Irish Crystal Company Relocating

The Irish Crystal Company is relocating from 9252 Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park, Kansas, to The Shoppes at Deer Creek Woods, 7108 W. 135th St. also in OP, sometime in late April. A grand opening is planned for May 11.

The Fuchsia Band Man

-He says more than his prayers, I could imagine my aunt saying the first time I heard Máirtín de Cógáin of The Fuchsia Band. Well, he is a seanchaí after all.
-He says he has a great band, an Irish Fester announced to me as I watched Máirtín singing at Molloy's:

Well, when I was a boy it was always me joy
To go to the pub each night
There were arguments scraps and killings perhaps
And everyone thought he was right
There were badgers and dogs
And men from the bogs
And young fellows acting the tool
But now there's no crack
For everyman Jack
Has his arse in the air playing pool

I hadn't heard The Pool Song since emigrating. Máirtín was good. He did a lot of talking; Well, he is a seanchaí after all. And he played the bodhrán. He played it well. Two KC Irish Fest directors asked me what I thought of him.
-He's very attractive

When Máirtín came back to KC, he brought the boys with him. Eoin Verling, Mick Heffernan, Kevin McNally and Máirtín played the KC Irish Fest every day in every corner. Legend has it they played both the Terrace Stage and the Boulevard Pub Stage at the same time. In amongst the pink hotpants (promotional, like) I was talking to Máirtín one afternoon at the Festival, when we looked up at the top of the Westin Hotel at the room where the Fuchsia Band were staying. We saw a bare male backside.
-They must be playing pool

Máirtín and The Fuchsia Band were fabulous in our midst in 2005, fierce traditional, and pulsating with it. Perhaps the only foot they put wrong was the pink hotpants. It won't always be so; The Fuchsia Band are too good. And relentlessy they make friends everywhere they go, from West Cork to Finland. It's great that Kansas City has been a part of their story, and it will continue at the KC Irish Fest again in 2006, but Milwaukee and greater pastures aren't far away.

However Máirtín is in Kansas City right now, and
TONIGHT the Missouri Valley Folklife Society presents:
Máirtín in a solo concert
Oak Street Coffee House
Oak and 63rd St
8:00pm
Tickets available only at the door: $10
Eddie Delahunt has even postponed his regular Friday gig until 10pm so you, and he, can attend.

Máirtín won't always be ours; next week he's back in Cork when The Fuchsia Band play support to the legendary Saw Doctors. Sometimes you get chances.

Luka Bloom in Irish Festival

KC Irish Fest 2006 performer, Luka Bloom, is all over the papers at the moment. Word from the Irish Laois-Nationalist of Portlaoise in Ireland where Luka Bloom just played a multi-cultural festival of music, song and dance:

Luka Bloom brought his uniqueness to the stage with inspiring messages and songs. He quoted from his song that was inspired by Nelson Mandela: It is not the darkness that we are afraid of but the light that shines within us He also sang about an Algerian man who made wooden boxes and now lives in Galway after fleeing his home country.

Luka Blows Kilkenny Audience Away is the headline from a nice article in the Kilkenny Advertiser, which says Luka:

played a selection from his new album Innocence which was just released in America on Wednesday last. He told the riveted audience that he was very excited that one year after the album had been released in Ireland - it was finally released in the US.
Luka sang a number of beautiful tracks from Innocence including Primavera, Gypsy Music, City of Chicago, Thank You For Bringing me here and Innocence.
All of his songs were accompanied by anecdotes about his inspiration for the words. Fans in Cleeres were mesmerised by his vocals and his expert guitar playing on the tiny stage.

And saving the best Bloom article 'til last, Irish musician, Luka Bloom explains the inspiration behind his 10th album release, Innocence is the headline in The Connection Newspapers in Virginia in advance of Luka's US tour beginning this coming week:

I picked up the guitar when I was 9 years old and it was this incredible feeling of deja-vu. I can distinctly remember the moment I held my first guitar. By the time I was 12, I was writing songs. Whatever little bit of sadness or sorrow was within me, I would articulate it through song. By the time I was 15 I was singing my own songs in bars near where I lived. It’s all I’ve ever done. I’ve never earned one penny anywhere in my life from anything other than just writing songs. I’m 50 years old now so it’s something to be happy about

Eddie Delahunt Plays Late

Due to the major Irish music event that is the rare KC appearance of Irish singer The Fuchsia Band man Máirtín de Cógáin in his MVFS solo gig, Eddie Delahunt will TONIGHT, Friday, be playing at the much later time of 10:00pm at Mike Kelly's Westsider on Westport Road (816-931-9417). Sounds like a bit of a session!

Read Loads More on Eddie Delahunt

Irish Writer John McGahern Dies

People in Kansas City have often asked me to recommend Irish writers for them to read for a sense of Ireland. They tended not to hear me when I said John McGahern.

There was always a sense of unease and a sense of beauty in McGahern's writing. It was so familiar, so beautiful, and at times so heartbreakingly uncomfortable. In short, this is because it was home, and all that home is to everybody, with the details of nature and the awkwardness of family. It was of Ireland, and you loved and hated seeing yourself and your society in it.

Today, those of us who didn't speak his name loud enough in the past, speak it now to carry him into that international greatness that was never really bestowed upon him through the great novels. It's the Irish way.

John McGahern, writer, born November 12 1934; died March 30 2006

Celtic Memories - of what exactly?

Speaking of criminally bad Irish music, Dan Doherty released his 2nd Celtic Memories podcast this week.

Sinead O'Connor and Van Morrison are featured on the same collection as Foster & Allen. Go back and read that previous sentence again. With Susan McCann, The Corrs, Tony Kenny, Brian Kennedy, the Irish Tenors, Mary Black, Phil Regan, and Paddy Reilly - Celtic Memories is clearly targeted at well, abolutely everybody, except fans of Stiff Little Fingers and Therapy?

While you're wondering if anybody on the planet could possibly love all of this odd grouping of Irish songs, it finishes off with Christy reminding us that love is a boat. Troubled waters indeed.

Irish Immigrants & Bad Birds

Speaking of language, the meaning of words is not subject to the laws of democracy. If 100% of the population want green to mean orange, it doesn't; we're all wrong. Persuasive though.

However if we all believe green is orange, well then it is. That's language. You just don't want to be the last person knowing green is not orange. Or admitting you know it.

Birds migrate. It's what they do. Come autumn and the weather's warmer in Florida than Minnesota, they move. We call it migration. People do this too. They've been doing it for centuries. They might do it because of a change in the environment, or for economic reasons, or because Andrew Jackson told them to. But they move.

People are movers. To avoid confusion with shakers we call them migrants. If they cross international boundaries in their movements they become emigrants to the country they leave behind and immigrants to the country they settle in.

If an emigrant/immigrant kills his family while moving, he's still an emigrant/immigrant, just so long as he moves. Those are the only qualifications; migration and an international border. It's quite possible to be a criminal or an Irish musician, and at the same time, a migrant.

Whatever your opinion in the current debate on Immigration Law, you don't get to say They not immigrants - they're criminals as if membership of one group excludes you from the other. If it did then you would have the legal defense I can't be guilty - I'm an immigrant.

None of this passes judgment on the law actually being an ass, or on whether or not you should be an emigrant/immigrant. If a bird lands in the wrong country it's still called migration. And if it's not the migrating kind, but somehow it flies, walks, hitches, and cycles, five thousand miles, then it has migrated even though it shouldn't have - and even if it has killed on the way, or played Irish traditional music. Or both.

Most Irish people in Kansas City have been illegal at some stage. Most are now legal. Legality came at the stroke of a pen. At all times they, well okay - we, have been emigrants. It's just that at times some of us have also been illegal immigrants. We have been bad birds.

Phil Dillon at Another Man's Meat, a Democrat transpanted to the Flint Hills, expresses his opinions on the matter more gracefully than most. They are not my opinions, for I feel democracy is over-rated and the Flint Hills under-rated.

My favourite quote in the discussion so far was when the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform lobbied Washington DC and were met by a Senator's aide who replied Legalize the Irish in what respect? Have they done something illegal?

Related Posts:

Green, White and Red Apples
Irish Flags in US Political Demonstrations
Irish Place Names & Illegals
Nobody Gets Upset with the Irish on St Patrick's

Irish Gaelic Lesson 2

Now that you mastered pronounciation from Irish Lesson #1, you're ready for Lesson 2 in Gaelic where you make your entry into the Irish language, by way of the important verb: Tá.

Tá serves to tell where something is or what its condition is, and therefore it has some of the functions of English "is". For example it will help you to say that Bridget is strong, should you have the need, e.g.
-Michael! Why won't ya come out and have a few pints with us?
-I can't lads; Bridget is strong

Oh and on some message boards around the country I've bumped into non-Irish people confused about the terminology describing Gaelic. Irish people call the language 'Irish' or 'Gaeilge', which is the Gaelic for Gaelic, if you follow. So Irish/Gaelic/Gaeilge all mean the exact same thing in this context.

