How It’s New York: L.E. McCullough is not only a noted musician and author; he’s also a regular at the Cat and Fiddle Session at St. James’ Gate in Maplewood, NJ, and a playwright whose work has been staged locally (see our notice of his historical play First Mothers: the Women Who Raised America’s Presidents here)
How I’s Irish: iBAM! stands for Irish Books Art Music! The theme of the 2011 conference was “Handing Down the Tradition,” and that emphasis on carrying the past into the present is very Irish. Participants include such acclaimed musicians as Matt Cranitch, Paul deGrae, Martin Hayes, Liz Carroll and authors including Maeve Binchy and Fr. Andrew Greeley.
L.E. McCullough went to iBAM! to present “Irish Traditional Music: Where It’s Been, Where It’s Going” and ended up particularly impressed with the authors:
“Anyone who thinks the “Golden Age” of Irish and Irish-American literature has passed should re-consider.”
FASHIONABLY LATE UPDATE:
An incredible Irish-American cultural event took place in Chicago last November that too many people outside the Windy City don’t know about yet but should.
It’s called iBAM! — Irish Books Art Music! — and it convenes close to 100 authors, actors, visual artists and musicians for a public festival in the spacious halls of the Irish American Heritage Center on the city’s northwestside.
The program and participant list is still up here at their website. Prepare to be amazed at the diversity and scope of traditional and contemporary expression of Irish culture.
I was, and I’ve been on this Hibernian beat for a good long time.
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| Little Town of Spirals- Cynthia Mayti |
A book fair, plays, panels, lectures, literary readings, live music, dance, photography, poetry, cooking, folklore, spirituality, award-winning exhibits like “The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats” direct from the National Library in Dublin — iBAM! is a non-stop two days of activity.
The theme of iBAM! 2011 was “Handing Down the Tradition” and that’s where my contribution came in. I was booked to give a presentation titled “Irish Traditional Music: Where It’s Been, Where It’s Going” and also moderated a panel looking at trends in preservation and collection of Irish traditional music with Dr. Matt Cranitch and Paul deGrae(we got accordionist Jackie Daly to chime in on Chief O’Neill’s Hornpipe for a musical coda).
Among the local musicians, Handing Down the Tradition was evidenced by a host of family-based units — The Dooleys; Patrick and Karen Canady; Gerry and Kevin Carey; Joe O’Shea and Mike O’Shea; Sheila Doorly-Bracken, Frank Quinn and Pat Quinn; the ensemble led by Noel Rice, Cathleen Rice-Halliburton and Kevin Rice; the world renowned sean-nós dancers The Cunninghams — along with local stalwarts Pat Finnegan, Aislinn Gagliardi, Cormac McCarthy, Chicago Reel, Broken Pledge Ceili Band, Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill and more.However, iBAM! isn’t an academic event but more of a focused ongoing discussion exploring the evolving nature of Irish culture and its place in today’s world. And that covers a lot of territory.
I ended up hanging out a lot with the authors, who seemed to be in the majority, as befitting Ireland’s centuries-long love of The Word spoken, written, acted and sung. Anyone who thinks the “Golden Age” of Irish and Irish-American literature has passed should re-consider.
Another highlight was a panel chaired by American Public Radio host Bill Margeson that included Chicago musicians Liz Carroll, Jimmy Keane and Sean Cleland and Milwaukee Irish Fest founder Ed Ward chatting about Irish music in Chicago over the last few decades. Jimmy shared a newly rediscovered wire cylinder recording of 19th-century Tipperary/Chicago fiddler Edward Cronin – a major source of repertoire for the vital Francis O’Neill tune collections.
Hearing the sound of pure drop fiddling summoned into our present from its brief flickering long ago was a striking reminder of the music’s power to persevere across the decades.
The weekend kicked off with a Friday night awards dinner honoring five distinguished exponents of Irish and Irish-American culture: Leitrim fiddler Maurice Lennon, Dublin fiction writer Maeve Binchy and three Chicagoans — choreographer Mark Howard, sculptor John David Mooney and author/sociologist Fr. Andrew Greeley. All five have spent a lifetime not just passing on their art but redefining it to include ever more inventive ways to express that cultural core.
At the dinner I was reminded of the many forms the handing-down can take. Up through the 1970s, when Irish traditional music in America was confined to Irish-only enclaves in a few cities, the Irish import store was a key source of information about local musicians, upcoming music events, new recordings from Ireland (along with the occasional long-lost trad disc from the 1950s or beyond).
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| John McGreevy |
My initial gateway into the wonderland of Chicago Irish music was Shamrock Irish Imports on North Laramie Street operated by Maureen O’Looney. One chilly March day in 1973, I wandered into the store and inquired where one could find Irish traditional music. She told me that a fiddler named John McGreevy and a piper named Kevin Henry would be playing at a St. Patrick’s event that very afternoon at the Ford City Mall on Cicero Avenue.
The rest, as they say, is history. To my delight, Mrs. O’Looney was at the awards dinner where I was able to again express my gratitude in person for that “good steer”. Her shop is moving into the Irish American Heritage center this month.Another prime Irish music knowledge base in the Paleo-Internet Era of Human Existence was the physical, hand-held, press-printed newspaper. In tracing Chicago Irish music history, I found papers from the 1800s like the Irish Republic, Chicago Citizen and Irish News invaluable for details about the Irish cultural milieu of the time.
I still have an issue from the paper’s inaugural year of 1977 with the headline “August 15 Named ‘Irish Day’ by Mayor”. The bottom of Page 1 features an editorial titled “Why Support an Irish American Center”, and the pages are filled with features on local Irish music, theatre, fine arts and dance (with results of the summer’s Chicago Feis including mention of a young Mark Howard in the Boys Junior category).
I recall a remark I heard flutist Noel Rice make nearly 40 years ago:
“to help Irish culture survive in the future, we have to make sure it grows by design, not accident.”
iBAM! is a fundamental part of that design. For anyone seeking immersion in the Past-Present-Future of Irish culture, iBAM! 2011 had it all.
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| L.E. McCullough |
Keep up with L.E. McCullough’s blog here!
How It’s New York: L.E. McCullough is not only a noted musician and author; he’s also a regular at the Cat and Fiddle Session at St. James’ Gate in Maplewood, NJ, and a playwright whose work has been staged locally (see our notice of his historical play First Mothers: the Women Who Raised America’s Presidents here)
Among the local musicians, Handing Down the Tradition was evidenced by a host of family-based units — The Dooleys; Patrick and Karen Canady; Gerry and Kevin Carey; Joe O’Shea and Mike O’Shea; Sheila Doorly-Bracken, Frank Quinn and Pat Quinn; the ensemble led by Noel Rice, Cathleen Rice-Halliburton and Kevin Rice; the world renowned sean-nós dancers The Cunninghams — along with local stalwarts Pat Finnegan, Aislinn Gagliardi, Cormac McCarthy, Chicago Reel, Broken Pledge Ceili Band, Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill and more.
The rest, as they say, is history. To my delight, Mrs. O’Looney was at the awards dinner where I was able to again express my gratitude in person for that “good steer”. Her shop is moving into the Irish American Heritage center this month.
