Out & About

Up the Dubs! What else can I except only that they well deserve it for winning the All Ireland Football Final.

It was the game of the century and after waiting so long it's an even a bigger joy!

Poor Kerry, well they are not that poor as I've lost count of how many times they've won the Cup.

I am sure that all the Counties congratulate Dublin on this fine and all the staff here at The Irish Examiner newspaper congratulate them too.

Football fans Angus Deayton from 'Have I Got News For You', and David Baddiel of 'Fantasy Football' were in Nevada Smiths on Saturday for the Manchester United vs. Chelsea game which had a packed house.

These lads are very big in Ireland and England and I got to meet them for a pint and a chat.

The Irish American Society of Nassau, Suffolk and Queens are having the Annual Harvest Moon Ball on Saturday October 1st at the Irish American Center (297 Willis Avenue, Mineola; (516) 746-9392).

They will be celebrating  the 80th anniversary of the society and the honorees for the evening are Jean Butler (Riverdance fame) Maureen O'Connell, Mary and Pat Crosson and Ellen and Mike Lane all active members in the Irish Community.

This should be a great night for dinner and dancing with music by The Andy Healy Band as well as a performance by the Donny Golden School of Irish Dancing and the master of  ceremonies will be the great Tony Jackson.

For more information call (516) 746-9392.

This week at Glucksman Ireland House NYU, on Thursday, September 22nd at 7pm there's the Challenge for the Actor: part of the 1st Irish Festival.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the journey of working on plays from Ireland through a conversation with actress Fiona Walsh; Tony Devlin, director of A Night With George; the creators of Cirque De Legume; and Laoise Sexton of last year's 1st Irish hit Prophet of Monto, moderated by NYU Irish Studies Prof. Greg Londe.

On Friday, September 23rd at 9pm they'll be hosting The Blarney Star Concert Series: Jerry O'Sullivan and Rafe Stefanini.

Uilleann piper Jerry O'Sullivan's most recent recordings featured tunes published in the very early 19th century O'Farrell collection.

For this concert, he has teamed up with a leading exponent of a different sort of "old time" music - Rafe Stefanini, a renowned fiddler and banjo player in the southern Appalachian style.

Jerry and Rafe will explore the many links between Irish and American traditional music.

On Saturday, September 24th from 10am to 5:30pm they'll be presenting Down These Green Streets: A Day of Irish Crime.

Fiction Irish crime fiction now dominates the literary scene in Ireland. They'll be welcoming seven of its bestselling and rising young practitioners including John Connolly, Stuart Neville, Declan Hughes, Arlene Hunt, Colin Bateman, Alex Barclay, and Declan Burke to mark the US launch of Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century. 

The day of talks will also feature Irish-American writers Pete Hamill and Peter Quinn, and Professor Ian Campbell Ross of Trinity College Dublin. 

This event is part of Imagine Ireland: a year-long season of contemporary Irish arts in the US in 2011, an initiative of Culture Ireland.

Also this week, on Thursday September 22nd at 7pm you can catch Guests of the Nation (1935), introduced by Gabriel Byrne at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center.

Guests of the Nation, an unseen treasure of the Irish silent film canon, will be presented with the US premiere of Niall Byrne's new orchestral score and performed by Ireland's renowned RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

Directed by Denis Johnston, this anti-war film has been preserved and restored by the IFI Irish Film Archive and is based on Frank O'Connor's short story of friendship between British soldiers and their IRA captors.

We are sorry to hear of the passing of Mike Rafferty from Ballinakill, East Galway. He's been a huge influence on players (and listeners), and last year won the 2010 National Heritage Fellowship from the NEA (the highest award a folk artist can receive in this country). May he rest in Peace.

See you all next week...