Shamrocks, Shenanigans & Smiling

Before Luka Bloom treated us to an Irish interpretation of LL Cool J's seminal I Need Love in lilting Kildare tones that was to become a classic in its own right, we had a man called Everlast.

Not prone to wearing suits at weddings, the last time I wore a suit in Dublin I was unemployed. Being the pre-Celtic Tiger era, job interviews were rare so I decided after the interview to enjoy the novelty and swan around in my pinstripes for the day, trying to imagine what it would be like wearing a suit in my home town if I actually had a job. Had I known that within three years, centuries of mass unemployment, emigration, and suit-wearing, would all go out of fashion I'd still be there now.

Wanting to work and stay living in my city, I tried to inject some Nationalist Karma into my job hunting so I visited Kilmainham Jail for the umpteenth time. There are few more sacred Irish sites, what with it being where James Connolly was shot and, well you know, all that stuff happened. Knowing then that the Irish heroes of 1916 were on my side, I was walking to the Phoenix Park in my suit and my goatee, when a group of kids, aged about ten or eleven, asked me, in that shouting Dublin way:
-Hey mister! Are you in the House of Pain?
And more than ever I wanted to not emigrate. To those kids I so wanted to respond:
-Put on your shit-kickers and kick some shit
Or at the very least toss out a dismissive:
-Jump Around!
But instead I smiled and admitted I wasn't in the band. Two weeks later I stopped smiling and boarded the ferry to England carrying my suit.

Over in Lawrence, Kansas, MJ Allen in Corn on the Macabre wrote a fine piece this last weekend reminiscing about The House of Pain, and that song. I found myself smiling again:

In the second verse of Jump Around, Erik Schrody, also known as Everlast (please let the irony not be lost), claims to have more rhymes than the Bible’s got Psalms. The Bible, in fact, has 150 Psalms. One-fitty may be a lot of Psalms for a bible, maybe the most of any bible; however, I am fairly certain that to maintain a successful hip-hop career one must have significantly more than 150 rhymes. When Mr. Schrody claims to have more, just how many more does he mean? 152? 160? This is still insufficient.

And yeah I know Black47 and Sinead O Connor were among the numbers championing Hip-Hop even before Everlast's pre-House of Pain stuff, but that wasn't my point.

Eddie Delahunt Plays Live

Once upon a time I was sitting with Eddie Delahunt at the bar in Harlings, arguing over who was the better Irish male singer, Liam Clancy or Luke Kelly. Eddie proferred the Clancy boy, while I wouldn't budge from my Luke Kelly barstool. Just before Colm threw us out - or maybe we threw Colm out? - we reached agreement; we decided it was Kate Bush.

Eddie Delahunt plays O'Dowd's Little Dublin on the Plaza (4742 Pennsylvania Ave, Kansas City, Missouri) at 8:00pm TONIGHT

Celtic Music News Podcast #63

I've just listened to Celtic Music New Podcast, #63, and it's a good one.

CMN #63 roars off with OK from the Young Dubliners - taken from their powerhouse CD Real World, and then we go back to podcasting about podcasting when there really isn't any need - the show is that long established and it works that, well, just carry on.

The Barra MacNeills were next and I was surprised they turned up. Misty Moisty Morning sounds like a title Shane MacGowan made up, but the tune sounds closer to a genteel form of English folk than the edgier traditional music I like from Cape Breton.

We then go back to the CD Live in Galway for the Saw Doctors and their track I'll Be On My Way. A funky time from the boys from Tuam.

Black 47 - who are triumphantly appearing at this year's KC Irish Fest five years after headlining the Brookside Irish Fest - are next with the very strong The Bells of Hell from the CD: Elvis Murphy's Green Suede Shoes. Class and fun - no mean feat; Larry Kirwan is indeed a national treasure.

CMN #63 finishes with Celtic superstars Runrig performing Book Of Golden Stories (in this case taken from 30 Year Journey - The Best of Runrig UK Edition - but you can find it on Stamping Ground) Like all the best Runrig songs, this makes you want to run over mountains hand-in-hand in love with somebody, pausing only to playfully kick some leaves or kill a redcoat with a sword. I killed two.

Bob Reeder Live at WJ McBrides Irish Pub

It's Wednesday I think so that means Bob Reeder is out in the west of the KC metro area at WJ McBride's Irish Pub - by the Kansas Speedway - NOT the one out south on 119th street.

Bob Reeder has an enormous array of songs in his repertoire. See if he knows your favourite Irish song.

Bob will be singing Irish ballads and treating you to his unique humour at 7:00pm

Weston Irish Fest Dates Announced

Corey & Mike have announced that the 7th Annual Weston Irish Fest is scheduled for October 13, 14, and 15. One for the calendar.

Private gig by The Elders

Operation Breakthrough are having their Annual Fundraiser on April 21, and it includes a silent auction. The full list of items in the auction is not yet published but a PRIVATE CONCERT by The Elders is highlighted as being one of the items up for auction.

I was at a friend's house once where The Elders performed a private gig - and it was as special as you would think it was - kinda like a scene from Help!, the Beatles movie. It was an ordinary house, not one designed for a rock gig, and so Ian Byrne would get in your way when you were going to the bathroom - while he was singing.

Operation Breakthrough helps children who are living in poverty develop to their fullest potential by providing them a safe, loving and educational environment.

St Patrick's Arrests - KC Facts

And now the KC Police Board has met and is reluctant to recommend any change to the parade because in fact there were "far fewer" arrests this year than last year (a year perceived as very successful). This year:

• 5 Disorderly Conduct arrests
• 2 CCW arrests (carrying concealed weapon)
• No alcohol related arrests (50 last year)
• No hindering and interfering
• No injuries to police officers
• No damage to police equipment

Which all makes a nonsense of the Star's initial parade coverage, and of a thousand idiotic blogs and comments by people who weren't there. The Marring of The Star?

St Patrick's 2007 Police Plan

The Star carries details of the Police Plan for next year. Their observation of the overcrowded situation this year between 16th and 18th ties in with the main problem I witnessed.

Greg Reeves' Crime Scene gets to the nub of things as usual, noting the reduction in the reported number of fights (10 to 7), and detailing the Star coverage of parades since '92.

More police discussions are planned, and the Parade Committee meets tomorrow night.

Win Wine Cabinet by Elders' Ian Byrne

Ian Byrne, frontman of The Elders, and founder of Byrne Custom Woodworking is creating and donating a one-of-a-kind cherry wood wine cabinet for Operation Breakthrough:

The cabinet will hold 35 bottles of California wine, one for each year of the Center’s existence. The wine is valued at $1,058 and the cabinet retails at over $6,000

Raffle Tickets can be purchased online, and the winning ticket will be drawn at the Annual Fundraiser on April 21. The website also lists a PRIVATE CONCERT by The Elders as one of the items in their Silent Auction on the April 21 Fundraiser

Operation Breakthrough, a not-for-profit corporation that began in 1971, helps children who are living in poverty develop to their fullest potential by providing them a safe, loving and educational environment.

Eddie Delahunt's Live Irish Music

It's Tuesday again, which means Eddie Delahunt will be at WJ McBride's Irish Pub tonight now that KC's big Irish weekend is but something we vaguely remember.

WJ McBride's Irish Pub is in Village West in KCK over there by Cabellas and that big wood Wolf hotel thing with the water (913.788.7771)
Eddie starts at 7:00pm

Hothouse Flowers USA Tour 2006 posters

Hothouse Flowers USA Tour 2006 posters are now available for sale from the official Hothouse Flowers website.

With the Flowers headlining the 2006 KC Irish Festival in September, the posters are a nice souvenir in advance (if you know what I mean) for fans in Kansas City. Not as quirky as last year's but the Hothouse Flowers have a history of supporting artists who create such posters, so give it some thought, buy one, and then bring it to the Festival in September so you can show off to all your friends. Think of the karma.

Young Dubs Irish Tour details

Keith from the Young Dubliners has sent more details of their Irish Trip/Tour later this year. It will be from 1 -10 November, 2006 which only barely coincides with Black 47's Trip (and possibly KC's The Elders):

The band will play 4 shows, one of which will be an informal acoustic jam session in a "real" Irish pub. The other three will be full on rock shows in Irish cities close to where we will be staying (more shows may be added). The beauty of this trip is that you get free admission to all the shows and no need to drive, the coaches will do all the driving wherever we ask them to go. So drink up.....And of course the last show will be in Dublin.
We all stay at the same hotels each night so after each gig there is an "after hours" session in the hotel bar

Looked like good craic last year. With the Young Dubs being no stranger to KC and its Irish Fests, I'd be interested to know if any fans from KC will be going - perhaps you could bring a little parcel home for me.

