The Irish Tradition

Immerse yourself in the enchanting melodies of folk music at the South Street Seaport Museum's Folk Serenade on the Water. Enjoy a solo performance by Liz Hanley, a master of the fiddle and folk vocal artistry, against the backdrop of New York Harbor.

Irish Arts Center celebrated its 100th performance and continues to inaugurate its new home—a 21,700 square foot hub for the arts at 726 11th Avenue—with an ever eclectic suite of programming this fall.

Irish Arts Center celebrated its 100th performance and continues to inaugurate its new home—a 21,700 square foot hub for the arts at 726 11th Avenue—with an ever eclectic suite of programming this fall.

Irish Arts Center (IAC), based in New York City and renowned for presenting the best in Irish and Irish-American arts and culture, today announced its Fall 2020 digital season, boldly expanding the organization's approach to connecting with remote audiences through powerful work and deeply engaging online courses and events. S

Developed through more than 100 partnerships with 33 different countries represented, Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture today unveiled its core programme for the year, with the themes of landscape, language and migration. Galway 2020 will open with a free week-long festival of fire starting on Saturday 1 February 2020 moving through six towns and villages across Galway culminating in a spectacular Opening Ceremony in Galway City on Saturday 8 February 2020.

The 16th annual Boston Celtic Music Festival, known as BCMFest, returns to Harvard Square January 17-20, 2019. Presented by Passim, a Cambridge-based non-profit that supports a vibrant music community through Club Passim, the Passim School of Music, artist grants and outreach initiatives, the 2019 festival will showcase Greater Boston's deep tradition of music, song and dance from Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton and other Celtic communities.  Tickets for all BCMFest performances are now on sale at https://www.passim.org/bcmfest/

Irish Arts Center (IAC), the multidisciplinary center dedicated to bringing people of all backgrounds together through the excellence and dynamism of Irish arts and culture, this year creates a thrilling intersection of musical traditions from Ireland and the Gulf of Mexico for its annual Winter Solstice Celebration (December 14 at Symphony Space). The beloved holiday gathering is hosted by NEA award winner and "one of the most important Irish musicians to emerge from the folk revival of the 1970s" (Time Out) Mick Moloney (banjo, mandolin, vocals) and acclaimed fiddler Athena Tergis.

To open their 2018-2019 season, Theater Latte Da presents the multi Tony Award winning musical ONCE at the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis.  Adapted by Edna Walsh with worlds and lyrics written or composed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, ONCE recalls the story of a guy and girl who meet through fate for six days in Dublin, Ireland. The Girl, a Czech immigrant ready to begin a new life, intersects at a train station with an Irishmen who repairs Hoovers while pondering on abandoning his musical career. Together, in an old Dublin shop where pianos are sold, Girl plays her accompaniment to Guy's lyrics. The two indeed "make beautiful music together," while Latte Da's production keeps the musical drama and their audiencenes, as a song from the musical quotes, "walking on moonbeams." 

RIOT, the all-star, all-Irish smash hit of the 2016 Dublin Fringe Festivaland winner of Best Production, is set to make its Melbourne debut in an exhilarating theatrical explosion that will set hearts soaring and pulses racing from 31 January to 9 February 2018 at Arts Centre Melbourne.

LANKUM presents the new track Sergeant William Bailey from the forthcoming (10/27) album Between the Earth and Sky. The album drops October 27th, 2017 on Rough Trade Records. Pre-order at http://rtrecs.co/BTEAS

Chicago Theater Works, 1113 W. Belmont, has announced its exciting fall production line up, including Flanagan's Wake, which will return to Chicago Today, September 23 through Thursday, November 9, and Tony n' Tina's Wedding, which is returning to Chicago indefinitely.  Flanagan's Wake, which has played in the Chicagoland area steadily since 1994, and Tony n Tina's Wedding, having successfully run in Chicago for over 16 years, will run in tandem at Chicago's newest venue.

