Category: Latest News

Congressman Richard Neal, the Irish Cultural Center of Western New England and the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Parade Committee hosted a screening of Maurice Fitzpatrick’s film, In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America on September 16, 2018 at the West Springfield High School. A panel discussion included Congressman Richard Neal, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States Daniel Mulhall, filmmaker Maurice Fitzpatrick, John Hume’s son Aidan Hume, and was moderated by Suzanne Lynch, Irish Times Washington Correspondent. A reception at the ICC’s Irish House Restaurant and Trinity Pub followed. This acclaimed documentary, narrated by Liam Neeson, highlights the relationships cultivated between John Hume and his counterparts in the White House and Congress which ultimately led to the framework for peace on the island of Ireland. It was one of the few times this powerful documentary was shown in the U.S.

View the full photo album from the event. View the full panel discussion that took place after the screening (thanks to Stephen Cary of Focus Springfield Community TV).

Photos by Kathleen Doe.

Springfield native and author Gerald Hayes will be the featured guest at the U.S. launch of his new book, The Blasket Islandman, on Saturday, October 13 at 12:00 pm at the Irish Cultural Center, 429 Morgan Road, West Springfield, MA. This event is free and open to the public. Lunch from the Irish House Restaurant and Trinity Pub will be available for purchase.

The Blasket Islandman tells the story of Tomás Ó Criomhthain, who spent his life on the Great Blasket (1856-1937) and helped put the island on the literary map. He was a fisherman and farmer who became fluent in reading and writing his native Irish, penning many essays printed in national Irish publications, along with two well-known Irish books: Island Cross-Talk: Pages from a Diary, first published in 1928, and The Islandman, first published in 1929. Ó Criomhthain ended his second book with the now well-known Irish phrase, “…the like of us will never be again.”

Hayes has co-authored two other books, both dealing with the small, once-inhabited island off the southwest coast of Ireland. In 2013, Hayes co-authored From the Great Blasket to America: The Last Memoir by an Islander with his later father-in-law, Michael Carney, a native Blasket Islander; and in 2015, The Last Blasket King with Eliza Kane. The Blasket Islandman is published by The Collins Press.

“[this] book will always remain an essential work of reference for not only the student and scholar of Blasket literature but for anybody concerned with the reality of life as lived at its barest and yet richest and most meaningful.” ~ Seán Ó Coileain, Emeritus Professor, University College Cork

“It’s great to have an overview of Tomás’ life and you put all the people he worked with into context.” ~ Ann Flower, granddaughter of Robin Flower, Ó Criomhthain’s friend, mentor and translator

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*Please note: This show is now sold out. No tickets at the door.* We are excited to announce that Padraig Stevens with Leo Moran of The Saw Doctors will be playing at the ICC as part of their US tour to promote Padraig’s new album News From The Old Country.

Thursday, October 11 at 7:00 pm (doors open at 5:30 pm) at the ICC’s Trinity Pub at 429 Morgan Road, West Springfield, MA. Dinner menu and bar will be available. Table or bar seating, general/shared seating layout.

Sold out. Cost is $25 ICC Patrons / $30 general for the main dining room; $25 for seating in rear room off main dining room (some obstructed view).

Read about the tour in the Irish Examiner. This is a rare treat to hear all new songs from Padraig Stevens, a prolific Galway songwriter, with Leo Moran supporting on guitar. Padraig’s songs have been recorded by The Saw Doctors, Christy Moore, Eleanor Shanley, and more. Listen to a preview the new album.

“Greetings from Padraig in Tuam, Ireland.
I was happy enough, enjoying my days. Sitting at home and writing songs. Then Leo arrived one day, wondering if I would be interested in doing a few little gigs with him.
He had enjoyed playing the shows he had done with Anto – and later with Davy – but now he just wanted to play his guitar, and ‘would I sing some of my songs’, he said.
This sounded good to me, so we started in February 2017 with gigs in The Kings Head, Galway and Campbell’s Tavern near Headford, both local venues.
We got a great welcome at the shows, the audience enjoyed them, so did we! We did a few more gigs, things were getting better.
Then we discovered we really needed to get some of our music recorded to let people know what to expect when they came to see us play. We went to Sun Street Studio Tuam where our old friend Ken Ralph whipped our sound into shape. With Leo steering we eventually released an album of songs called ‘News from the Old Country.’ Have a listen!

Playing live is our real vocation though, and we look forward to every show we do, but now with a bundle of gigs booked across New England we are getting very excited to be spreading our wings and playing to new audiences. See you soon.”