Irish Experience Used in Kansas

Senior and former members of the US Army based at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, are producing a 300-page document, entitled United States Counter-Insurgency Doctrine which plans to alter radically the way they fight future battles.

And the changes? British Army tactics. They are to be adopted by the US against insurgents following the failure of its military to win the love of the Iraqi people.

Senior American commanders are now drawing on lessons learned by British forces in the north of Ireland, and the tactics they employed extensively during that conflict.

The drafting process is due to be completed in early summer and the doctrine is scheduled to be made public by October.

Speaking of a softly softly British approach, this year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Hunger Strikes

Irish Speaker Series : Music, History & Lore

The Irish American Cultural Institute is presenting Máire Ni Chathasaigh as part of the Irish Speaker Series of Kansas City on Sunday April 2 (source: Lucy's List)

Máire Ni Chathasaigh, regularly acclaimed as the Greatest Celtic Harper of Our Age discusses 400 years of the music, history & lore of Ireland

Meeting room, Cure’ of Ars Church,
9401 Mission Road, Overland Park, Kansas

2:00pm (NOTE: Listed as 1:00pm on Máire's record label)
$5 per person
No charge for IACI members and 1st guest
All ages welcome; 913-515-1179, contact: LivingSoLucky[at]yahoo[dot]com

More St Patrick's Day Photos

The photo galleries on the official KC Irish Parade website have swelled since we last mentioned them. Currently there are 172 photos in the Candid & Crowds Gallery, and 119 in the Entrants & Floats Gallery. Also over at PicMyPhotos(use the password "spat") there are over 550 of photographer Bob Johnson's Photos. Knock yourself out.

Irish poetry reading at Ottawa University

Caitriona O’Reilly, Irish author and poet, is scheduled to give a reading at 7:30pm Wednesday, March 29th, at The Ottawa University.

O’Reilly, who, like the Elders' Ian Byrne, grew up in Wicklow, is the writer-in-residence at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland. She studied at Trinity College, Dublin where she wrote a doctoral thesis on American literature. Her volume of poetry The Nowhere Birds was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2001, and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2002 (given to the best new book by any Irish writer)

O’Dell Lounge, Martin Hall, 1001 South Cedar St., Ottawa.
(785) 242-5200, ext. 5406.

Bohola

Tomorrow evening Tuesday, March 28, 2006, Bohola play Herod Hall Auditorium.

It's on the campus of Northwestern Oklahoma State University - which I grant you is bit beyond your casual evening's drive from Kansas City, but I've been looking at maps.

Bohola are based in Chicago. And just like on their recent trip to the North Texas Irish Fest, Kansas City is being skipped over. This is a plea for them to play KC.

For the last couple of years their spoken CD A Childhood Christmas has been an essential part of my family Christmas here in KC, but their more regular stuff, like on Bohola 4 is a wonderful powerhouse of virtuoso accordion playing along with the fiddle and the bouzar (bass bouzouki & guitar hybrid).

Accordion player Jimmy Keane has performed and recorded with some of the best Irish musicians around including Liz Carroll, Michael Flatley, Mick Moloney, Eileen Ivers and Seamus Egan. That's pedigree. Before Bohola 5 is released, go ahead and listen to some tracks on their website. Or go to Oklahoma.

Happy Mothers' Day

If, like me, any of you have mothers in Ireland (I have just the one) you might want to get on the phone kinda quickly and wish your Irish mother a Happy Mothers' Day.

Mothers' Day is not celebrated on the same day as in the US. Mother's Day in Ireland is mid-Lent Sunday, when the faithful and failing were struggling with the rigours of Lenten observance, so the church decreed the day one of special relaxation, as it does with St Patrick's Day. During Lent I also relax on Monday evenings and Thursday afternoons. And when there's any football on the telly.

My own mother was specially relaxing by cooking a large dinner for the rest of the family. I hope your mother had a great Irish Mothers Day.

Cherish The Ladies SSO Review

The collaboration we told you about last week of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra with KC Irish Fest stars of 2005, Cherish the Ladies, has received very favourable reviews:

Leader Madden winningly played a variety of flutes and whistles, Mary Coogan was a sturdy guitarist offering a fine tone and a good sense of forward momentum, fiddler Roisin Dillon displayed musical animation and steady technique, Mirella Murray proved to be an accordion wizard, and the light-voiced Heidi Talbot supplied some wistful vocal stylings.

Live Irish Music this Sunday

Sunday, the traditional day for Irish music sessions, sees our regular KC balladeers sing their Irish songs:

Bob Reeder @ O'Malley's Irish Pub : 3:00-9:00pm
Eddie Delahunt @ O'Dowd's Little Dublin : 8:00-late

Learn Irish Gaelic in 128 lessons

The Jackalope over in the other side of Missouri, in St louis, asks if anybody knows how to learn Irish, without having to travel to Kansas City? Well yes, Jack, right here - starting with Lesson 1 of Learn Irish Gaelic

Designed for the American who doesn't have access to an Irish speaker or recordings, I'll publish these lessons probably at the rate of about two per week. There's no pace to keep up with as these Irish Gaelic lessons are perfect for a person to use alone at their own pace.

An Irish View of Parade

Michael J Ryan of Lees Summit has strong words in the letters of Todays KC Star

As with so many other ethnic, cultural events, the history and culture of the day are quite different from the American perception. Any truly Irish person would look at this parade with disgust.

Beg to differ Michael; I respect your opinion, but unless my parents were lying I'm a truly Irish person, and I might have grimaced once or twice but I most certainly didn't look at the parade with disgust.

Irish Music at OP Farmers Market

The Downtown Overland Park Farmers Market STARTS Saturday, April 1st, 2006. The market is open on Saturdays from 6:30am until sell-out and on Wednesdays from 7:30am until sellout through to late October.

"Clock Tower Series"-FREE CONCERTS open to the public each market day. As well as Jazz, Rock-n-Roll, Blues, Big Band, Swing ther will also be Irish music, provided by Eddie Delahunt. The concerts are held at the Clock Tower Pavilion between 79th and 80th Street on Santa Fe Drive, just four blocks west of Metcalf.

Oh, and you can get fresh produce, exclusively grown by local farmers.

Damien Dempsey, Kila, & The Cottars

A section on Irish & Celtic Music I'm currently listening to has been added to the sidebar. Damien Dempsey's Shots is the best Irish album/CD I've heard since that amazing collection of songs by the other Damien, O by Damien Rice.

My favourite track by the imaginative Kila on Luna Park is the wonderfully rhythmic Glanfaidh Me, and I've aready talked about The Cottars new album/CD, of which the Tom Waits cover Hold On is exquisite.

Wild Clover Band in Weston, MO

The Wild Clover Band had a great time in O'Malley's Irish Pub of Weston, Missouri last night. Word is that it will be even better for the KC Irish Fest favorites when they play their brand of Irish music again tonight.

Seven Nations at Leavenworth, KS

Everybody is waiting for the next big Irish gig in town which is the Shamrockin' in Westport on Saturday, May 13. Along with The lders, the main attraction for many people will be fellow KC Irish Fest 2006 performers, Seven Nations' welcome return to Kansas City.

However if you can't make it on May 13, or if Leavenworth is a lot handier for you than KC, Seven Nations are scheduled to play Fatheads Irish Pub, in Leavenworth, Kansas, the night before, Friday, May 12.

Fatheads Irish Pub is at 327 Delaware St, Leavenworth, KS (913) 651-1006

KC Irish Parade Photos

The Official KC Irish Parade website is continuing to post lots of photos in its galleries of St Patrick's Day.

It's all here, Browne's Tent, Buck O'Neill, Crowd Shots, Brogeen, O'Riada Irish Dancers, Floats, Marching Bands, Parties. There are over a hundred photos of the big Irish day in the candid and crowds gallery. And a healthy number in the parade entrants and floats gallery.

Colin Farrell in a cardigan

Opening today at the Glenwood Arts and Studio 30 is Robert Towne's adaptation of John Fante’s Ask the Dust, starring Irish actor, Colin Farrell.

Dubliner Farrell plays Arturo Bandini but is possibly miscast in a cardigan, especially in a movie also starring champion cardigan wearer Donald Sutherland

See Also: All Movie News on Irish KC
 

Celtic Music News: ETH & The Paperboys

Enter The Haggis, triumphant performers of the 2005 KC Irish Fest, and scheduled to appear again at the 2006 festival, are included on Celtic Music News Podcast #62 released this week.

The podcast opens with Enter The Haggis performing Andromeda from their CD Aerial. Along with ETH, Celtic Music News Podcast #62 features Maria Butterly, The Peelers, Spirit of the West, and also the Paperboys - who many of you will remember from their excellent performances at the Westport Irish Festival.

On this podcast Tom Landa and the Paperboys are playing Nowhere But Up from the CD Late as Usual, and it is probably the strongest track on the podcast.The recent addition of background music is just another reason to subscribe to CMN.

