July 2018 ’s hometown VOL. 29 # 7 journal of Irish culture. $2.00 Worldwide at All contents copyright © 2018 bostonirish.com Boston Neighborhood News, Inc.

Most of the boys shown in this Dorchester Youth Soccer photo will travel to Northern Ireland next month to compete in the Foyle Cup in Derry. Shown above in first row, from left: Zach Demichele, Jayden Romao, Alex Oliviera, Brendan Hobbs, James Sansone, Ryan Hobbs, Pat Jackson, Julian Nagy, Mason Cleary, Ceadan Mc Cusker, Mateo Buyu, Jackie Hanlon, Ariel DaSilva, Pat O’Hagan, James Murphy, Coleman Mikalaukis; Second row: Joe Jackson, Head Coach Joe Hobbs, Max Garside, Kian Hanbury, Donald Le, Diego Buyu, John Allen, Shea Flaherty, Peter Datish, Jack Sullivan, Thomas White, Andres Calderon, Conan McCusker, Alejandro Calderon, Tomas Arevalo, Sean Hobbs, Asst. Coach Jose Calderon, Asst. Coach Adilson Da Silva. Not pictured: Ethan Somers, Eamon Kelly, and Luke Hugo. Photo courtesy of Joe Hobbs 34 Dot soccer youths are prepping for games in N. Ireland next month

By Isabel Lord two years in the making, though we’re 5,000 miles were army barracks...the The Foyle competition, handful of Irish-American Reporter Correspondent and the location of the apart,” said Hobbs of his stuff you see of the Middle named after a onetime kids with Irish parents Two youth soccer teams competition is not ran- friends. The tournament, East on TV. That’s what Northern Ireland po- who are going, for the first from Dorchester will trav- dom. In 1987, two boys called the Foyle Cup, was it was like in the ’70s and litical constituency, is time, to see where their el to Northern Ireland from Derry stayed with a suggested to him by one of ’80s,” he said. “Now when quickly becoming one of parents are from,” said next month to compete teenaged Joe Hobbs, now those friends and it offered you cross that border, it’s the biggest in the UK, and, Hobbs. “I think they’re ec- in an international tour- the program director of the opportunity for Hobbs like driving from Boston with youth teams from static. I hope so.” Although nament in Derry where DYS and a team coach, to let his players have an to Cambridge.” clubs such as Manchester the group is staying in a they compete with teams while they were playing experience similar to his This tournament is United and other English for a week, the play- from England, Ireland, in a soccer tournament own: meeting new people, a large reason for that Premier League Teams, ers will spend two nights Finland, Germany, and in Boston. The three boys seemingly worlds away, change, he added. Found- the players are being with host families to get Africa, to name a few. became best friends, with through soccer. ed in 1992, the Foyle Cup heavily scouted. a taste of the full Irish In total, 34 youngsters Hobbs visiting them in Derry itself has changed started as a way to heal Many of the Dorchester experience, and, probably, from the Under 13 and Derry throughout high much since Hobbs first the wounds of war by youths who are going to make a few friends. Under 16 Dorchester school and remaining visited there in the late creating an international Derry next month, each To donate to these Youth Soccer (DYS) teams in touch with them long 1980s. “When I first ex- gathering and inviting one traveling with at least travels, visit crowdrise. will fly over for the games, after. perienced it, there were people of different faiths one parent, have been com/o/en/team/dorches- which begin on July 16. “These guys are like soldiers with machine and beliefs to experience playing together since the ter-to-derry. The trip has been almost brothers to me, even guns patrolling it, there the “new Derry.” third grade. “We have a Rooting for Katie A Dot salute to the story of Sean Mannion, As she fights MS, friends ‘The Man Who Was Never Knocked Down’ By Dan Sheehan with Mayor Martin Walsh rush to help BIR Staff and scores of the boxer’s friends, family, and fans. By Daniel Sheehan The title of the new book – “The Man Who Was The book chronicles Reporter Staff Never Knocked Down” Mannion’s move to Amer- “Every day it feels like ica, his rise to the top of I’ve run three marathons.” – pretty much captures the spirited life of its the light middleweight That’s how Katie Kelly rankings in the US, his in- O’Donnell describes the main character, the Irish American boxer and one- volvement with members extreme exhaustion, phys- of the Irish underworld ical and mental, that she time world championship contender, Sean Mannion. in South Boston, and the has to cope with every day. various obstacles he faced “It’s hard to explain,” she On Sat., June 23, an overflow gathering packed along the way. says. “I’ve actually run a “I grew up in Conne- marathon before, and I’ve JJ’s Pub on Dorchester Avenue in Savin Hill to mara, and in the early never felt nearly as tired ‘80s, Sean Mannion was as this.” celebrate the release of the biography of Mannion a childhood hero to us,” Her fatigue is a symp- Katie Kelly O’Donnell said Mac Con Iomaire. tom of multiple sclerosis, the Neponset native was a by the Irish author Ronan Mac Con Iomaire. Man- “The fact that there was the chronic autoimmune third-grade teacher at the someone on the world disorder against which Condon School in South nion, who has maintained roots in Boston and in stage from the area that Katie, 42, has fought a Boston and mother of a we came from and who Dorchester since arriving Reading and imbibing fare at JJ’s Pub for the launch constant battle since she 15-month-old daughter, spoke Gaelic on the world was diagnosed in Febru- Áine. from Ireland at age 17, of a new book about the boxer Sean Mannion. was in attendance, along ary of 2016. At the time, (Continued on page 14) Mike Cesarini photo (Continued on page 7)

34-Month 46-Month 58-Month

% % % 1.50APY* 1.85APY* 2.20APY* If our rates go up, your’s can too! * Rates expressed as Annual Percentage Yields (APYs), are accurate as of 1/1/18, and are subject to change without notice. The bump-up option can only be exercised once during the term of the certificate. The certificate term is not extended by the bump-up/APY increase. To initiate the one-time bump-up contact a Member Service Representative at any branch office. City of Boston Credit Union will use its best efforts to comply with all APY increase requests by the close of business on the next business day. APY increases are not retroactive, and will apply to the remainder of the certificate term. APY increases can be initiated on the 34-month certificate if the then current APY for City of Boston Credit Union’s 34-month certificate or 36-month certificate is above 1.50%, or on the 46-month certificate if the then current APY for City of Boston Credit Union’s 46-month certificate or 48-month certificate is above 1.85% APY or on the 58-month certificate if the then current APY for City of Boston Credit Union’s 58-month certificate or 60-month certificate is above 2.20%. In no event can the bump-up rate exceed the then current rate for the certificate. Dividends will be credited to your account and compounded every month. Upon maturity, 34-, 46- and 58-month Bump-Up Certificates will automatically rollover into the member’s City of Boston Credit Union share account. All other certificate terms and conditions will apply. Minimum deposit of $500. 617-635-4545 Deposits can not be made during the term of the account. Rates may change after account is opened. Fees could reduce earnings. Subject to penalty for early withdrawal. Not available for IRA Certificates. Must be a member of City of Boston Credit Union to open Cityofbostoncu.com certificate account. Offer may be withdrawn at any time. Federally Insured by NCUA. Excess share insurance by MSIC. Page 2 July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com Irish International Immigrant Center An agency accredited by US Department of Justice One State Street, 8th Floor, Boston, MA 02109 (617) 542-7654 Fax (617) 542-7655 Website:iiicenter.org Email: [email protected] Marching and learning together: “Irish for Pride” and IIIC’s Intercultural Gathering, Black, Green & the Rainbow Following close on the Wheel’s Artistic Direc- heels of the Pride Parade, tor, and Fari Sattar from the IIIC held its annual Fenway Health’s Violence intercultural event, Black Recovery Project. and Green, on June 16h at The panel was moderat- Hurricanes. This year, we ed by Colette O’Neill from discussed respecting and Cork, IIIC’s board vice protecting the rights of president. The audience the LGBTQ+ immigrant enjoyed live Latin music community with a panel provided by Zumix, an discussion that included East Boston after-school Grainne Close, the equal youth program, in round- marriage advocate from ing out the afternoon with Northern Ireland, Mi- celebration and hope. chael Dowling, Medicine

LEGAL CLINICS UPDATE

The Irish International Immigrant Center’s immigration attorneys and social workers are available for all immigrants during this time of uncertainty and concern in our community. We are closely following the changes in immigration Irish for Pride at Boston’s Pride Parade policies, and are available for confidential legal consultations, and case representation. At weekly legal clinics, you can receive a free and confidential Commerce grad has positive experience in New York consultation with staff and volunteer attorneys. For For Dublin native Sean own memories in the US. information, or if you or anyone you know would McGovern, the most no- With support from like to speak to an immigration attorney, please ticeable difference be- IIIC’s Paul Pelan Sean, call us at 617- 542-7654. tween Ireland and New he secured an internship York City isn’t the size to build upon his commerce Upcoming Schedules or the rapid activity one degree. “I work in midtown normally associates with Manhattan at an accoun- Clinics are in the evening – please do not arrive New York, but rather, “the tancy office,” he said. “The more than 30 minutes before a clinic begins. positivity of the New York rules of accountancy apply people. It’s incredible… to every business… and Downtown Boston – Tues., July 17, 4 p.m. at New Yorkers are amaz- gaining experience will aid the IIIC, One State Street, 8th Floor. ing, no matter what the me in the future for other Brighton – Mon., July 9, at 6:30 p.m. at The problem is.” business ventures.” Sean Green Briar Pub, 304 Washington St. Sean also has positive is confident that his expe- Dorchester – Wed., July 25, at 6:30 p.m. at St. things to say about his rience and an American Sean McGovern at his desk in Manhattan. Mark’s Parish, 1725 Dorchester Ave. time on the J-1 Irish Work reference will stand out perfectly.” ily and friends. When he Wednesday, July 25th at 6:30pm and Travel Exchange Visi- and set him up for success When Sean’s not work- concludes his exchange tor program. The NUIG when he returns to Ireland. ing hard, he enjoys the program in July, he an- Citizenship Clinics graduate heard stories His professional experi- activities New York of- ticipates traveling before At the IIIC’s downtown offices, One State Street, from friends about their ence aligns well with his fers. He even braved the returning home, noting 8th floor from 10 a.m., to 1 p.m. Walk-ins are experiences on the ex- expectations, “Americans cold on New Year’s Eve that the US has “lots of welcome! change visitor program, value hard work and hon- to watch the ball drop in hidden gems still yet to be Our Downtown Boston location is fully accessible and decided to create his esty, and for me that fits Times Square with fam- explored!” by public transportation. Phone: 617-542-7654 | Fax: 617-542-7655 | iiicenter.org More IIIC coverage on Page 6

EDUCATION SERVICES IRISH CHAT NIGHTS AT IIIC TECH GOES HOME WELLNESS SERVICES COMPUTER SKILLS COURSE WHAT: Computer Skills Class

WHERE: Irish International Immigrant Center One State Street 8th Floor Boston, MA

