SEATTLE-IRISH NEWS - OCTOBER
By JOHN KEANE
CONDOLENCES - To the Casey family on the death of their mother Ellen in Belfast. Ellen was born Ellen McCue in Seattle in 1936, the daughter of parents from County Donegal. In the 1950s at a Seattle Irish Club party, she met Emmett Casey who was born in Brooklyn the son of parents from Belfast.
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ELLEN AND EMMETT Casey at an Irish Picnic in Seattle in 1958, shortly before they moved to Belfast to live. Ellen died in Belfast on September 18.
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Emmett and Ellen married in Seattle in 1955 and they moved to Belfast in 1958 where they raised a family of eight children. Emmett died in 1997 and Ellen died on September 18 this year. The five Casey children who now live in Seattle, Ann Marie, John, Daniel, Grace and Patrick, were able to attend the funeral in Belfast.
A Month's Mind Memorial Mass will be celebrated in Seattle on Wednesday October 18 at 5:30 PM at St. Mary's Church, 611 - 20th Avenue South on Beacon Hill. That's the church where Emmett and Ellen were married in 1955.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis - May her faithful soul be at the right of God.
On the Feast of the Angels, September 29, Brian Leo O'Reilly was received into Heaven.
Brian was born in Rathowen, County Westmeath, Ireland on New Yea's Eve, 1921. He was the second oldest of six children. In 1953 he married Mary Josephine Kelly of County Cavan, and they immigrated to NYC in 1954. There they raised two sons, Sean and Brian, Jr. Brian retired after 30 years with Merchants Refrigeration Company, N.J. In 1993, Mary and he joined their two sons in Seattle.
Brian's greatest joy was his family. He also liked spending time in the garden, walking six miles daily along Alki Beach, and participating in Celtic Eucharists.
Brian will be remembered as a faithful parishioner of Saint Jude's Parish of NYC, and at Holy Rosary and Mount Saint Vincent in West Seattle.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis - May his faithful soul be at the right of God
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THE DONLONS IN ISSAQUAH in 1888. Michael Donlon, third from left, was 18 when he left Ireland in 1866 and married Anne Murray in New York. They came to Issaquah in 1879 and started farming. The first Catholic Mass in Issaquah was celebrated in 1883 in their home. In 1891, Donlon donated lumber, Peter McCloskey donated land, and P.J. Maloney provided the labor to build Issaquah's St. Joseph's Catholic Church, completed in 1896 (from Irish Seattle, a pictorial history of Seattle due to be published February 2007).
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MATT TALBOT GOLF - October 24, the Matt Talbot Golf Tournament will be at Harbour Pointe Golf Club in Mukilteo to raise funds for Seattle's downtown program for the homeless. Shotgun start at 9:30 AM and the $75 fee includes greens fee, cart, afternoon BBQ, etc. Format is two-person scramble. For information, call (206) 290-7839 or e-mail TalbotGolf@irishclub.org.
VISA LOTTERY - Applications for the 2008 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery will be accepted between noon on October 4, and noon on December 3. Applications are accepted only online at www.dvlottery.state.gov. Anyone born in Ireland is eligible to apply, and applicants are strongly encouraged not to wait until the last week of the registration period to enter as heavy demand may result in website delays.
IRISH TENORS - Christmas from Dublin will be November 25 and 26, at the Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave. The production features three Irish Tenors - Ciaran Nagle, Brian Dunphy, and Anthony Norton, plus a company of 10 singers and musicians. Brian Dunphy was previously with Riverdance: The Show, and Anthony Norton with La Scala Milan. Celebrate the holidays with a genuine Irish Christmas direct from the Emerald Isle. For more information, call (425) 893-9900 or www.kpcenter.org.
BUYING BOEING - Last month, I mentioned that Seattle loves Ryanair because the Irish budget airline had just purchased a further 10 Boeing 737-800s, bringing to 249 the number of firm orders from Ryanair for the 737. Now Seattle loves Ryanair even more as the Irish airline has ordered another 32 Boeing 737-800 planes to facilitate their plans to become Europe's largest airline. That brings the total of firm orders from Ryanair to 281 for the popular single-aisle planes.