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All sales are final. Refunds are given ONLY in the event of cancellation by performers.

Please join us at the Irish House Restaurant and Trinity Pub for a special White Wine Pairing Dinner on September 27 at 6:00 pm; dinner begins at 6:30 pm. Four courses, including parmesan crostini, arugula orange salad, seared scallops with lemon orzo, and dulce de leche crispies, are paired with four white and sparkling wine varieties. Tickets are $35 for ICC Patrons, $40 for general public. There is a special ICC Patron presale for the first 7 days – tickets for the public go on sale September 11. General public may call for reservations during this time, and will be placed on a wait list until the presale is over. Seating is limited for this special event – for tickets, please call Sheri at 413-342-4358. Download information flyer and menu.

*PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, due to competing events in the area and high levels of traffic, we will be postponing this event to a later date. Those who purchased tickets will receive a full refund.*

The ICC’s Annual Breakfast is a great opportunity to meet and mingle, with good food, pleasant company, and a review of the year’s activities and progress at the ICC. The public is welcome to attend this annual event.

Sunday, September 30 at 10:00 am at the ICC’s Irish House Restaurant, 429 Morgan Road, West Springfield, MA.

Journalist Eileen Markey, our featured speaker, will present “Memory Compels Us: Irish American History as a Call to Solidarity.” Tyranny. Forced migration. Poverty. Xenophobia. Religious bigotry. These conditions describe both the early experience of the Irish in the U.S. and the current reality of newer arrivals. The journeys our people traveled are undertaken again, in different guise. Markey will mine episodes in Irish and Irish American history for hope, techniques of resilience and models of solidarity, drawing links to the struggles and joys of communities that find themselves where we once were.

Springfield native Eileen Markey is a writer and reporter whose work focuses on social movements, public policy and the stories of people far from power. She’s particularly interested in issues of memory, history and storytelling. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, New York Public Radio and America Magazine, among other publications. She’s the author of A Radical Faith: The Assassination of Sr. Maura (Nation 2016) which tells the true story of an Irish American woman’s involvement in struggles for justice in Central America. Markey teaches journalism at Lehman College, part of the City University of New York. She lives in the Bronx with her husband and two sons.

The breakfast menu includes scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, home fries, Belgian waffles with strawberries and maple syrup, fruit and pastry platters, coffee or tea, and a Mimosa or Bellini.

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Join us for a launch party for Dee Reilly’s new album, My Kind of Country, recorded in Nashville. We are delighted to host this special event. Please join us outside at the pavilion for an afternoon barbecue with all of the fixings, a pint or two, and live Irish and Country music by Dee Reilly and her band from New York. Dee will have her new CD available for purchase and signing.

Sunday, September 23
3:00–6:00 pm, rain or shine
Pavilion behind the ICC, 429 Morgan Road, West Springfield, MA. Note venue change. Feel free to bring your own lawn chair as seating may be limited.

Tickets are $30 ICC Patrons / $35 General (includes BBQ buffet and performance). Purchase tickets online, or call 413-342-4358. Tickets are limited, order soon!

Thanks to our Programming Sponsors

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All sales are final. Refunds are given ONLY in the event of cancellation by performers.

Congressman Richard Neal, the Irish Cultural Center of Western New England and the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Parade Committee will host a screening of Maurice Fitzpatrick’s film, In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America on Sunday, September 16 at the West Springfield High School Auditorium, 425 Piper Road, West Springfield, MA. Doors open at 1:30 pm. This event is free and open to the public.

This acclaimed documentary, narrated by Liam Neeson, highlights the relationships cultivated between John Hume and his counterparts in the White House and Congress which ultimately led to the framework for peace on the island of Ireland. It will be one of the few times this powerful documentary has been shown in the United States.

Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion about John Hume’s life and his contribution to the peace process. The panel will consist of:

Congressman Richard E. Neal
Congressman Richard E. Neal is the Co-Chairman of the bipartisan Friends of Ireland Caucus in the United States Congress. He has been a leader in the international effort to bring peace, justice and reconciliation to the island of Ireland for more than three decades.

Ambassador Daniel Mulhall
Daniel Mulhall became Ireland’s 18^th Ambassador to the United States of America in August of 2017. He was born and raised in Waterford and received graduate and post-graduate degrees from University College Cork in modern Irish history. Daniel Mulhall joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1978, and during his distinguished career has served as Ireland’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Germany and Great Britain. He is married to his wife Greta and has they have a daughter and a son.

