The Celtic Connection - Western Canada's Irish Centre

CATHOLINE BUTLER and Maura De Freitas (McCay) of The Celtic Connection.

By JOHN O'FLYNN

In the inaugural issue of the Toronto-based Irish Connections Canada I wrote of the excitement generated by Tony and Gwen McCamley and the Irish Heritage Society of Canada with their plans for an Irish Centre in "Beautiful 'Irish' Columbia."

Now it is time to share with you, dear reader, the story of the other 'Irish Centre' that has nourished our communities in Western Canada.

This Irish Centre has been The Celtic Connection, a tabloid size newspaper with international distribution, published 10 times a year from Vancouver.

For the past 18 years, Catholine Butler and Maura De Freitas (McCay) have been tireless in producing this monthly masterpiece with many volunteer writers and supporters.

They have stood witness to the joys and sorrows of our community and with each issue published they continue to share more about the wonderful and diverse people who make up the Celtic family.

From their earliest moments as a publication, I remember trying to sell papers for a $1 donation for this beginning enterprise. Occasionally, a person would try to walk off with the paper and I would have to chase down the 'loonie' or get the paper back altogether!

I would think, in an uncharitable way, what an ungrateful lot some were by their indifference in 1991. But how things have changed!

How appreciative people are for The Celtic Connection in our communities and many repay them with paid subscriptions and by supporting the culturally-minded advertisers who come through for the paper each month.

The Celtic Connection has been a part of my family over the years. From East Vancouver to White Rock, from Powell River to Richmond and to North Vancouver, the paper has been a most welcomed guest.

Particularly during my time in Powell River, the paper kept me in touch with the "craic" from back home in Vancouver but also the sad telling of the passing of many a good Gael.

The likes of a J.J. Hyland, Tom Gibbons and Mike O'Malley, just to name a few, come to mind. The paper gave me the chance to remember and rekindle the affection I had for those people and recall their contributions to the Irish Community back home.

As an active community member of the Gaelic Athletic Association, it is evident of the glowing appreciation for Maura and Catholine's voluntary counsel to people and willingness to answer those who have questions about Irish culture, sport, art, education and even citizenship.

I want to re-echo a common suggestion that the Irish and Canadian citizens of the Western Canadian provinces are in need of a full time, paid, consular office.

The Government of Ireland has heard from our community that a consular office should be established in this beautiful part of Canada where a friendly, open and accessible welcome would be given to all, as mirrored by Maura and Catholine of The Celtic Connection.

The paper has received on two occasions an award from the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada in the category of "Best Editorial and Visual Interpretation," and in recognition of "the outstanding achievements, contributions, and community service by The Celtic Connection."

Finally, without the presence of The Celtic Connection, the Vancouver Irish Sporting and Social Club would never have had the opportunity to publish its 30th Anniversary supplement without the support of culturally minded advertisers and supporters of the paper in October 2004.

I am forever grateful for the staff in going "out on the limb" with this anniversary idea and in helping to make it a memorable keepsake of written history for the Irish community.

Thank you for documenting the times of our Irish - Canadian lives these last 18 years. You have made life's journey all the gladder!

[Reproduced with kind permission from Eamonn O'Loghlin, editor of Irish Connections Canada. This article was published in the Summer 2009 edition of Irish Connections Canada.]

Editor's Note [Irish Connections Canada]: Over the years I have had the pleasure of connecting with Maura and Catholine on many an occasion. They have always been there for the Irish and all the Celts of the West and have been helpful to us whenever we were seeking information or direction. Check out their website at: www.celtic-connection.com.For more information, call (604) 434-3747.

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A CONNECTION MADE

By MALCOLM PARRY

PHOTO: Malcolm Parry PUBLISHER Maura De Freitas (McCay) with her mother Catholine Butler who handles advertising and promotion for The Celtic Connection.

