The Irish Festival — A Spring Lake Homecoming

The Spring Lake Chamber of Commerce is proud to present The Irish Festival: A Spring Lake Homecoming on Saturday, May 18 from Noon to 4PM. This festival promises to be a day of family entertainment for all ages! 
Bragging rights are up for grabs in our Irish Soda Bread Contest, judged by Jo Naughton, owner of the Katie Reilly Soda Bread Company. 
The Patricia Murphy School of Irish Dance and the Shea Jennings School of Irish Dance will do high-steps onto the main stage to “kick off” the spring with a fling!
An inflatable “bounce house” will keep the wee ones bopping!  
As is tradition, great entertainers will grace the Main Stage, including Seamus Kelleher. He’s a blues guitarist from Salthill County Galway that shore music fans will know from his days in the legendary Irish rock band Blackthorn.
Willie Lynch is one of New Jersey’s most beloved Irish entertainers, keeping the show band tradition alive with a set full of singsongs, stories, and a bit o’ the blarney! Willie makes the young and the old sing and dance with his spirited performances.
A little Grafton Street comes to Spring Lake with “The Musical Mile,” with great Irish American entertainers strumming their guitars and singing their proud hearts out. Those performers include Kevin McGowan, Thomas Johnston, and John Rafferty and they will be playing a mixture of irish standards and thought-provoking originals.
The Spring Lake Chamber of Commerce will sponsor an Author Tent in the site of the old Coldwell Banker building. It’s a great opportunity to hear stories from these talented writers and buy signed copies of their books.The writers at press time include: 
Maura Mulligan “Call of the Lark.” 
John Liam Shea “Cut and Run in the Bronx.”  
Colin Broderick latest is “That’s That: A Memoir.” 
Mike Farragher “This is Your Brain on Shamrocks 1&2.” 
John Kearns’ “The World and Dreams and Dull Realities.”