Irish Cultural Center set to celebrate 10 years

Date: 9/8/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



CHICOPEE -- Judith Kappenman, SSJ, director of the Irish Cultural Center at Elms College, said the center started "with a little dream."

In the mid-1990s Irish film-maker Breandan Feiritear arranged with Thomas Moriarty, a history professor at Elms, to interview Blasket Island immigrants and their children who had settled in the Greater Springfield areas.

"He came back to show the film for the first time in America in March 1997 during a horrible winter storm, but the auditorium was still packed," Kappenman recalled. "After that, Thomas Moriarty, Kathleen Keating, who was president of the college at the time, and Sean Cahillane, the son of Blasket Islander, started meeting and thought, 'Why not establish an Irish center at Elms?'"

The Irish Cultural Center was established in 1999, and now the center is ready to celebrate its tenth anniversary. A weekend full of events is scheduled for Oct. 9 through Oct. 11 at the center, located at 291 Springfield St.

On the evening of Oct. 9, the center will host an exhibit of paintings from artist Vincent Crotty, originally from Kanturk, County Cork, Ireland, who now resides in Boston. His exhibit, "Recent Paintings: Images of the Blasket Island, Ireland and Beyond," will be open from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Borgia Gallery on the second floor of the Dooley Campus Center.

Crotty said that as a kid, he messed around with lots of types of paint, but got into oils in his late teens. "When I came to America, I really got into it," he explained. "I love the texture, the smell ... the buttery consistency [of oils]. I love the look of the end result."

He said America is a country where an artist can develop constantly because there is always someone to teach you.

"It's the greatest country in the world, right now, for art," he said in an interview with Reminder Publications.

The upcoming exhibit will be Crotty's first visit to the Irish Cultural Center in Chicopee, and he said he was delighted to be asked to put on an exhibit there.

The exhibition will run from Oct. 3 through Oct. 26. For more information on the artist, visit his Web site at www.vincentcrotty.com.

From 6 to 10 p.m. on Oct. 9 a group of local musicians will conduct a session in the Dooley Campus Center Dining Hall Annex. Everyone is welcome to bring instruments and join in. Dancers from the McDermott School of Irish Dance will also be performing.

The second day of the anniversary celebration will be full of workshops. Kappenman said the center was trying to include some of what it offers every year.

Workshops will take place in Berchmans Hall, with registration beginning at 9:30 a.m. and workshops beginning at 10 a.m.

The offerings include:

• A dance workshop from instructor Maureen McDermott Ziskowski from the McDermott School of Irish Dance -- Come enjoy an introduction to traditional Irish set dances such as the Gay Gordon, Siege of Ennis and Stack of Barley. No experience necessary.

• A genealogy workshop with Judy Lucey of the New England Historic Genealogical Society -- Interested in tracing your Irish roots or finding more information about your Irish ancestors? Come to this workshop to find out how to get started in Irish genealogy. Learn tips and techniques to help you prepare for researching your Irish kin across the "big pond."

• A bodhran and bones workshop with instructor Steve Brown, a faculty member of the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann Boston Music School, and All Ireland Bone Playing Champion in 2003 and 2004 -- Come to this workshop for an introduction to playing bodhran and bones. A hands-on, fun, toe-tapping workshop. No experience needed. Bring instruments if you have them, but Brown will have a few bodhrans available to share, and promises to bring lots of bones!

• An Irish language workshop with Mary McShane of the Boston Irish Language Society -- Come learn about the origins of this ancient language and hear it spoken by McShane, a language enthusiast from Boston. By the end of the workshop, you will be able to offer greetings and more!

• A Gaelic games workshop with instructor Mike Carney -- Carney will provide an overview of the Gaelic Athletic Association while highlighting the different games and rules. You will see participants compete for love of town and county in sharp contrast with what we often see in modern professional sports.

Several films will also be shown on Oct. 10 in the Alumni Library Theater. "Give Up Yer Aul Sins" and "New Kid" will be shown from 10 to 10:45 a.m.; "On Another Man's Wounds" from 11 to 11:55 a.m.; "JFK in Ireland" from 1 to 1:45 p.m.; and "The Story of the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem" from 2 to 2:55 p.m.

Irish folksingers the Makem and Spain Brothers will have a concert at the Wherehouse?, 109 Lyman St., Holyoke, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday evening, following a dinner of a corned beef sandwich at 6 p.m. Tickets are $35 per person and can be purchased at LaJustice Printing, 67 Lincoln St., Holyoke; Erin's Own Irish Imports, 172 Elm St., Westfield; the John Boyle O'Reilly Club, 33 Progress Ave., Springfield; and at the Irish Cultural Center.

A Mass of Thanksgiving will take place the morning of Oct. 11 in Our Lady's Chapel at Elms College at 10:30 a.m. Readings and parts of the Mass will be sung in Irish. Brunch will follow in the Dooley Campus Center, with author Peter Quinn addressing the topic of "Unremembered and Unforgotten: Irish America and the Great Hunger." Tickets for the brunch are $15 for members, $20 for non-members. Call the center for tickets.

"We want to continue growing and keep the Irish arts alive," Kappenman said. "It's so important to remember where you came from. You need to know ... so you can treasure that culture, that heritage, and celebrate it any way we can."

For more information, call the Irish Cultural Center at 265-2537 or visit www.irish-cairde.org.