Enter The Haggis are currently touring Scotland with some North American fans.

Harp & Shamrock Parade Float

Speaking of Bob Reeder, his fan club, the Harp & Shamrock have posted pictures of their prize-winning St Patrick's Day Parade float.

The Harp & Shamrock placed 1st with their float in the Organizations category. (See full list of prize-winners). Formed to support Irish music in the Kansas City community while promoting charity activities, the Harp & Shamrock has provided fifty-eight children with hearing aids from the proceeds of Celtic Music Benefits in the past five years.

Everybody should have a fan club like this!

Eddie Delahunt at the Westsider

Eddie Delahunt plays his weekly Kansas City Friday Happy Hour slot TONIGHT at Mike Kelly's Westsider in Westport. The gig starts at 6:00pm and Eddie will be up there by the window singing them Irish songs that he does. The Westsider is located at: 1515 Westport Rd, Kansas City, MO (816)931-9417

My Celtic Treasures Blog

My Celtic Treasures, the Overland Park celtic jewelry outfit popular with those familiar with all the region's Irish, Scottish, and Celtic festivals, has relaunched a blog.

In existence for some time, the blog has seen multiple daily posts over the past several days, and professes to cover:

Celtic Symbols, Celtic Knotwork, Celtic News, Updates and Reviews about My Celtic Treasures, Celtic Jewelry, Irish and Scottish Festivals, Arts and Craft Shows, Pubs, Celtic Music and anything and everything Celtic

Posts to date highlight styles of jewelry, and the meanings of celtic symbols that feature on the jewelry - something I know many people are very keen to learn about. My favourite is Cernunnos:

He appears crowned with stag's antlers, is often seated in a meditative position, and is almost always depicted with images of wild animals

I have a sister just like that. The Celtic Treasures Blog is a welcome addition to the KC Celtic Blogosphere.

Bob Reeder at Kyle's Tap Room

Bob Reeder performs Irish songs in his regular Friday slot at Kyle's Tap Room in Gladstone at 8:00pm - 1:00am, tonight. Kyle's pours a very fine pint, which is fitting for a venue that promotes itself with the tag line A Neighborhood Pub.

6825 North Oak Trafficway, Gladstone, MO (816)420-9099

Handy directions are posted on Bob Reeder's website.

Parade Organizers Solve Violence Issues

Regarding the KC Star's ridiculous coverage of the Parade:

Following Ireland's main St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin last year there was terrible violence on the streets of the city centre and a huge number of arrests. To solve the problem for this year, parade organizers cancelled the unseasonably warm weather which had showcased last year's parade, and was so enjoyed by Irish families and Irish thugs.

Instead this year extra cold temperatures were ordered along with some biting March rain. Although there were incidents of violence after the parade and maybe three dozen arrests, the police said it was no more than what occurs on an ordinary Friday in Dublin.

Kelly's Westport Inn : Paddy's Day Photos

Photos of this year's St Patrick's Day festivities at Kelly's Westport Inn are now available for viewing.

There's three pages worth, so if you celebrated KC's big Irish day there go check them out and see if you're pictured - and if you didn't go to Kelly's on Paddy's Day, you should check them anyway to make sure you didn't

Eileen Ivers in Signature Pop Series

Speaking of Riverdance, Eileen Ivers isn't a million miles from KC this weekend. Eileen Ivers is at Tulsa Community College on Friday and Saturday, with the Signature Symphony in the TCC 2005-06 Pops Series.

Kansas City's Irish community first fell in love with Eileen back when she headlined the Brookside Irish Fest. I remember her after the festival being very giving of her time, when she surely had other places to be. Since then Eileen and her band Immigrant Soul have been frequent visitors to the KC area, including headlining the KC Irish Fest the last two years, and playing at the Lied Center in Lawrence earlier this month.

So if you were going to the lake this weekend, you'd only need to go to a different lake to see Eileen Ivers with the Signature Symphony

March 24-25, 2006, 8pm
VanTrease Performing Arts Center Tulsa Community College

Riverdance current tour to end in KC

Riverdance has commenced its 2006 Tour of America, and first reactions are coming in of performances in Texas. Ashley Hanisko in Fort Worth was not overly impressed:

Although the dancers were impressive, the singers were not. They seemed tired or mad at each other. Their voices were high-pitched and lifeless, like a shy choirgirl practicing in front of the class.

In Orange, TX the show received a better reaction, at least from the participants:

Melissa Convery, dance captain of the Riverdance, said, The audience the first night we performed here was fantastic. Probably one of the best audiences we have ever performed in front of

Convery, said the Riverdance American tour would wrap up in Kansas City, MO. That end in KC is scheduled to take place from June 27 - July 02, at the Starlight Theatre.

This month is the 10th anniversary of Riverdance's debut in the US, though it's twelve years since those first few minutes called Riverdance thundered onto our TV screens in the interval of the Eurovision Song Contest.

I was babysitting in Dublin that night and within minutes of Riverdance ending the telephones of Ireland started ringing, causing some to believe it was the very moment that kick-started Ireland's Celtic-Tiger economy boom. For me though it just meant I could never again look at a long line of female dancers do a sideways shimmy without my tongue going all funny.

Aberfeldy in KC

Polished popsters from Scotland, Aberfeldy, return to KC and can be heard tomorrow evening at 7:00pm playing the former Molloy's Irish Pub - which we should now revert to referring to as The Record Bar, what with St Patrick's Day over and the big tent down and all.

Aberfeldy played in KC last year and I saw them at WJ McBride's Irish Pub. I've also heard them on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 - a feat in itself given the different identities of both stations, and is probably due to the fact that they're relatively young but their music harks back to 80s british pop.

In that gig they played their signature pop tunes and some very different but equally accomplished country music. Contemporary Scottish music, like contemporary Irish music, suffers from the conservative streak that allowed traditional forms to flourish, but the combination that night of Johnny Cash meets The Buggles left Wyandotte County rather perplexed.

Paddy Rock Radio Top 25 CDs

Being of a certain age in Dublin when The Pogues arrived on the music scene with a kick in the backside for the very music it embraced, and a charismatic swagger that Shane Macgowan has somehow maintained for over twenty years, well, it left an imprint.

Not only does hearing a slow air on a fiddle feel like it's being played on the veins in your arms, but, but it also makes you want to shout, kick your shoes off, Shout, throw your hands up, Shout, take your pants off, and that general sort of behaviour.

And just like the Irish Tenor John McCormack, and the original Celtic Soul god himself, Van Morrison, the Pogues have left us with ganseyloads of copycats. But more than that, and they're not even finsished themselves, The Pogues left us with a genre. And in the 21st century, a genre means an internet radio station.

Paddy Rock Radio, the Celtic Rock & Punk webradio site, is where I go for my Psycho-Ceilidh fix. And here's their Top 25 CDs for 2005, from which I count five friends of Kansas City, between smaller gigs and Irish Fests. It even includes Kansas City's very own Elders at #13, and who knows, one day the Holy Grail of Irish Fest quarries, The Sawdoctors, might join that shortlist.

The list was composed based upon listener requests and editorial opinion, which means whatever you want it to mean:

#1 Sharky Doyles : Back Of The Yards
#2 Blaggards : Standards
#3 The Tossers : The Valley of the Shadow of Death
#4 Young Dubliners : Real World
#5 Charm City Saints : Never Go Home Again
#6 Dropkick Murphys : Warriors Code
#7 Real McKenzies : 10,000 Shots
#8 Saw Doctors : The Cure
#9 The Prodigals : Momentum
#10 Switchback : Bolinree
#11 Black 47 : Elvis Murphy's Green Suede Shoes
#12 Bluestack : The Last Set of The Night
#13 The Elders : Live at the Gem
#14 Blood or Whiskey : Cashed Out On Culture
#15 Great Big Sea : The Hard And The Easy
#16 Larkin : Reckoning
#17 Ceann Na Caca : Almost Irish
#18 Bloody Irish Boys : Drunk Rock
#19 Meisce : Meisce
#20 Icewagon Flu : Mr. Norman

Cherish The Ladies SSO Series

Cherish The Ladies, previous headliners with the Westport Irish Festival, and performers from last year's KC Irish Fest, tonight begin a series of performances with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in New York.

The Cherish the Ladies concert will begin with the SSO’s performances of selections from Brigadoon, followed by Lord of the Dance, Meagh Seola and Far and Away. Following intermission the all-female group will join the Orchestra to present pieces including Hornpipe Dance Number, The Castle of Dromore, and The Highway to Kilkenny Medley.

