Glucksman Ireland House NYU Events Calendar Spring 2007
Free admission to Members of Glucksman Ireland House and to all students/faculty with a valid NYU I.D. card.
For all others: $10 admission donation at the door for regular event series;
$15 donation at the door for Blarney Star Concert Series.
In order to ensure a seat for Thursday night events, please RSVP to 212-998-3950 (option 3) or email ireland.house@nyu.edu.
The Blarney Star Concert Series does not accept reservations.
No printed tickets available.
All events are held at Glucksman Ireland House unless otherwise noted
and are supported through our membership program.
To join Glucksman Ireland House as a member, please see http://irelandhouse.fas.nyu.edu/page/enroll.html.
Please click on the hyperlink in each event title for more information about each event.
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Friday, January 19th at 9pm:
THE BLARNEY STAR CONCERT SERIES: James Keane
Dubliner James Keane is one of Ireland's greatest button accordionists. Few, if any, box players can make the instrument sing like James, who plays with the kind of speed, flair and subtle ornamental flourishes more often associated with pipes, fiddle or flute. James was one of the most celebrated young traditional musicians in Ireland in the 1960s, performing with singers Paul Brady, Dónal Lunny and Mick Moloney, bridging the gap between the ballad groups inspired by the American folk music revival and the older Irish music scene. Though resident in New York for many years now, James has not been forgotten in Ireland, where he is feted as a returning hero whenever he returns for a musical visit. |
Tuesday, February 6th at 7pm:
Colm Tóibín launches Mothers and Sons
Colm Tóibín launches Mothers and Sons, a collection of stories which offers rich, powerful portraits of individuals at pivotal moments in their lives, within the context of their mother-son relationship. Tóibín confirms his role as a great prose stylist whilst examining an important yet complicated relationship with intricacy, sophistication, and mastery. Cosponsored by the NYU Creative Writing Program. |
Thursday, February 15th at 7pm:
Screening of Fairy Wife: The Burning of Bridget Cleary
(2005 Wildfire Films BSÉ/IFB, RTÉ, The History Channel)
In March 1895 in a Tipperary village, RIC constables discover a badly burned body in a shallow grave. It is the body of Bridget Cleary, a 26-year old woman who had met her death at the hands of her husband only days before. His motive? He believed she had been taken away by the fairies. Fairy Wife is a one-hour documentary, which explores the events surrounding the burning of Bridget Cleary and the massive impact it had on the country at the time. Director: Adrian McCarthy, Producer: Martha O’Neill. True story; featured in book, The Burning of Bridget Cleary by Angela Bourke. |
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CALLAHAN, McCOMISKEY and KELLY: Not an Irish law firm but a great fiddle, button accordion and guitar trio. Philadelphia resident Brendan Callahan is one of the finest Irish-style fiddlers in the U.S. A former student of famed fiddler Brendan Mulvihill, he plays with a delicate touch unlooked for in a large-framed shotputter and college football lineman. Box player Sean McComiskey is a Maryland native whose technique and taste rivals that of his famed father Billy. They will be backed by Philadelphia’s Darin Kelly, who in recent years has become the favored guitar accompanist of many top-flight east coast Irish musicians. |
Thursday, March 1st at 7pm:
NINTH ANNUAL GRIAN CONFERENCE: IRELAND AND GENDER
Screening of Guns and Chiffon
(2004 Paradox Pictures BSÉ/IFB, RTÉ)
Guns and Chiffon is a one-hour documentary that tells the story of the involvement of women in Ireland’s fight for national independence, from the 1916 Rising, through the War of Independence and into the Civil War. It also tells the story of the fight for the rights of workers and the struggle for equal opportunities and votes for women. Their story is told by themselves and in their own voices. Director: Geraldine Creed, Producer: Nuala Carr. This event marks the opening of ninth GRIAN Irish Studies conference, this year’s conference theme is Ireland and Gender. Please see the Grian Association conference web site at http://irelandhouse.fas.nyu.edu/object/grian2007.html for a full conference schedule. |
Tuesday, March 6th at 7pm:
Ciaran Carson reads from The Midnight Court
Professor Ciaran Carson, Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast, is the author of four prose books and nine collections of poems, including The Irish for No, Belfast Confetti, and The Twelfth of Never. He has won several literary awards, including the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His translation of Dante's Inferno (2002) was awarded the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Ciaran will read from his 2006 translation of Brian Merriman’s Cúirt an Mheán Oíche (The Midnight Court), an eighteenth-century comic and erotic masterpiece. |
Thursday, March 8th at 7pm:
Peter Quinn launches Looking for Jimmy
From caricatures of the drunken fighting Irishman came the image of the Irish “Paddy,” but as Paddy fades into memory, what is the face of the Irish in America? In his new book, Looking for Jimmy, author Peter Quinn explores the image of “Jimmy,” an archetypal Irish American who comes to life as the fast-talking, tough-yet-refined urban American who redefined American politics, street culture, religion and moral imagination during the twentieth century. Peter Quinn is the author of Banished Children of Eve and The Hour of the Cat. A third generation Irish-American New Yorker, Quinn is a former speech writer for two New York governors and the former Editorial Director for AOL Time Warner. |
Thursday, March 15th at 7pm:
Margaret Lynch-Brennan launches the paperback of Making the Irish American with a talk on Irish servants in America, 1840-1930
From the mid-19th to the early 20th century, popular American literature was rife with stories on the Irish Bridget or Biddy, the stereotypical Irish immigrant servant girl. But who were the actual women behind the stereotype? Margaret Lynch-Brennan speaks on "The Irish Bridget: Behind the Stereotype" to celebrate the release of the paperback edition of Making the Irish American. Dr. Lynch-Brennan authored chapter 11 of Making the Irish American, "Ubiquitous Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service, 1840-1930."