A generation has passed since Jack Wallace redesigned The Vancouver Sun in the big-city style he'd polished as a San Francisco Chronicle staffer and Hearst organization trouble-shooter.

Wallace died at age 87 in 2002, a decade after he'd literally breathed life into the smaller but far-reaching Vancouver-based The Celtic Connection.

That's the 10-times-yearly newspaper-format publication (www.celtic-connection.com) that Maura De Freitas (then Maura McCay), and her mother Catholine Butler founded with $40,000 in 1990, after De Freitas relinquished her co-ownership of a small Celtic-arts magazine called The Coracle.

The Celtic Connection's initial 5,000 print run is now double that at city-based Horizon Publications, and its unaudited readership reportedly totals 30,000 in Canada, the U.S. and Celtic pockets elsewhere.

That gentle climb aside, and with comparably modest revenues in the $150,000 range, the paper has the zesty, professional format of a much heavier hitter. In 2005, Ontario Lt.-Gov. James Karl Bartleman handed publisher De Freitas the Ethnomedia Week celebration's Best in Editorial and Information trophy.

De Freitas, 53, recently credited The Celtic Connection's survival and success to "mentor" Wallace. But the dead don't speak. Former administrative assistant to a mining firm vice-president De Freitas does, and in a way that makes the native of Ottawa's Gatineau Valley acceptable to English, Irish, Scots and Welsh readers. "Groups that don't always get on well together," she said with a slight twinkle.

"I think we've crossed a lot of lines, and in a diplomatic way," Butler said. Those lines included the early suspicion that the two were Irish Republican Army (IRA) supporters.

"There was distrust," De Freitas recalled. "Of our politics, our motives, and essentially what was our agenda. But it dissolved. We extended a hand, and made an effort to connect to the community."

The Irish took it first, said Butler, who reviews, reports, handles all advertising sales and "takes no abuse, I never have."

She and De Freitas do take donations, though, from community organizations and individuals like global philanthropist Elinore Detiger, who gave the then-fledgling Celtic Connection $10,000 back in 1992.

In return, they provide a mix of international news and comment, feature articles, culture and sports reports, and regional coverage, including a page headed Seattle Irish News.

Still, it was The Coracle magazine that gave De Freitas bigger ideas. "I'd go to [Celtic] events to set up artwork, and people asked: 'Where are you going next?' I'd tell them, and they would ask: 'How come I don't know about that?'

"I realized that, though they had cousins and were related culturally, they weren't communicating with one another." That turned on her entrepreneurial light. "Since The Celtic Connection was created," she said recently, "they do have a means of communicating, and there's been a lot more of it between the various cultural groups."

She spoke as the harvest season called lughnasadh began. That was also when native Irish contracted the one-year trial marriages that might or might not be formalized the following fall. They and fellow Celts appear to have made their minds up regarding De Freitas and Butler's newspaper.

[We gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint thanks to The Vancouver Sun and Malcolm Parry. The above article was initially published in the August 6 edition of The Vancouver Sun in the B.C. Business Section.]

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The Celtic Connection Wins Prestigious Award

VANCOUVER - The Celtic Connection has been selected to receive an award from the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada under the chairmanship of Dr. Bikram Lamba.

This is the second time The Celtic Connection has been honoured with this prestigious award in the category of "Best Editorial and Visual Interpretation," and in recognition of "the outstanding achievements, contributions, and community service by The Celtic Connection."

The Celtic Connection was also selected among over 300 ethnic media publications serving communities from coast-to-coast across Canada. The first award was presented to publisher Maura McCay by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario at Queen's Park in Toronto in 2005.

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A Newspaper For Others to Emulate

By Malcolm Perry,
The Vancouver Sun (2003)

"Maura McCay's 10-times yearly Celtic Connection continues to be a special-interest newspaper for others - even academic types - to emulate. It's always packed with relevant local and international news and opinion. It is several graphic cuts above most of its ilk editorially and - most importantly - its advertisements never feature fuzzy mugshots of various Roys, Mikes and Badahurs seeking custom for their body shops, roofing firms and gas-fitting enterprises."

