Irish Music

Here in America, we tend to see Irish music as falling into one of two categories.On the one hand, there's the sort of traditional folk music people trot out for St. Patrick's Day: rowdy rebel songs by the Clancy Brothers, rollicking reels from the Chieftains, graceful fiddle and flute tunes from Altan and the like. Then there's the kind of Irish music we hear every other day of the year: rock and roll, as performed by Sinead O'Connor, U2 or the Cranberries.Of course, there's much more to Irish music than that; we just aren't aware of it because it hasn't been readily available to American listeners.

Kathleen M. Zeidler, a retired legal secretary and homemaker, died Friday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at a Kensington assisted-living facility. The longtime Roland Park resident was 85. The daughter of a veterinarian and a homemaker, Ruth Kathleen Fallon was born in Baltimore and spent her early years here before moving with her family in 1929 to Cincinnati. The family later moved to Thurmont and in 1943 settled in a home on Crest Road in Mount Washington. She was a 1944 graduate of St. Joseph High School in Emmitsburg and studied at what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University and Strayer Business College.

FRIENDS AND fellow musicians of Paul Levin, the pipe player in O'Malley's March, will not be surprised to hear that, five months after the brain tumor, he can still get riled up, especially when he talks about his health insurer. His weak voice gains force as Levin tells how he's not allowed a Monday night hospital stay-over when he's due in surgery the next morning at 6. "But I'm going to fight them," he says. Bernie Siegel advises it. Levin has been reading Siegel's Love, Medicine and Miracles, an empowering book for millions of people who have learned to face terrible health problems with spiritual and philosophical vigor.

The good and friendly Irish pub Mick O'Shea's has been a steady presence on a volatile block for going on 20 years. It opened in 1995 but really began to flourish in 2002, when it was taken over by brother and sister Dave Niehenke and Stephanie Webber. A popular destination for gangs of office workers after work, college students on Monday burger nights, and live Irish music on weekends, the roomy tavern draws a lunch crowd. The pub lunch is a fading art form, and that's too bad. People want it fast, now, and cheap.

As anybody in the business can tell you, St. Patrick's Day is to Irish music what Christmas is to carols. This is when the kiss-me-I'm-Irish crowd gets in the mood for the hearing of the green, and the record industry is more than happy to oblige, pumping out Irish music as eagerly as bars serve green beer.But what, precisely, is Irish music?Is it the pipes-and-fiddles purism of the Chieftains? The rowdy jokes and folk songs merriment of the Clancy Brothers? The rock-oriented eclecticism of Luka Bloom?

St. Patrick's Day may be a month away, but the 17th annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry, sponsored by the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo), gets under way at 8 p.m. today at Smith Theatre in Howard Community College."There's too much else going on then," said Ellen Conroy Kennedy, executive director of HoCoPoLitSo, of the group's decision to sponsor the event before St. Patrick's Day. "We don't want to drown in whatever else is happening. Besides, Irish literature is around all year."

Joseph Patrick Byrne, founder and proprietor of J. Patrick's Irish Pub, a popular Locust Point tavern with a reputation as a venue for Irish music that went well beyond Baltimore, died Saturday of cancer at Harbor Hospital. The former Cockeysville resident was 81. "It was a real gathering place for the Irish-American community of Baltimore, and it had the feel of a rural country bar, the type you find outside of Dublin. It was both warm and inviting," said Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Award-winning Irish poet and author Michael Coady says he likes to write about the mysteries of life. He writes poetry and prose that arise from his family's links with immigration to America. Stories of people's destinies were shaped by choice and chance, he says. "My father went to America as a young, unmarried man in the 1920s," Coady says. "During the Depression, he became seriously ill in Hartford, Conn. He had to return to Ireland and was nursed back to health by his mother. Then, one night, he went to a dance in the local hall and fell in love with the girl playing piano with the band.

In 25 years, the audience has grown and the venue has changed, but the formula has remained constant for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society's Evening of Irish Music and Poetry: A renowned Irish author followed by lively Irish music equals success. The group will celebrate its silver anniversary of Irish evenings tomorrow with a reading by writer and poet Ciaran Carson and performances by Irish musicians and dancers at Jim Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts in Columbia. "The key is we have something for everyone," said Catherine McLoughlin-Hayes, a Columbia real estate agent who has coordinated the event for 19 years.

Irish poet Mary O'Malley is eager to see what kind of an audience will gather to hear her read in Columbia next week. "I would love to see an audience that is broad," O'Malley said in a phone interview from Ireland. She noted that in her native country, poetry readings often draw general audiences, not just literary scholars. As the featured speaker at the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo) Evening of Irish Music and Poetry, O'Malley likely will get her wish. The society -- celebrating its 30th year -- draws hundreds of people to its annual fund-raiser with a time-tested formula of prominent Irish writers, traditional Irish music, step-dance performances and socializing.