For more information about Glucksman Ireland House and NYU Press's publication of Making the Irish American, please see our book publication page at http://irelandhouse.fas.nyu.edu/page/books.html. |
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Flute player Mike Rafferty is one of the greatest living Irish traditional musicians in North America. An ageless marvel now well into his eighth decade, Mike is a proud native of Ballinakill in east County Galway, one of the most famously musical regions of Ireland. He grew up in a musical family headed by his uilleann piper father Tom "Barrel" Rafferty, and also picked up tunes and technique from many other famed local musicians. Though he left Ireland nearly 60 years ago, Mike has never lost his strong east Galway accent, either in his speaking voice or his flute playing. He has had an enormous influence on many younger Irish-American musicians, including the outstanding New Jersey fiddler Willie Kelly, with whom he has performed on many occasions. Mike and Willie will be joined by piano legend Felix Dolan, who has been accompanying the greats of Irish music for half a century. |
Thursday, March 22nd at 7pm:
Bernadette McCauley speaks on Irish-Americans' participation in the development of Catholic hospitals in New York City
Professor Bernadette McCauley, Hunter College, CUNY, speaks on the founding and development of Catholic hospitals in New York city and the key role played by women religious in this development from the famine era to the early twentieth century based on her book, Who Shall Take Care of Our Sick?, published by Johns Hopkins Press in 2005. |
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Pete Hamill leads a panel discussion on the life and work of John McGahern, widely considered to be one of the greatest Irish writers by readers and critics alike. In his last novel, By the Lake, he wrote of life in a close-knit Irish rural community where, "the days disappear in the attendance of small tasks." Of McGahern, John Updike has said that he offered "us the tonic gift of the best fiction, the sense of truth – the sense of transparency that permits us to see imaginary lives more clearly than we see our own." The panel will include Joe Kennedy of The Irish Independent, a close friend of John McGahern over a forty year period, and Belinda McKeon, a regular columnist with The Irish Times. |
Friday, March 30th at 7:30pm:
A CELEBRATION OF JOHN MCGAHERN (1934-2006)
Screening of John McGahern: A Private World with introduction by Pete Hamill
(2005 Hummingbird Productions, BSÉ/IFB, RTÉ)
VENUE: Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Film Center, 36 East 8th Street, between Broadway and University Place
Since the publication of his first book in 1963, John McGahern has been at the cultural heart of Irish life. This hour-long documentary explores the life and work using McGahern’s published memoirs as a backbone of the story. Through intimate interviews, a strong and compelling sense of the man behind the work emerges, offering a rare insight into the creative process. John McGahern: A Private World won the Best Documentary Award in the Irish Film & Television Awards in 2005. Introduction by award-winning writer Pete Hamill. Director: Pat Collins, Producers: Tina Moran, Philip King. Please note venue is NYU's Cantor Film Center at 36 East 8th St. (all other Glucksman Ireland House NYU events take place at Ireland House). |
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Maeve Donnelly is among the most accomplished and entertaining fiddlers in Irish music today. Though deeply rooted in the musical tradition of her native east County Galway, Maeve is a thoroughly modern player who electrifies audiences with a fiery and uninhibited performance style. Her partner for this concert is no mere accompanist. Scotsman Tony McManus has been widely hailed as one of the world’s most virtuosic and innovative acoustic guitarists. He is a renowned soloist in his own right and has made several acclaimed recordings of Irish, Scots, Cape Breton and Quebecois tunes. |
Thursday, April 19th at 7pm:
Gordon Ledbetter speaks about John McCormack, the great Irish Tenor
Gordon T. Ledbetter, a writer and broadcaster with many years experience working for both RTÉ and the BBC speaks on John McCormack: The Great Irish Tenor based on his recent book of the same title. Born in 1884, McCormack won a gold medal in the Feis Ceoil of 1903, appeared at Covent Garden in 1907 when he was 23, and began a long and illustrious career as a star of the recital stage and a very successful recording artist. |
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The concertina, a little squeezebox with hexagonal ends, is closely associated with the musical tradition of County Clare, where Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, a professor of music and Irish studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, was born and raised. Tim Collins grew up on the opposite shore of the Shannon in west County Limerick but long ago crossed the river to join Clare’s famed Kilfenora Ceili Band. Tim is currently at New York University as a Fulbright/Culture Ireland visiting scholar, so Gearóid’s visit from Missouri gives us the rare opportunity to hear two masters of the concertina in a duet performance. |
