Volunteers are the Mainstay of the Calgary Irish Club
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
CALGARY - Mike Tuohy is the new president of the Irish Cultural Society Calgary (ICS). He recently spoke to The Celtic Connection about the Calgary Irish Club and events planned for the up-coming season.
Tuohy, a native of Dundalk, County Louth, arrived in Calgary in 1981. In 1997, Mike took over as Social Director of the Irish Cultural Society Calgary and went on to become president for the following three years. He took a break for two years and is now back for another year as the president.
The mandate of the ICS is to reinforce the sense of identity of the Irish-Canadian community; to act as communications medium for matters of interest to the Irish-Canadian community; to preserve and promote unique features of Irish culture in Calgary by offering a society infrastructure to provide a common contact, support for members, excellent meeting space, access to events/activities and a newsletter.
In Western Canada, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary all have their own Irish clubhouses. Mike Tuohy related to The Celtic Connection how the Calgary Irish clubhouse was started. “We were very fortunate that way back in 1986, one of our founding members, Martin Cowman, was working for the City of Calgary, and he found this location in the Bowness area of Calgary.” said Tuohy. We are very lucky that we only pay a minimum of rent and, of course, it’s all volunteers that run the club.”
At present, the club operates only on the weekends, but the hall is rented out to various groups for such things as birthdays and weddings. Tuohy said, “we do have card nights, dance classes, Irish dance, language classes and plays, and we have a good cross- section of Irish cultural activities that take place at the club.”
During the summer months the committee takes a break but now with the fall and winter season coming, Mike said they will be back planning activities for the year. “We will be planning our variety night that we put on for our Christmas concert,” he said, “our halloween party, our New Year’s eve bash. For St. Patrick’s, we have our Green Tie Affair, which is always a huge success at the club, along with our annual Stampede breakfast in July.”
Mike Tuohy is an actor and has taken part in several plays at the club. There are two Irish drama groups in Calgary, Ashling Productions and The Liffey Players. “Actually, I’m doing a play now with Liffey,” Mike said, “it’s called A Skull in Connemara, which is the third play of a trilogy by Martin McDonagh.
“The other two were The Beauty Queen of Lenane and The Lonesome West with Ashling Productions, both of which I acted in. In A Skull in Connemara, I play the part of Mick Dowd who is a gravedigger. Every seven years in this particular parish in the play, they dig up graves and clean up graveyards.
“In this play, Mick Dowd digs up the skull of his departed wife of which there had been some controversy as to the nature of her death, with some parishioners thinking her husband might have been involved some way. But there are several twists and turns in the play, which makes it very interesting. I love doing the plays.”
Within the ICS, there is also a CARE Committee which helps out the elderly and people in a bit of need or down on their luck. Tuohy explained, “for instance, at Christmas we would have food hampers for the needy, and if some of our members are in the hospital, we would send flowers. Last year, the CARE Committee put on a play to raise funds and it was very successful.”
The ICS produces a newsletter which is published four times a year to keep the members informed of club activities. For more information about the Irish Cultural Society, write to 6452 - 35 Avenue, N.W. Calgary, Alberta, T3B 1S6. Call (403) 288-8641, or check out their website at: www.calgaryics.org.
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