The producers behind Tony n' Tina's Wedding are pleased to announce the long-running improv/comedy, Flanagan's Wake, will return to Chicago Saturday, September 23 through Thursday, November 9.

Chicago Theater Works, 1113 W. Belmont, has announced its exciting fall production line up, including Flanagan's Wake, which will return to Chicago Saturday, September 23 through Thursday, November 9, and Tony n' Tina's Wedding, which is returning to Chicago indefinitely.  Flanagan's Wake, which has played in the Chicagoland area steadily since 1994, and Tony n Tina's Wedding, having successfully run in Chicago for over 16 years, will run in tandem at Chicago's newest venue.

The producers behind Tony n' Tina's Wedding are pleased to announce the long-running improv/comedy, Flanagan's Wake, will return to Chicago with an open-ended run February 24 with a press opening on Friday, March 3 at 8 p.m.  Flanagan's Wake, which has played in the Chicagoland area steadily since 1994, will run in tandem with Tony n' Tina's Wedding at Chicago's newest venue, Chicago Theater Works (1113 W. Belmont).

Irish Arts Center brings its annual holiday celebration of Irish, American, and world music, dance and storytelling with Mick Moloney, Athena Tergis, and a cast of America's top Irish and world musicians to Symphony Space, December 16-17.

Forge Music Venue in Camden, London on Monday 14th November 2016 at 7.30pm for the World Premiere of London Irish Reflections, which seeks to contextualise the experience of the Irish of several generations working and living in London. Daire Halpin (soprano) and Jean Kelly (harpist) - our Joint Artistic Director - will premiere Reflections  as part of Irish Heritage's Season '1916-2016 A Century of Music in Ireland'.

Author and illustrator Kathleen Quinn once again celebrates the Irish tradition of storytelling in her new storybook, 'Hawk Star By The Sea' (published by Xlibris). This new book is a beautifully illustrated story of a mynah bird named Sky who goes on an adventure. A follow-up to Quinn's first story, 'Cupcakes By The Sea,' this new book raises awareness on topical issues like bullying and identity while capturing the wonder of her Irish storytelling heritage.

'There are two kinds of people in the world, as ye very well know,' Peter Cormican asserts in a lilting accent, 'those that are Irish and those that want to be.' The English-born actor, son Irish parents - a Protestant mother from Belfast and a Catholic father from Galway - is currently in Maine to make his Maine State Music Theatre/Portland Stage debut in Frank McCourt's play The Irish and How They Got That Way, directed by Marc Robin, which opens in Portland August 19th. The production, a bold new collaboration between two of Maine leading Equity companies, marks an exciting new chapter for both theatres and promises to be one of the season's biggest hits, as it has been in every town its played. Cormican is joined in our conversation by two of the other four principals from the a small cast that also stars Curt Dale Clark [see BWW interview 5/24/16], Charis Leos and Cary Michele Miller, (and features Cameron Wright and Emily Davis, Ernest Sauceda (fiddler) and two other musicians). Both Leos and Miller are MSMT veterans, but new to McCourt's play. 'This is my debut at Portland Stage,' Miller says with anticipation. 'I always look forward to working with Curt and Charis and Marc, and I am enjoying getting to know Peter. And I am always excited to learn new material and new music.'

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, Chicago Theater Works (1113 W. Belmont), home of the hilarious, interactive dinner theater experience We Gotta Bingo, is happy to announce the Chicago return of Flanagan's Wake. Performances begin Friday, Feb. 26 (preview Thursday, Feb. 25). Tickets are now on sale at ChicagoTheaterWorks.com

Anne Enright is the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction and winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize forThe Gathering. In her new novel, The Green Road(just published in this country by Norton), four children grow up and move away from their childhood home in the west of Ireland. They go everywhere, have full, interesting and complex lives, and then, in 2005, their elderly mother declares she is going to sell the house. So they all troop back for an Irish family Christmas and try to sleep one last time in their old beds. They bring their inner child home with them, only to meet their outer mother, Rosaleen: a woman who is sometimes wonderful and always difficult.