WHEN: June 25, 2018 - July 25, 2018 Improve computer skills at Mondays & Wednesdays, 6 PM - 8 PM Celebate 125 Years of Irish Language: Bliain na Gaeilige the IIIC! 2018 with the IIIC and Cumann na Gaeilge - Boston! During this course students will learn to: CONTACT: Bonnie Greenwood • Create and become proficient in Google applications including Gmail, 617-542-7654 EXT. 36 Join instructors Matthew Caughey and Pat Clifford for Irish conversation Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google [email protected] nights open to the public. Tea and Irish baked goods will be provided. Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. • Improve your typing skills FEE: June 21, July 26, and August 23 at 6:15-8:15PM • Utilize job search sites to assist in $50 - INCLUDES GOOGLE career advancement CHROMEBOOK, ONE YEAR OF ALL LEVELS WELCOME! • Learn about social media and it’s ROSETTA STONE ENGLISH, AND benefits for networking RSVP to Siobhan Kelly ([email protected]) • Practice using popular websites for HOME INTERNET TO QUALIFYING PARTICIPANTS. personal research projects 8th floor at 1 State Street, Belfast Room, Boston, MA 02109. REQUIREMENTS: • Attend at least 15 hours of class time • Complete final project Space is limited so come in and FEARADH NA FÁILTE ROIMH CHÁCH • Be a low-income resident of Boston, register for the course today! Cambridge, or Greater Boston A VERY WARM WELCOME TO ALL • $50 for Chromebook EDUCATION SERVICES Like us on Facebook! @IrishOutreachandWellnessServices bostonirish.com July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 3 COMINGS, GOINGS, AND DOINGS Irish consulate: Check your dual eligibility online The Consulate General of Ireland in Boston is encouraging city residents with Irish backgrounds to check if they are eligible for Irish citizenship. According to the consulate website, if you have a grandparent who was born in Ireland, you can apply for Irish citizenship through a process called Foreign Birth Registration. The application process calls for an online credit card payment of 278 euro and a list of supporting documents, including both your and your grandparent’s birth certificates. Applications for Foreign Birth Registration can take up to six months to process from the date of receipt of a complete application with all the required supporting documentation. You can find the list of documents and other requirements online at www.dfa.ie/passports-citizenship. GAA Youth Games set for ICC in August The Irish Cultural Cen- tre will host the Gaelic Athletic Association’s 2018 Continental Youth Championships (CYC) on its campus in Canton from Wed., Aug. 1 through Sun., Aug. 5. The event, which is hosted by a dif- Galway historian William Henry (center) was ferent US city each year, greeted after the lecture by Galway natives Della is the biggest Gaelic sports Costello, Dorchester and Jim Grealish, Dedham tournament outside of Bono leads his U2 brethren in concert at TD Garden in Boston late last month. Ireland. Karoline Gierymski photo William Henry discusses Galway This year’s CYC will fea- in lecture at Cambridge Library ture dozens of teams from An audience at the Cambridge Public Library on all around the country, as June 14 heard William Henry, an author, archaeologist well as a few from Canada, Dublin jury finds Drumm guilty; and preeminent historian of Galway Ireland, give an England and Ireland. illustrated lecture consisting of an overview of Galway About 2,500 youths, rang- he gets six years on fraud counts based on some of his books. The lecture covered the ing in age from under six history of Galway through the Stone, Bronze, and to under 18 will compete in Associated Press Iron ages, the early Christian period, the founding of hundreds of games, with LONDON – David Galway city by the Normans, warfare with the native tournaments in hurling, Drumm, the former chief Irish, the rise of the tribal families in the city, and the camogie, and both boys’ executive of the defunct visit by Christopher Columbus in 1477. and girls’ Gaelic football. Anglo-Irish Bank, was Henry also touched on the devastating effects of the Several local teams will convicted late last month Great Famine, and the rebellion of 1916 and examined play a prominent role in of fraud for his role in the strong ties between Galway and Massachusetts, the games, including Trin- inflating the lender’s bal- concluding with a very brief look at some photos of ity from Milton, a squad ance sheet before it col- present-day. from Canton’s Irish Sports lapsed in the 2008 global The lecturer is a graduate of University College Youth League, and mul- financial crisis. Galway and he has received an honorary doctorate tiple units from Dorches- Specifically, a jury at from the National University of Ireland. He is the ter’s St. Brendan’s club. Dublin Circuit Criminal author of some 17 books about Ireland and writes a An admission fee of $10 Court found him guilty of weekly column titled talking history in the Galway will be charged for the conspiring to inflate the Independent newspaper. weekend’s games. For bank’s deposit levels by The lecture was hosted as part of a series by the more information, visit 7.2 billion euros ($8.5 bil- Cambridge Public Library. cycgaa.org. lion) in its 2008 earnings report. He had denied Dubliner Paul Flynn to captain GPA conspiracy to defraud and Dublin footballer Paul Flynn has been named the new false accounting. chief executive of the Gaelic Players Association, accord- The judge hearing the ing to a report on rte.ie. “The Fingallians man will take case, Karen O’Connor, up the role in September, having worked out his notice sent Drumm to jail for as a commercial director with recruitment agency Lin- six years after taking into coln Recruitment,” RTE reported. “Flynn, 31, has been account the time he had on the board and the National Executive Committee spent in US custody await- of the of the players’ representative body since 2012.” ing extradition to Ireland. David Drumm A five-time All Ireland winner, Flynn will succeed In court, she said that he Dermot Early, who stepped down in January. In an was not being jailed for his bailed out by the Irish to Boston after the bank’s online posting, Aidan Browne of South Boston, presi- role in the financial crisis, government, at a cost to collapse, but was sent back dent of the Boston chapter of the Friends of the GPA, only for the two offenses he taxpayers of almost 30 bil- to Ireland in March 2016 PAUL FLYNN had just been convicted of. lion euros. Drumm moved on an extradition warrant. said: “Congratulations to Paul, a great leader on and GPA captain-elect off the pitch. A great representative of all the Players The bank was later in Ireland - huge support from all the Friends of the GPA in the US.” – ED FORRY UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE ICC Grateful thanks from Kieran Jordan July 7 Byrne & Kelly The GoFundMe cam- I am about 6 weeks Aug. 12 Hermitage Green paign to assist Irish into treatment now. I dancer Kieran Joran have had a few good Aug. 12 KERN continues to grow, with days, and plenty of not- 389 donations totaling so-good ones. But I’ve Taking sign-ups now more than $32,000 in had a few victories too for our Golf Tournament in September little over five weeks. ... like I made it to the Y Early bird 5k registration open now - Donations may be made and swam for 15 minutes online at this address: last week. I would not Just $30 (includes t-shirt) gofundme.com/kieran- have had the strength jordan039s-healingfund. or wellness to do that In an update posted even a couple weeks ago. in mid-June, Kieran I actually taught my wrote, I wanted to say dance classes last night hello and thank you to too. That was a bit of a all the recent donors. I stretch. But I survived. can’t believe the ongo- It was fabulous to see ing support from both my students and do what friends and strangers. I love, but I definitely This is a huge relief and didn’t feel too well as the help to us right now, and night went on. Vincent and I are both … So, okay, then. humbled with gratitude. We’ve got this, this Lyme thing. This being out of work thing. This be- ing isolated and scared thing. This nausea and not sleeping thing. In regards to the Go Fund Me donations, Vincent recently said, “the money is incredible. But it’s the love that really matters.” THANK YOU ALL, Scenes from the 2018 ICC Festival for both. Irish Cultural Centre • 200 New Boston Drive, Canton, MA 02021 • (781) 821-8291 Page 4 July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com Editor’s Notebook Commentary Cullinane’s message: Look around you and you will see Democracy is in peril, the positive impacts of immigration By Joe Leary there, who want to be united, and the US high tech and we have to save it Special to the BIR businesses who want to bring in European and Asian The United States of America is the most powerful expertise. Still, it is Washington politicians who make By Ed Forry country on earth. Our economy is doing very well, the rules and they are guided by their own history and, The Boston business leader John Cullinane has long there are plenty of jobs for all who want to work, and significantly, their desire to be reelected. been a force in Democratic politics hereabouts. A long- our military is by far the strongest of all nations. We Today, the Republican Party and its president are time ally of Sen. Ted Kennedy, John and his wife Diddy are the most desirable country in the world in which trying to limit immigration, believing their conserva- hosted a reception here for the senator and Sinn Fein’s to live, so it is no surprise that many in the rest of the tive followers want to keep America for Americans. Gerry Adams. And in 2008, he organized Boston Irish world want to come here to raise their families. The Democratic Party has always taken a more liberal community support for Barack Obama. I was pleased We have 50 states to choose view, preferring asylum for those fleeing persecution to join with him in meeting with then-VP candidate from, multiple climates, and a and violence. Individuals in foreign countries who have Joe Biden to send a message to the Obama/Biden ticket tremendous amount of open space. assisted our American military are also given special that they should reach out to Irish-Americans. Then, People have been coming here from access when it comes to immigration. just before the election, Cullinane led an Obama rally all over the world for 300 years. In Which leaves the country today waiting for the US at the Irish Cultural Centre in Canton. fact, almost everyone living here Senate and the US House of Representatives to come At the root of the businessman’s approach is his today is either an immigrant or a together and approve a bill for the president to sign concept of “messaging” – that is, identify a theme and descendant of immigrants. Boston that will straighten out the mess that our immigration follow a plan that targets and reinforces that message. and New York are known for their laws are in right now. He advises gathering together the various members of Irish-descended population, the According to the Homeland Security Office of Im- a group to discuss important points for the message. migration Statistics, between 700,000 and 1 million Joe Leary Midwest for its legacy of German And this year, with the mid-term elections just five immigration, and the West Coast new citizens are naturalized each year. This may seem months away, the message the Democrats want to for the impact of its Asian and Latin American im- insignificant in terms of our total population of 325.7 deliver is, simply: “Save Our Democracy.” migrants. million, but the number of new citizens each year con- “I don’t create the message,” As conditions in places like the Central American tinues to come as a surprise to many people. says Cullinane. “I get agree- countries deteriorate – too many people, too few jobs, In addition, according to the Homeland Security ment from the group as to what all exacerbated by extreme violence –desperate citizens report there were as of Jan. 1, 2014, 13.2 million legal the message should be. Get- set out for the USA in hopes of creating better lives for permanent residents (LPRs) living in the USA, with ting agreement is impossible themselves. The same goes for those living in chaos and 8.9 million of them eligible to become citizens. Most of without the process I have. The without hope in Europe and across the world. the latter number are Green Card holders. These are overall message and focus mes- The problem is that there are many now living in most astounding figures. sages are coordinated so that the USA who came from foreign countries but who The fact of these 8.9 million potentially legal citizens any candidate can use them. don’t want any more people to come here. They like living in the US is rarely reported in the media, but it For example, tests show that ‘A the status quo and their resistance has been going on puts in perspective the entire immigration problem. Better America’ message works for many years. In preparing this article, I made a list of immigrants much better than anything The very first Congress decreed that only “free white and their families whom I come in contact with regularly: prospects have heard to date. men” could become citizens of The United States. Dur- My frequently visited gas station is owed by a family America is already great; just have to make it better. ing the California gold rush in the mid-1800s, laws born in Lebanon … My pharmacist is an Asian Ameri- “I reduced what I am actually doing in the messag- were passed to restrict Chinese men and women from can … My doctor at MGH is from a Korean family … ing space for Democratic candidates into a personal becoming citizens. At the same time, the Irish, Italians, My cleaners, who have three stores, were all born in plan to elect more Democratic candidates and save and Jewish were not welcome in East Coast cities like San Salvador, and they have a front-of-the-store clerk our democracy,” he says. “I have communicated this Boston and New York. who was born in Kabul, Afghanistan … The building to all the key people responsible for Democratic mes- To be sure, changes have taken place in American manager of my former office is a highly educated Irish- saging in Washington as well as individual senators immigration laws enacted by Congress over the years. man who was born in Dublin. and congressmen. They would be well advised to The most important and far reaching of them was the So it is easy to see the positive impact of immigration take advantage of this because it’s available now “1965 Immigration and Nationality Act,” which closed to our country. and it works. The plan can be forwarded to any new the doors to Europeans and opened them for people The politicians in Washington should take note of the candidate or any existing member of Congress up for from Latin America and Asia, in the process changing famous poem printed on the plaque inside the base of re-election. In the process, the candidate’s messaging the long term composition of the USA for the foresee- the Statue of Liberty, which preaches, in part: problem will be solved, fast, and at no cost. able future. “Give me your tired, your poor, “Democrats often lose winnable races because they, The value of immigrants is readily apparent ,espe- “Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, or their candidates, had no message. One hears this cially to the western farmers who need Latin American “The wretched refuse of your teeming shore all the time in campaign post mortems. I, as everyone workers to bring in their crops, the families, here and “Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me I know, am interested in saving our democracy. Help- “I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” ing Democrats win more elections is the way to do it. Thus, I have come up with a personal working plan Off the Bench that solves the Democratic sales messaging problem that can be used by others, as follow: “1. Create coordinated overall and focused messages for the candidates. 2. Test them in the marketplace You’re baking a cake, and the customer to make sure they work. 3. Communicate them to the candidates and Democratic leadership. 4. Provide has to pass your morality test? No, sir! easy access to the message-creating process by the candidate and staffs. 5. Provide no cost assistance. 6. By James W. Dolan and given growing acceptance, objections like those of Enlist major donors in the effort.” Speci al to the Reporter the baker would have ended. Time, tolerance, and profit Cullinane noted that the New York Times columnist When is a cake not a cake? When it becomes a matter would eventually enlighten an unreasonably sensitive Tom Friedman had struck a similar note in early June. of conscience or freedom of religion. The refusal of a conscience. Like principle, conscience can sometimes be “The bottom line is that he believes while other things Colorado baker to make (or create) used to justify actions that do not warrant attention. are important it’s all about saving our democracy and a cake for a same sex marriage does Such high standards should apply (a) to matters of con- the Democratic Party is the only party that can do it, not rise to that level. But even if sequence (b) apart from feelings of personal animosity because the Republican Party has taken a walk. it did, that does not outweigh the (c) when the person asserting conscience has something “Also, that everyone should vote Democratic to make compassion and respect due others to lose, and (d) after considering the effects of that as- it happen because it’s imperative that the Democrats who, in the exercise of their civil sertion on others. The baker’s case fails the first test. regain control of the House and Senate in order to rights, ask for a service or product The court ducked the question by referring it back, save our democracy. However, Democrats have to that in no rational way could be probably believing the Colorado commission would reach out and address the concerns of Independents viewed as an endorsement or ap- likely again find for the gay couple. In any event, it and Republicans to make this happen, and everyone proval of the marriage. will be back before the justices in some form. The line has to do his, or her, part. If so, a livery service could refuse between religious/conscientious beliefs and protected “This is why I created the Democratic Message to provide a limousine, a jeweler, civil rights will eventually be drawn. In my opinion, the Guide-2018,” said Cullinane, “to help candidates win James W. Dolan the wedding ring, a hall owner, wedding cake case is a no-brainer. The harder task will races they might otherwise lose with messages for space for a reception, a florist, be to define when participation becomes approval. In Independents, Conservative Catholics etc. Listening flowers, and a caterer, food for the reception. After the immortal words of Rory, who was discussing this is what Tom Friedman is very good at. Not only is all, the selling of ancillary goods or services is not a matter over a Guinness last week at the Erie Pub: “Hey, he picking it up, but he believes it himself, as I, and validation of the marriage, nor does it rise to the level man, it’s a cake!” Enough said. so many people I know do. It’s all about saving our of participation or attendance. James W. Dolan is a retired Dorchester District Court democracy.” Taken to its logical conclusion, if such behavior were judge who now practices law. deemed constitutional, a religiously or conscientiously motivated merchant could ask prospective customers if they are married, or whom they are planning to marry. Frankly, it’s none of the merchant’s business. Boston Irish I am disappointed that the US Supreme Court did not confront this case directly. Instead, the justices sent it REPORTER back to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which The Boston Irish Reporter is published monthly by: initially had ruled against the baker because some on Boston Neighborhood News, Inc., the high court believed the commission overlooked the 150 Mt. Vernon St., Suite 120, Dorchester, MA 02125 possibility that the baker’s religious objection was sin- [email protected] www.bostonirish.com cere. Under these circumstances, the fact that it may Mary C. Forry, President (1983-2004) have been sincere should not have mattered. Edward W. Forry, Publisher Thomas F. Mulvoy Jr., Managing Editor What if the baker didn’t know it was a same-sex William P. Forry, Editor marriage until he delivered the cake to the reception? Peter F. Stevens, Contributing Editor Would he have the right to take it back? If the cake News Room: (617) 436-1222 was for the child of a same-sex couple, could he refuse Ads : (617) 436-1222 to bake it? When does the sincere religious belief “love Fax: (617) 825-5516 [email protected] thy neighbor” kick in? On The Web at www.bostonirish.com The line should be quite clear in such cases. If you Date of Next Issue: August, 2018 are not actually participating in an action contrary Deadline for Next Issue: Monday, July 23 at 12 noon to a sincere religious belief, you cannot refuse on the Published monthly in the first week of each month. Then vice presidential candidate Joe Biden makes a The Boston Irish Reporter is not liable for errors appearing in advertisements beyond grounds that you would be violating your conscience. the cost of the space occupied by the error. The right is reserved by The Boston Irish point in conversation with John Cullinane in 2008. The gay couple could have gone elsewhere for a cake, Reporter to edit, reject, or cut any copy without notice. bostonirish.com July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 5 Point of View Descending into the abyss of autocracy

