SEATTLE IRISH NEWS September 2009
 A STILL SHOT of copper miners, many of them Irish, taken from the new documentary film Butte, America, which will be screened at Seattle University on October 10.
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 GERRY STAUNTON, Consul General of Ireland for the Western United States, who will make his first ever visit to Seattle on September 19 to attend the Irish Seniors' Luncheon.
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 MARINERS THIRD BASEMAN Jack Hannahan signs baseballs for Irish Vice Consul Barry O'Brien from San Francisco (L) and Irish Vice Consul Tim Reilly from Chicago (R) before the Mariners vs. White Sox game on Irish Heritage Night.
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 DOWN ON THE FIELD before the Mariners vs. White Sox game on Irish Heritage Night were (L-R) Washington State Senator Ed Murray, Irish Vice Consul Tim Reilly, Dónal McKevitt, Irish Vice Consul Barry O'Brien, John Keane, and Paul Keane.
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 IRISH VICE CONSUL Barry O'Brien throws the ceremonial first pitch to Irish Vice Consul Tim Reilly before the Mariners vs. White Sox game on Irish Heritage Night.
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 AT A RECEPTION for the visiting Vice-Consuls of Ireland from San Francisco and Chicago were Fidelma McGinn, Irish Vice Consul Tim Reilly and Mike McQuaid.
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 AT A RECEPTION for the visiting Vice-Consuls of Ireland from San Francisco and Chicago were Dónal McKevitt, Noreen McCormack and Jay Rathbun.
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 AT A RECEPTION for the visiting Vice-Consuls of Ireland from San Francisco and Chicago were Mary Shriane, Suzanne Green and Nanci Spieker.
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By JOHN KEANE
RECENT AREA DEATHS
Sister Philomena Rosaire Glynn, OSF, 90, died in Tacoma on August 25. A native of Galway, she was a nun for 70 years and ministered in Oregon, California and Wyoming and for 26 years in the Archdiocese of Seattle.
Ernest G. Stoole, born in Dublin in 1930, died August 15 in Arlington.
Rosaleen (O'Neill) Briggs, born in Belfast, died at Seattle's Mount St. Vincent on August 13.
Alice Georgina McCullough died in Seattle on August 3, aged 91.
Alice's parents were from Donegal and Dublin, and her mother, Lily Kempson McAlerney, fought with James Connolly's Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 Easter Rebellion in Dublin.
Alice is survived by 13 children, 18 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren, one sister and one brother.
Colette Cerafice, born in Derry in 1940 and living in the U.S. since 1961, died on July 29 in Kelso.
Joe Higgins, born in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, in 1923, died in Bremerton on July 15. He was only 12 and on his own when he emigrated to the U.S. in 1935.
Brian Conlon, the 45-year-old brother of Patrick Conlon of the Kangaroo & Kiwi pub, died suddenly in London recently.
Memorial Mass for Brian will be celebrated October 18 at 10 AM at St. Benedict's Church, 1805 N 49th Street, Seattle.
Sean Patrick O'Reilly (www.seanpatrickoreilly.com) died suddenly in Seattle on July 22, aged 50.
Sean was a Celtic and interfaith minister, spiritual director, public speaker, chaplain, international tour director, psychotherapist, poet and budding author.
His late father was from Co. Westmeath and his mother Mary Jo from Co. Cavan. Sean's memorial service will be October 4 at 3 PM in the chapel at Mount St. Vincent, 4831 35th Avenue SW, West Seattle.
IRISH MUSIC - A Traditional House Concert with Randal Bays, Susan Waters and Dave Marshall, will be held at North Hill Community Center, 20827 Third Avenue S., Des Moines, on September 18 at 8 PM.
Reserved seats available at mjhoiland1@yahoo.com or call (253) 854-7513. For more details and directions visit www.hoilands.com/concert_randal.htm.
SENIORS' LUNCHEON - Gerry Staunton, Irish Consul General for the Western United States, has confirmed that he will attend Seattle's next Irish seniors' luncheon on September 19, at Assumption Church Hall, 6201 33rd Avenue NE, Seattle.
The luncheon serves as another great opportunity to meet and greet old and new friends who share that special Irish connection. If you know an Irish senior who should be invited, please send the name and contact information to lunch@irishclub.org.
IRISH CHARITY - The Seattle Seahawks and the Matt Talbot Center - Seattle's downtown homeless program that is named for the Dublin Saint - jointly host a dinner and auction fundraiser at Seahawk Stadium/Qwest Field, September 28, starting at 5 PM.
