Special Events

Since its founding, the Center has sponsored speakers:

• Dr. Margaret MacCurtain, noteworthy Irish historian, on the Role of the Irish Abroad in helping to preserve Irish Culture
• Kevin O'Hara, local author told stories of growing up in an Irish American household.
• James Flynn, Holy Cross College history professor, on Poland and Ireland: Keys to Understanding the Development of the Modern West
• Maria Luddy, Boston College visiting scholar on the Magdalene Asylums
• Rosie O'Grady, Elms College visiting professor of Social Studies from the University of Ulster, spoke Of Goddesses, Ancient Cures and Those Little People.
• In 2004 Mayo native, Kathleen Murphy and a committee organized a celebration of the Mullet of Mayo with talks, reflections and accounts of their homesteads in County Mayo.
• Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal has spoken on several occasions about the progress of the peace process in Ireland.

Ireland is called the "land of saints and scholars." Thus, over the years we have invited writers and storytellers to enchant our audience with their poems, tales, and stories. The Center has featured the following writers to introduce their books and do a reading:

Cole Moreton, Hungry for Home;
Michael White, Garden of Martyrs;
Kevin O'Hara, Last of the Donkey Pilgrim;
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, renowned Irish poet and author did a reading of her work;
Peggy O'Brien, the Director of Irish Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, selected the poems and wrote a preface for the book, The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women's Poetry 1967-2000, from which she did some readings and gave a commentary.
Walter Stock spent an evening in Irish Storytelling;
Nuala Hayes entertained with Ancient Tales Retold.
In 2000, we hosted a special event: Vincent Dowling from the Miniature Theatre in Chester in a drama presentation I Am of Ireland, based on the writings of William Butler Yeats.

Integral to understanding the Irish soul is the appreciation of Irish music. We have had many events headlining Irish or Irish American musicians over the years. Local musicians, Bill Dempsey and Tim Donoghue, are called upon often give an authentic flavor with background music. Teresa Kane, who sings in the sean nos style, gave a concert in October, 2003 and returned to play at our Brunch in 2004. Popular Irish American singer, Deirdre Reilly, originally from Holyoke, headlined our dinner/dance at the Council of the Knights in 2005. Bo Fitzgerald, another local singer, has performed solo and with his band the YankCelts on different occasions. He established the Jack Fitzgerald Memorial Fund in honor of his father in order to raise money for charitable causes; he gives a yearly concert in March. A New Orleans based group, the Poor Clares, performed a Christmas Concert for us in 2002, and a local group, Spancil Hill, performs for the Center yearly in October. In 2003 Michael Purcell hosted a "seisiún" with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, a group of local musicians.

Since the center's inception, several Irish artists have exhibited their work in the Borgia Gallery, Dooley Campus Center on the Elms College campus.

• Ireland native, Mary McSweeney, who now lives on Cape Cod, exhibited her work in January of 2001. The artist was born in Killarney, Ireland, and is a graduate of the Cork School of Art. She also studied in London before returning to Tralee in 1979 to begin her professional career as an artist. Her focus is on the Irish people at work and play, evoking a kind of "Norman Rockwell" nostalgia.
• In September of 2005 Mazzarella O'Flaherty, from County Kerry in Ireland, exhibited her work. The Dingle born artist lives on the Peninsula and operates both the Mazzland Art Studio and the Dingle Record Shop, blending her two loves of art and music. Using oils and acrylic, she reflects feelings and emotions through ever-changing colours and light, focusing on the windswept seas and mountains of the Peninsula.
• In 2006 Olwen O'Herlihy Dowling presented an exhibit, Shifting Clouds with paintings of the Connemara and Kerry landscapes. Born in Dublin, she grew up in Malibu, California, but has lived both in Ireland and the United States since the age of nine; she is married to Vincent Dowling, director and Artistic Director of the Miniature Theatre of Chester. Using oils and watercolor, she captures the stark beauty of Connemara and the richness of the green of Kerry - both with clouds above defining the view.
• September 2006 Kathleen Walsh Buchanan presents the Great Blasket Island print series - a form of traditional printmaking called a "collagraph" in a show called Island Home: A Printmaker's Perspective on great Blasket Island.
• In August 2007 Carol Shea had a photography exhibit Ireland …Faces and Places-A Photographic Journal. Her framed pictures portray people in everyday activities, as well as nature scenes, unique, familiar and famous.

