irish Famine Memorial was unveiled, other memorials to the Famine generation were unveiled in Lawrenc...

On June 28, 1998, the Boston Irish Famine Memorial Committee issued a 32-page commemorative book was issued at the dedication and unveiling of the Boston Irish Famine Memorial in downtown Boston on June 28, 1998.   The book contains photos of the work in progress, letters from Irish public officials, the text for the eight narrative plaques, and a list of every individual, group and business making a donation to the project.  The commemorative book was written and produced by committee member Michael Quinlin , with graphic design provided by Trinity Communications and printing by Pyramid Printing.   The $1 million Famine Memorial project was led by Thomas J. Flatley , and created as a tribute to the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine of the 1840s, and a tribute to the generations of Irish who faced pestilence, disease and death during this period.   The Boston Irish Famine Memorial is part of Boston's Irish Heritage Trail .  

( BOSTON ) -- This month the Boston Irish Tourism Association (BITA) released its 2018 summer issue of  Travel & Culture Guide , a compendium of Irish festivals and concerts, culinary, cultural and literary activities taking place in Massachusetts and throughout New England .   The 28-page color magazine is  distributed free  at visitor kiosks and cultural venues throughout Massachusetts and is available in  digital format online.    It has a shelf life through October 2018.  In New England, the magazine features outdoor festivals concerts, from Boston to Tanglewood and from Cumberland RI up to Rockport, MA.  Some of the performers at Tanglewood this summer include rock/blues/folk legends James Taylor, Bonnie Rait, Ry Cooder and Emmy Lou Harris.  The Boston Harbor Hotel at Rowes Wharf continues its Summer in the City series with free concerts Tuesdays through Thursdays, and free movies every Friday through ...

Photo of Kevin White Statue at Faneuil Hall, courtesy of BITA Boston Irish Tourism Association (BITA) is offering a guided tour of Boston's Irish Heritage Trail at 10 a.m. this Saturday, June 23, 2018, led by tour guide Ted Kulik , an expert on local history. The tour begins at the Visitor Information Center on Boston Common and covers 10 stops along the Trail.  Admission is $15 for adults and $12 for seniors, students and military.  Children under 12 go free when accompanied by a parent.  Fill out the reservation form here , or purchase your ticket the day of the tour at the VIC. See video from Chronicle/WCVB5 ABC on the origins of the Trail and what's on it. The Irish Heritage Trail was created in 1994 and covers over 300 years of Boston Irish history, from colonial Irish like Governor James Sullivan and Boston Massacre victim Patrick Carr, to 19th Century Civil War heroes and the Famine generation, to 20th century political leaders, builders and soc...