By Peter F. Stevens tolerance, Trump’s lies aside – he or she is either BIR Staff benighted by hate or willingly foolish. Even those who Courtesy of President Donald Trump and willing want any migrants turned around at the border and and blindly unwitting supporters, the Arsenal of De- sent back immediately should not embrace President mocracy crumbles daily into the Abyss of Autocracy. Trump’s government-sanctioned child abuse. Those red-and-white “MAGA” caps stand less for Back to “open borders.” In the 19th century, our “Make America Great Again” than for “Make America own Irish and European ancestors “walked right in.” Go Away.” Sadly, the GOP, the erstwhile party of They arrived without documents. They faced no quota Lincoln, is a party in name only. They’re the Whigs system and no immigration courts or law enforcement. of the 21st century, morphing into the Trumpians, Like it or not, our pre-World War I ancestors came Trumpites, or whatever moniker reflecting their to “the Golden Door of America” undocumented. In obeisance to the president will proclaim to history. Boston during the mass immigration of the Great Democrats who await a Blue Wave to rescue them Famine era, about the only thing preventing the Irish from Trump in November or for Special Prosecutor from getting in was if they were quarantined at Deer Robert Mueller’s probe to be completed are likely Island due to disease. They did not have to deal with setting themselves up for crushing disappointment. paperwork issues, quotas, or immigration courts. What Donald Trump knows is that he has cowed his Predictably, “That was then, this is now!” Presi- party to a degree that might well place him above dent Trump and his fellow Nativists bleat today as the law. To him, our Constitution is a musty piece they profess that they want only the “right kind” of of parchment to be torn up or rewritten at his whim. immigrants. You know, those with “merit.” That’s He is the autocrat-in-the-making whom the Found- where historical reality shreds the modern Nativ- ing Fathers believed would be checked by Congress ists’ arguments and exposes either their bigotry or and the courts. Donald Trump may well prove that delusion. The waves of Irish, Germans, Italians, and Madison and Co. were wrong, that the cult of person- Eastern Europeans who came to America from the ality could erode and eventually crush Constitutional onset of the Great Famine into the early 20th century norms and the rule of law. encountered the same prejudice and contempt that For Democrats, the few Republican stalwarts who immigrants from Mexico, Central and Latin America, lament his “theft” of the party, and the pundits who Haiti, Africa, and so many other places face today. deride Trump’s intellect and stunning stream of lies, Our immigrant forebears knew all too well that the reality is that Trump plays them with his uncanny “real Americans” loathed anything Irish, anything ability to make them chase whatever shiny object Catholic, any immigrant, anything they deemed “un- he wants. As with all con artists, he knows how to American.” They proclaimed the need to save the na- sell. He knows that hatred, fear, and resentment tion from going broke to pay for “Paddy and Bridget,” are a winning formula among anywhere from 40 to who were arriving in unprecedented waves. Sound 50 percent of the American public. familiar? All you need to do is substitute Hispanics How else to explain that, depending on whose polls and Muslims for Irish. you believe, as much as half of the nation believes that In Boston for much of the 19th century, anyone who separating kids from their parents and keeping them was not native-born Anglo-Saxon was the outsider, in cages, mysterious detention centers and camps, and understands the basest corners of human nature and the other. Our Irish ancestors would not be fooled by moving them to unspecified spots in some 17 states is exploits them with equal parts bluster and skill. In that Trump’s Nativist cant and xenophobia – even if their perfectly okay. Make no mistake that “zero tolerance” respect, he may well be the genius he styles himself. descendants are fooled today. is Donald Trump’s decision and his alone – not the How else can one account for the fact that the As countless adages preach, we ignore the past at Democrats nor even the egregious Attorney General president has sold so many Americans on the policy our peril. Chillingly, many Americans are doing just Jeff Sessions, who is merely the willing architect of of separating kids from their parents? Trump is cor- that in a haze of hatred wafting from a president President Trump’s utter immorality. rect that the US in 2018 should have border security who believes he and he alone is above the law, above The message is that child abuse of kids who are not and comprehensive immigration reform. If anyone, the Constitution, and above history itself. After all, white and are “the other” is fine – because President however, truly believes his policy that separates and hatred and fear sell “big time.” Trump decrees it. He knows that hatred, division, incarcerates kids on our southern border is moral bigotry, and racism are the glue of his success. He – and, no, Obama and Bush never unleashed zero Planting the Potatoes with Hartnett and Yeats By Thomas O’Grady and “Spraying the Potatoes.” but and yet and wait for a moment. The sestet answers Special to the BIR No doubt Hartnett too would have recognized Kava- the octave, but neither politely nor smoothly. And this Some years ago, I shared with a friend a poem by nagh as a poetic precursor. Presumably, however, he simple engine of proposition and rebuttal has allowed Michael Hartnett that I had recently happened upon. also knew of an earlier—much earlier—poetic reference the sonnet over centuries, in the hands of very differ- Published in Hartnett’s bilingual volume “A Necklace to potatoes, in the work of 17th-century Irish-language ent poets, to replicate over and over again the magic of Wrens” (Gallery Books, 1987), “Dán Práta / Potato poet Dáibhí Ó Bruadair. Hartnett discovered Ó Brua- of inner argument.” Poem” is deceptively simple. Comprising fourteen dair in the early 1950s in the three-volume Irish Texts In Hartnett’s hands, the “answer” is announced in short lines arranged in two quatrains and a sestet, Society edition of his poems (published between 1910 the abrupt shift from the matter-of-factness of the two the poem is self-evidently a sonnet variant. As such, and 1917) and eventually translated a selection in a preceding quatrains to the decidedly imperative tone it might be read as fundamentally subversive—as volume titled “O Bruadair” (1985). A committed student of the first line of the sestet: Hartnett’s covert staking of a claim in the territory of of that poet’s rich body of work, he would not likely a form intrinsically associated with the British poetic have missed the ITS editor’s glossing of the word potáta, Learners—no longer idle, tradition: Wyatt, Surrey, Spenser, Shakespeare, Mil- from a poem dated 1674-75, as “one of the earliest, if but gather your implements ton, Keats, Wordsworth. In fact, in that regard the not the very earliest, occurrences of the word in Irish.” for all of Ireland’s poets poem is doubly subversive—not only written in the Arguably, then, the relationship between Hartnett’s replough the Irish earth Irish language, it also deconstructs via its curtal lines dán práta and Heaney’s “potato poems”—and, for that and you will be bereft the more-British-than-the-British iambic pentameter matter, Kavanagh’s poems harvested from the “stony of potatoes and verse. meter widely associated with the sonnet. Add to that grey soil” of his native County Monaghan—is mostly, the more-Irish-than-the-Irish subject matter of the perhaps totally, incidental. But that imperative also announces not only its en- potato—that tuber that became inextricably associ- But its relationship to a poem by William Butler gagement with but also its speaking back to probably ated with the country’s history after being introduced Yeats may be less incidental and may in fact make the most famous imperative in all of Irish literature, to the hospitable soil and the temperate climate of “Dán Práta / Potato Poem” not just doubly but triply Yeats’s exhortation—essentially his last will and Ireland from the New World in the late 1500s—and subversive. In Hartnett’s own translation, the two testament directed to his poetic successors—in the “Dán Práta / Potato Poem” is a pretty full plate of quatrains that open the poem make transparent the penultimate section of his valedictory poem “Under subversion, indeed. poet’s deployment of metaphor, his indulgence in what Ben Bulben” written in 1938, the year before he died: But the friend I shared the poem with, himself an Robert Frost calls “the pleasure of ulteriority”—“saying “Irish poets, learn your trade / Sing whatever is well Irish poet of considerable repute, read “Dán Práta / one thing and meaning another, saying one thing in made . . .” In effect, Yeats is imposing his will on the Potato Poem” much differently. Perhaps suffering terms of another”: next generation of Irish poets, placing on them a geis, from his own anxiety of influence, he wondered frankly a moral obligation to continue inscribing his particu- how Hartnett had managed, or dared, to write a poem Today I planted poems— lar, and particularly romanticized, vision of Ireland: about potatoes on the mud-caked heels of Seamus dung, knife, seed: “Sing the peasantry, and then / Hard-riding country Heaney, Ireland’s preeminent poetic voice of the past a field my page, gentlemen, / The holiness of monks, and after / Porter- half-century. Heaney had staked a bold claim on my pen a spade. drinkers’ randy laughter . . .” potato fields very early in his career, most famously In 1966, John Montague, the senior poet of Hartnett’s in “Digging,” the opening poem in his first volume of Green nipples will come generation, responded to Yeats in a little essay titled poems, “Death of a Naturalist,” published in 1966. He one by one, “Living Under Ben Bulben”: “There are times when I remembered with both visual and tactile precision the white flowers, their centres wonder if that passage was not composed with malice sensation of working the potato drills behind his father like spits from the sun. aforethought. A friend told me once of interrupting on the family farm in County Derry: two old men near Belmullet, in order to ask the way, But as Paul Fussell observes in his book “Poetic Meter and being shown a path that led onto a sea cliff: is that The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft and Poetic Form,” a sonnet operates on a “principle of what Yeats meant by bequeathing us a catalogue of Against the inside knee was levered firmly. imbalance,” and when Hartnett’s fourteen-liner makes subjects that can now only be legitimately treated in He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep its “volta,” or “turn,” into its sestet after those open- parody?” To scatter new potatoes that we picked, ing eight lines, the poem changes direction in just the Michael Hartnett’s response is more oblique but no Loving their cool hardness in our hands. way that Heaney described so appositely in an essay less dismissive of Yeats’s authority. Matching impera- titled “The Makings of a Music”: “ ‘Verse’ comes from tive with imperative, “Dán Práta / Potato Poem” is an Yet as Heaney acknowledged implicitly in “At a Potato the Latin versus which could mean a line of poetry act not just of subversion but also of reclamation of Digging,” a poem written around the same time and but could also mean the turn that a ploughman made poetic territory. It is Hartnett’s exhortation to each filled with the imagery of crows and crow-black fields at the head of the field as he finished the furrow and future generation of Ireland’s poets to replough—and, and lines of potato pickers moving between hedges and faced back into another.” Irish poet Eavan Boland implicitly, to replant and thus to claim as their own— headlands that echoes the opening lines of Patrick Ka- elaborates on this effect in an anthology she co-edited the metaphorical “crow-black fields” and “stony grey vanagh’s “The Great Hunger,” Kavanagh had already titled “The Making of a Sonnet”: “The octave sets out soil” of their precursors. turned over that ground a generation earlier, both in the problems, the perceptions, the wishes of the poet. that famous long poem and in various other poems The sestet does something different: it makes a swift, Thomas O’Grady is Director of Irish Studies at the such as “Ploughman,” “The Man After the Harrow,” wonderfully compact turn on the hidden meanings of University of Massachusetts Boston Page 6 July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com Immigration Q&A ‘I’d rather fight here’ About conditional In July 1863, the Boston Irish rose up permanent residence: against the nation’s first draft action By Peter F. Stevens The crucial next steps BIR Staff Q. I received a green as the parents; copies of evidence of vacations and This month marks the card valid for two years, federal and state tax re- other trips taken together, 155th anniversary of a based on my marriage to turns with the “married including airline tickets controversial and violent a US citizen. I see that filing jointly” filing status; and hotel bills; evidence chapter in Boston’s an- the card is due to expire evidence of joint checking, of major purchases made nals. In July 1863, in the in a few months. What savings, or other accounts together, such as comput- middle of the Civil War, do I do now? or assets (certificates of ers, audio equipment, the city’s Irish ignited A. Your two-year per- deposit, stocks, bonds, television, refrigerator, draft riots when they rose manent residence (as mutual funds, retirement washer, dryer etc., in- up in rage against the opposed to green cards accounts, pension plans, cluding any financing class and ethnic unfair- good for ten years in etc.), or joint obligations on documents; photographs ness of the nation’s first other circumstances) is any loans.; photo ID cards that show both spouses Conscription Act, which “conditional” because (such as driver’s licenses, together with family and allowed “sons of wealth” you were married to your school IDs, or amended friends; two sworn affida- to buy their way out of US citizen spouse for passports) showing the vits from people who know military service for $300, a less than two years at couple’s joint address; an the spouses as a married sum far beyond the reach the time when your legal apartment lease or a letter couple and who can briefly of impoverished Irish im- permanent residence was from the landlord indicat- describe their relationship migrant families. granted. Now you and ing that both spouses live with them. These can be At the outset of the war, your spouse must jointly at the apartment, or copies relatives, close friends, in 1861, the Boston Pilot file Form I-751 with US of rent receipts showing employers and others, had pontificated. “We Citizenship and Immi- both parties’ names; house preferably US citizens. [Irish] Catholics have only gration Services (USCIS) or condominium deeds No one has all the evi- one course to adopt, only during the three-month or mortgage documents dence listed above, but one line to follow. Stand window before your cur- showing joint tenancy and every couple has at least by the Union, fight for the rent card expires in order obligation; credit cards some of these items. The Union, die by the Union.” to “remove the condition” showing both spouses’ point is to submit every- The Boston Irish would and obtain a green card names on the accounts; thing that fits your par- do all that, and more, with a ten-year validity documents from an em- ticular situation. Another throughout the conflict. period. Neglecting to file ployer showing a change important reminder is Yet in July 1863, the city’s this application on time in records to reflect the that USCIS expects you Irish inhabitants stormed can have serious adverse spouse’s new marital sta- to submit documentation into the streets in bloody In July 1863, the Boston Irish rioted against Presi- consequences, including tus or showing designation that covers the entire two- opposition to President dent Lincoln’s Conscription Act, the controversy the loss of permanent of the spouse as the person year period of conditional Abraham Lincoln’s call spreading from the tenements of the North End. resident status. to be notified in event of ac- residence. The biggest for more Union fighters. Image from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, USCIS wants to see that cident, sickness, or other mistake that people make By that time, the 28th Library of Congress. you are still married and emergency. is not submitting enough and the 9th Massachu- living with your spouse, Also,evidence of life documentation. If not setts Irish Regiments – A very Proper Bosto- and surrounded the First and that you therefore insurance policies where enough proof is submitted, volunteers – had proven nian, Mrs. Harrison Gray Division Police Station. still have a basis for per- one spouse is named as the USCIS will issue a request their mettle and patrio- Otis, presented the 9th Scores of Irishmen joined manent residence (and beneficiary of the other; for further evidence or tism on some of the war’s with a flag adorned with the siege. As the histo- also that you do not have evidence of one spouse’s even schedule the couple bloodiest battlefields. Be- the following words: “As rian Edward Harrington any possibly disqualifying medical or health insur- for an interview, which low the Confederate can- aliens and strangers thou wrote, “They proposed to issues such as criminal ance plan that has cover- will delay processing of nons and sharpshooters didst befriend us. As sons test the question whether convictions). The kinds age for the other spouse; the case. entrenched on St. Mary’s and true patriots we do the Government had the of evidence that you use copies of gas, electric, The IIIC can assist you Heights above Freder- thee defend.” right to drag them from to demonstrate the mar- telephone, cable, and with the I-751 form and icksburg, Virginia, on De- Massachusetts’s Irish their home to fight in a riage relationship are other utility bills showing affidavits and help you cember 13, 1862, a green regiments served with cause in which they did essentially the same as at both parties’ names (or to evaluate whether your banner with its gilded distinction throughout not believe.” your original