SEATTLE-IRISH NEWS UPDATE
By JOHN KEANE
RECENT DEATHS
• Catherine Cunningham Merdich, born 1923 in Co. Donegal, died October 9 in Tacoma.
• Agnes Reding, born 1927 in Co. Tyrone, died October 9 in Tacoma.
• Maureen Teresa McGranaghan, born 1923 in Co. Monahan, died October 18 in Tacoma.
• Joe Feldman, a longtime volunteer with Seattle's St. Patrick's Day parade, died two weeks ago in Seattle.
• Virginia Hodges died recently in Portland. Her grandparents were from Belfast and Dublin, and she was the mother of Seattle's Áine McDonald.
• Thomas Berry, uncle of Seattle harpist Peter Berry.
• William Connelly died in Washington, DC, father of Seattle’s Sara Buettner-Connelly.
• Dubliner Ernest Stoole died recently in Arlington.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha – May their faithful souls rest at the right hand of God
 DAIDÍ NA NOLLAG (Father Christmas) in his green robes will attend the annual Seattle’s Children’s Christmas Party on December 6, at Maplewood Church in Edmonds. |
DAIDÍ na NOLLAG – Seattle's Irish Community Children's Christmas Party with Daidí na Nollag (Father Christmas), is 1-4 PM on December 6 at Maplewood Church Hall, 19523 84th Avenue West (on 196th Street), Edmonds.
Everyone is invited to meet Daidí na Nollag who arrives in his green robes at 2 PM. Games and crafts for kids start at 1 PM, and dessert and tea will be provided.
To make sure there is a present for every child, please register children in advance (names and ages) by e-mailing Nanci Spieker at: NanciS@IrishClub.org, or call (206) 427-3027.
IRISH NIGHT – An Irish Dinner Dance to support St. Mary's Food Bank, An Irish Night At The Glen, is November 21 at Glen Acres Country Club (www.glenacresgolf.com), 1000 South 112th Street, just east of Hwy 509 and a mile west of Boeing Field.
It’s an occasion for Seattle's Irish community to gather for a night of ceol agus craic – good music and great fun – with all proceeds going to St. Mary's Food Bank. Tickets are $50 per person – call John O'Malley at (206) 547-1612.
MOTHER'S CHRISTMAS – Only a few spots remain for the 2010 Nollaig na mBan (or Mother's Christmas) dinner on January 10 at Mick Kelly's Irish Pub and Restaurant, 435 SW 152nd Street, Burien (www.mickkellysirishpub.com).
Nollaig na mBan (literally Women's Christmas in English) is so called because of the tradition, still very strong in some parts of Ireland, of the men taking on all the household duties on the 12th day of Christmas, what used to be the Feast of Epiphany, and giving their wives a day off.
In Seattle, we celebrate Nollaig na mBan by taking the women in our lives to dinner. This popular event has sold out every year since 2000!
 SEATTLE’s Nollaig na mBan (or Mother’s Christmas) will be celebrated on January 10 at Mick Kelly’s in Burien. |
Cocktails 5 PM, dinner 6 PM, cost $30 per person for the full dinner. For information and reservations, e-mail: CandaceD@irishclub.org, or call (425) 745-1263.
YULETIDE CONCERTS – Magical Strings, joined by the Raney Irish Dancers, vocalists Mark and Colleen Raney, and more, celebrates 31 years of Celtic Yuletide concerts with shows in Shoreline, Spokane, Kent, Friday Harbor, Bellevue, Mount Vernon, Olympia, Portland, Tacoma and Seattle. For all the details, visit www.magicalstrings.com.
IRISH/CELTIC EVENTS – For the latest information on Irish or Celtic events in the Seattle area, visit www.hoilands.com.
DIVERSITY VISAS –The U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery is now accepting online applications through November 30, 2009. Applications are free and can only be made online at the official DV Lottery website, http://www.dvlottery.state.gov. If you have any questions or need assistance, call the Irish Immigrant Support Group toll-free at 1-877-517-3559.
