a gala night of irish comedy and music at symphony space
TRANSCRIPT
NY Irish Center
A Gala Night of Irish Comedy and Music at Symphony Space
Tir Na Nog Children’s FestivalBrendan Grace“Dixie Walsh”
Jane McCarter, Mark Fox & Fiona Walsh Fr. Colm Campbell, Andy Breslin
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The Irish Community in New York came out in full force to support the New York Irish Center on June 14th at Symphony Space. This was the New York Irish Center’s 7th Annual Fundraiser and our first venture off the Dinner Dance circuit.
Brendan Grace, Pat Shortt, Colin Smith and Fiona Walsh entertained the sold out crowd of over 750 Irish Center supporters. Brendan and Pat, both recognized titans of Irish comedy, shared the top of the bill. Brendan has a long and distinguished career in comedy and his sense of timing and ability to read an audience is without equal.
In contrast to Brendan’s genial storytelling approach, Pat Shortt is a comedic character actor. Pat’s latest comedic creation is Dixie Walsh, “a legend in his own North Tipperary Country and Western lifetime”. Staying true to his D’Unbelievables roots, Pat or rather Dixie began his performance not on stage but in the fourth row of the audience. With comedy songs like, “I gave you my heart, you poisoned my liver” and “the jumbo breakfast roll”. Dixie had the audience crying with tears of laughter as he told and sang us the stories of his dating exploits and struggles to reach the pinnacle of County and Western stardom.
Musical entertainment on the night was provided by none other
than The Colin Smith band. Colin played a selection songs from his latest album, The Wilderness opening with the song, Love. Check out the YouTube video, this is a song that once bitten by the strong lyric, catchy melodic hook and “crescendoing” arrangement will stay firmly ensconced in your musical memory. To top it all, our very own local New York transplant
Fiona Walsh, did a masterful job as MC for the evening. A renaissance woman and consummate entertainer, Fiona is a comedian/actor/writer/DJ and the regular co-host of Sundays at Seven at the Irish Arts Center (with Ann Design). Check out her website at fionawalsh.com
The evening began with the premiere showing of the New York Irish Center’s new promotional video. The video
tells the unique story of the New York Irish Center, its founding and development since it’s inception in 2003. Produced in collaboration with New Aims Production (based in Ireland) newaims.ie, the video uses the very latest in whiteboard animation techniques to tell the story of the New York Irish Center and the people who made it the Home away from Home for the Irish community that it is today.
Our very own Mark Fox, a 2011 New York Irish Center Dinner Dance honoree produced the show and our Stage Manager on the night was our newly appointed Arts and Cultural Director, Jane McCarter.
To find out all that’s happening at the New York Irish Center visit our homepage at nyirish.org. While you’re there, sign up for our email newsletters and make sure to check out our regular programs by downloading the week to week schedule from our home page. As we continue to expand our programming, We invite you to come and be with us, come shape our future and make us stronger. To paraphrase a Native American expression, “we haven’t inherited our cultural identity from our ancestors, we’ve borrowed it from our children.”Chris Deignan Development Consultant
The New York Irish Center is thrilled to announce our first ever, Tír na nÓg Childrens Summer Festival, a 2-week long celebration of Irish Arts and Culture.Ireland is steeped in a wealth of history, mythology, legends and folklore. For centuries, the rich tapestry of our cultural heritage, has been passed down from generation to generation.The New York Irish Center feels it is of paramount importance that Ireland’s rich cultural heritage continue to be passed down to tomorrow’s generation on both sides of the Atlantic. To make this possible the New York Irish Center is opening its doors to 30 lucky children between 7-12 years of age for 8 full days of exploring their own Irish culture, heritage, myths and legends though Irish dance, traditional tin-whistling,
mythological-drama and ancient visual arts.The Tír na nÓg Festival is uniquely designed so that all children participate in all four key elements of the festival every day between 10am-4pm, Monday-Thursday July 16th-26th at the New York Irish Center. This gives children an opportunity to understand, embrace and celebrate their Irish heritage in a creative learning environment. Over an eight day period, each child will have a unique opportunity to develop their artistic skills and express their creativity through dance, music and drama. The New York Irish Center is thrilled to announce that the Tír na nÓg Festival will be lead by professional, friendly and very accomplished teaching artists such as Niall O Leary (Irish Dance),
Christel Rice (Tin-Whistle), Vera Doherty (Visual Arts) and Jane Mc Carter (Drama). These professional Irish artists are in high demand not only in the New York Area but further afield, so to have all four leading and teaching at our Tír na nÓg Festival for two weeks is a major opportunity for 30 lucky children. On Thursday the 26th of July the Tír na nÓg Festival will invite family and friends along to view our Festival Finale Party when all participants will showcase their newly acquired skills in dance, tin whistle and drama, and exhibit the festival’s artwork. Places are filling up fast so to secure your Child’s place and for more information please call 718-482-0909 or email [email protected] Tir Na Nóg Festival Team
Colin Smith