It wasn’t actually planned that way, but last month in the space of a week, Boston College’s Gaelic Roots series hosted two of the most celebrated Irish fiddle players of the past five decades. On Nov. 2, Frankie Gavin and accompanist Catherine McHugh performed in BC’s Connolly House, and then on Nov.

It has been several years since Dubliner Paul Byrom performed in the US during the holiday season; he’s usually appearing in popular Christmas “pantos” (a form of comedic musical takes on popular children’s stories) at the prestigious Helix Theatre in Ireland at that time. 

We’ve all heard of William Shakespeare, playwright, poet and actor.  The Bard of Avon. But have you heard of Henry Condell and John Heminges? Probably not. Yet history tells us that without the last two, we might never have heard of the first.