Brian Badzmierowski | Staff Writer
While shamrocks and green Guinness are a common sight in many cities on St. Patrick’s Day, Burlington’s upcoming Irish Heritage Festival aims to celebrate Irish culture and heritage on a deeper level.
The 13th annual festival kicked off at St. Michael’s on Saturday, March 8 with the unveiling of “The Irish Play,” a romantic comedy set in Dublin that was written by St. Michael’s alumnus Tim McGillicuddy. Burlington will be hosting lectures, concerts, open-mic nights and dramatic performances from March 12-17.
This year’s festival
“The Irish Play” focuses on cultural identity and the belief that everyone’s actions are influenced by their heritage, McGillicuddy says.
“I wanted to capture the Irish humor in the face of darkness and difficulty,” he says.
McGillicuddy, whose wife is from Dublin, insists that although the play primarily spotlights what it means to be Irish, the message is universal and can be applied to other cultures that have dealt with oppression.
“The Irish Play” is free for members of the St. Michaels’ community (Tickets are $12 otherwise) and is playing at 7 p.m., March 8-12 and March 14 at the McCarthy Recital Hall.
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Two women buy ticket's for McGillicuddy's "The Irish Play" in the McCarthy Recital Hall. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
Leahy, a band consisting of eight brothers and sisters who specialize in Celtic music and step dancing, will be playing at the Flynn Theatre on St. Patrick’s Day at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $27 and can be purchased online or by calling the Flynn Box Office.
The full schedule for the Burlington Irish Heritage Festival is available on the Festival’s official site.
The festival’s roots
The Burlington Irish Heritage Festival was founded to recognize strides made by the Irish in the arts throughout history, as well as Irish traditions that have been neglected due to the dominant stereotype that Irish people do little more than drink, says Pat Branda, chair of the festival committee.
“The founders wanted to promote Irish-American culture around St. Patrick’s Day and provide an alternative to green beer and shamrocks,” she says.
Although the turnouts are usually high, snowstorms and a lack of publicity can mean less people, Branda says.
This year, with the help of the festival’s three main sponsors, Lincoln Inn, Rosie’s Restaurant, and Pop Art, the musical events have more performers and have received more publicity, she says.
Booking acts, raising money and publicizing the Festival is time consuming, says committee member Michelle McCaffrey. The committee begins working on it six months in advance.
The Rev. Joe McLaughlin is giving a lecture titled “Ian Paisley: An Ulster Nationalist? The Good Friday Agreement Ten Years On,” on March 13 at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington and says he is expecting a high turnout this year.
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A gentleman enters Ri Ra Irish Pub on Church Street, Burlington, Vt. The pub's Web site claims Ri Ra's to have "the real flavour of Ireland." (Photo by Kurstin Reuschel) |
St. Michael’s involvement in the Irish festival, combined with the increased number of events, will help publicize the overall event, he says.
Sophomore Greg White says he plans on attending at least one of the events.
“I saw Leahy perform at an Irish festival at home in New York,” White says. “They were talented and energetic. I’m also interested in what Father McLaughlin has to say at his lecture."
The festival’s fund-raiser should attract plenty of interest as well, committee member Dennis McSorley says.
The tickets are $10 and can be purchased at most of the events during the week. The winners are drawn at the “Festival Ceili” event on Sunday, March 16 and receive two round-trip tickets to Ireland. Second place receives a $50 certificate to RiRa, an Irish restaurant on Church St., and third place wins two tickets to the Leahy concert at the Flynn Theatre.
With 400 total tickets being sold, the chances of winning are higher than in most raffles, McSorley says.
Irish culture in Vermont
The Boston Irish Famine Memorial depicts two Irish families; one dressed in rags and impoverished, and the other well-dressed and righteous-looking. The family dressed in rags represents the life left behind in Ireland when the Potato Famine hit. The well-dressed family represents a typical Irish family setting off for a new world and a fresh start.
When the Potato Famine struck Ireland, many families moved abroad looking to rebuild their lives, McLaughlin says.
Many Irish families moved from Boston and Montreal to Vermont looking for work, says Greg Delanty, associate professor of English and renowned poet. Instead of finding hospitality, many Irish immigrants were forced into menial, laborious positions at the mills, the Burlington port, or building railroads.
Slave owners didn’t want to risk the lives of their slaves working these dangerous jobs and the Irish immigrants filled these voids, he says.
One remarkable trait common in Irish culture is the ability to be light-hearted and humorous in times of duress, McLaughlin says.
“A sense of humor during hard times is the only way to beat back life,” he says.
McCaffrey sympathizes with the Irish immigrants of the past.
Life was hard on Irish immigrants at first, and assimilating to a new country must have been tough for them because they came from such a close-knit community and culture, she says.
Delanty lived in Ireland for 28 years, and he says the experience of growing up there and reading traditional Irish literature influences his life and his work as a poet.
“I recognize how the tradition is so strong and unified,” he says. “This allows me to realize and redefine it in America.”
McLaughlin also says that an Irish sense of community can be seen in the interactions between the Irish Catholics who attend the Cathedral of the Immaculate Church in downtown Burlington and the French Catholics who attend St. Joseph’s Church a block away.
"A sense of humor during hard times is the only way to beat back life." |
-The Rev. Joe McLaughlin |
Irish Catholics, who have a history of bitterness with French Catholics, share a friendly rivalry in trying to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on a greater scale than the French Catholics celebrate St. Joseph’s Day, which falls close to St. Patrick’s Day, he says.
It is important to keep the Irish culture and heritage alive in Vermont, and occasions like the Burlington Irish Heritage Festival help to do this, Delanty says.
“The festival is a way of paying tribute to and honoring Irish immigrants who are now anonymous,” he says. “It is a way of keeping them alive in memory through cultural activities.”