green card at least the same mailing marriage evidence docu- harp and the Gaelic words the war, displaying the Mayor Frederic W. interview, except that this address); evidence of joint mentation is sufficient. for “Clear the Road!” same courage and resil- Lincoln answered that time you mail the evidence ownership of an auto- Visit one of IIIC’s weekly dipped in the morning ience that had made Ire- question by dispatching to USCIS along with the mobile (title, insurance, clinics as noted in the gusts. Beneath the flag, land’s fabled “Wild Geese” troops to the North End, Form I-751. For example: registration, financing). Boston Irish Reporter the 28th Massachusetts the finest mercenaries in with a light battery of ar- Birth certificates of If one spouse owns the for a free, confidential formed columns, wheeled European armies. More tillery. The North Enders any children born of the car, show at least that the consultation about this into position alongside importantly, the soldiers launched hit-and-run relationship, showing other is covered as a driver or any other immigration the three New York regi- of the two regiments, forays against the troops the applicant and spouse on the insurance policy; law issue. ments of General Thomas through their battlefield and the police for more Meagher’s Irish Brigade, sacrifices, had claimed than 24 hours. Through- Matters of Substance and charged into battle a stake for citizenship out the tumult, Father “as if it were the finest in Boston and beyond Brady and other priests Proud to support the LGBT Community fun in the world.” despite the bigotry of vari- from nearby St. Mary’s Wearing sprigs of ever- ous Brahmins and other Church persuaded many June is synonymous Pride,” heard the bohrain jor depression, trauma, green in their caps so “that Yankees. parishioners to return with Pride, a special time drums and saw the Irish and generalized anxiety they might still carry the The foothold proved to their homes, the cler- of the year when many and rainbow flags flying disorder than the gen- colors of the Emerald Isle,” one that Irish Americans ics’ courage winning the of us come together to together! The 48th Boston eral adult population. shouting “Erin Go Bragh,” would never relinquish. A plaudits of the mayor and celebrate the LGBTQ Pride Parade also marked Suicide is attempted four they rushed impetuously proud Boston Irish veter- other Boston officials. community. It is a time the 25th anniversary of times more often for gay, forward against a storm of an proclaimed, “If they’d No one knows how to honor centuries of the decriminalization of lesbian, bi-sexual, trans grape and canister that… [the Confederates] known many Irish were killed or struggle and suffering homosexuality in Ireland and questioning teens. tore great gaps in their it was us [the Irish], they wounded in the draft riot- by those whose who were and the third anniversary As one young transgen- ranks.” Six times the would have brought cof- ing, but the local news- criminalized and ostra- of the passage of the Irish der woman explained, 28th and the other men fins with them.” papers ran the names of cized, and who continue to Marriage Equality Ref- “We go through each of the Brigade charged, Even as the 9th and scores of wounded men, face the violence and fear erendum. Ireland is the day fearful someone will each assault filling the the 28th were battling women, and children of born of homophobia. It is first country in the world hurt us because of who rebels with equal parts for “Father Abraham’s the “ould sod” treated also a time to celebrate to pass gay marriage by we are.” LGBTQ+, both of awe and dead. The cause,” others in the Irish in Boston hospitals. The love, diversity, visibility, popular vote, with 62 younger and older, ex- Irish could not form for a North End were decrying true tally was undeni- and the gains made in percent of the voters sup- perience higher rates of seventh charge; instead, the president’s latest call ably much higher, but laws and our social fabric. porting it. substance abuse, addic- they staggered away from to arms. The 1863 riots it will forever remain The Rainbow Resistance Our team’s special fo- tion, and binge drinking, the fence and headed back broke out when provost a mystery because the theme of this year’s Bos- cus is always on men- Many factors contribute toward the town. In the marshals tried to serve rioters dragged away the ton’s Pride captured the tal health, recovery and to this reality: prejudice, first charge alone, 545 of Union army draft notes bodies of slain neighbors different facets of Pride, growth; thus Pride is a violence, social isolation, 1,315 Irishmen fell dead or in the Irish North End, and buried them in se- celebrating the third anni- time to discuss the gains and the dual stigma of wounded. The 28th Mas- where husbands, sons, cret “without any official versary of same-sex mar- we hope to see for our navigating both a mental sachusetts lost 158 of 418 and brothers had already permit.” riage and the increased LGBTQ+ community. health struggle and an in the suicidal charges up marched away in Federal The fury of the Bos- acceptance many LGBTQ The LGBTQ+ community identity and / or gender the heights. blue with the 9th and ton Irish at the draft youth experience, while often experiences higher orientation unacceptable Thomas Cass, a notable the 28th. Many of the had threatened to erupt maintaining awareness rates of depression, sui- in many families, schools, figure in the Boston Irish North End Irish had had with similar violence as of the continued attack on cide, and substance abuse. churches, and cultures. community, had recruited enough of “Mr. Lincoln’s the New York riots, but those very gains. While we dance, affirm Along with resources fellow Irish volunteers in War.” Many loathed his Mayor Lincoln’s speedy The IIIC’s Wellness Ser- one another, and feel joy like Fenway Health and the spring of 1861 into the Emancipation Proclama- and bloody reaction con- vices team was delighted and love all around us, National Alliance for 9th Massachusetts Regi- tion, afraid that hordes vinced many Irishmen to be part of the Irish let’s remember, too, that Mental Health, Wellness ment, soon to win renown of ex-slaves would take “that it would be less community’s first official discrimination, isolation, Services works hard to of- as the “Fighting 9th.” even menial jobs from the hazardous to fight the involvement in Boston and fear take a dispropor- fer inclusive, supportive, When the regiment’s Irish Irish at lower wages. In Southern rebels than to Pride on June 9, an effort tionately heavier toll on empathic counseling, and ranks marched through ’s teeming fight Mayor Lincoln.” One that was supported by 19 many people who identify crisis care to everyone who Boston’s Brahmin streets slums, Irishmen, shout- Boston Irishman’s words local Irish groups, and as LGBTQ+, particularly seeks our help. We are to the State House, Gover- ing “rich man’s war, poor about the riots summed coordinated by the Con- transgender people, bi- here for you at any point nor John Andrew lauded man’s fight,” had already up his neighbors’ view: sulate General of Ireland sexual teens, and young along the journey. Contact the troops and asserted unleashed bloody draft “I’d rather fight here, and the IIIC. Hundreds adults. us at 617-542-7654. that the nation must riots over two days. where I can go home to in the crowd cheered LGBTQ people are more – Rachel Reisman, view alike “its native-born By mid-afternoon on dinner, than in the South- with excitement as they than three times more LICSW citizens and those born in July 14, mobs had stormed ern swamps.” read the banner “Irish for likely to experience ma- other countries.” through the North End bostonirish.com July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 7 St. Ann/St. Brendan faces ‘hard decisions’ about parish’s future By Bill Forry late Pope John Paul II was Editor established with a mission Parishioners at two of to reinvent parochial edu- Dorchester’s remaining cation in Dorchester by Catholic churches met bringing five former par- last month to begin a ish-run grammar schools summer-long examina- under one umbrella at five tion of worsening financial campuses— Neponset, problems that could result Lower Mills, Columbia, in more cost-cutting mea- St. Mark, and Mattapan. sures and even potential The St. Mark campus closures, according to the was quickly abandoned two priests who now lead amid low enrollment and the combined parish in Mattapan— the former Neponset. St. Angela school — was About 300 people turned discontinued this year. out for a St. Ann/St. Bren- In 2012, the church dan Parish Collaborative executed a long-planned session, which was held at bundling of parishes into St. Brendan Church after “pastoral collaboratives” with the aim of saving a meeting of the parish’s St. Ann Church on Neponset Avenue, left, and St. Brendan on Gallivan Boulevard. Leadership Team. costs and staff resources, The session was trig- a process that was already gered by a financial and how will the parish serve • The crisis is a symp- But while the newly three campuses – in Lower piloted with success in attendance audit that the all the people in this area tom of the greater prob- installed pastoral team Mills, on Columbia Road, 2009 with the creation parish’s new leaders – best in the future.” lem: The lack of people acknowledges that the de- and in Neponset (St. Ann). of what is known as a Rev. Brian Clary and Rev. Both priests said that involved in the parish in cline in money and people The school building is a “tri-parish.” Under that Robert Connors – said the parish “leadership”— a regular basis. People in the pews is “common,” parish asset, at least on structure, Holy Family, revealed a “more serious” which includes the parish need to return to church, they add: “Ours is more paper. But through the ex- Blessed Mother Teresa problem than they were council, finance committee and soon. critical and needs atten- isting arrangement with (nee St. Margaret), and aware about when they ac- and school boards and • The $850,000 in debt tion.” the Academy system, the St. Peter churches shared cepted their assignments staff— will meet weekly incurred by both parishes Lower attendance has K-8 school pays no rent to a pastor, who manages the to the parish last month. over the next two months needs to be paid off. hit hard in the collection the parish, an issue that finances, clergy, sched- The report showed de- to review options and come • Deferred maintenance box. The parish’s income could also be revisited ules, and facilities at all clining revenue amid a to a consensus as to what for both parishes is esti- from collections amounts through the summertime three churches. dip in Mass attendance steps to take to address mated at $2 million, with to a weekly sum of roughly review process. St. Brendan and St. at both churches, coupled the issues. the property at St. Bren- $3,000. That has led to a At St. Brendan, the Ann were paired together with a heavy debt burden Together with input dan needing the most mounting deficit between only parochial school in in the 2012 reorganiza- tied to operating and main- from parishioners, the attention as the deteriora- income and operating Dorchester still oper- tion— and at least for a taining the aging worship leadership says it plans tion of buildings continue. expenses— more than ated by a parish educates time the combination was spaces and associated to craft a “set of propos- Without a positive out- $40,000 for St. Ann and children in grades pre-K seen as a strong model buildings. Both campuses als” by mid-August that come to these issues as $26,000 at St. Brendan, through 6. under the leadership of have amassed deferred would then be submitted the summer wanes, could according to a letter the Dorchester’s web of two youthful, active lead- maintenance that would as recommendations to this mean the potential priests sent to the parish Catholic parishes has ers: Rev. Sean Connor and cost an estimated $2 mil- the archdiocese of Boston closure of one— or both— community on May 25. been battered by several Rev. John Connolly, both lion to address. by mid-September. churches and/or associ- “The cash flow is impos- waves of consolidation chaplains with the Boston “We did not come here As part of the discussion ated programs, including sible to meet,” they wrote. and reorganization in the Police Department. That to close churches,” said to date, the leadership has the independent parish “Despite being as gener- last 15 years. In 2004, the team ministry ended Rev. Clary, who last month asked: What must be done school housed on the St. ous as they can, those archdiocese closed St. Wil- when both men were re- began what he says is a six- if the parish is to move for- Brendan campus? The who attend can’t support liam church on Dorchester assigned in 2015. year contract to serve as a ward without any changes answer from the leader- all the expenses of a par- Avenue (it was absorbed Since that time, there co-pastor at the collabora- given that some $200,000 ship team is, basically, ish. Hard decisions are into a newly named par- has been high turnover tive. “People are willing is being borrowed for the everything must be on the necessary.” ish— Blessed Mother at the St. Ann-St. Bren- to do anything they can, cost of operations only table, given the scope of The meeting included Teresa of Calcutta, housed dan collaborative, a fact but ultimately the parish through the end of this the problem, which Con- questions and remarks at the former St. Margaret that the new co-pastors leadership needs to make year? Five main points nors emphasizes is more from about 25 parish- church on Columbia Road) addressed head-on in tough decisions about the have been suggested as than just a budget gap. ioners, many of whom as part of a sweeping their introductory letter long-term solution for being key to any rebound: “Nothing is closing right spoke up passionately for diocesan consolidation. last month, writing: “[T} sustainability.” • Attendance at Mass away,” said Connors. But, keeping both churches— In 2008, St. Kevin school here has been too much “Our job is to help people must increase in each par- he quickly pointed out that and the schools nearby— closed its doors in Uphams instability of leadership face reality and pastorally ish – from 300 a week on average attendance at the intact. Corner and the church of and transparency may care for them,” added Con- average to 750 per week. two parishes, combined, In the case of St. Ann, the same name that once not have been as thorough nors, who was ordained in •A $5,000 increase in is about 600 people per the former parish school stood next door has since which is unfortunate; but 1971 and is planning to weekly offertories – up to weekend, a decline that next door is now operated been bulldozed for a hous- after acknowledging the retire in about a year-and- $8,000 per week per par- mirrors a church-wide by an independent entity, ing development. past, we must face ‘now’ a-half. “We need to decide ish – is needed to meet slump in attendance both St. John Paul II Catholic In 2008, a new Catholic together.” operating expenses. in Boston and nationally. Academy, which oversees Academy named for the A salute to the story of Sean Mannion, ‘The Man Who Was Never Knocked Down’ (Continued from page 1) known for being humble age of 17, you know, and stage, it was a big thing and soft-spoken, elected all your friends are here for us.” to only speak a few sen- and your work is here, is Mayor Walsh, whose tences of thanks at the this home? Or is the other parents hailed from Man- event, and they were place home? So there’s nion’s hometown of Ros met with raucous ap- that kind of dynamic in Muc in Connemara, spoke plause. Mac Con Iomaire there.” to his personal connection said that the boxer took “The Man Who Was to the boxer and echoed it upon himself to set the Never Knocked Down,” the author’s remarks record straight and put which has already been about his wide range of in- ‘truth’ at the core of the made into an award-win- fluence. “When Sean came book. “There were stories ning documentary film, to Boston and America, it out there that weren’t “Rocky Ros Muc,” paints was a proud moment for true, but in order to kind a vivid portrait of a flawed a lot of people I know in of establish them as not yet courageous man. Mac Ireland,” Walsh said, “be- true, you have to kind Con Iomaire offered Man- cause on his shorts he had of admit the stories that nion’s indomitable spirit [written] Ros Muc, but it were true as well, you as one of the book’s main was also a proud moment know, take the good with takeaways: for a lot of Irish Ameri- the bad,” he added. “I think it captures cans, because it truly In a broader sense, the human frailties is the American dream, Mac Con Iomaire says he in a sense, you know, coming to this country saw Mannion’s story as like someone’s ups and and making good.” a universal one, and one downs, but how sticking The book launch marked that spoke to the reality with their principles the release of the English of an immigrant’s sense kind of brings them language version of the of belonging. through. One of Sean’s book; the Irish language “Beyond the boxing strong points has always version was published in thing, [the book] gives been that he’s been very 2014. that Boston-Irish social principled and adhered “Sean told me that he history, those links from to certain rules in his own had been approached a both sides of the Atlantic, life, put certain things – few times already about a from the Irish perspec- put family, put Ireland, book and turned them all tive of coming over, and put friends – ahead of down because he wanted the Boston perspective other things, quite often the book to be written in of being here, so it adds to the detriment of his Irish first, and then in that strain of immigra- own boxing career. But Sean Mannion thanks the gathering at JJ’s Pub as his biographer Ronan Mac English, and that’s ex- tion, and the question I think the upside of Con Iomaire looks on. Dan Sheehan photo actly what has happened,” of ‘where’s home?’ When that for him now is that said Mac Con Iomaire. you come over to live in he’s gone through all of across people who speak The book is avail- line at macconiomaire. Mannion, now 61 and another country at the that, and you don’t come ill of him.” able for purchase on- com and at amazon.com. Page 8 July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com BRETT’S BOSTON By Harry Brett Exclusive photos of Boston Irish people & events

