Calling all Dubs and IBO members: this Wednesday Dublin Society Member Attracta Lyndon will be receiving her sash as Grand Marshal for the Irish Business Organization for this years St Patrick’s Day Parade. Nick Malito, President of the IBO and also a Dub Society member has extended an invitation to all Dublin Society members to attend the ceremony. It takes place at Scandinavia House (58 Park Avenue at 38th Street) at 6:30 pm. Hope to see you there to congratulate and support one of their own.
The 23rd Annual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast presented by The Ireland Chamber of Commerce – USA will be held on Saturday, March 16 from 9 am to 11 am at The Lotte New York Palace (455 Madison Avenue).
Attending the breakfast will be Maurice A. Buckley, Co-Founder, President and CEO of ICCUSA, Dr. Brian O’Dwyer, Chairman of ICCUSA and Grand Marshal of this year’s NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Speakers include Charles Flanagan, T.D., Minister for Justice & Equality; Thomas P. DiNapoli, New York State Comptroller; Scott Stringer, New York City Comptroller; and Alison Metcalfe, Executive Vice President, North America and Australia/NZ at Tourism Ireland.
Singing the National Anthems will be Mairead Early from the Petri School of Irish Dance and throughout the breakfast there will be performances by The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin and the FDNY EMS Pipes and Drums.
Get more information at www.iccusa.org.
A brother Hibernian and former Irish Republican Prisoner needs our urgent help. Malachy McAllister is being threatened with deportation to Northern Ireland.
Malachy has resided in New Jersey with his wife and three children for decades. He is a small business owner, dedicated Hibernian, active in many charitable efforts since he legally emigrated to our country in the 1990s. He has come to this country legally and has complied with every required immigration regulation asked of him for the past 30 years.
This threat of deportation is not new. Because of Malachy’s Irish Republican activism, the British government has continually harassed him and pressured the United States for his deportation several times since he came to this country. If the British government is able to have Malachy successfully deported, they will use this precedent as a tool intimidate its critics and limit freedom of speech in our country as well as in the North of Ireland.
Malachy’s local US Represtative Pascrell is submitting a Resolution to ensure Malachy is not deported. The St. Patrick’s Day season is a time of Irish fellowship. Please also let it be a time of action.
Contact your local congressman and urge them to support this bill allowing Malachy to stay, safe, with his family in his adopted home.
The bill is titled: H.R. 1547 A Bill For the relief of Malachy McAllister, Nicola McAllister, and Sean Ryan McAllister. HR 1547 was created by New Jersey Congressman Pascrell. Contact (202) 224-3121 and ask your legislator to support this measure.
I thank John Levendosky for drafting the original call for action and look forward to many of you picking up the phone immediately to call your Legislator!
The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts offers the perfect blend of modern culture and time-honored heritage. Take a fascinating tour highlighting the theatre’s momentous history, enjoy the raw passion of celebrated Celtic fiddlers Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy and feel the heat with contemporary anthems and traditional Scottish songs from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. This is all happening on Friday March 15th 8 pm at the Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts (2 Southbridge St, Worcester, MA). You can get more information by emailing info@thehanovertheatre.org or visiting TheHanoverTheatre.org.
The Irish Repertory Theatre has done it again with another play, Juno and the Paycock by the great Sean O’Casey and directed by Neil Pepe on the The Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage. With Una Clancy, Terry Donnelly, Rory Duffy, Meg Hennessy, John Keating, Robert Langdon Lloyd, Ed Malone, Michael Mellamphy, Ciarán O’Reilly, Maryann Plunkett, James Russell, Harry Smith and Sarah Street, it started on March 9th and continues through May 25th.
Jack Boyle is out of work and determined to stay that way. He postures and drinks with his sidekick Joxer while his long-suffering wife Juno struggles to support their family and maintain their dilapidated tenement flat.
Their son Johnny, crippled fighting in the revolution, cowers indoors to avoid the bitter new civil war, while his sister Mary considers her options for the future.
When a handsome visitor arrives with news of an inheritance, the family begins to plan their new life, but their apparent salvation soon reveals itself to be the cause of their ruin.
One of the great plays of the twentieth century, Juno and the Paycock is a devastating portrait of wasted potential in a Dublin torn apart by the chaos of the Irish Civil War.
Premiering in 1924, just one year after Sean O’Casey’s professional debut, Juno and the Paycock became the first play at The Abbey Theatre to run for more than one week. Its success allowed O’Casey to quit his road repair job and became a full-time writer at age 44. It has since become one of his most frequently performed plays and has been adapted several times, including into a 1930 film by Alfred Hitchcock and a 1959 Broadway musical entitled Juno.
This spring, don’t miss this rare opportunity to see Sean O’Casey’s full Dublin Trilogy! Buy your tickets now by visiting their box office at 132 West 22nd Street or calling (212) 727-2737.
I wish you all a very Happy Saint Patrick’s Day and of course I hope to meet a lot of you when I am Out&About over this festive weekend and I am sure I will. Well, somebody has to do it.