Thursday, April 26th at 7pm:
Artist Brian O'Doherty/Patrick Ireland in conversation with Brenda Moore-McCann
Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland, the artist and critic whose work is featured in the retrospective exhibition "Beyond the White Cube: A Retrospective of Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland," on view at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, from April 17 through July 14, 2007 in conversation with Dr. Brenda Moore-McCann, a medical doctor, art historian, critic, and lecturer with an interest in Irish and international contemporary art. She completed her Ph.D. dissertation, “Ireland in Perspective: The Art of Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland” at the University of Dublin, Trinity College, in 2002, and contributed an essay to the catalogue for "Beyond the White Cube." For more information on "Beyond the White Cube," please see the Grey Art Gallery web site at http://www.nyu.edu/greyart/. |
Saturday, April 28th from 10-5pm:
BARRA Ó DONNABHÁIN SYMPOSIUM:
Teaching and Learning the Irish Language in the United States: Practice, Prospects, Perspectives
This symposium, named in honor of Barra Ó Donnabháin, will address several themes regarding the Irish language, including methods of instruction, the role and potential of technology, attitudes and responses to the language among varied student communities and regions in the United States, the relationship between Ireland and the United States in terms of Irish language organizations, public policy, and diverse media, and projection about potential future trends in Irish language learning. Padraig Ó Cearúill, Moderator. Please see the event page for a full list of presentations and participants. |
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Airneál na Bealtaine: an evening of traditional music and song with NYU students and local musicians hosted by Irish Language Lecturer, Pádraig Ó Cearúill. Bí Linn! |
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One of the world’s truly great button accordionists, Billy McComiskey is the Irish-American king of the BC “box.” He is renowned on both sides of the Atlantic for his partnerships with fiddle stars Brendan Mulvihill and Liz Carroll, but on this occasion Billy will be playing with tenor banjo wizard Peter Fitzgerald, a County Meath native with whom he frequently performs in the Baltimore area. They will be accompanied by the young Baltimore keyboard ace Matt Mulqueen, star protégé of pianist Donna Long, who was originally scheduled to perform but has had to cancel due to family obligations. |
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Origin Theatre Company opens its third annual reading series at Glucksman Irleand House NYU with a reading of The Pimp, direct from Wales and written by Dic Edwards. It tells the story of Baudelaire, a young dandy who’s just inherited a fortune, he meets Jeanne Duval an actress/whore he’s admired voyeuristically. He wants her, so they make a contract in which he agrees to finance her life. The Baudelaire family solicitor discovers that Baudelaire is having an affair with as far as he’s concerned a “nigger” – and subjects his inheritance to a court order thus leaving Baudelaire in virtual poverty unable to fulfill his bargain with Jeanne. Baudelaire is thrown into a lifetime of despair with serious consequences for his writing.
The Pimp will be directed by David Sullivan. |
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Origin Theatre Company presentsa reading the play Monged by 2006 Stewart Parker Award Winner Gary Duggan, directed by Jim Culleton, Artistic Director of Fishamble Theatre Company in Dublin.
"Monged... a cross between Ulysses and a buddy movie." --- The Irish Times |
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Origin Theatre Company presents a reading of Shoot the Crow, directed by Laurence Lowry. Shoot the Crow is written by multi award-winning Owen McCafferty whose work includes Closing Time and Scenes from the Big Picture (National Theatre, London), and Days of Wine and Roses (Donmar).
On a Belfast building site, four tilers are coming to the end of a job; but with a spare pallet of tiles kicking around, there is money to be made by anyone who happens to take it. When they put their plans into action, hysterical confusion ensues as each one tries to gain the upper hand in this brilliantly witty homage to the working man. |
All events are supported by the New York Times Company Foundation and membership contributions. |
To request a printed version via mail, please call Glucksman Ireland House NYU at (212) 998-3950, option 0. | |
