Arts and Entertainment
by Sean SmithSpecial to BostonIrish.com
It has been a tough spring for many Irish/Celtic musicians, their performance and teaching schedules decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic — and the summer doesn’t look to be much better.
But a recently launched online... Read more
Nestled in the northeast corner of Jamaica Plain, right near the Angell Animal Medical Center, the Brendan Behan Pub prides itself as a “cozy gathering place.” Its website prominently displays a quote from the namesake Irish author and legendary raconteur... Read more
Marla Fibish, “The Bright Hollow Fog” • Fibish is highly regarded for her playing of Irish traditional music on mandolin, emphasizing the instrument’s qualities of tone and sustain over speed, with a superb ability to tease out ornaments and triplets. She... Read more
In 1938, the year before he died, preeminent Irish poet William Butler Yeats spelled out in his valedictory poem “Under Ben Bulben” explicit instructions for the epitaph he wished to have cut into the slab of local limestone that would mark his grave:
... Read more
Nestled in the northeast corner of Jamaica Plain, right near the Angell Animal Medical Center, the Brendan Behan Pub prides itself as a “cozy gathering place.” Its website prominently displays a quote from the namesake Irish author and legendary raconteur... Read more
Summer BCMFest – the warm-weather counterpart to the annual winter BCMFest (Boston Celtic Music Fest) – will take place in a virtual format on July 5 beginning at 7 p.m., featuring Cape Breton music by the Leland Martin Trio; Boston-area Irish musicians... Read more
Órla Fallon, has entertained audiences for years as a renowned singer, harpist and founding member of the Grammy nominated Irish music ensemble, Celtic Woman. On July 24th Órla Fallon will release a new album of her favorite Traditonal Celtic songs, '... Read more
Jarlath Henderson, “Raw” • Glasgow-based Henderson – Armagh-born and raised in Tyrone – is one of those rare performers who seems able to do it all: a gifted singer who’s a superb instrumentalist in both the melody and rhythm domains. You don’t have to... Read more
Summer BCMFest – the warm-weather counterpart to the annual winter BCMFest (Boston Celtic Music Fest) – will take place in a virtual format on July 5, featuring performances by fiddler Katie McNally; fiddle-harp duo Jenna Moynihan and Màiri Chaimbeul; and... Read more
John Doyle, “The Path of Stones” • The burden of being so good at your craft is that you’re in such demand, you don’t always have time to do something just for you. Which may help explain why John Doyle, a consummate talent in Irish/Celtic music for the... Read more
There’s definitely a kind of hush all over the world lately – certainly in the Boston area, as far as local Irish musicians are concerned. The coronavirus crisis has shuttered pubs, restaurants, and other public venues, depriving musicians of places to... Read more
They are easily among the most accomplished Irish/Celtic guitarists in Greater Boston, New England, and beyond – and also have been among the busiest. Flynn Cohen, a one-time Boston-area resident now living in Brattleboro, co-founded the band Low Lily (... Read more
Kevin Burke, “Sligo Made” • The title is a pun – a riff on the reel “Sligo Maid” – but you don’t have to get the joke to appreciate this latest release from Burke, a master of the Sligo fiddle style and, lest we forget, a seminal figure in the Irish folk/... Read more
Not surprisingly, what would normally have been a robust calendar of Irish/Celtic/traditional music-related events in Greater Boston last month was decimated by the coronavirus crisis. Here’s what is scheduled for April, with the obligatory “check the... Read more
And you thought an Irish music session was a bunch of people playing tunes in a pub.
Well, it is, of course.
But a session also is a veritable wellspring of social mores and interpersonal dynamics that offers insights into how a given community defines,... Read more
March was shaping up as a typically busy month for area musicians like Declan Houton, Kate McDermott, Stuart Peak, and Colm O’Brien, denizens of the Greater Boston Irish/Celtic scene – which, as everyone knows, is at high operating capacity during what is... Read more
Moving as easily between color and black and white as he moved from analog to digital when that technology shift came, Dublin photographer Fionán O’Connell has snapped literally tens of thousands of photos over a career, amateur and professional, now... Read more
The organizers reached out in an email on Sunday, March 22:
On what would have been the closing day of this year's festival, we wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for all of the kind messages we have received since we announced the postponement... Read more
For 15 years Celtic Woman has been celebrating Ireland's rich musical and cultural heritage while continuing its remarkable legacy of introducing some of Ireland's most talented singers and musicians onto the world stage. To commemorate this... Read more
Yesterday, I broadcast A Celtic Sojourn Live from our studios in Brighton as I intend to continue doing every Saturday. Under normal circumstances, we would have been performing at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge at the same time, but alas, that was not to... Read more