Maurice Fitzpatrick
Maurice Fitzpatrick is an acclaimed film director and lecturer who attended Trinity College Dublin. He has made two documentaries for the BBC: The Boys of St. Columb’s (also an Irish public television RTE production) which tells the story of the first generation of children in Northern Ireland, including Nobel Laureates John Hume and Seamus Heaney, to receive free secondary education as a result of the 1947 Education Act. The second film is an examination of Brian Friel’s brilliant play Translations, which takes place in Donegal in 1833 and explores the role of Irish language at the time and how people overcome differences. In 2017, Maurice Fitzpatrick wrote, directed and produced the documentary feature film, In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America. He is also the author of a separate book entitles John Hume in America.

Aidan Hume
Aidan Hume is a senior advisor in the global communications company Hume-Brophy specializing on developing key relationships in the United States of America. He has an MBA from Boston College and enjoyed a successful 20 year career in the banking industry. He is the son of John and Pat Hume and lives with his family in greater Boston.

Suzanne Lynch
Suzanne Lynch will moderate the panel discussion. She is the Irish Times’ American correspondent based in Washington. Formerly Brussels correspondent and before that a financial journalist with the Irish Times in Dublin, she also worked as an arts journalist for a number of years in Ireland and the UK.

View the film trailer:

Please join us at the Irish House Restaurant and Trinity Pub for a special Tequila Pairing Dinner on August 30 at 6:00 pm; dinner begins at 6:30 pm. Four courses, including a layered bean dip, cucumber and avocado salad, grilled pork in charred chile Adobo, and poached pears, are paired with four tequila varieties. Tickets are $35 for ICC Patrons, $45 for general public. There is a special ICC Patron presale for the first 7 days – tickets for the public go on sale August 6. General public may call for reservations during this time, and will be placed on a wait list until the presale is over. Seating is limited for this special event – for tickets, please call Sheri at 413-342-4358. Download information flyer and menu.

The Irish Cultural Center of Western New England and Elms College are pleased to offer a range of Irish language classes for the 2018/2019 academic year. Classes are geared for all learning levels, from beginner to advanced.

The ICC and Elms College are pleased to welcome the program’s ninth consecutive Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Jill McMahon. A native of Co. Clare, McMahon is looking forward to acting as a cultural ambassador for Ireland. Her goal is to develop and enhance the Irish language-learning environment during her time this year, as she says, “The value of learning a language is directly related to the opportunities and initiatives to speak that language.”

McMahon has a first-class honours degree in Irish & Journalism from Dublin City University, and has worked solely in the Irish language sector for the past five years. Her work with organizations such as Conradh na Gaeilge and Gaeloideachas has seen her involved in Irish language education for the past few years, an area that is integral to the preservation, promotion and maintenance of the Irish language in Ireland.  She currently works as Education Officer with Conradh na Gaeilge, offering a range of Irish language classes to adults in Dublin. Her main language promotion and teaching is through Irish national sports, as a volunteer with the Gaelic Athletics Association.

Gerald Costello, ICC Language Committee Chair and one of this year’s instructors, values the work of the Fulbright Teaching Assistant. He says, “The FLTA contributes and fosters a sense of good will between Ireland and the U.S. This ambassador links the past with the present and enables our students of the language to learn through group work, presentations, and assorted activities. Minority languages face an uncertain future; the FLTA is helping us to remember our ancestors’ language by making it relevant and enjoyable.”

Classes begin late August/early September and take place at Elms College in Chicopee, MA. Experienced instructors from the ICC will teach non-credit course offerings. First Year Irish, a beginner course requiring no initial knowledge of the language, will be taught by Gerald Costello on Monday evenings. Kathleen Gilhooly will teach Second Year Irish on Tuesday evenings. Costello will teach Third Year Irish: Conversation on Tuesday evenings, and Gilhooly will teach Fourth Year Irish on Saturday mornings. Jill McMahon will teach the Intermediate: Advanced class on Wednesday evenings, which may be taken on a credit or non-credit basis.

For class times and more information, visit our website. The cost is $150 for the First, Second, Third and Fourth Year classes, and $175 for Intermediate. ICC Patrons receive a $50 discount. To enroll, please call the Elms College Registrar at 413-265-2314, or download a registration form.

The Irish Cultural Center is proud to be a sponsor of the 25th Annual Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival, on July 21 at Look Park in Florence, MA. The festival runs from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, with all-day entertainment until 9:30 pm. The only Scottish Festival in Massachusetts, the 2018 festival promises to be extra special, with incredible dancers, athletes, entertainment, food and more. Come for a day full of incredible Celtic culture, food and fun, and visit us at the ICC table!

More info about the Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival >