Damian McGinty
Elsewhere in this issue, you can find reports on last weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day’s festivities in South Boston, but below you’ll find bulletins on Gaelic galas galore scheduled in Dorchester and other parts of the city that will continue the festive fleadhs well into the spring.
Probably the classiest showcase for contemporary Irish culture is the Irish Film Festival, Boston, which opens tonight at the Somerville Theatre. The 30-movie series, which runs through Sunday, includes several superb documentaries, a free kids program, a Gaelic language action thriller, and much more. See irishfilmfestival.com for details.
Fans of traditional Irish music with a contemporary twist will appreciate the “Concert of Irish Harp and Guitar: Máire Ní Chathasaigh and Chris Newman,” which will be held on Thurs., April 30, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Cadigan Alumni Center on BC’s Brighton campus. These two world acclaimed virtuosi create jazz improvisations from sources like Irish reels. This free event is sponsored by The Center for Irish Programs at Boston College, the University Libraries, and the BC Alumni Association.
On April 11 at the Orpheum Theatre, Damian, Keith, Colm, Emmett, Ryan, Paul, Neil, Emmet & George will swing through Boston once again delighting fans of boy bands and PBS alike with The Very Best of Celtic Thunder Tour 2015. This greatest hits show features the group’s best-loved songs from the past seven years. Drawing material from Celtic Thunder’s nine PBS specials, eleven CDs and DVDs and eight US tours to date, their formidable stage show, married with that huge Celtic Thunder signature sound and dramatic lighting will not disappoint Celtic Thunder fans. The lads’ Special Guest Artist is a former Celtic Thunder cast member, Damian McGinty, who had a continuing role on Glee.
The Irish International Immigration Center (IIIC) for more than two decades has held its annual Black and Green gatherings celebrating racial and cultural unity in diversity at the Montserrat Aspirers Hall on Washington Street in Dorchester. (Montserrat, an island in the West Indies, is nicknamed “The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean” both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the distinct Irish flavor of its culture and customs.) The time and date for the 2015 event and potluck feast have been set for May 17 from 2 to 5. The venue is still up in the air. Johanne Meleance, the IIIC’s Inclusion, Advocacy, and Outreach Coordinator, revealed to the Reporter that based on requests from Black and Green regulars over the last couple of years to find a venue in South Boston, she is negotiating with Medicine Wheel Productions in Southie for a space there.
The Black and Green 21 keynote speaker will be Boston’s newly appointed and first-ever Chief Diversity Officer, Shaun Blugh. Performers will include the Irish Dancers of Malden and Roxbury-based OrigiNations. Meleance welcomes additional volunteer performers.
Finally for those who are fans of the art of fisticuffs and of good causes, on Sat., March 28 at the Dorchester Armory from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Let’s Stop Cancer Foundation’s (LSC) hosts its fourth annual Battle at the Bay. This white-collar amateur boxing event has a card of 15 fights of local, talented, competitive boxers who have trained just for this event to raise money to support cancer patients.
This competition is the brainchild of Mark Porter, an Irishman who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphona in 2005 but fought a victorious battle against the cancer. The first Battle at the Bay was held in 2012, drawing nearly 1,500 spectators to the Armory to cheer on the fledgling fighters and raising more than $60,000 for the Dana Farber’s Children program.
