What a great weekend we had and it looks like we are heading for a fabulous week alright.
I am beginning my Out&About column to tell you about some great friends of mine; I love using that word ‘great,’ that is what they are called – the band Sleepy Hollow. They played in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, for the Rory Gallagher Annual Tribute Festival that was a monster hit as people traveled from all over the world. I am sure Tourism Ireland must be happy with that as festivals are a big draw for fans.
Sleepy Hollow was one of the hottest bands in the mid 70s. They toured extensively with Rory Gallagher in Ireland, the UK and Europe, including the famous tour documented in ‘Irish Tour 74’. This band were the warm up band on the first night at the Big Top. The audience were blown away with this visually exciting rock band.
Front man Joe O’Callaghan (Blues Harp man/vocals) was a joy to watch, a true showman; the way Joe moved about the stage he could give Mick Jagger a run for his money.
Beside Joe were Bill O’Brien (guitar/vocals), AJ O’Brien (keyboards), Declan Pender (guitar), Johnny Campbell (bass) and Arti Lorigan (drums).
The reason I am telling you all about this band is because I, together with my band were part of the 70s scene and we opened for Rory Gallagher in the first open air rock concert at the Macroom Mountain Dew Festival in County Cork 1978. Ah! Yes, I am also a musician and I played for a lot of years both semi-pro and pro, now that is something huh?
If anyone can guess the name of the band email it to paddy@irishexaminerusa.com.
Okay, enough of me, let’s get back to what is happening as the Irish Business Organization will be having its Summer Gathering this Wednesday, June 26 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Bloom’s Tavern (208 East 58th Street). There will be special guests and a four-hour open bar. Food, music and lots of networking so be there!
Andy Cooney will be hosting his Annual Irish Golf Weekend at Christman’s Windham House Country Inn and Golf Resort on July 19 to 21. The package costs $389 per person including tax and gratuities, double occupancy with a discount for non-golfers. The package includes two nights of accommodation, three rounds of golf, a cocktail party on Friday, two full breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners and a special treat with music by Andy Cooney and his band. Now where would yea get it? To reserve your place call (518)734-4230.
The Irish Rep has another hit on its hands with the adaption of ‘YES!’ from the novel Ulysses by James Joyce. Adapted for stage by Aedin Maloney and Colm McCann, with music by the one and only Paddy Maloney and directed by Kira Simring ‘Yes!’ features a performance by Aedine Moloney. The world premiere presented by Irish Repertory Theatre, in association with Gabriel Byrne will take place in the W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre until July 7.
A daring theatrical journey into the mind and heart of James Joyce’s most sensual hero – a woman of women, a soul of souls, the indomitable Molly Bloom. It is Ireland in the early hours of June 17th, 1904. Molly Bloom’s husband – the wandering philandering Leopold “Poldy” Bloom – has just come home and fallen asleep in their Dublin row house. Molly – a daughter, a mother, a lover and a long-suffering wife – patrols the pathways of her wild and leaping consciousness. She is lustful. Scared. Exuberant. Heartbreakingly lonely. Vivaciously reckless. And profoundly funny.
With an empty nest, an unfulfilling affair and a marriage long past its prime, Molly must find a way back to the rock-bed of love that she and Bloom once shared. Her unsentimental stream of consciousness is a song of songs that reaches backwards and forwards across the centuries.
Written one hundred years ago, Joyce’s words seem carved not just for today, but tomorrow too. Time ticks within time, dreams are upended, and life is thrown off balance. Molly seeks to reanimate love, and ends up discovering herself. Dublin becomes Gibraltar, age becomes youth, and a small room in Dublin becomes the world.
A beautiful and honest celebration of womanhood, written by James Joyce, adapted by Aedine Moloney and Colum McCann, and directed by Kira Simring, Moloney’s one-woman performance is a tribute to the enduring mysteries of loss and love – and the affirmation found, yes, in between. “Yes, that was why I liked him. Because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is … Yes!”
I personally am telling you not to miss this show as you are going to be amazed with the acting. For tickets call (212) 727-2737 or get them online at irishrep.org – you won’t be disappointed.
See you all again next week when I am Out&About again.