For many years, one of the dreams of Tim Allen, President of the Irish Cultural Center, was to take a group to Ireland. In July of 2004 that dream became a reality when twenty pilgrims joined the Journey of the Soul. Beyond a trip and better than a tour, it was an opportunity to let the spirit of Ireland enter into the soul with several nights' stay in most locations, a chance to leave the tour to explore on one's own, or pursue genealogy research, to make friends with the Irish wherever we met them. As weather permitted, some of us even had the chance to travel to the Blasket Island to view the ruins of a once thriving island community of native Irish speakers.
In September 2006 forty-eight pilgrims joined the second Journey of the Soul.
In November 2004, a busload of members and friends traveled to the Wilbur Theatre in Boston to attend the Synge play The Playboy of the Western World. The Abbey Theatre's 100th anniversary touring group produced the play. In November 2005 a group traveled to New York to attend Irish American playwright's production of Doubt. In June of 2005 and 2006, we traveled to the Irish Connections Festival in Canton, Massachusetts.
In September 2006 forty-eight pilgrims joined the second Journey of the Soul. 2007 found another group travelling to the west coast of Ireland.

Many students of Irish Language in the Springfield, Massachusetts's area first began their studies with evening classes taught by Dr. Thomas Moriarty and Mr. George Bresnahan, through the Irish Cultural Center at Elms College. (Prior to that, Irish was taught by Mr. Ken Nilsen, to a group of students at evening classes, Tom and George among them!)

As a result of these classes, the Center enjoys a growing number of Irish Language enthusiasts who strive to promote interest in the language by organizing workshops for the membership as well as the general public, as well as continuing to study in groups.

Past workshops have featured a very enjoyable day with Walter Stock and his wife, Maureen, who teach classes at the Daltaí na Gaeilge immersion weekends in the New York area.

The Center's Irish class students have also conducted workshops utilizing various activities to introduce participants to the sights, sounds, history, and value of the Irish language.

In 2006 the Center offered an Irish Language immersion day with teachers from the Daltaí na Gaeilge, as well as Ár dTeanga Féin offering classes on four levels; speaker Muiris Bric gave a talk on his book of growing up in Ireland; some attended a dance workshop while others watched the showing of the Irish film on the evacuation of the Blasket Island (Martin Kearney shared his own experience.)

We hosted another La Gaeilge all-day session in June 2007 with the addition of workshops: bodhran, tin whistle, set dancing, and the showing of a film. The day ended with a seisiun.

In addition to the film series, we have hosted the showing of several films of the Blaskets and Dingle: Blasket Roots: American Dreams; and The Voice of Generations: The Story of Peig Sayers.

We have shown Padraig Feiritear, Irish American Patriot and Scholar; Dancing at Lughnasa; and Out of Ireland. These were shown in the early years prior to our film series.

Our very special friend, Father Pat Fenton of Dingle, has presided over several liturgies and given talks on Celtic Spirituality; Father Liam Lawton, of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland conducted an evening of Contemporary Irish Liturgical Music; Father Tomas O'Caoimh, of Ballyferriter, Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland conducted a workshop on early Irish Christianity. And, of course, we have had a mass in conjunction with our program "Christmas with an Irish Touch" every year (Bishop Emeritus, Joseph Maguire and local priests, Fathers Sean McDonagh, Francis X. Sullivan, Mark Stelzer and Monsignor Christopher Connelly have presided.)

Former Coordinator of the Center, Anne-Gerard Flynn, instituted the writing contest for middle school students in 2001. Since that time, we have invited students every year in grades 7 and 8 to submit an essay for monetary prizes. Essay assignments have included:

• How Will You Work for Peace in the New Year?
• Why It Is Important to Remember My Ethnic Background
• What It Is to Be a Friend
• The Treatment of Immigrants to This Country, Comparing Irish Experience to Another Group of Immigrant
• The Contributions of the Irish to American Culture
• Compare the hunger problem in some corner of today's world with the Great Irish Famine 1845-1850

In March of each year the six best essayists are recognized at the St. Patrick's Day party at Holyoke Heritage State Park, where they read their essays and receive their prizes.