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A Real Pulse in Connecting People Within the Celtic Community

By RUTH CARSON

VANCOUVER - For the past 12 years, The Celtic Connection has been informing the Celtic Community in Western Canada. Last month's edition distributed over 13,000 papers and the distribution span covered as far east as Winnipeg and Butte, Montana and as far south as Seattle, Washington.

The wide readership also extends to subscribers who are from as far afield as Australia, Ireland and Great Britain. Recently, a journalist for the Vancouver Sun, Malcolm Parry, commended The Celtic Connection by writing that it "continues to be a special interest newspaper for others - even academic types to emulate. It's always packed with relevant local and international news and opinion."

CATHOLINE BUTLER and Maura McCay have worked as a team for the past 12 years in serving the Celtic community.

Quite remarkably the majority of the work undertaken to publish this specialized newspaper is carried out by three people. Twelve years ago, Maura McCay had realized there was a need for a newspaper which allowed the Celtic Community to have a voice in Western Canada.

As publisher, she has numerous responsibilities including editing and layout and design and Catholine Butler manages advertising and contributes articles. Five years ago Colleen Carpenter, who is described by Catholine as "a general handyman,' joined the staff. She works on "so many aspects - distribution, proofing, secretarial, and the production end with Maura."

"People who don't know about the paper never realize that we're a small team. The media use us as a news source for the Celtic Community, it's great to see we have that kind of profile and that we've reached that level of respect within the community and within the media," said Catholine.

Catholine attributes the unique qualities of the newspaper to the fact that "when people call us, they get an answer. We're very grassroots and very connected to the community. The community can call on us with their sadness and their joys. People appreciate that and the fact that we're interested in what happens to them on a daily basis."

"We get calls about newsworthy items and it's nice to know they have us in the forefront. We cover aspects which daily newspapers don't cover as it might not be newsworthy on a broad scale but are relevant to the Celtic Community."

"We get numerous enquiries and it's mostly the Irish queries we answer. The Irish community here doesn't have a cultural centre, unlike the Scots and Welsh. Ninety-nine percent of the time we're able to give an answer or put them in touch with someone who can."

Catholine told me about a recent enquiry from a woman living in Vancouver who was having a reunion with relatives from England and Ireland in New York. She wanted to know if The Celtic Connection knew about events occurring in New York on St. Patrick's Day.

Coincidentally Catholine had just interviewed the organizer of the New York St. Patrick's Day Parade, John Dunleavy. Catholine rang John Dunleavy who in due turn organized tickets in the parade stand and put the woman in touch with some of the Irish clubs in New York.

The Celtic Connection had their own celebration to organize for St. Patrick's Day. They participated in a fundraising event in conjunction with the Celtic Heritage Society and the Vancouver Irish Sporting and Social Club. "It was the first time we were involved with running a two-day event."

"We participated in every aspect of it, from looking after advertising, collecting items for door prizes and the silent auction, sending out press releases to the media, distributing tickets and answering telephone calls regarding bookings," said Catholine. The event was a huge success with over 1,200 people attending during the two days of celebrations.

Numerous enquiries are received by The Celtic Connection from fellow Celts who are visiting on work visas. The newspaper has succeeded in putting them in contact with different companies and securing employment. The paper's mission statement which is printed in each edition states, "This paper is dedicated to truth, the dignity of every person under God and the call to help another to live out that dignity".

Catholine feels that's really important, because "sometimes the media will take a story and blow it out of proportion, looking not so much at the truth but at selling papers." The Celtic Connection's name and mission statement are precisely apt for a newspaper which is a real pulse within the Celtic Community and truly connects Celts.

*Ruth Carson is a freelance Irish journalist who recently visited Vancouver. She has now returned to Ireland from where she will be contributing occasional freelance articles to The Celtic Connection.

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