The fifth annual “Celtic Sunday” of Irish music took place in Milton on June 25, featur- ing the town’s own Pauline Wells and Devri, Mar- garet Dalton and Erin’s Melody, Jinty McGrath, Danny Gill and The Old Brigade, Sean Brennan and The Skiffs, Curragh’s Fancy, and the Fenian Sons. It was the second day of a two-day musicfest at Hutchinson Field on Milton Hill, overlooking 1. the Neponset River and the Boston skyline 2.

1.) Dave Hogan, B.P.D., Cops for Kids with Can- cer; 2.) Margaret Dalton, Erin’s Melody; Colm McDaid, Milton 3.) John Nee, Milton firefighter; 4.) Glenn Pavlicek, Milton; Anita Penta, Milton; Kathy Fagan, Milton; 5.) Mike Newell, Amesbury; Sean Newell, Braintree; 6.) Caitilin McClain, Hyde Park; Jeff Patterson, Hyde Park; 7.) Jack Kiely, Weymouth; Maureen Kiely, Weymouth; 8.) Pat O’Leary, Brighton; Dermott McLaugh- lin, Brighton; 9.) Leah Gundersen, Dorchester; Priscilla Graham, Dorchester; 10.) Erin Daquila, Connor Daquila (1 1/2 yrs); and Stephen Daquila; 11.) Richard Wells, Milton Music Fest Coordina- tor; 12.) Johnny Costello; Seamus Mulligan.

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12. bostonirish.com July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 9 Life’s de-lovely for J. T. Turner in ‘Anything Goes’ at the Reagle out at Boston’s Colonial you forget how great the man, I auditioned for Theatre on its way to book it . . . It’s so cleverly “Funny Thing Happened Broadway in 1934.) written. on the Way to the Forum.” J. T. Turner plays con BIR: You’re playing We had a great director man Moonface Martin, Moonface Martin, Public and teacher who became Public Enemy #13, who Enemy #13. Clearly he’s my mentor over the years is hiding out on the boat gotta try harder! – Mr. Bogart – and he as a minister. JTT: (Laughing) That’s gave me the role of Lycus A New Jersey native, true! . . . for a comic char- in “Forum.” And that was J. T. came to Boston to acter actor, as I occasion- it. The bug was on. I did study at Emerson Col- ally am, it’s a treat to be all the shows at the high lege and never left. He’s able to work on this show. school that I could. I did very much in demand on All actors have their little a couple of shows outside Boston stages with credits bucket list, and for charac- and wound up going to ranging from “Big River” ter actors, you have these Emerson and studying J. T. Turner a/k/a and “1776” (Lyric Stage) roles that someday you theater. Moonface Martin. to “Drowsy Chaperone” hope to play. Certainly BIR: It can be a tough By R. J. Donovan (SpeakEasy), “Johnny Moonface Martin for me business. Any moments Baseball” (ART) and “A is on that list. I’m really of doubt? eons ago I stared doing a history. Special to the BIR one-man show. The first JTT: As we say, “my Reagle Music Theater Christmas Carol” (North excited about it. JTT: There was actu- Shore Music Theatre), BIR: Actors really love ally a short period of time one was Charles Dickens people” come from Bal- in Waltham continues doing a one-man version lygar in Co. Galway. I its 50th anniversary sea- among others. the experience of working that I sort of gave up on do- He’s also known for at Reagle. What makes it ing any theater. I wanted of “A Christmas Carol.” guess three quarters of son with the Cole Porter BIR: And you’ve since my relatives are Irish and musical “Anything Goes,” his extensive voice-over so special? to focus on my work life work, his one-man shows JTT: (Artistic Direc- (in banking). That didn’t added Shakespeare, then there’s a little bit which will be playing from Frost, and Ben Franklin? of English thrown in . . . July 5 to July 15. bringing historic figures to tor) Bob Eagle has this last very long and I was life, and as ringmaster for tremendous following back doing a lot of com- JTT: All of my charac- (Laughing) I’m at battle Set on a luxury liner ters tend to be historical with myself. I’m always sailing from New York the newly formed Granite that he’s built up . . . They munity theater. Eventu- State Circus. are an incredibly loyal ally I decided to take the literary characters . . . I fighting internally . . . My to London, the breezy, do a lot of work in schools, Dad’s people emigrated tap-dancing spectacular Here’s an edited version audience . . . Even though plunge and get my Equity of our recent conversation: it’s a professional Equity card and I’ve really never especially with my Shake- to southern Pennsylva- follows the comical on- speare piece. But also nia. They were a bunch board antics of a dazzling BIR: “Anything Goes” theater, it has such a fla- looked back. Theater has is a classic. Wonderful vor of community coming pretty much always been libraries . . . And historical of Molly Maguires and evangelist-turned-night- societies will have me in. mined for coal . . .My club-singer, a second-rate music, and a light and together. They do a lot of a part of my life. funny story. It’s just what musical dance shows and BIR: Were your parents I’ve performed the Robert parents tell me that . . . gangster in disguise, Frost piece at the Robert I had a lot of pub singers a lovelorn Wall Street we need right now. all these great dancers supportive? JTT: I couldn’t agree from local colleges come JTT: Talk about a con- Frost Farm up in Derry, in Ireland who were my broker, a stuffy British NH. Just recently I start- relatives. But that’s not nobleman, and more. with you more. There are in. It’s a great summer tradictory story. When I a lot of people who maybe gig for them. They bring took my first real job in the ed to do them remotely . . . saying much because, as The score includes such Schools and organizations we all know, everyone in standards as “You’re the embrace their snobbery so much energy to the world of banking, my folks and say “Oh ‘Anything production. were like, “Well, what all over the country can Ireland’s a pub singer! Top,” “I Get a Kick Out log on and I broadcast the R. J. Donovan is edi- of You,” “It’s De-Lovely” Goes,’ that old chestnut.” BIR: When did you de- about your acting career?” But I love it! People come cide you wanted to pursue They were always incred- piece (live) . . . I can see tor and publisher of on- and more. the audience and they can stageboston.com. (A bit of local trivia: for the music – listening acting for a living? ibly encouraging of me. to those amazing Cole JTT: When I was in BIR: Tell me about see me. There’s an imme- ••• The original production diacy . . . I’m really proud “Anything Goes,” Rea- of “Anything Goes” tried porter lyrics is great. And high school, as a fresh- your one-man shows. JTT: As somebody who of all of those pieces. I‘m gle Music Theatre, July loves to act, I know there very possessive of those 5 - 15, 617 Lexington St, “FairPlé Day” makes an impact are times when I’m not characters. Waltham, MA. Info: 781- BIR: What can you tell 891-5600, or reaglemusic- Boston was among a session with Boston-area of female performers going to be cast, when I’ve me about your own family theatre.org. number of cities marking musicians led by Tina at Irish festivals as an got an open schedule. And “FairPlé Day” on June 9 Lech and Ted Davis and example. as part of a campaign to a performance by Matt Heaton said that Fair- promote gender balance and Shannon Heaton. Plé Day offered an op- in the production, per- “Celtic Sojourn” host portunity “to start a con- formance, promotion, and Brian O’Donovan also versation” about women’s development of Irish tra- conducted an interview roles in, and contribu- ditional and folk music. with singer Karan Casey, tions to, Irish music. The day saw various one of the FairPlé co- Later, O’Donovan re- concerts, sessions, and founders. flected on the meaning various other gatherings Prior to her BPL ap- and significance of the or events take place in pearance, Shannon Hea- FairPlé movement. Dublin, Galway, Cork, ton welcomed about a “I think the FairPlé Belfast, New York City, dozen musicians to a new movement, like many of St. Louis and other places. monthly Irish session at the ripples from #MeToo, In the Boston area, the Arts at the Armory, has broader implica- FairPlé (pronounced “fair whose debut coincided tions: more thought given play”) events were held at with FairPlé Day. She to imbalance in perfor- the Arts at the Armory invited the musicians mance and presentation, Café in Somerville, The and others present to con- more access to decision- Druid Pub in Cambridge, sider the impetus behind making positions,” said the Canadian American FairPlé: a concern that, O’Donovan, adding that Club in Watertown, and despite the emergence harmful attitudes or ac- the Boston Public Library of many female artists tions based on gender – the latter broadcast live over the past few decades, relations should also be as part of WGBH’s “A Irish music has a gender addressed. Celtic Sojourn” program. gap – Casey, among oth- – SEAN SMITH The BPL event included a ers, has cited the lack

