Judy Collins Live from Ireland | PBS Special
September 1, 2014
Program
Join Judy Collins for a night of her favorite Celtic folk songs, stories, and hits that created the backbone of American folk music: Judy Collins Live from Ireland is a PBS Pledge Special Presentation showcasing the internationally renowned singer-songwriter’s special focus on the impact of the Famine on music in Ireland and in the United States. Filming took place on September 29, 2013 at historic and picturesque. Dromoland Castle, Co. Clare, Ireland (http://www.dromoland.ie/).
The show features the Irish tunes, Wild Mountain Thyme, She Moved Through the Fair (featuring “the amazing” Mary Black!), and of course, Danny Boy.
Live from Ireland marks the return of this star performer to PBS television. Her previous special, Judy Collins Live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was nominated for a New York Emmy and won a Bronze Medal at the 2013 New York Festival International Television & Film Awards.
Artist
Known for an incomparable string of worldwide hits such as Amazing Grace and Send in the Clowns, Judy Collins is a firm favorite in Ireland and at PBS and its nationwide affiliate stations.
In a fifty year career, Judy Collins has thrilled audiences worldwide with her unique blend of interpretative folksongs and contemporary themes, including the work of fellow artists such as Bob Dylan, and bringing Leonard Cohen and Randy Newman to a wider audience. Her version of Stephen Sondheim’s classic Send in the Clowns won a Grammy; her version of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now is in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Judy Collins has authored several books, including the inspirational memoir Sanity & Grace (2003).
Top Underwriter
Quinnipiac University is Top Underwriter of Judy Collins in Concert – Live from Ireland in association with Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum and Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University. Judy Collins visited the Hamden campus in February 2014 where she met with Dr. John L. Lahey, QU President, Museum Director, Grace Brady, and IGHI Founding Director, Christine Kinealy, who presented her with a copy of Kinealy’s latest book, Charity and the Great Hunger in Ireland: The Kindness of Strangers (Bloomsbury, 2013).
Turlough McConnell Communications is a co-producer of the television program.
Posted in news | Comments Off on Judy Collins Live from Ireland | PBS SpecialJoker at the Universe
September 1, 2014
Written by Turlough McConnell and performed November 14th, 2003
“Joker at the Universe was born of a conversation I had with Rosaleen Linehan at the home of Kitty Sullivan and Milo O’Shea on February 2, 2003 – the 121st anniversary of the birth of James Joyce. That conversation, about Joyce and his wife Nora, lives on in this offering of the very, very beginnings of a play in progress.”
– Turlough McConnell
Characters
James Joyce …………………………………… Jarlath Conroy
Nora Joyce …………………………………… Rosaleen Linehan
Lucia Joyce …………………………………….. Deirdru Ring
Giorgio Joyce ………………………………….. Ivo Velon
Gisele Freund ………………………………….. Tessa Klein
Production Team
Randy Baruh, Director
Cahir O’Doherty, Dramaturge
Rosaleen Linehan, Consultant
Judith Rodgers, Development
Gwenfair Vaughan, Manager
We would like to thank the following for their generous support:
Dr. Jolanta Gubernat and Mitch Gubernat
John Boyle
Dorinda and Richard Medley
Turlough McConnell on UAHS 2014 | Adrian Flannelly Show
June 15, 2014Turlough McConnell discusses this week’s Ulster American Heritage Symposium at Quinnipiac with Adrian Flannelly at Irish Radio Network.
Click here to listen to the interview!
Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute – UAHS at Quinnipiac University
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TMCC to participate in Twentieth UAH Symposium
June 10, 2014
Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute presents the 20th Ulster-American Heritage Symposium: Irish Hunger, Poverty and Migration: A Transatlantic Perspective — June 18-21, 2014
Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac will host the 20th biennial meeting of the Ulster-American Heritage Symposium in June 2014. Since 1976, the symposium has met every two years, alternating between co-sponsoring universities and museums in Northern Ireland and North America.