Mar 22: THE SYRACUSE SYMPHONY WATERTOWN SERIES
Mar 23: THE SYRACUSE SYMPHONY DRYDEN MUTUAL CORTLAND SERIES
Mar 24: THE SYRACUSE SYMPHONY M&T BANK POPS SERIES
Mar 25: THE SYRACUSE SYMPHONY M&T BANK POPS SERIES
Mar 25: SHAMROCKIN' WITH CHERISH THE LADIES

The Cottars' CD of the Week

Forerunner by stars of the 2005 KC Irish Fest, The Cottars, has just completed its run as album-of-the-week on the daily Caithream Ciuil programme on BBC Radio nan Gaidheal in Scotland.

The Cottars, seen recently opening shows for the legendary Chieftains on a tour that concluded at the weekend, released their new CD Forerunner in January.

This stunning new CD, highlighted by Irish-based numbers such as Miss Casey Medley and Pat Works on the Railway, also has a Sinead Lohan number, and two wonderful Tom Waits tunes.

Hopefully, Forerunner - a self-declared coming-of-age CD - will finally put an end to the tiresome comments about how old The Cottars are, and just focus on the music.

Eddie Delahunt plays O'Dowd's Irish Pub

KC's Irish Pub on the Plaza, O'Dowd's Little Dublin, plays host tonight to Eddie Delahunt's regular Wednesday evening slot.

If you heard Eddie for the first time on St Patrick's Day, well you probably don't live in the KC area. If you do, well you'll want to go catch him on a night like tonight so you can actually hear him. Ask him to play his own compositions - they're the best things he does, by a country mile.

Eddie Delahunt begins at eight-ish (He's Irish). O'Dowd's is at 4742 Pennsylvania Ave.

Bob Reeder at WJMcBride's Irish Pub

It's Wednesday so Bob Reeder is at WJ McBride's Irish Pub in the west of the KC metro area (by the KS Speedway), performing his brand of Irish ballads and tunes. Starts 7:00pm

I must confess that I did Bob a disservice regarding his St Patrick's Day Schedule. Although mere mortals might consider the three gigs I listed on Bob's schedule as a gargantuan task, I wondered if Bob was letting things slip a little, for in most years Mr Reeder somehow squeezes in four venues. Well, 2006 was actually no different. I forgot the parade.

Standing at Truman Road where the KC Parade ended last Friday I witnessed Bob finish playing his set on the Harp & Shamrock float, and leap off bound for his second gig of the day at McBride's Irish Pub with a Phil-Collins-heading-for-Philadelphia-on-the-concorde kind of urgency.

Greetings From Waldo

There's a lovely written personal account and consideration of Kansas City's St Patrick's Day Parade, at Greetings From Waldo by Bridget Heos.

Bridget, who has written for KC Magazine, The Kansas City Star, and Kansas City Homes and Gardens, also remembers going to the parade as child:

At that time, the only danger at the parade was some drunkard burning you with a cigarette or spilling beer on your lederhosen. (For some reason, my mom would dress me in an Irish sweater and lederhosen, and as we marched in the parade, grownups would heckle me for wearing German clothes.)

Heos also has a business website for her free-lance writing and editing services.

Jonathan Ramsey's KC Irish Day

KC Irish Fest 2003 performer Jonathan Ramsey gives an account over in MySpace of his visit back to KC to play a couple of music gigs on St Patrick's Day.

Jonathan played in the heated tent for Lew's Irish Hooley in Waldo, and later in the day moved on to midtown Kansas City to play his brand of Irish traditional songs at Harling's Upstairs:

After the 5:45, and an 8:00 set, and the parting of the Bobcats, the last of the other bands, at 10:00, I finished the night up with a 10:00PM to 1:00AM set. Sorry to the young lady that REALLY wanted to hear The Unicorn a few times in my first set. I have an agreement with the Silverstein family to play that song only once every twelve months.

Wild Clover Band in O'Malley's Irish Pub

Kansas City Irish Fest 2005 performers The Wild Clover Band announced today they are returning to play O'Malley's Irish Pub in Weston, Missouri this coming weekend:

March 24-25.

The Wild Clover Band play traditional Irish Music, specializing in traditional Irish dance tunes, pub songs, and ballads and are based out of Nebraska. As we told you yesterday, the Wild Clover Band have started blogging, which makes keeping track of these Irish gigs easier. Thanks guys!

Enter The Haggis Enter Britain

KC Irish Fest performers Enter The Haggis arrived in London yesterday and are due to hook up with their fans in a couple of days for their week long Tour of Scotland.

This ETH Tour is another of the Hammond Tours that are proving very popular on the Celtic Rock circuit currently. The Young Dubliners are going on their Tour to Ireland in November - and one wonders if they might bump into KC's The Elders

Enter The Haggis are touring Edinburgh, Inverness, Loch Ness, Fort William and Glasgow. And of course not the quick bowl of Special K for these destinations, but instead a hearty breakfast or two shall be had by the touring party.

Eddie Delahunt Live at WJMcBride's Irish Pub

It's Tuesday so that means Irish tunes will be sounded again in WJMcBride's Irish Pub tonight now that Eddie Delahunt has had his rest after KC's big Irish weeknd.

WJMcBride's is in Village West by the Kansas Speedway 913.788.7771, and Eddie starts at 7:00pm

KC Irish Fest Cow

The KC Irish Fest first incorporated a cow into its branding when the festival moved to Crown Center for the 2nd KC Irish Fest. Since then a cow is newly created each year by a different local illustrator.

Irish Fest fans got a first sighting of this year's cow a couple of weeks ago when an animated maze to guide the new cow's head to the KC parade was launched on the official KC Irish Fest website.

Friday's parade witnessed the lifesize unveiling of the 2006 KC Irish Fest cow. Similar to, if happier than, the 2005 Festival cow, we can expect to see this cow in all your favourite Irish locations before too long.

People in Erin nicer than people in KC

No sooner than I've praised the family-oriented nice people attending KC's big Irish Parade, than I discover that possibly the people of Erin, Tennessee are even more so.

Makenzie Launay, of Launay Enterprises, said the shamrock shag hats were selling quickly. Launay said Erin's small-town feel was a nice change of pace from a parade she worked Friday in Kansas City, Mo.

This is much more family-oriented and the people are nicer, said Launay, who lives in Mount Vernon, Ill.

Erin is an anglicization of the Gaelic for 'Ireland', and reputedly the town of Erin is so named due to the hills and creeks reminding the Irish of their native Ireland when they arrived back in Civil War times.

Wild Clover Band launch Blog

Nebraska's Wild Clover Band, popular additions to the Kansas City Irish Fest in September 2005, started a blog today.

We'll keep an eye and hopefully the Wild Clover Band will keep updating. Good luck WCB!

Irish Museum and Cultural Center Gala

Kansas City's Irish Museum and Cultural Center Gala
honoring Michael R. Haverty
(president and CEO of Kansas City Southern Railroad)
with the John J. Sullivan, Jr. Foundation Humanitarian award
and featuring Irish Broadway performer Ciaran Sheehan with Eilie O’Grady Patterson
will take place a month from tomorrow:
April 21
Westin Crown Center hotel
$125 tickets
(816) 941-3085

Official Website

Waiting for Godot in Westport

Samuel Beckett's absurdist tragicomedy in 2 acts WAITING FOR GODOT By CinnamonEye Productions is on at the Westport Coffeehouse (4010 Pennsylvania) this week. Lovers of Vladimir and Estragon can see the Irish Nobel prizewinner's play on:
March 23-24 @ 8:00 p.m.
March 25 @ 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Closes March 25