SEATTLE "GODOT" - Dublin's Gate Theatre will visit Seattle's Moore Theatre from November 8 to 12 for five performances of Samuel Beckett's acclaimed play, Waiting for Godot. The internationally acclaimed Gate Theatre Company has never before visited Seattle and this visit is part of the 2006 Beckett Centenary celebration marking the Nobel prizewinner's birth in 1906.
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JOHNNY MURPHY, Alan Stanford, and Barry McGovern in the Gate Theatre, Dublin, production of Waiting for Godot.
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Dublin's Gate Theatre was established in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir, and it was at the Gate that such luminaries as Orson Welles and James Mason began their acting careers.
This Gate Theatre production was described by The Irish Times as "definitive, not just in Irish but in global terms. It is probably the closest we will ever get to the perfect official Godot." Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2 PM and 8 PM, and Sunday at 2 PM. For information on the Gate Theatre, visit www.gate-theatre.ie. For tickets, go to www.themoore.com.
MAGICAL STRINGS - The annual School Of Magical Strings five week beginning and intermediate Celtic harp classes start this month in Olalla, Seattle, and Bellevue. The class dates vary depending on location with Seattle classes starting October 17. For more information, visit www.magicalstrings.com, call (253) 857-3716, or info@magicalstrings.com.
IRISH AUTHOR - University Book Store and Conor Byrne's Pub on October 11 at 7 PM are hosting an event with Michael Patrick MacDonald (author of All Souls) for his new book Easter Rising: An Irish American Coming Up from Under, at Conor Byrne's Pub in Ballard. For information, call (206) 784-3640.
EDMONDS IRISH - Engel's Pub, 113 - 5th Avenue South, in downtown Edmonds, has started a regular Irish Music Night every third Thursday from 7 to 10 PM. For more information, call (425) 778-2900.
SEAN-NÓS DANCING - Sean-nós dancing, old-style Irish step dancing usually performed in pubs, at céilis, or in houses, is a living folk tradition that survives mostly in the Connemara Gaeltacht. Twice-monthly Sunday workshops are being held at Velocity Dance Center, 915 East Pine Street, Seattle. For more information, visit www.myspace.com/seannosseattle or email maithcailin@yahoo.com.
THIRTIETH REUNION - Sean Tyrrell, the traditional musician and singer who recently was Ireland's Male Vocalist of the Year, reconnects with Jack Geary at the Owl 'n Thistle for a performance on November 9. Jack and Sean played together in the Seventies all over the United States and this is a 30th year reunion performance! For more information, visit www.seantyrrell.com or email jack@owlnthistle.com.
OTHER EVENTS
• The KEITH HIGHLANDERS PIPE BAND performs at the Kirkland Performance Center October 26, 27 and 28, 7:30 PM. In addition, the band brings with them to Kirkland the finest Celtic entertainment, including guest champion solo piper Jori Chisholm, Highland Dancers from the Marian Webb School of Highland Dance, and Champion Irish step dancer Erin Taylor. This evening of Scottish and Irish entertaining revelry should not be missed! For more information, call (425) 893-9900, or visit www.kpcenter.org.
•The ORIGINAL THREE IRISH TENORS, Anthony Kearns, Ronan Tynan and Finbar Wright, come to Seattle for their Holiday Concert on December 18 at 7:30 PM at Benaroya Hall in aid of Ballard Northwest Senior Center. For information, call Carlye Teel at (206) 297-0403 or carlyet@seniorservices.org.
•The Seattle Arts and Lectures Literary Lecture Series presents FRANK McCOURT at Benaroya Hall, 7:30 PM, November 21. Tickets are available at www.lectures.org/boxoffice.htm.
• VAN MORRISON will be in Seattle on November 4 at the WaMu Theatre at Qwest Field, 800 Occidental Avenue South, Seattle. For tickets and more information, go to www.wamutheatre.com.
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