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Sunday, March 12
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| AN IRISH PRINCESS at the 2005 St. Patrick’s Day parade during Irish Week in Seattle |
St. Patrick's Day Parade
starts from Fourth Avenue and Jefferson at 12:30 PM - Grand Marshal is PBS travel sensation Rick Steves and Honorary Grand Marshal is Gregg Alex, Director of the Matt Talbot Center. Special guests include Irish Government Cabinet Member, Minister Noel Dempsey, T.D.
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| MINISTER NOEL DEMPSEY, T.D. (Member of the Dáil, Ireland's Parliament) |
The parade continues past the reviewing stand at Westlake for parade closing ceremonies in Center House at approximately 2:15 PM. Marching groups must pre-register, but individuals with an Irish connection (and everybody is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!) are invited to walk in the parade without pre-registration.
Find the county and province where you or your ancestors came from and parade behind your provincial banner! Seniors and others who can't walk the distance are welcome to ride for free in the “Seniors Shamrock Shuttle,” which travels in the parade's last division. Call (206) 242-5140 for more information.
Saturday & Sunday, March 18-19
Irish Week Festival
Noon - 6 PM, Saturday, 11:30 AM- 6 PM Sunday, Seattle Center, free admission – Booths selling Irish and Celtic products, Irish music, singing, dancing, workshops, lectures, cultural displays, children's contests and activities, etc. In addition to the festival highlights listed below, there will be genealogy workshops, Irish language workshops, cultural exhibits and more.
Family-oriented activities include wonderful Irish musicians along with champion Irish stepdancers from around the Pacific Northwest. Events for children include a visit from the Mariner Moose on Sunday at 1 PM, the “Smilingest Irish Eyes Contest” and the “Most Irish-Looking Face Contest,” and other activities in the Children’s Activities Center. Contemporary Irish short films will be screened during our Irish Reels Film Festival. For more information, call (206) 427-3027 or visit Www.irishclub.org.
Irish War Of Independence Memorabilia Exhibit
A special display will mark the 90th Anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Display items include:
- An original copy of the Irish War News, a spreadsheet newspaper written by Pádraig Pearse, the leader of the Easter Rising. Only one issue was ever printed, on Easter Monday, 1916.
- The handwritten British demand for surrender with the British crown seal on it.
- Sean Connolly's manifesto to his troops on the letterhead of the Army of the Irish Republic, written Easter Monday 1916. Sean Connolly was the first man killed in the 1916 Easter Rising.
- British General Sir John Maxwell's General Order issued to his troops on the surrender of Pádraig Pearse, the leader of the Easter Rising.
- Items signed by Thomas MacCurtain, the Lord Mayor of Cork shot dead by the RIC in 1920; by Arthur Griffith, the man who founded Sinn Féin in 1905; and by Eamon de Valera, one of the 1916 leaders and later Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and President of Ireland.
- An Irish War of Independence service medal, presented by the Irish Government to Volunteers who saw active service during the conflict.
- The leather-bound, gold-embossed copy of the Irish Constitution that was presented to Douglas Hyde, Ireland’s first President, following the Irish Constitution’s adoption in 1937. The copy is signed by President Hyde and by Taoiseach Eamon de Valera.
Ireland Photography Exhibit
From March 17-19, Barry Hendrickson’s Ireland in Black and White series of photos will be displayed on the upper and lower levels of Center House during the Irish Festival. Hendrickson is a commercial and fine art photographer based in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.
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| BARRY HENDRICKSON’S Ireland in Black and White series of photos will be on display during Seattle’s Irish Festival on March 17-19. |
Known for his emotive photographic style, bringing life, luminance and a sense of place to images, his much acclaimed series of portfolios, Ireland in Black and White, is a stunning and breathtaking look at the vast and surreal landscapes of Ireland.
It is an ongoing and expanding body of work, with each subsequent series having a unique geographical or cultural focus, and attempts to illuminate our heritage and its sense of place. For more information, visit www.irelandinblackandwhite.com.
The Irish In The Pre-Civil War U.S. Army
On March 19, starting at 11:30 AM on the Irish Festival’s main stage, National Park Historian Mike Vouri and musician Mike Cohen will entertain and educate in narrative and song, telling the story of the Irish in the U.S. Army prior to the U.S. Civil War.
Vouri offers a brisk interpretation of the Irish in the Nineteenth Century United States and its territories, while Cohen plays the banjo and sings period songs. In addition to historical anecdotes and statistics, the program captures the atmosphere of the period through traditional American folk songs that include not only traditional Irish ballads, but more contemporary songs that have drawn on the period for inspiration.
John Cooper’s Antique Irish Postcards
“I started this (collecting postcards) quite innocently as a boy but kept putting aside this passion until I was about 35……. About 20 years ago my wife and I made our first visit to Ireland and what an emotional experience…….. I found home!!! So, since I was collecting postcards anyway, I started looking for views of Ireland and I was hooked.
Not only were they interesting but whenever I needed more information about a view, I could do a search on the internet and e-mail acquaintances I had made in Ireland……. I have made no attempt at counting the number of Irish views I have but having all that good Irish blood in my veins, I advertise that I have ‘1,000'…….. That is close enough for an Irishman…….. They have certainly brought me closer to Ireland and I thoroughly enjoy looking through them and searching for information....”
International Joyce Exhibit
The International Joyce Exhibit at the Irish Festival tells the story of Irish writer James Joyce (1882-1924), one of the greatest prose artists of the Twentieth Century. The International Joyce exhibition was originally organized to mark the centenary of the day in 1904 on which Joyce’s novel Ulysses is set, and the exhibit has already traveled all over the world. It is provided in Seattle courtesy of the Cultural Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland.
Irish Government Cabinet Member Visits
Minister Noel Dempsey, T.D. (Member of the Dáil, Ireland’s Parliament), makes his first ever visit to Seattle to attend the St. Patrick’s Day Mass, the Friends of St. Patrick banquet and the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Born in 1953 in Trim, County Meath, about 30 miles northwest of Dublin, Minister Dempsey attended the Christian Brothers School in Trim, the same Order of Christian Brothers that staffs Seattle’s O’Dea High School.
He attended University College, Dublin, and St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and was elected to serve as a Meath County Councillor from 1977-1987. He was first elected to the Dáil in 1987 and since then has served as Government Chief Whip, as Minister for the Environment and Local Government, and as Minister for Education and Science. In 2004, he assumed his current portfolio as Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. Minister Dempsey is married to Bernadette (nee Rattigan) and they have two sons and two daughters.
Mass Guest Speaker
Rev. Barry Keating will be the guest speaker at the annual St. Patrick’s Day Mass for Peace in Ireland being celebrated by Catholic Archbishop Alex J. Brunett at noon on March 17, at Plymouth Congregational Church in downtown Seattle. Born in 1952, Rev. Keating grew up in Protestant East Belfast, but while in High School got involved in the Corrymeela Reconciliation Community.
He studied at Queens University, Belfast, and after graduating in 1974, briefly played professional soccer in England. He studied theology and was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1980, initially ministering at Lisburn Presbyterian Church outside Belfast.
Much of his career has been spent as a chaplain in hospitals and prisons, including for a while as chaplain at the Maze Prison (Long Kesh), once used for those convicted of terrorism-related offenses in Northern Ireland. At present, he ministers as pastor of Maplewood Presbyterian Church in Edmonds, is on the Presbyterian Church (USA) Northern Ireland Committee, and on the board of Seattle’s Irish Heritage Club. He is married to Nancy and they have a daughter, Shea.
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