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Please email resume to: [email protected] www.CurtinHomeCare.com Page 10 July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com For Open the Door for Three, the music comes down to the personal connections By Sean Smith recording – made before BIR Correspondent Coleman’s – of Touhey Where music is con- turned up and refuted that cerned, the Irish music trio theory,” said O’Hare. “It Open the Door for Three may seem like something – Maine-based spouses from a detective novel, Liz Knowles (fiddle) and but to sit in my friend’s Kieran O’Hare (uilleann kitchen and hear for my- pipes, flute, whistle) and self the evidence of this their friend, Irish-born was a big treat.” Chicagoan Pat Broaders Elsewhere, Broaders (bouzouki, vocals) – takes gives a lovely intro to it personally. “Heavy Is My Fate,” and The union of three high- Knowles and O’Hare (on ly accomplished Irish tra- flute) take turns doing ditional music performers, exquisite things with the Open the Door for Three melody. Knowles trots out – which recently released her hardanger d’amore its third album, “The Joy- – a cross between the ful Hour” – has toured Norwegian fiddle and all over the world, with the baroque viola, featur- appearances at Carnegie ing five melody and five Hall, L’Olympia in , sympathetic strings – on Shanghai, São Paulo, The another slow tune, “An Kennedy Center’s Ireland Bhean Dubh,” giving it 100 festival, the Celtic a fleeting Scandinavian Colours festival in Cape feel. And here and there Breton, Milwaukee Irish on the album she displays Festival, and in The Mas- the fruits of her classical ters of Tradition series music background, such in Cork. Locally, they’ve as the counter melody played at such events and she devised to accompany venues as Féile Cheoil O’Hare on “The Heights of Boston, “St. Patrick’s Muingbhathá.” Day Celtic Sojourn,” and “Liz comes up with some Boston College’s Gaelic excellent ideas about har- Roots series. mony, not only for tunes Astute musical schol- but the songs, too,” said ars all (their band name Broaders. “But she also derives from the title of has the sense of when a slip jig), they’re known to leave something as it for digging through print is, not to do too much. or audio sources to find This is one of the great often rare or obscure gems things about working in of traditional music from this trio.” Ireland, Scotland, and Broaders is one of those elsewhere. But that’s singers who doesn’t push only one aspect of their or dramatize a song more modus operandi in build- than is necessary. He has ing on their knowledge a clear, steady delivery and repertoire. More often that can convey drama, they seek, and relish, a humor, tension, sadness, personal connection to and other salient emo- the tunes or songs they tions without excess. In perform. addition to “Carrig Water” As an example, on The personal associations that abound in Open the Door for Three’s repertoire “are very important to – enriched by Knowles’ us,” says Liz Knowles. “If you want to understand our music, you have to understand those connections.” repeating hardanger “The Joyful Hour,” Broad- Sean Smith photo ers sings “Carrig River,” d’amore riff and O’Hare’s written by James Nolan the same track as “Boyne Joyful Hour” embodies and while there continue steady rhythms. gorgeous double-tracked and James McGrath of Water.” a personal association: to be many excellent mu- The two jigs in the whistle and pipes cameo Wexford in 1890, one of And Cape Breton fid- Even if a particular tune sicians immigrating from “Church Hill” set provide – Broaders has a go at “Ye those classic bittersweet dler Ian MacDougall was or song might have come Ireland, the community a study in contrast: The Lovers All,” an eloquently expressions of nostalgia Knowles’s source for the from a published source or won’t be the same as it first, titular tune (from the voiced song of requited for place and people that air “Heavy Is My Fate” (its a recording, there’s some- was.” Goodman Collection, con- love credited to County are a fixture of the Irish name seemed out of place thing that ties it to this In a similar vein, sidered among the most Antrim’s gifted singer-col- song canon. Knowles came on an album title “The friend or acquaintance, Knowles acknowledges prominent pre-Famine lector Len Graham that is upon it while browsing Joyful Hour,” Knowles or that notable musician that the proliferation of compilations of Irish folk made even more beautiful a book of Wexford songs noted, but the only alter- memorably encountered technology like Skype and traditional music) is by Knowles’ string parts. during a visit to Broaders’ native name they found on some occasion or an- has made it easier to find one of those austere but The remaining songs house, and began playing was “This Casts a Gloom other. teachers and other re- mesmerizing D-mixolyd- are tributes of a sort to the melody on her fiddle. Upon My Soul”). Not that O’Hare and his sources for learning Irish ian jigs tailor-made not two giants of the British It served to remind Broad- “Those kinds of connec- bandmates are grumpy, music. But is it better? Not only for pipes but also Isles folk revival who ers that he had learned tions are very important get-offa-my-lawn tech- necessarily. for bouzouki accompani- popularized them, “Creep- the song from his father, to us,” said Knowles, as nophobes (they even use “For me, music has to ment, and needless to say ing Jane” (Martin Carthy) although Broaders made she, O’Hare, and Broaders smartphones, social me- have that immediacy, that O’Hare – with drones on and “Clyde Water” (Nic a few changes to the lyr- relaxed before their con- dia, and other modern personal presence. I have full – and Broaders rise Jones): The former is a ics. And so, “Carrig River” cert at Boston College this things), but he’s dubious to be in the same room.” to the occasion. It segues sprightly horse-racing found its way into the past spring. “If you want as to whether the quality Willing as they are to into the intricate four- ballad interspersed with Open the Door for Three to understand our music, of connectiveness modern offer opinions on Irish part “The Monaghan Jig,” excerpts from the jigs playlist, and onto the you have to understand technology provides can music, the trio is even hap- which simply does not quit “O’Connor’s Frolics” and album. those connections.” compare with that which pier to play it. As “The Joy- – you make it through “Queen of the Rushes”; So did “Boyne Water,” a “For me, there’s no filler he’s experienced through ful Hour” demonstrates, the first three parts, and the latter, a tragic, vivid tune associated with the or dross in the songs I Irish music. they’ve got a lot of reasons you’re rewarded with the narrative of would-be celebrated Clare whistle sing,” said Broaders. “I “I think, for us three, a to be happy – and their accented wickedness of courtship thwarted by player Micho Russell, don’t play something be- big part of being an Irish delight is infectious for the fourth; Knowles puts maternal interference. whom O’Hare was fortu- cause it’s popular or that musician was always the lovers of well-crafted Irish in a harmony that ups the If you listen to “The Joy- nate to meet on several it’ll get the crowd going. I physical act of seeking out and other Celtic music. ante in brilliant fashion. ful Hour” or Open the Door occasions. He also got to have to connect with it in the music,” O’Hare ex- “Boyne Water” starts O’Hare and Knowles for Three’s other albums know East Clare fiddler some way or it just doesn’t plained. “A trip to Ireland with O’Hare on solo whis- used several sources, from – and if you’re partial to Martin Rochford, whose work.” was a musical pilgrimage tle, joined by Broaders Cape Breton as well as Irish and Celtic stuff, you version of the jig “Happy to In fact, according to that you simply had to and then Knowles for Ireland, to stitch together should – remember that Meet, Sorry to Part” is on O’Hare, each track of “The make. If you heard about two full-trio reprises. “Monaghan” (“We wound Knowles, O’Hare and some old fiddle player Knowles powers into the up with more notes than Broaders aren’t just mak- from Mayo living on the jig “Let Us Leave That we’re actually comfortable ing music for themselves. AUTO BODY REPAIRS (617) 825-1760 edge of town, you would As It Is,” which has ties playing,” he quipped). They also do so to recog- (617) 825-2594 go see him. I’m not sure to the Scottish and Cape That process led O’Hare nize and celebrate, as they FAX (617) 825-7937 how often this happens Breton traditions, while to the thrilling experience note on their website, the anymore.” O’Hare switches over to of listening to a newly connections “to people and Knowles said, “For Ki- pipes. And then it’s onto rediscovered cylinder re- places, to teachers and eran and me, Americans the cheerful “Happy to cording from the early heritage and audiences, playing Irish music, hav- Meet, Sorry to Part,” and 20th century of legendary and to the stories and ing that connection to Open the Door for Three piper Patsy Touhey play- humor that bring us all Free Pick-Up & Delivery Service Ireland was so important, is at full bloom – O’Hare’s ing the tune. together.” and a lot of it was through chattering pipes, Knowles’ “There was a wide- For more information the generation of Irish fiddle adding harmonies, spread belief that Michael about Open the Door for 150 Centre Street musicians that came here and Broaders’ bouzouki Coleman, the great Sligo Three and about “The Dorchester, MA 02124 decades ago. We’re seeing interspersed between fiddler, had written that Joyful Hour,” see openthe- the end of that generation, them with mutable but fourth part, but then this doorforthree.com. bostonirish.com July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 11 BIR’s JULY Calendar of IRISH/CELTIC events In addition to Summer sique à Bouches; and of artists, including local merizing, interpretation as Cat and the Moon and BCMFest [see separate Irish and early-music duo American Scottish fiddler of traditional tunes, as a Bywater. Also perform- story], this month also The Harper and The Hanneke Cassel, Boston duo and also as part of the ing will be Klezwoods, will see the annual New Minstrel. native singer-songwriter quintet The Gloaming and an ensemble of strings, Bedford Folk Festival For more about the Aoife O’Donovan, and the “Masters of Tradition” horns, and percussion (July 7 and 8), which regu- festival, see newbedford- celebrated cellist Yo Yo touring ensemble. that melds the spirit of larly features Irish/Celtic folkfestival.com. Ma; he also was a member Cork native Mick traditional klezmer and and related music. Among Other Irish/Celtic mu- of the Grammy-winning Flannery, one of Ire- Balkan music. this year’s performers are sic events in the area quartet Turtle Island. land’s most successful Tickets, information at Newfoundland guitarist- taking place in July: On July 14, the ac- singer-songwriters of re- passim.org. vocalist Matthew By- • Prior to their New claimed fiddle-guitar duo cent years, will make • The Burren Back- rne; Emerald Rae, Mas- Bedford Folk Festival Martin Hayes and Den- his debut at Passim on room series will present sachusetts-born fiddler, appearance, the Jeremy nis Cahill comes to Pas- July 19 at 8 p.m. Flan- an energetic double bill singer and songwriter; Kittel Trio will play at sim for two sets, at 7:30 nery grew up listening to on July 25 at 7:30 p.m. Northern Irish quintet Club Passim on July 3 and 10 p.m. Hayes is a singer-songwriters such Heron Valley (Euan Rising Irish singer-song- Connla; Cape Breton at 8 p.m. The threesome masterful player in the as Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, McNab, pipes, guitar, writer Mick Flannery fiddler, vocalist and multi- of Jeremy Kittel (fiddle), lyrical, “lonesome touch” Leonard Cohen and Kurt whistle; Nick Hamilton, performs at Club Passim instrumentalist J. P. Josh Pinkham (mando- East Clare fiddle style, Cobain, started playing banjo, drums; Arlene on July 19. Cormier; Celtic/jazz/ lin), and Quinn Bachand but during his career guitar at age 14, and at 19 Mackechnie, keyboards; For tickets and other de- classical fusion Jeremy (guitar) play a melodi- has ventured into other became the first Irish mu- Abigail Pryde, guitar, tails, see brownpapertick- Kittel Trio; vocalist and cally and harmonically domains, including the sician to ever win awards vocals; and Callum Cro- ets.com/event/3381477. guitarist Keith Mur- complex mixture of Irish, jazz-rock band Midnight at the International Song- nin, bass) plays music of • Toronto-based Enter phy, whose repertoire Scottish, jazz, classical, Court, where he met gui- writing Competition in their native Scotland, as the Haggis will play at is drawn from Canadian and modern styles, full of tarist-mandolinist Cahill. Nashville – his honors well as of Ireland, while Rockport’s Shalin Liu and New England folk exhilarating riffs and im- Since then, the two have also include a Meteor also integrating country, Performance Center on traditions; Quebecois provisations. Kittel has cultivated a distinctively Music Award. A stone- bluegrass and contempo- July 19 at 8 p.m. For a cappella quintet Mu- worked with a wide range meditative, often mes- mason by trade, Flannery rary folk. In addition to more than two decades, has released five albums, their high-octane perfor- the band (Craig Downie, with the most recent – “I mances, the band also is bagpipes, guitar, key- Own You” – marked by a known for its ambitious boards, whistle; Brian shift to songs that touch videos, including “Home,” Buchanan, fiddle, gui- on social injustice and which they filmed in the tar, mandolin, accordion; economic inequality. midst of climbing up Be- Trevor Lewington, guitar, Passim’s “Small World inn an Lochainn, a hill in mandolin, keyboards; Big Ears” series will fea- the west coast of Scotland. Mark Abraham, bass, ture fiddle-guitar duo Gus Also in concert will be banjo; and Bruce McCar- LaCasse and Eamon The Gothard Sisters, thy, drums) has brought Sefton on July 23 at 7 who entertain with song together a prodigious p.m. Maine fiddler LaC- and dance as well as in- – even quirky – blend of asse is known for both struments (Greta, guitar, rock, fusion, bluegrass, speed and savage energy, violin, octave mandolin; traditional Celtic fare, as well as a repertoire Willow, violin, mando- agitpop, folk, and other that reflects his innova- lin, bodhran; Solana, strains. From head-bang- tive spirit and dedication violin, bodhran, djembe, ing, arena-friendly Celtic to the Cape Breton and percussion). The Pacific rock to more nuanced, Acadian fiddle tradi- Northwest natives per- lyrical, indie-type offer- tions. Boston-area resi- form original music built ings, “ETH” combines a dent Sefton has played around traditional and versatile repertoire with in numerous special and modern Celtic styles as sociopolitical conviction. ongoing collaborations, well as world and classi- Go to rockportmusic.org including fiddlers Jamie cal influences, with what’s for information. Laval and Maura Shawn been called a “big-league” – SEAN SMITH Matt and Shannon Heaton will be among the performers at the July 8 Sum- Scanlin and bands such presentation. mer BCMFest. Summer BCM Fest set for July 8 in Harvard Sq. The fourth Summer diversity of sounds and Summer BCMFest BCMFest will bring Celtic styles found in Boston’s 2018 will finish up with music of many varieties to Celtic music community. a ticketed evening per- Club Passim in Harvard The day kicks off with formance at 7 p.m. by a Square on July 8, fea- a special edition of the pair of duos: Ari & Mia turing some 12 hours of Live Music Brunch series and Matt and Shannon performances by Boston- at Club Passim from 10 Heaton . Geraghty area musicians, including a.m. to 2 p.m. The “Celtic Tickets for the evening a free outdoor concert and Brunch” is an opportunity concert are $18 for the a ticketed evening finale. for diners to enjoy brunch, general public, $10 for ASSOCIATES Summer BCMFest is with live music by fiddle- Passim members and tailored after the annual piano duo Chris Over- students with ID. For PROPERTY MANAGERS BCMFest (Boston Celtic holser and Utsav Lal. reservations and other Music Fest), a weekend From 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., information, go to passim. gathering held each Janu- the festivities will shift org/bcmfest. Studio and 1-Bedroom Apartments ary to celebrate Greater outside to Palmer Street BCMFest is a program Boston ’s richness of mu- (directly adjacent to Club of Passim, a Cambridge- sic, song, and dance from Passim) for a free con- based non-profit seeking Available in the desirable the Irish, Scottish, Cape cert with Scottish-Cape to build a vibrant mu- Breton and other Celtic Breton trio Caroline sic community through Cedar Grove section of Dorchester. traditions. [BCMFest will Dressler, Giulia Haible its legendary listening take place January 17- and Maggie MacPhail, venue, music school, art- 20, 2019.] Like its winter and the progressive folk/ ist grants, and outreach Studios reasonably counterpart, Summer traditional/fusion quintet initiatives. BCMFest showcases the Pumpkin Bread. priced; 1-bedroom units; heat and hot water included. EIRE Short walk to the Red Line. Free off-street Parking. pub Washing Machines 795 Adams St. • Dorchester and Dryers in building. “President’s Choice” Call Michael at 617-364-4000 Serving Lunch & Dinner Geraghty Associates, Inc. Every day, Property Managers P.O. Box 52, Readville, MA 02137-0052 7 days a week Tel: 617-364-4000 Fax: 617-364-3157 Page 12 July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com For actor Kevin Chapman ‘true north’ will always be Inwood Street, Dorchester