Hoffenpurpenburger Day

-Oh my god, your name is actually Hoffenpurpenburger!
-Yes
-That's so cool, to be a real Hoffenpurpenburger on Hoffenpurpenburger Day!
-I'm a Hoffenpurpenburger every day.
-But it's just so cool!
-It's just my name; haven't you got a name too?
-Not Hoffenpurpenburger!
-But you have your parents' name - isn't that cool?
-My father's aunt is married to a Hoffenpurpenburger, so I have second cousins who are called Hoffenpurpenburger-Wilson. But that's not as cool as just a straight Hoffenpurpenburger like you.
-Ouch! Why did you do that?
-Because you're not wearing purple or orange - it's traditional on Hoffenpurpenburger Day to kick people, on the behind, who aren't wearing traditional purple or orange. Why aren't you wearing any purple or orange?
-It hadn't occurred to me.
-You can't kick me; I'm wearing both purple and orange.
-That's okay, I don't traditionally kick people.
-How can you be a Hoffenpurpenburger and not wear any traditional purple or orange?
-I don't know.
-Do you wear anything traditional?
-This bracelet.
-Neat - what does it mean?
-Our parents give it to us when we're seven, and we wear it on just the one day a year.
-Hoffenpurpenburger Day?
-Well yes.
-Do the strands mean anything?
-Each parent chooses a strand each, and the jeweler weaves them, but they don't actually mean anything.
-But they must mean something to make your parents choose them, like Eternal Love or the Cycle of Life?
-I think my father picks bracelet strands the way he picks racehorses, and my mother the way she picks wallpaper.
-Is that purple in one of the strands?
-Yes - it's on my mother's side.
-Oh, I'm sorry I kicked you - I didn't realize you were wearing purple.
-It's okay, neither did I.
-Are you heading to have the traditional Hoffenpurpenburger Lunch now?
-I've already eaten.
-Smoked Goat's Cheese and Purple Peppers, yeah?
-Just beans on toast.
-You don't like smoked goat's cheese?
-I don't know - I never actually had it.
-You're joking right? How can you be a Hoffenpurpenburger and not have had any smoked goat's cheese?
-I don't know.
-You don't even eat purple peppers?
-Not especially.
-Oh. Do you hate that we eat purple peppers?
-No, I like them, I just don't eat them that often. I prefer red or yellow.
-Hoffenpurpenburger Day wouldn't be the same without Purple Peppers. When I was twenty-one I ate eleven purple peppers on a Hoffenpurpenburger Day.
-I like them in a salad.
-I thought you ate them every Sunday with smoked goat's cheese?
-Sometimes my family would have regular cream cheese, but mostly on Sunday we'd have yogurt and crackers.
-Even on Hoffenpurpenburger Day?
-No, mostly then we have beans on toast. But not always.
-So you don't eat anything purple on Hoffenpurpenburger Day?
-Beet root - sometimes. If we have stew.
-Why don't you have smoked goat's cheese?
-I don't know - I'll ask my mother.
-Are you going to the big dance tonight?
-I won't
-Are you going to tell me now that you don't do the Hoffen Hoppin Dance?
-Actually I trained as a Hoffen Hoppin Dancer.
-Great, so you must love the Humongous Hoffen Hoppin Dance here in town?
-Well..
-It's the seventh humongousest Hoffin Hoppin Dance in the world!
-It is humongous.
-You should be in it.
-I don't Hoffin Hoppin Dance anymore.
-Are you just going to get drunk and celebrate then?
-Not exactly, we don't drink on Hoffenpurpenburger Day, we drink the next day.
-Why?
-On Hoffenpurpenburger Day we remember the Hoffenpurpenburgers who are no longer with us, and alcholol kinda messes with the process.
-But you get drunk the day after?
-Oh yeah, we're not against alcohol, it's just that Hoffenpurpenburger Day is a Day of Abstention.
-But you won't be able to get any purple beer the day after Hoffenpurpenburger Day.


 
More Irish conversations

My Anthem, Without Pants in Gilhouly's

Somewhere in the rush to detail St Patrick's Day events I kept saving Gilhouly's of 39th Street, but then the bouncer took my glass before I had a chance to drink the best wine. Well, maybe not the best wine.

Anyway, this is better - if you're thinking of heading to Gilhouly's next year on St Patrick's Day, or next wext week in fact. It's a personal recount, and starring a real Irish man.

Irish Balloons & Irish Violence

In its coverage of the KC St Patrick's Day Parade, the KC Star has focused mostly on balloons and violence.

I witnessed both ends of the parade, and the entire length of the eastern side, settling ultimately where the trouble was reported, and I stayed until the end. For the most part the crowd was a family crowd and a good-humoured one. Focusing on isolated incidents does ignore the obvious success of the organization of the parade, and the fun had by participants and spectators alike.

From what I witnessed it struck me that the easiest way to eradicate most trouble and flash points, is to move the parade away from a route that takes it right past the front doors of actively trading businesses.

And anyway, why aren't more media focused on what Murphy the Leprechaun is doing with the Frankfurter he's wielding?

KMBC-TV9 Slideshow of Parade Photos

See KC's Big Irish Day in 20 photos from TV-9.

Their article also seems more balanced than what has been presented in the KC Star, based on my experience of the day.

Irish Music with Tom Meehan

TOM MEEHAN: An Afternoon of Irish Music
2-4:00 p.m. Sunday, March 19 - (TODAY)
Johnson County Library, Central Resource, 9875 W. 87th,
Overland Park FREE
(913-495-7514)

Full List KC St Pat's Parade '06 Winners

Grand prize: Celtic Fringe

Family category: First, Harris; second, Mike O’Connor; third, O’Rourke Sweeney.

Business: First, Walton Construction Co.; second, Irish Crystal Co.; third, Full Moon Productions.

Organizations: First, Harp and Shamrock; second, Thank You Walt Disney; third, AA Employees Club.

Schools: First, Redemptorist parish; second, St. Therese.

Drill Team: First, Kansas City Marching Falcons; second, Pythons; third, KC Marching Sizzlers.

Media: First, KMXV Mix 93; second, KCFX 101 The Fox; third, The Kansas City Star.

Trades: First, Painters District Council No. 3 Apprenticeship Training Fund; second, IBEW Local 124; third, Heavy Construction Laborers Local 663.

Bands: First, Liberty, Ill., High School Marching Eagles; second, Emerald City Marching Band.

Showmanship Award: O’Sullivan family.

Chairmen’s Choice: Gateway High Steppers Drill Team.

Lifetime Achievement Awards: O’Riada Academy of Irish Dance; Marching Cobras; Kansas City St. Andrew Pipes and Drums.

KC's Elders November Irish Trip

The KC Irish who are already missing The Elders after last night's Hoolie, received news today from Wicklow frontman Ian Byrne that The Elders are going to Ireland in November. I dare say there'll be more on this.

UPDATE: There is more. The Elders Irish Tour is being announced as scheduled for March 2007

Overblown Stereotypical Irishman Falls Down, Crowd Looks Other Way

Liberty Tax

The Irish, having achieved freedom after centuries of oppression, now pay a tax for their liberty.

KC Irish World Small (After All)

The KC Irish world is small after all; it just seemed much bigger with having to navigate around the downtown construction, and deal with the odd KC policeman not very adept with crowd relations.

KC Irish dance to the end (almost)

Despite the slightly shorter route of this year's KC Parade (due to construction), and the aid of multi-coloured balloons, some people on floats could not continue dancing as far as the parade end at Truman Rd.

Specifically that guy in the middle just plain quit with half a block to go.

KC Drill Teams Salute Irish Rebels

Ever since the Irish Rebels of 1916 drilled their way to a Post Office and ultimately Independence, teams of young girls and boys drill defiantly past men of uniform in a tribute to Revolution and the little guy

Mickey's Rockin' Caboose

KC Irish celebrate Paddy's Day '06 with Mickey Mouse. And short skirts.

Celtic Fringe wins KC Parade Grand Prize

On Wednesday we said we were looking forward to seeing the Celtic Fringe float as it is always a parade highlight, but this year, after thirteen years of entering an array of entertaining floats, it was officially the highlight.

Steeped in the dark humour so beloved of the Irish, and a tradition for the Celtic Fringe itself, Disney On Ice presented the head of a deceased Walt Disney rising as a slow Walt-in-the-Box from surrounding dry-ice. And yes that is very much in keeping with this year's theme.

More than a mere punchline, the Celtic Fringe prizewinner had an excellence of presentation and engineering. It is to these standards that I argued participants should aspire and the Parade Committee should encourage (if not enforce) - when I praised the inclusion of the balloon characters this year. A big Congratulations to the Celtic Fringe

In the warehouse downtown where Disney on Ice was crafted, I was at the Fringe After-Parade Party when the call came through, and the Creative Team were deservedly ecstatic. Walt even popped his head up to see what all the fuss was about, and plastic cups were raised in honour of a Kansas City legend, and a Kansas City organization that leads the way in taking chances and delivering entertainment.

The Grand Prize is a trip for two to Ireland

St Patrick's Day Events Highlights

Ok then. On a day when every pub and its mother has a party, it's time to look at the big picture:

Irish Breakfast: Brownes wins. It's an event, not a meal. 6:30am, Tent, Music, Mayor, Irishman of the Year. If you want a pub and you're straying from your regular haunt, try McBride's, Lew's, the Record Bar, Governor Stumpy's, or O'Quigley's

Parade: 11am-1pm, Grand Blvd, Disney, Big Balloons, Live on KMBC-TV 9, parking, bus

Hoolies: Cream of the Crop - The Elders. Celtic Supergroup, Uptown Theatre, Hometown Gig, 7:30pm, O'Riada Dancers

Worthy Mentions: O'Malley's, Lew's, Record Bar, O'Dowd's, WJMcBride's, Velvet Dog, Westsider

Here's Waldo - it's Irish

Kansas City gets ready. Lew's Irish Hoolie. With Loos.

The Gaf - New Irish Pub

You've got to admire the confidence of everybody's favourite new Irish Pub in Kansas City. No tents, no banners, just this chalkboard outside, and a little note on the door. It's St Patrick's Day, and we have a few specials on.

The Gaf at Romanelli - on Wornell Road by Gregory - directly across from the Burger King, opens its doors at 10:00 am.

