Irish Music & May 2018 Dance Association Bealtaine The mission of the Irish Music and Dance Association is to support and promote Irish music, dance, and other cultural traditions to insure their continuation. Inside this issue: Bands! Musicians! Poets! Festival of Nations 2 Actors! Dancers! Summer Camps & Classes 2, 4, 5 Irish Festival Preview 7 JOIN US FOR THE IRISH MUSIC & DANCE ASSOCIATION’S NEXT Wednesday, May 2, 2018 -- 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm Black Dog Café, 308 Prince Street, St. Paul (Near the Farmers Market and the St. Paul Saints’ CHS Field) For more information, or to indicate your interest in performing, contact the IMDA at [email protected] or call Kevin at 651-983-6384 www.IMDA-MN.org Irish Music & 2 Dance Association The IMDA Board is: President: Julia Rogers Vice President: Jan Casey Treasurer: Rob Thomas Secretary: Jean Bergstrom Board Members: John Concannon Kevin Carroll Kathie Luby The International Institute’s annual Festival of Nations is Amber Ladany the most diverse, oldest and longest running multicultural Maureen Engelhardt Aja Beers festival in the Midwest. Since 1932, its goal has been to inspire Editor: Kathie Luby Assistant Editor Kevin Carroll people to discover more about our world and embrace the rich IMDA Board Meetings are open to the membership. cultural diversity in our community. Nearly 100 ethnic groups The Board meets regularly on the second Tuesday of each month at 6:00 pm at the Dubliner Pub, St. Paul. Members are encouraged to verify the time and loca- will come together for a unique, 4-day experience that tion shortly before, as meeting times and locations can change. celebrates cultural heritage through dancing, performances, Contact Information exhibits, demonstrations and cuisine. The Festival is a department of the International Institute of Minnesota, whose E-mail: [email protected] mission is to “help New Americans achieve self-sufficiency Newsletter Submissions and full membership in American life.” We welcome our readers to submit articles of interest, news, and notices of events to be published in the newsletter. The deadline is the 18th of the preceding month. As the Minnesota cultural landscape expands to include Send to: [email protected] more immigrants, our community benefits culturally and economically. By providing a platform to showcase diversity and a stage for new artists we share and document this most precious heritage. The Festival evolves each year by welcoming new ethnic groups and by offering programming that reflects the cultural fluidity of our community. Irish on Grand will be part of the International Bazaar and Irish and Celtic cultures will be represented through performances by the Irish band (Siobhan Dugan, Tom Juenemann, Chad McAnally, and Mary Vanorny), O’Shea Irish Dance, Knocknagow Irish Dancers and Mooncoin Céili Dancers. The Festival of Nations is held at RiverCenter in downtown St. Paul on May 4 thru 6 beginning at 4:30 pm on Friday. Thursday and Friday day hours are reserved for student groups. Advance tickets are available on the festival website. Free transportation is available through MetroTransit by downloading a free pass through the Festival website - www.festivalofnations.com. Rince na Chroi Summer Dance Camp The Rince na Chroi Irish Dancers, celebrating their 15th anniversary this year, will hold their beginner- level summer dance camp from July 23-27 at Concordia University in St. Paul. This is a great way for kids to try out Irish dancing, to learn about Irish culture, to make new friends and to have a lot of fun! The registration deadline is June 1. For more information and to register, please visit http:// rincenachroi.com/summer-dance-camp/. www.IMDA-MN.org Irish Music & 3 Dance Association The Gaelic Corner By Will Kenny As I was listening to the wonderful sean- Many other living creatures are collected with - nós singing of Máirín Uí Chéide lann words. If you are a at the Celtic Junction recently, I beekeeper, you keep many thought about the range of events a beach, or "bee" in and activities that take place your beachlann. Put a lot of there. And I thought that the "birds" (éan) in one place, and Junction was a true cultúrlann, a you have an éanlann or "aviary," cultural center. (My thanks, by the way, to the just as you find "deer" (fia) in a "deer park" (fialann). Traditional Singers Club for sponsoring this event, not only bringing us a great performance, but with Other uses of -lann are less transparent. Amharc is the loveliest Conamara accent to her Irish as well.) a word for "sight" -- the ability to see things, but also The suffix -lann indicates a collection or interesting sights, things that are seen. And you can gathering of something. When you