By Bill Forry I left a few things; mind the hackneyed theme of Reporter Editor if I come up and get ‘em?” Charlestown as the home Inwood Street is a clas- Chapman counters, burst- of Boston Irish bank rob- sic Dorchester side street, ing into a belly laugh. The bers than on the streets of densely packed with three- man on the porch answers Roxbury and Dorchester deckers, but still some- in kind. where the true carnage of what insulated from the Chapman can still rattle the early 90s was so much bustle and bus traffic of off the old Inwood family more acute. the Bowdoin Street busi- names — “the Haleys, the Chapman’s character – ness district a block away. Butts, the Curriers, the Dickie Monogue – is a cop Kevin Chapman no McGees, the Sullivans, the with a conscience. longer lives here, but In- Phippses.” Kevin’s mom “I play a Boston narcot- wood is still home for the raised him and his three ics officer who is kind of actor and producer who siblings here for most of his the antagonist for Kevin is best known for playing childhood, spending $325 Bacon’s character,” he either a cop or a criminal a month for renting the said. “When you first meet (sometimes, both) on TV second-floor apartment. this guy, you kind of as- and film. Now 55, he is so “A lot of families here sume that he may be the connected to this street were struggling. I think one who is morally chal- that he named his film maybe there were two lenged, and then, as the company, Inwood Street families on the whole story unfolds you realize Productions. street who had a Dad. It that he is probably the guy “It’s the last street was just getting by. But, whose moral compass is where my entire family we were like one big, dys- Kevin Chapman, left, walks along Inwood Street last month. At right: the calibrated.” lived together,” Chapman functional family.” Reporter’s Bill Forry Chapman says he’ll said during a visit to his The kids on Inwood bring his own understand- old stomping grounds and nearby Norton and ing his slapshot, Chapman But when he was out of political beat eventually ing of how policing and in May, as the Reporter Olney streets found com- was hustling himself to or the classroom, Chapman led to a promotion: He was community activism dove- tagged along. The Chap- mon ground in more than from one of several public stayed grounded in his assigned to head up the tail to drive down crime mans arrived here when just family hardship. On schools he attended over immediate environs. The now-defunct Boston Film rates. He had a unique he was eight years old. weekends, they took over an academic life that was young “Chappy” earned Office, where he provided vantage point to observe “We thought we had the parking lot of the roiled, like many, by the extra coin by stocking logistical support to film- this interaction as Tom got the house on the hill, old Meetinghouse Bank chaotic desegregation- shelves at Brother’s Mar- makers shooting pictures Menino’s eyes and ears in getting out of the Mission across the street and era busing order. He ket— now America’s Food in the city. The job put much of Dorchester — at- Hill projects,” he recalls, played street hockey for attended, variously, the Basket— for $1.50 after him in daily contact with tending crime watch and looking up at his former hours on end— until the nearby Mather School on school and $3 all day on people like Ted Demme, civic association meet- address, 5 Inwood, a tidy, bells tolled nine o’clock Meetinghouse Hill, the a Saturday. He shined the late filmmaker who ings, serving as a liaison well-decorated house with from the top of St. Peter’s. Holmes School in Cod- shoes at the Horseshoe gave Chapman a part to other elected officials flowering plants swing- “That’s how we knew man Square, the Holland Tavern. Later, he watched in the Denis Leary film and police— and helping ing from the second-floor it was time to pack it in.” School off Geneva Ave, his older sister Gail get “Monument Ave.,” which to direct city services to porch that used to be his Some days, they’d hike and the Grover Cleveland married inside St. Peter’s was set in Charlestown. constituents. perch. “Looking at it now, up Mount Ida Road to in Fields Corner. Church, the monument From there, his career “It was eye-opening to it’s relatively small, but as Ronan Park at the top of “In the sixth grade, I to Catholicism and Pud- snowballed, as directors see how active this com- a child it was massive.” the hill with its majestic was sent over to the King dingstone engineering filming in Boston found a munity is,” said Chap- He calls up to a current vistas of Dorchester Bay School on Lawrence Ave., that still dominates the willing apprentice in the man as he walked his occupant of the house, who and beyond to go head- which wasn’t the most eastern end of Bowdoin brawny, 30-something dog Maverick along the is lounging on the porch. “I to-head with kids from convenient location,” he Street. Dorchester “kid.” At that crest of Ronan Park. “I used to live in that apart- the other side of Bowdoin says. “I never went to the “Anytime anyone asks point in his life, Chapman, didn’t realize how many ment,” he hollers. “That’s Street in their chosen same school two years in me, I always say St. Pe- who admits to having community groups and good!” the man replies game. a row. We were constantly ter’s Parish, that’s where yearned for the spotlight crime watches there were, good-naturedly. “I think When he wasn’t polish- shipped somewhere else.” I grew up,” says Chapman. much earlier, was ready so many people I met Other jobs came later. for the challenge. over time who are really He wheeled tour buses In a 2001 interview invested. It was a great through tourist-trap Bos- with the Reporter, he education for me.” ton, cleaned up at a pig admitted that he had In that job, Chapman COME VISIT ANY farm up in Holliston, always yearned to act, helped the city choose ran a parking lot next but he got off to a late targets for programs like to the State House, and, start, in part because he the Top Ten Most Wanted for a time, worked as a had a touch of self-doubt Drug Den, a task force SOMERS PUBS bouncer at a Boston com- sowed in by some of his that picked off vacant edy nightclub. Chapman early experiences in the properties that were— LOCATION FOR QUALITY FOOD, also worked as a teller neighborhood. back then— havens for at South Boston Savings “There’d always been sales or drug use. HOSPITALITY & LIVE MUSIC Bank— a role that he that constant corner bad- “When I was there says has informed one gering,” Chapman told working for the city, I of his most high-profile the Reporter later on, in didn’t really reflect on 7 NIGHTS A WEEK! local gigs of the last few 2006. “Acting was always what was happening. It years — serving as the in the back of my head, was a period of time where spokesman for the City of but there was also the everyone pulled together. Boston Credit Union. (He evil twin, I guess, say- No one person can take has maintained his mem- ing, ‘You’re a kid from credit for it.” bership with the credit Bowdoin Street. You can’t Chapman isn’t part of union since his days as a do that.’ the writing team for “City city employee.) “You really have to be on a Hill.” He has learned His last career turn secure in your life as a per- from experience that his before he became a profes- son to pursue something role will likely stay on the sional actor was the most like that,” he said. “After periphery. Unless asked, 77 Broad St. 11 Marshall St. he’s not likely to offer Boston, MA 02109 Boston, MA 02108 fortuitous for more than about the third or fourth 25 Union St. 617.338.5656 617.367.0055 one reason. When the late job you say, ‘I must be much input beyond his Boston, MA 02108 mrdooleys.com greendragonboston.com Boston Mayor Thomas M. okay at this because they own character. “If they do, 617.742.2121 I welcome it,” he said. “If hennessysboston.com Menino was first elected keep hiring me.’” in 1993, Chapman, who In fact, Kevin Chapman they don’t, I know what had supported his cam- has been in demand. my approach is going to paign, applied for and Most recently, he ended be for my character and won the job of City Hall’s a very successful five-sea- how I’ll find the truth in neighborhood services son run portraying NYPD my character.” coordinator in Dorches- Det. Lionel Fusco on the The notion of character ter’s District Three. It popular series, “Person of is a frequent theme with was – and is – grueling Interest.” He is one of the Chapman, who says he and thankless work, car- film industry’s go-to char- stays grounded to the 33 Union St. 108 Blackstone St. 9 Depot Ct. rying the mayor’s banner acter actors with credits roles he takes on by his Boston, MA 02108 Boston, MA 02109 Cohasset, MA 02025 in front of sometimes that will soon include formative years soaking 617.263.7771 617.742.2090 781.383.3366 up the people he grew paddyos.com durtynellysboston.com mrdooleyscohasset.com disgruntled community a brand new Showtime groups on a nightly basis, police drama series set in up with in the Bowdoin responding to incidents his hometown— “City on Street neighborhood. and accidents of all sorts a Hill.” Produced by Matt “It has helped me tre- when they happen. Damon and Ben Affleck, mendously to find the But the job had defi- the series— which is set truth in the characters nite upsides, too. Chap- to begin production soon, that I’ve played. That’s man met his future wife, with a tentative premiere why you’ve never seen Meaghan Kennedy, at date set for next year— is me in a superhero movie SOMERSPUBS.COM one of Father Dan Finn’s purportedly about the so- or anything like that— monthly community called “Boston Miracle,” because I can’t find truth meetings at St. Mark’s a 1990s setting that has in that. And if I can’t find on Dorchester Ave. They already rankled some truth, I can’t play it.” now have two children. Bostonians, since early Reporter editor Bill Paying his dues on buzz is that the show Forry can be reached at the nightly Dorchester will lean more heavily on [email protected]. bostonirish.com July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 13 CD Reviews regulators gives the tune some serious oomph; then Anna abruptly kicks off “My Former Wife,” and they steadily rebuild the excitement before closing out the Saving Now By Sean Smith Dylan Foley, “Deliriously Happy” • Hard not to be set. There’s a similar feel to another jig set, “Young optimistic about Irish American traditional music nowa- Tom Ennis/King of the Pipers/Hunt the Cat,” Sheila for Future days when there are so many promising practitioners of ushering in the latter tune with striking authority. it who have already made their mark well before hitting A reel set sees Anna and Sheila double up on flute Education Expenses 30. Prominent among their ranks is Foley, a fiddler who for “It’s in the Wind,” a Sheila and Clare original, fol- comes from the New York City area and has flourished lowed by an enthralling duet between Anna and Clare in its rich firmament of Irish music. He’s amassed four on “The Laurel Tree” and then it’s another majestic Presented by Brian W. O’Sullivan, CFP, ChFC, CLU All-Ireland finish with “Repeal the Union,” popularized by the great Donegal fiddler John Doherty – the long notes champion- College costs are up — it’s in the news, part ships and Anna holds on this are one of those little touches that played with tells you, in no uncertain terms, that these folks know of the political debate … it’s everywhere. But The Yanks what they’re doing. On one particularly high-degree- what does that really mean? Is college still a – a deserv- of-difficulty track, Sheila and Clare play a feisty “An good investment? And if so, what’s the best edly herald- Coolin March” (also from John Doherty) that heads into way to save for it? ed but all- a slowed-down version of a 12/8 Clare jig, “Farewell to Lissycasey,” before Anna goes full-throttle to start too-rarely- If you’re like most parents, g l i m p s e d the closing reel, “Trim the Velvet.” q u a r t e t Three of the songs on “Before the Sun” came to the you’re concerned about – as well Friels via family members and feature the aforemen- how you’ll fund your child’s as in other tioned three-part unison singing: “A Stór A Stór A education. Even if you’ve collabora- Ghrá,” with the sisters swapping off leads and also managed to start saving, tions, such playing the melody between verses; the a cappella “Free and Easy”; and an exquisite rendition of “Moorlough the fact remains that it just a s “ T h e might not be enough. With D r u n k e n Shore” (also associated with the legendary County Ty- G a u g e r s ” rone songsters Sarah and Rita Keane). Anna solos on all the competing priorities album with “Kelvin’s Purling Stream,” which is connected to both that you need to consider, Lúnasa’s Kevin Crawford and Patrick Doocey. Foley Northern Irish and Scottish traditions (and locales), such as retirement savings, and is enhanced here by a dual-whistles break; Sheila and fellow Yank Dan Gurney (whose new album will you may be left confused and overwhelmed. appear in this space before very long) also recorded is in the spotlight on “Easter Snow,” Clare’s mellow, “Irish Music from the Hudson Valley,” a tribute to lower-range string accompaniment adding a lovely mentors Fr. Charlie Coen and Mike McHale and the texture. Develop Your Strategy Early (If You Can) music they brought to Foley and Gurney’s native On most The earlier you can start planning, the more region – and a testament to Foley’s appreciation for of the songs, money you can save. It’s hard to think beyond both the tradition and its forebears. a s e l s e - diapers and daycare at first, but even putting That musical lineage extends to his own family, where on the album, a small amount aside with each paycheck can notably his late grandmother Maggie Smyth, who make a big difference in the long run. gave Foley the very fiddle he uses on this recording. H a j i m e She had the fiddle tuned down to B, and he follows Takahashi suit here, which makes for a warm, earthy, somewhat amd Cathal Save bassier sound. An oft-used phrase of Maggie’s, “I am Ó Curráin When developing your saving and investment very rich and deliriously happy,” provides the title for lend excel- strategy, there are a lot of options at your the album and constitutes the general blissfulness lent sup- port on, re- disposal. Setting up a savings account is a that pervades it. good start and can be part of your long-term The 12 tracks are pure, unadulterated Foley, with spectively, understated accompaniment by pianist Matt Mulqeen guitar and financial plan. Another possibility to consider is and Josh Dukes on 12-string guitar and bodhran. There bouzouki. a 529 plan. Operated by a state or educational are venerable traditional tunes a-plenty here, includ- E x p e r i - institution, a 529 plan is an education savings ing “Lady Anne Montgomery” and “Jackie Coleman’s enced and account designed to help families plan for Reel” (which features a nifty flourish in the B part on road-tested as they may be – having performed not only throughout Ireland and the UK but a good chunk college. A 529 plan can allow parents, relatives the second time around) – both favorites of Maggie –as and friends to help invest in a child’s education well as “Tear the Calico,” “Lord Gordon’s Reel” and of Europe, too – there’s an appealing freshness to the “Leitrim Fancy.” Less familiar ones also catch the ear, Friels that comes across in their music. They seem to over time. such as “Esther’s Reel,” with its key change on the B be neither overwhelmed by or apologetic about their part. Foley also plays in-the-tradition compositions success, nor should they be. [frielmusic.com] Reduce Costs like J. Scott Skinner’s “Hector the Hero” (another Kyle Carey, “The Art of Forgetting” • Some people collect souvenirs and keepsakes on their travels; singer- Applying for scholarships is one that should Maggie favorite), Tommy Peoples’ “Green Fields of never be overlooked. Many local organizations Glentown” and – one of the album’s most endearing songwriter Kyle Carey collects musical inspiration and tracks – “Amelia’s Waltz,” by the late Bob McQuillen, assets. From her childhood years in Alaska and New offer small scholarships that may seem the inimitable New Hampshire pianist-accordionist- Hampshire, she’s had sojourns in upstate New York, insignificant but can be a nice extra to pay for tunesmith. Ireland, Cape Breton, the Isle of Skye, and a multi- expenses beyond tuition, room and board. And And Foley includes a tune he co-authored with tude of other places, including Boston and Gloucester. then, of course, there are more substantial Eamon O’Leary, a moody, minor-key hornpipe titled This accumulation of experiences and impressions has formed the basis for her “Gaelic Americana” sound, scholarships that help supplement the cost of “The Discontented Man,” another showcase for his college that are based on academic or athletic crisp bowing, that segues into a pair of jigs, “Crabs in redolent of hardy Appalachian mountains, windswept the Skillet” and the ebullient “Dancing Eyes” –one of prairies, rugged Scottish seascapes, pastoral Irish achievements. the best-constructed sets on the album. meadows. The stories and narratives that fill these The considerable charms of listening to the album settings are drawn from music and literary traditions Borrow are deepened by the knowledge that Maggie Smyth was – with nods to Dickens, Coleridge, Yeats and Frost, You may think taking a loan is a last resort, able to see her reverence for the Irish music tradition among others – but also more contemporary sources. With the assistance of Grammy-winning multi- but the reality for many is that borrowing pass on to her grandson, who has made it his calling, will ultimately fund a significant portion of not only as a musician but as a teacher – a state of af- instrumentalist and producer Dirk Powell, on this her fairs that has inspired an advanced state of joy among third album, Carey conjures up some intriguing points their children’s education. There are a lot of Foley’s many admirers. [dylanfoleymusic.com] of contact for her various interests and influences: the options, both governmental and private, that The Friel Sisters, “Before the Sun” • It’s the hybrid English/Irish Gaelic lament “Suibhail a Ruin” ( you may use to supplement what you or your much-anticipated second release from Anna, Shelia and “Shule Aroon”) reimagined as late-night-cafe jazz, with child has been able to save. The good news is Clare Friel, born and bred in Scotland but firmly rooted Powell’s breezy piano backing and bursts of trombone and trumpet; a Scottish Gaelic treatment of the Ameri- that loans are available and many students and to Donegal through music and family. Their 2014 debut their parents take advantage of them as a way album was a thoroughly charming, accomplished work can gospel hymn “Down to the River to Pray”; a selection that showcased individual talents – Sheila on uilleann of Scottish Gaelic “Puirt a Beul” (“mouth music”), in to help pay for college. pipes, flute and whistle, Clare on fiddle and Anna on duet with South Uist native Gillebride Mac’IlleMhaoil There are some resources that are often flute and whistle – and fine ensemble playing, as well and gently underpinned by Powell’s piano. overlooked. For instance, you may have a But Carey’s songwriting is the main attraction. The as equally permanent life insurance policy with cash delightful title track, inspired (a frequently occurring word in Carey’s vocabulary) by works of poets Edna St. Vincent value that you could borrow against to help singing in 1 the unison Millay and Worcester’s own Elizabeth Bishop, filters supplement some of the costs of school . style char- heartbreak through the passage of days and seasons a ct e ri st i c (“I stopped seeing the reds and golds/when you stopped A Sound Investment of the Ul- coming around”). “Tell Me Love,” inspired – there’s Despite challenges that come with financing ster region. that word again – by Yeats, Frost and Virginian Louis McNeill and dedicated to Carey’s partner, is unabashed, higher education, college is still a smart M o r e t o investment and there are many options to the point, vivid romanticism (“Autumn apples busheled ’neath the Friels a silver moon/elderberry wine sweet as morning dew/ help save for it. And when saving isn’t enough, evinced a re- splendors great and small/made humble by the truth/ there are plenty of other ways to help reduce spect for the glory’s mine in loving you”). the costs or help you borrow the funds you’ll music tradi- Carey is well-served by her supporting cast, with need for the education that is a priceless gift. tion and the Mike McGoldrick (flute) and John McCusker (fiddle) providing Irish/Scottish inflections at various junc- generations Brian W. O’Sullivan is a registered repre- – including tures, such as on the title track and Carey’s winsome some from their own family – that helped shape it, but take on Nanci Griffith’s “Trouble in the Fields”; backing sentative of and offers securities, invest- displayed no hesitancy in advancing their own more vocals by New England singer Liz Simmons (of Low ment advisory and financial planning -ser contemporary tastes. Lily) and the guitar of Sam Broussard are other assets. vices through MML Investors Services, LLC, “Before the Sun” shows ample evidence of the sisters’ Another highlight is Carey’s riveting duet with Rhi- Member SIPC (www.sipc.org). Supervisory progress of the last few years, with canny choices of annon Giddens on “For Your Journey,” which draws on the Gospel of Matthew, the River Styx and the Address: 101 Federal Street, Suite 800, material – sources for which they give credit where it’s Boston, MA 02110. He may be reached at due – and correspondingly good judgment in arranging Underground Railroad (“Take the North Star for your it. Among the instrumental high points is a jig set that journey/hanging low in the eastern sky/For it’s on the 617-479-0075 x331 or bosullivan@financial- starts out with Clare’s spirited playing of “The Ranafast banks of Jordan/the dead will come alive”) – a reminder guide.com. Jig” (learned through Altan’s Mairéad Ní Mhanoaigh that not all journeys are made by choice or fancy, and and her nephew Ciarán Ó Maonaigh, who produced one is the last we ever make. Sobering thoughts, but [email protected] in the context of Carey’s grand landscape, curiously this album) joined by Anna on the second round, until www.commonwealthfinancialgroup.com Sheila brings on “Statia Donnelly” – her use of the pipes’ uplifting. [kyleannecarey.com] Page 14 July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com Dot Bay EDC hails Reporter’s Ed Forry Rooting for Katie (Continued from page 1) Despite the debilitat- At first, Katie’s doctors ing effects of the RRMS, and New England Council’s Jim Brett and family alike were which effectively amount hopeful that she would be to a continual state of able to continue her daily fatigue and pain, she routine as normal, more has returned to work on or less. But her condition a modified schedule of kept worsening, and new three days a week. When tests revealed a far more asked where she finds the aggressive form of RRMS strength to keep teach- (Relapsing Remitting ing, Katie pointed to her Multiple Sclerosis) than students as a source of initially diagnosed. Soon, inspiration. she was feeling the effects “I go to work because I of the disease everywhere love the kids and feel that in her day-to-day life. I do make a difference in “I had terrible head- their lives,” she said. “I aches, I was forgetting do it for myself, I do it for things, and my balance my daughter. Honestly, I got so bad I had to hold do it because I don’t have onto desks at school,” she a choice.” said. Recurring instances Treatment so far has of blurred and double vi- called for regular doses sion meant she could no of steroids and the MS Don Rodman and Ed Forry Honoree Jim Brett and Hector Cruz longer drive. drug Tysabri, but after The Dorchester Bay EDC’s 39th annual co-founder Ed Forry, and New England Council Nevertheless, Katie another flare-up in March fundraiser, “Dorchester Then and Now: Com- CEO James Brett on June 7 at a reception at persisted. of this year that saw her As her mother and those symptoms worsen fur- munity for All,” honored Dorchester Reporter Dorchester’s Franklin Park Zoo. NBC 10 Bos- close to her know, “Katie is ther, Katie and her family ton reporter Frank Hol- a fighter.” Seven months decided to pursue other land was MC, and the after her diagnosis, she options. To now, the only Subscribe Today to Boston’s Own Hometown Newspaper music styling of Athene completed the Boston treatment shown to be Wilson was featured. Athletic Association’s effective in clinical trials Don West photos, Half Marathon, running is an alternative proce- courtesy DBEDC 13 miles through the rain dure called a hematopoi- with a friend. etic stem cell transplant Boston Irish (HSCT). But obstacles remain; the procedure has yet to be approved by the JOHN C. GALLAGHER FDA despite being in tri- REPORTER Insurance Agency als for decades, so Katie A Subscription to the Boston Irish Reporter has to travel to a clinic in AUTO INSURANCE Mexico for treatment cost- Makes an Ideal Gift for Any Special Occasion. Specializing in Automobile Insurance for over a half ing around $50,000, none century of reliable service to the Dorchester community. of which will be covered by Why Not Order One Today for Yourself, insurance. or for That Special Irish Someone in Your Life? New Accounts Welcome The Kelly family has 1471 Dorchester Ave. at Fields Corner MBTA started a Gofundme page Phone: 617-265-8600 with a goal of $60,000, a Mail to: Boston Irish Reporter figure that would cover 150 Mt. Vernon Street, Dorchester, MA 02125 “We Get Your Plates” the procedure, travel expenses, and follow-up Or Fax this order form to 617-825-5516 care. So far, crowdsourc- ing efforts have raised around half that amount, Order today, and we will send a gift card in your name. and the Kellys were hop- Burials in ing that a June 28 Florian Enclose $35.00 for each gift subscription. Hall fundraiser with a Massachusetts live performance from the Dorchester-based band Name______or Ireland The Fenian Sons — would help to make up the dif- ference. Address______“I’m so fortunate that we live in a community where it’s such a tight- Gormley knit group that they all City______State______Zip______support each together,” Funeral Home she said. “I hope that if the procedure works well Gift from______617-323-8600 for me, that I’ll be able to share this story with other people who think there’s Charge to Card #______no hope. And maybe by getting the word out, it 2055 Centre Street will help to get the pro- cedure approved.” Name of Cardholder______West Roxbury, MA You can donate to Ka- tie’s Gofundme page here: gofundme.com/help-ka- Code # on card ______Exp______www.Gormleyfuneral.com tie-fight-ms.