Beef Stew, Corned Beef & Cabbage (that will bring them in their droves), Reuben, and their famous signature Catfish are all on the menu for the day. And they've got bagpipes and Guinness - but then, it's a pub!

See also: Irish Pub The Gaf Gets A Sign

St Patrick's Day Events & Music

Playing Irish Music on March 17:

The Elders
The Kelihans
Eddie Delahunt
Bob Reeder
Tullamore
Ellis Island
Jed Marum
Jonathan Ramsey

Pubs, Parties, & Hooleys on March 17:

WJ McBrides Irish Pub
O'Malley's Pub
Lew's Grill & Bar
O'Dowd's Little Dublin
Mike Kelly's Westsider
The Velvet Dog Street Party
Barley's Brewhaus
The Record Bar
The Gaf
Davey's Uptown Rambler's Club
The Hurricane
Blayney's of Westport
Twin City Tavern
Bar Natasha
Attitudes & Latitudes
Replay Lounge
Governor Stumpy's
Paddy O'Quigley's

Other St Pat's Events:

Browne's Irish Market
Powell Gardens

Watch Dublin's Parade Live From Ireland

It's over 10 years since the Irish government branded St Patrick's Day to St Patrick's Festival. If you're up early you can watch on Tourism Ireland a Live Webcast of the Dublin parade, the centrepiece of the now 5-day Festival (6:35am KC time).

Or watch it later in the archives with 2003, '04, and '05 - showing the highlights from RTE (including the Ads!)

St Patrick's Party for Nervous Rex

Nervous Rex are playing Jerry's Bait Shop in Lee's Summit
from 9pm to 1am on St. Paddy's Day, Friday March 17

They've played there before, so they have

St Patrick's Day for the Celtic Fringe

Friday, March 17th
The Celtic Fringe float (#18). In the Emerald Division.
(on the east side of Main, just north of Pershing.)
Be there just before 11am

After Parade Party!

Location: 923 Broadway - Home of the Float-build
Food and drink and general party behavior!
Children 5 and under: FREE!
Ages 5 to 12: $5
Adult Fringe Members: $10
Adult Non Fringers, $15
Join the Celtic Fringe and get in FREE!
$25 for an individual membership
$35 for a family membership

NOTE: Fringer rhymes with Ginger not with Finger
 

Bar Natasha on St Patrick's Day

If the Bar Natasha is your cup of tea, they're open early - 11:00am for St Patrick's Day, and invite you in after the parade for complimentary Corned Beef and Cabbage.

Where?
1911 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri

And Later
9:30pm Caberet : Missy Koonce and Tony Bernal premier Actions Speak Louder Than Words
11:30pm Caberet : Bar Nastasha Singers

St Patrick and the Movies

If you're thinking you'd like to escape all things Irish in Kansas City tomorrow, and say, go to a movie - well make sure it's a matinee if it's at the Tivoli in Westport - because that's all they're showing due to St. Patrick's Day.

Alternatively you can stay at home and use this special St Patrick's Day code: SP199 to rent your first CinemaNow movie for only $1.99 (expires 3/31/06).

Colin Farrell, Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne and Aidan Quinn, says CinemaNow, because there are no Irish women?

See Also: All Movie News on Irish KC
 

Greens and Blues

If Greens aren't your thing as much as Blues, then Blayney's of Westport could be for you on St Patrick's Day.

Doors Open 9:00 a.m.
1:00-4:00 : Denny Lowe
5:00-9:00 : Connie & the Choirboys
9:30-close : Mickey Finn

Or you might fancy Danny Cox who's getting around on St Paddy's Day: Both O'Dowd's, on the Plaza, and at Zona Rosa, and at 75th St Brewery with the suspiciously named O'Shiver

Park South of Construction for Parade

Today's Star carries a reminder from Friday’s KC St. Patrick’s Day Parade organizers that if you park in garages north of the construction you shouldn't expect to have access to the parade route. Remember, the route ends at Truman Rd, south of all that construction for the new Sprint Arena and stuff. Cross streets should stay open 'til 9-ish. Bus, anybody?

Tonight: St Patrick's Eve in KC

St Patrick's Eve (and you thought she was Adam's)
If you're in the Celtic Fringe, you, your family and your folding chairs are invited to a preview of the Fringe float. 923 Broadway, Downtown Kansas City at 6:30pm.

If you're not in the Fringe, then you should pop along to Harling's Upstairs and really get in the mood for tomorrow, with some live Irish music from live Irish Eddie Delahunt

And if you're not in the mood for getting in the mood, then don't miss the unmissable Paul Muldoon at Rockhurst.

The Hurricane : St Patrick's Day in Westport

The Hurricane : Friday March 17
4048 Broadway, Kansas City, MO

Another Not Particulary Irish pub (see sidebar for actual Irish Pubs), but sharing a Parking Lot with McCoy's, The Hurricane is a main Westport St Pat's venue.

In the Parking Lot
DJ Just, DJ Salty Nutz and DJ Payne

On the Deck
The Baloney Ponyz
10th Annivesary St. Patrick's Day Celebration

Late Show
National Fire Theatre with Cruxed and Scarlet Escape

KC, MO - The Parade : route

33rd Annual Kansas City St. Patrick's Day Parade
11:00 am - 1:00 pm Downtown KC - same route as 2005

The Parade starts at the corner of Pershing Rd. and Main Street, Kansas City, MO. It proceeds east on Pershing to Grand Blvd. and continues north on Grand Blvd. to Truman Road.

Twin City Tavern's St Patrick's Party

The Twin City Tavern on Westport Road and State Line joins the list of pubs with a heated tent party (check the list on the sidebar to see the others). Inside the Twin City's tent you can have food specials and jello shots. I wonder what colour?
 

Red Rag for a Green Day

If you find yourself lagging at all tomorrow, March 17 (it's a Saint's Day - and you don't get to be a saint by lagging) - perhaps you just need something to get you through to 3pm when the St. Paddy's Wagon service begins.

Well, the Westport Flea Market, of Westport Rd is doing a special, a Red Bull special all day long. Now that just wouldn't have seemed right if I had used the word 'Hooters' there.

World's Smallest Parade in KC Metro Area?

Since 1978 the annual Blue Springs Shortest and Smallest St. Patrick's Day Parade, has three official paraders who walk 66 feet on Main Street, from Donna Swope's Flower Shop and Soda Fountain to the Gridiron Lounge, in about thirty seconds.

There are floats - they carry ice cream floats (green surprisingly) and they sing When Irish Eyes Are Smiling - presumably the 30-second free clip from Amazon - and as The X reports, they claim crowds of up to 200.

However, over in Enterprise, Alabama, since 1993 there is a parade of one where a different person of Irish descent each year holds an Irish flag, carries a pot of gold, and recites limericks as they walk past the courthouse and around a monument (of an insect). I love the selection of the absent Grand Marshall.

Other places make similar claims - but I like Blue Springs and the history of its parade, especially since it's not all that different from the birth of the modern parade in downtown Kansas City.

Green Beer Here

You know when you eat asparagus? And then you go to the bathroom? And then you leave the bathroom? And there's that smell? Well anyway, I just can't drink green beer.

On March 17, I believe Green Beer is available at:

Tomfooleries, J.T.'s Lounge, Spivey's Bar & Grill, The Hilltop Tap Room, Balanca's, The Roxy, Mardi Gras Nightclub, NV, Whiskey Tango, and Jilly's

And Down at The River Market?

For March 17, the River Market Brewing Company is boasting Karaoke & Drink Specials. And they're doing it in VERY BIG WRITING.

Doors open at 10:00 a.m. Karaoke would be later.

Tent for Westsider on March 17

Mike Kelly's Westsider
1515 Westport Rd, Kansas City, MO
Friday March 17 - $3 cover

11:00 : Doors Open
Outdoor tent and bar serves up drink specials and Corned Beef & Cabbage and Irish stew, and more. Please Mike, may I have some more?

3:00pm : Eddie Delahunt
6:00pm : Allied Saints

Debunking The X

In The X's traditional Irish-flavoured March Issue there are a couple of attempts at debunking the many myths surrounding St Patrick and Irish Culture. However throughout many of the articles, myths are actually added to, including the very articles doing the debunking.

I was tempted to join in this debunking fest - but to be honest there's just too much. It's kind of like spam dressed up as spam-fighting software. An honourable exception nod goes to the Jason Offutt article Dispelling the Irish Myths

St Patrick with Attitude up North

Attitudes and Latitudes
2516 N.E. Vivion Rd, North Kansas City, MO

Friday, March 17
Green shots and corned beef & cabbage served 5-10 p.m

How long do we have to wait before we can get green beef?

KC Irish Fest Headliners in Chicago

The Kansas City IrishFest headliners from Dublin, the Hothouse Flowers, are in the US at the moment because tomorrow, March 17th, they will be rocking the Navy Pier Grand Ballroom in Chicago. Why? They're headlining the 31st Annual Forever Green run by the Young Irish Fellowship Club. Oh - you live in KC? Well, wait until September then.