SEATTLE GAELS – The fourth Annual Poc Fada Turkey Bowl will be held November 22. The annual awards Seattle Gaels banquet will be on December 5 at the Elks Club Hall in Lower Queen Anne.
For all new players, this is the end of the year event for the Seattle Gaels where there is one last toast to the season and awards are handed out. Watch www.SeattleGaels.com for details.
The Seattle Gaels AGM and elections will be held on January 10. If you are at all interested in being a part of the 2010 committee, this is where you'll need to be to become elected.
If you have any questions right now on the committee (how it works, what position is best for you, etc.), call Terry at (206) 234-2141, or e-mail: Chair@SeattleGaels.com.
CONGRATULATIONS – to RoseMarie Fitzsimons on her six-and-a-half minute documentary film about the University District Food Bank. Watch the film at: www.vimeo.com/7145657.
 MIKE RYAN from Dublin with Bernadette Noonan from Co. Louth, after Mike was inducted into the US Adult Soccer Association’s Hall of Fame at the USASA annual meeting in Mesa, Arizona, last month. |
HALL OF FAME – Congratulations to Seattle's Mike Ryan who was inducted into the U.S. Adult Soccer Association's Hall of Fame at the USASA annual meeting in Mesa, Arizona, on October 8.
Born in Dublin, soccer has been Mike’s life since the 1950s and he is a soccer legend in Seattle.
As a teenager in Dublin, Mike was offered tryouts with several English teams and ended up with Blackpool, but he never landed a professional contract.
Coming to the U.S., he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces in Vietnam but even there he played and coached soccer.
After a tour in Germany, he was stationed in Fort Lewis and ended up in Seattle when he left the army.
He started coaching again and helped build the University of Washington men's soccer program, coaching the Huskies to four NCAA tournament appearances. He also coached women’s soccer and was the first head coach of the U.S. women's national team.
He has been a certified professor of soccer for over 30 years, the only professor of soccer in the U.S. having been granted an Adjunct Professorship of Soccer by Washington State University.
In recent years, he has coached at Garfield High School, Bush School and also Nathan Hale High School, and he is still going strong.
Mike was nominated for the USASA Hall of Fame by Bernadette Noonan, the Co. Louth born former president of the Washington State Women’s Soccer Association who also traveled to Arizona to be there for Mike’s induction.
 THE RT. HON. DESMOND Guinness, the great-great-great-great grandson of Arthur, who will be Grand Marshal of the Seattle St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 13, 2010. |
2010 GRAND MARSHAL – The Grand Marshal of Seattle’s 2010 St. Patrick’s Day parade will be the Rt. Hon. Desmond Guinness, the great-great-great-great grandson of Arthur Guinness who founded Guinness Brewery over 250 years ago.
Desmond is also an Irish author on Georgian art and architecture and a conservationist, and is president of the Irish Georgian Society.
Born September 8, 1931, he was the second son of Lord Moyne, the author and brewer, and Diana Mitford, one of the controversial Mitford sisters.
Educated at Eton, Gordonstoun and Christ Church, Oxford, Desmond bought Leixlip Castle in Co. Kildare in 1958 and that same year, with his first wife, Mariga (the former Princess Marie Gabrielle), founded the Irish Georgian Society to help to preserve Irish architecture of all periods.
His conservation work has been recognized by many American and English cultural groups, and in 1980 he was made an honorary Doctor of Laws at Trinity College Dublin.
In 2006 he was presented with a Europa Nostra award by the Queen of Spain. His many publications include Georgian Dublin; Irish Houses and Castles; The White House, An Architectural History; and his most recent publication Dublin – A Grand Tour.
While in Seattle, Desmond also plans to visit Vancouver, British Columbia, where the Guinness family still owns property and where he plans to view the Lions Gate Bridge which the Guinness family owned until 1955 when it was sold to the province of British Columbia.
Desmond still lives at Leixlip Castle in Co. Kildare and this will be his first ever visit to Seattle or Vancouver.
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