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Harry Brett • Margaret Brett Hastings The official photographers of the Boston Irish Reporter bostonirish.com July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter Page 15 Traveling People Enjoyment reigns at Enniskillen’s Manor House Country Hotel

The beautiful Manor House Country Hotel in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, is a member of the Original Irish Hotel group.

By Judy Enright Hotel was not always a Marines were billeted in cream mousse topped Special to the BIR hotel; it was a private 400 Quonset huts and 30 with a shortcake biscuit This Enniskillen ho- home for centuries and shelters at Beech Hill from crumble” from Couverture tel is definitely not just was only purchased for 1942 to 1944 to guard the Desserts in Naas, Co. another run-of-the-mill use as a hotel in 1957 by Navy’s Operating Base Kildare, was only worth accommodation. A mag- its current owners, the Londonderry, which was one bite. It was awful. nificent and imposing McKenna family. The the main center of opera- So, I am back to pre- structure, Manor House building itself has a sto- tions in Europe until after booked meals and can Country Hotel sits atop a ried past back to the 1600s the Normandy landings. recommend the steak, rise and greets you at the when the manor house on Derry - the UK’s most which comes with creamed end of a sweeping drive. the Killadeas estate was westerly port - made the spinach and a starter of The friendly front desk known as Rockfield. Major city an obvious choice for a smoked salmon and a slice staff welcomes you and John Irvine changed the strategic base. From there, of McCambridge’s soda assigns you a spacious name to Killadeas Manor the Navy could help pro- bread. Could do without room overlooking Lower House in 1835. His son, tect convoys from U-boat the raspberry panna cotta, Lough Erne. Col. J. G. Irvine, rebuilt attacks during the Battle but otherwise the meal is On the desk in your the house in 1860 using of the Atlantic. The base good. (And, actually, the room, you happily discover workmen from Italy to also fueled escort vessels, regular airline meal I had a small tray of delicious finish the interior. serviced ships from many in June came with a slice gourmet chocolates along- OPTIONS nations, and, at one time, of McCambridge’s, which side a handwritten wel- We didn’t take advan- had more than 5,000 was the only edible bit on come note from General tage of the hotel’s many American personnel. the tray.) Manager John S. O’Neill. available options, like an AER LINGUS ACTIVITIES How very nice! Olympic-size swimming I have been a fan of Aer There are lots of fun VISTA pool as well as a steam Lingus for a very long events going on in July A glance out your floor- room, Jacuzzi, sauna, out- time. The airline’s safety in Ireland. Be sure to to-ceiling windows reveals door hot tub, fitness suite, record is second to none visit the local Bord Failte a vista of Lower Lough or the beauty salon, but all and I’ve always enjoyed offices (marked with a Erne and the glistening are available for visitors. flights to and from Shan- large green shamrock) yachts cozily nestled into There is also a conference non, my favorite Irish in whatever area you’re berths at the marina there. and event center. airport. visiting for the latest Bringing the focus back The hotel has 78 luxury Last month when I flew updates on things to do, to your lovely room, you’ll rooms and suites as well to Boston, I was reminded accommodations, places note that the en suite as several restaurants of the late chef and TV per- to see, and more. bathroom has what every and bars, including the sonality Anthony Bour- Among fun activities on modern bathroom needs – charming cellar bar that is Heavily-carved wooden chair is one of many an- dain’s comment about tap in July is the Galway a working television built said to be one of the most tiques gracing the halls of the Manor House Country airline food, which he International Arts Festi- into the wall at the end popular places to eat in Hotel in Northern Ireland. Judy Enright photos said he never ate: “No one val, which runs in Galway of the tub for those long, Fermanagh. has ever felt better after City from July 16-29 (see relaxing soaks at the end Dinner was served in to the spa. And, he noted, as an officers’ mess for eating plane food. I think giaf.ie for details.) The of a busy day. There’s also the Belleek Restaurant the hotel won the Health the US Air Force and people only eat it because festival includes visual an alcove above the TV for at the hotel where I had and Wellbeing Awareness was headquarters for the they’re bored. I don’t eat arts, theatre, comedy, a vase of flowers – this a dill-cured salmon starter Award for Great Britain Killadeas seaplane base. on planes. I like to arrive dance, street spectacles, bathroom had orchids. and a tasty chicken en- and Northern Ireland for In May 1941, a pilot in a hungry.” and more. The ladies will appreci- trée. My friend enjoyed 2017-18; Wedding Venue plane from Killadeas spot- Well, in all honesty, the From July 19-22, the ate that the bathroom is roast lamb. Chef Stephen of the Year for Ulster; and ted the German battleship pre-booked meals on Aer Festival of Curiosity will well stocked with Paul Greenwood has worked at AA Northern Ireland Ho- Bismarck, which was de- Lingus are pretty good, al- be held in various loca- Costelloe soap, shampoo, Manor House for nearly tel of the Year for 2016/17. stroyed in a subsequent though I’m not convinced tions around Dublin and conditioner, body wash 10 years and has clearly The success of the ho- battle. that they are worth $32.99 offers a family program and lotion. You can also perfected his craft. Dinner tel, according to Dolan, It is said that when each. I should say, rather, during the day and night- enjoy the superb water and breakfast offerings is “thanks to our brilliant the US military left the that I wasn’t convinced time events for adults pressure in the freestand- were outstanding. team.” See manorhousec- Killadeas base, numerous until my last Aer Lingus (festivalofcuriosity.ie). ing shower and, as travel- We toured Manor House ountryhotel.com for more planes were dumped into flight when I decided to Grace Jones will open ers to Ireland know, good Hotel with John Dolan, information. The hotel is Lower Lough Erne. Some just eat whatever was the Summer Series at water pressure is not deputy general manager, part of a group of luxury, have been recovered, but served. I chose chicken Dublin’s Trinity College always a given. who said the hotel employs boutique, manor house there reportedly are still and assumed that since from July 23 to July 29. Everywhere you look 120 staff members, most and owner-run Irish many rotting on the bot- the food was made in Ire- The lineup includes Trin- in the hotel’s elegant of whom are local and that was rebranded this tom of the lough. land, it would be passable ity Orchestra, pop triad hallways, sitting or dining some of whom only work spring as Original Irish It’s interesting that if not good. Wyvern Lingo, Gavin rooms, there’s something part time. The leisure Hotels (see originalirish- another Northern Ireland Sadly, Bourdain was James and Imelda May. wonderful, like Waterford business at Manor House hotels.com for more infor- hotel – Beech Hill Country right. The meal was com- (See mcd.ie for details.) crystal chandeliers, inter- is extremely popular, he mation on the group.) House Hotel outside Derry pletely inedible from the Enjoy Ireland whenever esting art, and refurbished added, saying there are THE WAR YEARS – also hosted a US mili- repulsive macaroni salad and wherever you travel. antique furniture. more than a thousand out- From 1939 to 1945, the tary camp on its grounds to the entrée. Even the “de- Manor House Country side members who belong manor house was used during World War II. US liciously light strawberry Page 16 July 2018 BOSTON IRISH Reporter bostonirish.com