Current and former Seahawk and UW players will be in attendance as well as NBA, MLB and other sports figures. All proceeds go toward the enhancement and expansion of the Matt Talbot Center's Women's and Children's Program, including the development of a new facility for women. Contact Talbot@irishclub.org or (425) 290-7839 for information and tickets.
LEGACY LUNCHEON - Irish Tenor Ronan Tynan (www.ronantynan.net), physician and noted Paralympics athlete, will keynote Providence Mount St. Vincent's Legacy Celebration Luncheon on October 7 at Seattle's Westin Hotel.
Tynan electrified a television audience of more than 35 million who heard the Dubliner singing at the funeral of President Ronald Reagan in 2004, and he is also famous for his performances of God Bless America at important Yankee Stadium games.
The Legacy Luncheon raises funds to support the residents and programs of Providence Mount St. Vincent. Luncheon tickets are $50 - call (206) 938-6194 or e-mail: colleen.cremin@providence.org.
BUTTE, AMERICA FILM - A new feature-length documentary film entitled Butte, America (www.butteamericafilm.org), tells the remarkable mining history of Butte, Montana.
Narrated by Irish actor and 2009 Golden Globe winner Gabriel Byrne, Butte, America recounts in the words of miners and their families the sometimes glorious, often sorrowful, but always fascinating story of the most lucrative hard rock mining town in U.S. history, "the Richest Hill on Earth."
People are the heart of the film - miners, their families, and the working class neighborhoods they created amidst danger and hardship.
The film will be shown on PBS in late October, but Seattle's Irish Heritage Club has arranged for a special screening at Seattle University's Piggott Auditorium on the evening of October 10 at 7 PM.
The film's Emmy-nominated director Pam Roberts, co-writer Edwin Dobb, and former long-time Montana Congressman Pat Williams, will all attend the screening and answer questions afterwards. For tickets ($10) and more information, call (425) 290-7839 or visit www.irishclub.org.
IRISH NIGHT - An Irish Night at the Glen, a dinner dance to support St. Mary's Food Bank, will be held on November 21 at Glen Acres Country Club (www.glenacresgolf.com), 1000 South 112th Street, just east of Highway 509 and a mile west of Boeing Field.
This is an occasion for former and current members of Seattle's Gaelic football and GAA fraternity, and others in the Seattle Irish community, to gather for a night of ceol agus craic - good music and great fun.
All proceeds from the event will go to St. Mary's Food Bank. Tickets are $50 each. To order, call John O'Malley at (206) 547-1612.
IRISH LION - The death of Senator Edward Kennedy was mourned in Seattle by about 500 people who attended a Mass at St. James Cathedral on August 28 that was organized in response to requests from members of Seattle's Irish community.
REFORM - Seattle's Irish Immigrant Support Group is a member of Irish Apostolate USA (www.usairish.org) which was represented at a White House meeting on immigration on August 20. The meeting was addressed by President Obama who declared his administration's intention to achieve comprehensive immigration reform within 17 months.
MARINERS NIGHT - Over 500 Irish Heritage Night tickets were sold for the Mariners vs. White Sox game on August 12 and the game was one of the year's best, a pitching duel that was won 1-0 by the Mariners in the 15th inning. See photos at www.irishclub.org. We apologize for the mailing mix-up that caused many people to receive Irish Night postcards too late to avail of the reduced rate tickets.
CONCERN GRANT - Irish aid agency Concern (www.concern.net) has been awarded a grant of $41 million by the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Concern started working in Biafra, Africa, in 1969 and now works in 28 of the world's poorest countries.
HOMEWARD BOUND - Former Taoiseach and Seattle's 2008 St. Patrick's Day parade Grand Marshal, John Bruton, will be leaving his current position as EU Ambassador to the U.S. in Washington, DC, at the end of October and will be returning to Ireland.
SEATTLE GAELS - The 2009 North American GAA Championship Finals will be held on the Labor Day weekend, September 4 through September 6, at the Irish Cultural Center in Canton outside Boston.
The famous Artane Boys band from Dublin will perform at the opening ceremonies on Friday morning and the Seattle Gaels Gaelic footballers and hurlers will be there as well.
We wish the Gaels the very best in their efforts to bring another trophy or two back to the Pacific Northwest. For more information and the games schedule, visit www.nagaa.org or visit www.seattlegaels.com.
 THE COMBINED men's and women's football and hurling teams from Seattle and Vancouver pose together following their GAA Tournament games in Burlington on July 22.
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