A Q&A WITH CHARLIE LENNON

By Sean Smith
April 27, 2018
Sean Smith

The fiddler and pianist Charlie Lennon, a celebrated musician and innovator in the Irish tradition, is known for composing numerous tunes that have become part of Irish music repertoires everywhere. He has also integrated the Irish traditional form into modern classical music through extended works like “A Terrible Beauty,” which he wrote in commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising centenary. In 2006, he was honored by TG4 as Composer of the Year.

May CD Reviews

By Sean Smith
April 27, 2018
Sean Smith

The Gloaming, “Live at the NCH” • This occasional band is the union of five intriguing personalities and talents, all steeped in traditional music while very open to influences from contemporary sources: Martin Hayes, a master of the lyrical East Clare fiddle style; guitarist Dennis Cahill, Hayes’ frequent collaborator; Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh, whose fiddling reflects the Sliabh Luachra tradition but also his own experiments in Scandinavian and American music; sean-nos singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, formerly with groundbreaking Irish/world-fusion group Afro Celt Sound System; and Thomas Bartlett A

Much to love in ‘Much Ado’ for Lydia Barnett-Mulligan

By R.J. Donovan
April 27, 2018
R.J. Donovan

Lydia Barnett-Mulligan has been studying and performing Shakespeare since she was 15 years old. The actor, director, and education artist got her start via the educational program at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA.
She’s now a member of the Resident Acting Company at Actors’ Shakespeare Project in Boston. Add credits from Tennessee Shakespeare Company, Elm Shakespeare Company (New Haven), Bay Colony Shakespeare, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and Shakespeare Now and you’ve got an artist who can easily see all the world as a stage.

Historic Cedar Grove chapel will undergo major renovations

By Bill Forry
April 27, 2018
Bill Forry

A chapel on the grounds of Cedar Grove Cemetery will be the focus this month of a significant restoration project meant to bring the impressive stone edifice back to its former glory. The Gilman chapel— named for the husband-and-wife benefactors who funded its construction in 1930— is in urgent need of repairs, particularly to its stone exterior and windows, where moisture infiltration has become a worsening problem in recent years.

A Different Perspective: Jason Knirck is the first American to hold BC’s Burns Chair in Irish Studies

By BIR Newsroom
April 27, 2018
BIR Newsroom

Having marked its 25th anniversary year in the fall of 2016, the Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies program is in the midst of another landmark semester: The spring 2018 Burns Scholar, Jason Knirck, is the first American to hold the professorship. As part of his activities, Knirck organized a symposium at Boston College in April spotlighting the work of American-educated historians of Ireland.

BC’s Ireland Business Council members hear the Irish view on Brexit, co-dependence with US

By Daniel Sheehan
April 27, 2018
Daniel Sheehan

Brexit and Irish-American co-dependence were among the main talking points at a Global Leadership Symposium hosted by the Boston College Ireland Business Council at the BC Club in downtown Boston last month.
Irish Ambassador to the US Dan Mulhall spoke at length about the “Atlantic bridge” of history, culture, and ideas connecting the US and Ireland, describing the economic partnership between the two countries as the strongest it has ever been.

OMINOUS WARNINGS FROM NORTHERN IRELAND

By Joe Leary, Special to the Reporter
April 27, 2018
Joe Leary, Special to the Reporter

Northern Ireland today is operating as a nonfunctioning state without local government leadership. It is being administered and financed by British politicians from London on a part-time basis since the North’s political leaders have been unable to agree on how to govern themselves.

The bigotry and bitterness that exist amongst its 1.8 million people go back centuries to the time when the British government began the resettlement of Presbyterian Protestants from Scotland to Catholic Ireland.

Day by day he touts Ireland’s literary heritage

Ed Forry
By Ed Forry
April 27, 2018

Ireland’s Ambassador to the United States, Daniel Mulhall, visited Boston last month for an evening function at the Boston College Club and a noon time class with students at Tufts University. During his brief overnight visit, Mulhall was a guest breakfast speaker at the Nutter law offices hosted by attorney Bill Kennedy.

The ambassador was assigned to Ireland’s Washington embassy last August, after four years as envoy to London. A graduate of University College Cork, the Waterford native has also headed Ireland’s embassies in Germany and Malaysia.

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