ARTS & CULTURE

Our Love of Good Times & Music craic agus ceol

Goderich Celtic

Roots Festival

Irish Festival on the Miramichi

T

TORONTO IRISH FILM FESTIVAL

celebrating the best of irish film

Leaving Dublin

Writing My Way from Ireland to Canada

by Brian Brennan

Erin's Sons:

Irish Arrivals

in Atlantic Canada

1761-1863 - Four Volumes

This moving historical novel by Irish Tenor Paul Redmond is now an epic musical.

Detailed account of the Fitzwilliam clearences of 6,000 emigrants by well-known Arklow historian Jim Rees

Former Canadian Ambassador to Ireland Loyola Hearn, a native of Renews, Newfoundland

is a talented writer who wrote a musical tribute to his Irish roots.

FROM AN ISLAND TO AN ISLAND

MY FATHER LEFT OLD IRELAND, SO MANY YEARS AGO

HE LEFT HIS HOME IN GALWAY, WHERE THE GREEN GREEN SHAMROCKS GROW

HE MET MY DARLING MOTHER ON A BOAT TO NEWFOUNDLAND

AND IT DIDN'T TAKE HIM LONG BEFORE, HE WON HER HEART AND HAND

THEY BOTH CAME TO THIS ISLAND, AS HAPPY AS COULD BE

TO SETTLE DOWN TOGETHER, AND RAISE A FAMILY

THEY BUILT A LITTLE COTTAGE, AND STARTED TO COMBINE

THE GREEN OF THE SHAMROCK, AND THE GREEN OF THE PINE

CHORUS

FROM AN ISLAND TO AN ISLAND, FROM THE GREEN TO THE GREEN

THEY LEFT THEIR HOMES TO SETTLE IN, A PLACE THEY NEVER SEEN

THEY EXCHANGED THE HILLS OF NEWFOUNDLAND, FOR THE ONES THEY LEFT BEHIND

AND THE GREEN OF THE SHAMROCK FOR THE GREEN OF THE PINE.

AS THEIR FAMILIES GREW AROUND THEM, THEIR EYES SHONE BRIGHT WITH PRIDE

THEY'D GO TO CHURCH EACH SUNDAY MORN' STROLLING SIDE BY SIDE

EACH EVENING ROUND THE TURF-FIRE TO HEAVEN WOULD ASCEND

THE DECADES OF THE ROSARY FOR ALL IN IRELAND

NOW THE YEARS PASSED BY SO QUICKLY, AND DEATH WE ALL MUST FACE

WE LAID OUR LOVING PARENTS IN THEIR FINAL RESTING PLACE

YET THEY TAUGHT ME TO BE THANKFUL FOR THIS HERITAGE THAT'S MINE

FOR THE GREEN OF THE SHAMROCK AND THE GREEN OF THE PINE.

Carlingford's Canadian Irish Cultural Day

Dawn & Margie Beaton keeping Celtic music alive in Cape Breton are winners of the East Coast Music Awards

Canadian Soprano Karen Lynch & Irish Tenor Paul Redmond perform as 'Essence'.

October 2011 saw the launch of a new annual event in Carlingford which will highlight the cultural links between Carlingford and Canada.

In its inaugural year, the highlight of the event was the premier of a play set in Montreal’s Irish community.

“Griffintown” is written and performed by the two person théâtre group Théâtre Rua, made up of Dundalk girl, Laura Flynn and Clíona de Brí from

Prosperous, Co. Kildare.

Originally founded in Montréal in 2009, Théâtre Rua is now based in Ireland.

Griffintown is an area in Montreal once represented by Carlingford-born Thomas D’arcy Magee.

This years event included performances by:

TEAS: pronounced chass is the Irish word for “heat” which aptly describes the energy of this traditional

band that everyone is beginning to take notice of. This four piece band, blend Irish traditional and

contemporary folk influences in a wonderful tapestry of sounds.

TEAS comprised of Brendan McCreanor (uilleann pipes/low whistle/tin whistle),

Áine Murphy (flute/tin whistle) Barry Kieran (fiddle) and

Seán Ó Roideáin (vocals/guitar), have played festivals including Fleadh Cheoil, and Muckno-Mania

and will be headlining at Íontas Theatre, Castleblayney in December.

The CLYPP BAND: is a cross-border, cross community youth band developed by Carlingford Community Development under the aegis of the Carlingford Lough Youth Peace Project, which has been generously supported by the International Fund for Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs and recently appeared at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, Ireland’s biggest festival.

Activities on the day also include:

CANADIAN/IRISH CULTURAL DAY CHILDREN’S WORKSHOP PROGRAMME, CHILDREN’S DRAMA WORKSHOP YOUNG MUSICIAN’S WORKSHOP

Canadian Painter Paul Kane was born in Mallow, County Cork, the fifth child of the eight of Michael Kane and Frances Loach. The family immigrated to Upper Canada sometime between 1819 and 1822 and settled in York, which later become Toronto in March 1834.

Kane is considered one of the most important of Canadian painters and one of the first Canadian painters who could earn a living from his artwork alone. A rare painting entitled Scene in the Northwest, sold for the record price at Sotheby's Toronto in 2002, for over five million Canadian dollars.