Joseph Patrick Byrne, founder and proprietor of J. Patrick's Irish Pub, a popular Locust Point tavern with a reputation as a venue for Irish music that went well beyond Baltimore, died Saturday of cancer at Harbor Hospital. The former Cockeysville resident was 81. "It was a real gathering place for the Irish-American community of Baltimore, and it had the feel of a rural country bar, the type you find outside of Dublin. It was both warm and inviting," said Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Purple Fridays have faded away, the St. Valentines Day chocolates have all been devoured, now it's time to do something Irish in honor of St. Patricks Day. Two musical cultural events are coming up at the Parkville Senior Center: On Tuesday, Feb 28 at 12:30 p.m. a singer and a pianist from the Lyric Opera House will present "Song and Soul," celebration of African-American music, written by and for African Americans. On Thursday, March 15 ,at 12:30 PM, the Baltimore Lyric Opera House will perform a special program of Irish music presenting the Irish Music Legacy, featuring both classical and folk music traditions.

When Celtic Crossroads performs at the Columbia Festival of the Arts on June 24, the seven-member band of Irish musicians will sound off with a more modern take on the traditional music of their homeland. Call it non-traditional Irish music. When Celtic Crossroads performs at the Columbia Festival of the Arts on June 24, the seven-member band of Irish musicians will sound off with a more modern take on the traditional music of their homeland. Granted, the group's stage show includes fiddles, flutes and a harp.

Since its start 30 years ago, the Delmarva Irish-American Club's St. Patrick's Day Parade and Festival in Ocean City has grown remarkably. Buck Mann, the grand marshal for the parade, recalls its humble beginnings of "about two cars and five people." This year, however, the parade, which begins at noon Saturday moving south from 61st Street on Coastal Highway to 44th Street, will feature 35 floats, two marching bands and three pipe-and-drum bands. The accompanying festival takes place at the 45th Street Village Shopping Center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will feature face painting; Irish music by James Gallagher's band, Off The Boat; step dancing; corned beef sandwiches and other foods; souvenirs; and, of course, beer.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is on the cover of next month's Irish America magazine, which was throwing a dinner in his honor last night at the New York Yacht Club. Let's just say that Patricia Harty, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the 23-year-old publication, is a fan. "Martin O'Malley is easy on the eye - very easy on the eye," Harty begins her piece. "He's handsome, young, and he's got talent. He paid his way through college playing music - Irish music. ... He's an orator in the truest sense.

It's St. Patrick's Day, and you're thinking of putting down the remote, changing out of your velour sweats and popping into an Irish pub for a pint of Guinness, some corned beef and cabbage, and Irish music. The problem is, you're sort of a recluse (velour sweats?) and don't really know where to go to enjoy the day. So to help, a couple of Sun reporters set out recently on a quest to visit a number of Irish bars in the area, sample the food, drink and conviviality, and write down their impressions.

Like green beer, paper shamrocks and cartoon leprechauns, Irish music has long been a part of St. Patrick's Day here in the United States. For many, St. Patrick's Day without music would be like cabbage without corned beef. But the kind of music we associate with the wearin' of the green is changing. Where once Irish Americans hankered for sweet-voiced tenors crooning "Come Back to Erin," "Mother Machree" and "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," today's revelers would as soon hear the uilleann pipes and fiddles laying into a set of jigs and reels.

When Celtic Crossroads performs at the Columbia Festival of the Arts on June 24, the seven-member band of Irish musicians will sound off with a more modern take on the traditional music of their homeland. Call it non-traditional Irish music. When Celtic Crossroads performs at the Columbia Festival of the Arts on June 24, the seven-member band of Irish musicians will sound off with a more modern take on the traditional music of their homeland. Granted, the group's stage show includes fiddles, flutes and a harp.

For the 29th year, the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society will take audiences away from the cold and gray of winter with lively Irish tunes, fast-moving step-dancers and colorful poetic imagery. The society's annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry on Friday night at Jim Rouse Theatre in Columbia will feature a reading by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, who has built an international reputation with his inventive use of language and imaginative themes. Muldoon said by e-mail that public readings are an extension of his work as a poet, critic and teacher.

WASHINGTON -- Scythian, a collection of four classically trained musicians who have spent the last three years developing a following in pubs from D.C. to New York, is not easy to label. A set from their regular Thursday night gig at Fado Irish Pub in Washington features dueling fiddle action by Oleksander (Alex) Fedoryka and Josef Crosby; a slightly Celtic-tinged rendition of "Wild Thing"; a funky washboard/drum solo by Mike Ounallah; and happy-go-lucky encouragement by guitarist Danylo (Dan)