gather the see a series of interesting things, or "scenes," in elements of cultúr in one place, you have an amharclann, or "theater." a cultúrlann. Meanwhile, a feithealann is a "waiting room." Feith is a verb that means to "wait for" or "expect" something. There are plenty of interesting -lann words, many And a réadlann -- réad for "star" -- is not a place of which are quite straightforward. Bring books where you store or gather stars, but where you see (leabhar) together, and you get a leabharlann, which them, an astronomical observatory. is a "library." You store arms or weapons in an armlann. Earra is the word for "goods" or The word dia was once used to mean "day," "merchandise," which you store in an earralann, or although it isn't used that way anymore. Still, "warehouse." A long is a "ship," so a longlann is a your dialann, your "collection of days," is your diary "dockyard." When you are looking for the kind of or journal. cultural enlightenment you find in a "museum," you Finally, the Irish would understand why our "Land go to an iarsmalann, an iarsma being a "relic" or the of 10,000 Lakes" boasts such a strong Scandinavian remains of something. heritage. Their word for a Scandinavian or You find various kinds of "food" (bia) in "Norseman" (also for "marauder") is Lochlannach. A a bialann, the word in Irish used for "restaurant." For Dubh-Lochlannach, "dark" one, would be a Dane, and the specific food "cream" or uachtar, go to a Fionn-Lochlannach, a "fair" one, would be a the uachtarlann or "creamery." Norwegian!) The heart of that word, lochlann, would refer to a place where many lakes (loch) are to be You can also collect various types of people in found. these -lann places. Othar is the Irish word for "patient," so put a bunch of them in an otharlann and Although I like the idea of a Gaeilgeoirlann, a you have yourself a "hospital." Irish uses the "collection of Irish speakers," there is unfortunately word gealt for what we might call a "lunatic," and no such word. Instead, we use the word Gaeltacht, you will find them in the "asylum," or gealtlann -- and Gaeltacht Minnesota has been gathering Irish which cannot be used for asylum in the sense of, say, learners and Irish speakers for more than 35 years. "political asylum." Dílleachta refers to an "orphan," See what we are up to at www.gaelminn.org. so naturally an "orphanage" is a dílleachtlann. A place where you collect "dead" (marbh) people is Ní mar a shíltear a chríochnaítear a marbhlann or "morgue." And since a drúth is a "It's not as is thought that things finish up," that is, "harlot," you would use drúthlann to refer to a "The best laid plans go oft astray" "brothel." www.IMDA-MN.org Irish Music & 4 Dance Association Concerts at the Celtic Junction Arts Center Jamie Gans with Dáithí Sproule, May 6 Music starts 7 pm. Advance tickets $17, $22 at the door. Youth 18 and under free! Old time and Irish fusion! For this very special concert, fiddle great Jamie Gans will be accompanied on guitar by his old friend, Twin Cities guitarist and singer, Dáithí Sproule, who is looking forward to playing some songs with Jamie from their old repertoire. Special guests will include Jamie’s musical partners of yore – local legends Martin McHugh and Laura MacKenzie. Sophie & Fiachra, May 19 Music starts 8 pm. Advance tickets $15, $20 at the door. Youth 18 and under free! Quebecois and Irish fusion! Described as “Invigorating” by The Irish Times, Sophie & Fiachra take the Traditional Music of Quebec and Ireland and mate it in a unique way, remaining true to their roots while creating a new and original sound. Their sound is rooted in the Fiddle playing and singing of Quebecoise Sophie Lavoie, the uilleann piping and Banjo playing of Fiachra O’Regan from Ire- land. Their sound is sweetened all the more by Gaelic and French Canadian song arrangements. Classes in the Eoin McKiernan Library Introduction to W.B. Yeats and Irish mythology. 7:00-8:30 pm. Monday, May 7, 14, 21, and 28 (4 sessions). Class fee: $80 or $72 if you email the instructor Dr. Patrick O'Donnell to preregister:[email protected] Learn how the multi-talented genius, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), employed Irish mythology as inspirational source material to spark into being the Irish Literary Renaissance from 1885-1939, to write profound mystical Irish po- etry, and to craft plays of heroic dignity. The course will broadly survey the key narrative cycles of Irish mythology highlighting such central figures as Balor of the Evil Eye, Lugh of the Long Hand, the Children of Lir, Deirdre of the Sorrows, Cuchulainn, Maeve, Finn McCool, and the Sons of Uisneach. It will then focus in on the specific mythic char- acters that illuminate the writing of Yeats.