Unique KC St Patrick's Display

One of the coolest things about Kansas City's St Patrick's Day Parade are the barricades. Last year was the first time they were used to line the entire one-mile route of the parade. And thus started the Adopt-a-Barricade Campaign.

Individuals, families, and businesses all participate in this unique display of St. Patrick’s Day messages, as this mix of advertisements, personal messages, and simple best wishes for the day, appear on banners hung on the barricades for everyone to see.

The Corned Beef Irish Thing

Sorcha Hyland is never afraid to speak up for clarification of things Irish in the KC region, and she's quoted extensively in the Lawrence Journal-World. Seems, much like the Hoffenpurpenburgers don't eat purple peppers, that Sorcha never tasted Corned Beef until she moved to the US:

Corned beef is not something Irish people eat, the Lawrence resident says. It’s cooked there mainly for tourists. I tasted my first corned beef when I came here.

The article theorizes a bit about the Corned Beef without actually mentioning the origin of the dish.

It's fairly well documented that Irish immigrants in New York in the late 1800s were introduced to Corned Beef by the Jewish Community, taking to it as a cheaper and available subsitute for the actual dish of Irish Bacon consumed back in Ireland.

Oh, and Sorcha doesn't drink Green Beer.

The article also has recipes for Irish Stew, Colcannon, Soda Bread, and Nettle Soup

Live Irish Music Tonight

The Ballad Boys, Eddie Delahunt and Bob Reeder, are playing live in Kansas City venues tonight. Eddie Delahunt is playing his regular gig at O'Dowd's Little Dublin on the Plaza - starting at eight-ish.

And Bob Reeder is playing in WJMcBride's Irish Pub in KCK by Cabellas, the Speedway, and all that stuff over there. Bob's show starts at 7pm. Go see if the lads are holding back, saving themselves for Friday

Saint Paddy O'Quigley's

Hmm. Paddy O'Quigleys. Leawood, Kansas. Lees Summit, Missouri. Lovely, Lovelee, lovelea. And what's going on in them there places on St Patrick's Day? Not sure.

I think it's says breakfast, drinking, and basketball. It might all have something to do with the 50 kegs they're expecting to empty this weekend. You work it out.

Friday March 17th / St Paddy's Day / Co. Johnsons O'fficial HeadQuarters for the wearin O'the Green.
Open @ 7:am for annual Top O'the Mornin Breakfast Buffet O'Champions

w/610 Sports Radio and the D.A. show ....followed by the Tim Grunhard show .... and the Neal & Marty Show all "LIVE" from the " IrishSports Zone " ....

It's a St Paddy's Day Hoollie 'n a hoopsFest .... "Feasting , Imbibeary 'n Basketball"... get your Irish Up surrounded in High Definition

KC Midtown Checkpoint for Paddy's Night

As if you needed another reason not to be driving, the Kansas City police will conduct a DUI checkpoint in Midtown Friday night - St. Patrick's Day. Will the police pinch you if you're not wearing green?

Get the St Paddy's Wagon folks. Or call Mom. If she hasn't been drinking.

Celtic Fringe Float for Parade

I was talking with Kansas City Irish Fest president and current scribe of the KC Irish Fest blog, Dan Regan, at the Brookside St Patrick's Warm-Up Parade on Saturday, and the many-hatted Dan was telling me that the Celtic Fringe are putting the finishing touches to their float this evening. If you're a Fringe-er go help one last time tonight at 5:30pm at 923 Broadway, downtown KC.

Winner of the Mike Murphy Showmanship Award in 2004, and 1st place in the organizations category so many other years, the Celtic Fringe float is always a highlight of Kansas City's St Patrick's Day Parade. I wonder what the Celtic Fringe creative team will conjure up this year- I'm guessing it's not a balloon.

St Patrick's Day at the Replay Lounge

Replay Lounge
10th & Mass, Lawrence, Kansas

St, Pat's Day New Patio Christening
with the Kelihans, GCDC, Drakkar Sauna, Steve Barnes & the Country Money Band, Highwater String Band, Arthur Dodge with Adrianne Verhoeven, Red Lefty, and the Dewayn Brothers

Friday, March 17th, 12 p.m.
$3 before 3 p.m., $5 after
21+

Irish Beers for Paddy's Day Party

If you want some Irish beer for your St Patrick's Day Party but can't decide which to go for, the St Louis Post-Dispatch today has a review of cans and bottles of a range of Irish Beers, available at liquor and grocery stores.

By 'Irish' we're talking native Irish or Irish-Style (beer that drinks itself?) Murphy's, Beamish, Guinness, Harp and Smithwick's are all here, and it includes Kansas City's own Boulevard Irish Ale which scores two and half shamrocks (curiously rendered as asterisks) out of four:

Boulevard Irish Ale (12-ounce bottle, $6.59/six-pack). ** 1/2 Brewed in Kansas City. Moderate head, sweet notes in nose that repeat in the relatively complex flavor.

Paddy's Day at Davey's Uptown in KC

Davey's Uptown Rambler's Club
St Patrick's Day, March 17, 2006

3402 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri

Open 11 am to 3 am
Corned Beef and Cabbage served all day long!
Day Show - No Cover
The Kelihans @ 2pm

Evening show @ 9:30pm - $5
The Sexy Accident :: Namelessnumberheadman

 

VFW St Patrick's Dinner

St. Pat's Corned Beef 'n Cabbage Dinner
Friday, March 17, 2006 (5:00 PM - 7:30 PM)

VFW #7397
9550 Pflumm Rd
Lenexa, Kansas 66215

Fundraiser Open to Public for benefit of
Michael White American Legion Auxiliary Unit #407
$7.50 plate adults $3.50 children

See Upcoming.org for more details

St Patrick's Day for Jed Marum

Thanks to Tullamore on LiveJournal I've corrected Jed Marum's marathon live music session at O'Malleys in Weston, from the original of noon to midnight, to the more feasible 7pm to close.

Jed is currently featured in a nice article in The X's traditional Irish March issue. It mentions the story of Marum's latest album, Miles From Home, being one of Folk DJs Top Albums - but there's more information about it on Jed's own website

St Paddy's Wagon - Kansas City

KC, Missouri -St. Joseph Medical Center is again teaming up with Yellow Cab to provide the 18th installment of St. Paddy's Wagon, providing Kansas Citians with a free ride home (up to $25) - and a safe one:

Taxis will take people home from bars and restaurants in the River Market south to I-435, and between Mission Rd and Prospect. This service area includes the River Market, Downtown KCMO, the Historic Jazz District, the 39th Street Corridor, Westport, Country Club Plaza, Brookside and Waldo. In Westport revelers can catch St. Paddy's Wagon at the Yellow Cab Stand at Westport and Mill Streets, adjacent to Chili's. Outside Westport revelers can call:

816-943-3949

Read the helpful facts about St. Paddy’s Wagon

And remember, this runs from 3 p.m. to midnight. If you started at 6am, you should be well ready for bed by midnight.

It's Ireland or France.

Waking up in Kansas City the day after St Patrick's Day, and it's the final weekend in Europe of the Six Nations Rugby Championship 2006.

Ireland have a chance of a first title since 1985. But only if the French fail to beat Wales in Cardiff on Saturday. And then Ireland must beat England, at the home of International Rugby, Twickenham. I was home last time Ireland played England at Twickenham, 2 years ago - the Irish won then - but will they this time?

Sunday, March 19, watch ENGLAND -v- IRELAND at 8pm at WJMcBride's Irish Pub by the Kansas Speedway.

Irish Poetry on St Patrick's Eve

The first time I heard Paul Muldoon read one of his poems, I jumped on the bus into town (Dublin) and bought The Annals of Chile.

Since then Muldoon has won the Pulitzer Prize, was Profesor of Poetry at Oxford for five years, and his tenth collection of poetry, Horse Latitudes, is due for publication later this year.

As part of the latest event in Rockhurst University’s Midwest Poets Series, Muldoon, a professor at Princeton, will read from his works in Mabee Theater, Sedgwick Hall, on the Rockhurst campus, 54th and Troost, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday March 16. So if you fancy something different than the St Pats Eve Party at Harlings...

But does he rhyme? you ask. Well, how would you answer that question if somebody asked you if Seuss rhymes?

Back in the day, albeit briefly, Muldoon was taught by Seamas Heaney at Queen's University Belfast. As well as the Pulitzer some recent honours make a scary list:
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an American Academy of Arts and Letters award in literature, the 1994 T. S. Eliot Prize, the 1997 Irish Times Poetry Prize, the 2003 Griffin International Prize for Excellence in Poetry, the 2004 American Ireland Fund Literary Award, the 2004 Shakespeare Prize, and the 2005 Aspen Prize for Poetry.

And he plays in a band! - rackett