The purpose is to encourage scholarly study and promote public awareness of the shared history and culture of Ulster and North America, including what is commonly called the Scotch-Irish or Ulster-Scots heritage. The symposium provides an ideal forum for scholars to share new knowledge, research and ideas related to the conference themes.
In addition to academic papers, other activities offered include: visiting the Great Hunger Collection located on the campus of Quinnipiac; the Famine Memorial in New York City; and the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Exhibition at the Consulate of Ireland in NYC. There will also be tours of, and receptions in, Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum in Hamden, CT, and the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven. Tours of the Lady Sligo Exhibition will also be offered during the program.
We hope that you will join us for this exciting and ground-breaking conference.
Click for registration details and more information…
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Turlough McConnell on “A Monumental Legacy” for The Adrian Flannelly Show, Irish Radio!
June 8, 2014 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Turlough McConnell on “A Monumental Legacy” for The Adrian Flannelly Show, Irish Radio!
Listen to the show here!How the Nuns of New York Tamed the Gangs of New York
April 7, 2014 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on How the Nuns of New York Tamed the Gangs of New YorkA Monumental Cleric: The Building of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC | Irish Voice
April 7, 2014Cahir O’Doherty
March 16,2014 09:01 PM
The life story of Archbishop John J. Hughes is every bit as impressive as the most enduring legacy he left us with, America’s most iconic cathedral, St. Patrick’s on Fifth Avenue.
Born near Aughnacloy in Co. Tyrone in 1797, Hughes was what most Catholic children of the era had by then become — impoverished, discriminated against through the penal laws and generally stamped for export.
Life was rough for Ulster Catholics. At the age of 15 Hughes was chased by Orangemen out to attack him. At home there was no money to educate him properly and his studies were cut short. Eventually his family took what little control they could of their futures by emigrating to America in 1816…
Archbishop John J. Hughes. Photo by: Irish Voice Newspaper
Click here to read the full article.
The Irish Mission at Watson House: Reopened After Hurrican Sandy
April 7, 2014
Facing the harbor and Staten Island, and across from Battery Park, Watson House is one of the very few colonial buildings still standing in the City of New York. The front columns built from ship masts were expressive of the successive sea merchant owners, starting with import/exporter and civic leader, James Watson. The United States government used the building during the Civil War and after the war the Harbor’s Pilot Commissioners made their headquarters there. On December 4, 1885 the house was sold to Rev. John J. Riordan who established the Home of the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary for the Protection of Irish Immigrant Girls on the site.
The post-famine (1845-52) Irish custom of giving the land to one inheriting son and dowering one daughter meant that many non-inheriting sons and daughters emigrated. Irish emigration was unique in that it was an emigration of siblings with women frequently outnumbering the men. A second agricultural depression that began in 1879 further stimulated emigration and created conditions that led to the creation of a mission to serve young women who emigrated alone. Mission agents met Irish immigrant women when they landed, assisted them with meeting relatives and friends and brought those who needed further assistance or accommodation to the Mission.
Click here to view the exhibition’s brochure
Posted in news | Comments Off on The Irish Mission at Watson House: Reopened After Hurrican SandyAmazing Grace unites traditional divides in Donegal
October 7, 2013by Turlough McConnell
Buncrana, jewel of the picturesqueInishowenPeninsula, has seen its fair share of historic gatherings on the shores of Lough Swilly. From being the departure point of the Flight of the Earls to the captureportofTheobold Wolfe Tonenearly two centuries later, history flourishes in this corner of Tip O’Neill’s ancestral homeland.
And it was at Buncrana that shipwrecked John Newton, best known as author of the enduring “Amazing Grace,” converted from complacent slave trader to committed abolitionist.Newton’s story connects Donegal and Derry with the inspirational hymn andBritain’s abolition of the transatlantic slave trade one hundred and sixty years ago.
In an unprecedented cross-border community function, Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister ofNorthern Ireland, jointly opened Donegal’s Amazing Grace viewing point in October with Jonathan Bell of the First Minister’s office and Buncrana mayor, Cllr Peter Mc Laughlin. “This is a great story that resonates throughout the world,” he said. “John Newton was someone who was part of changing the course of history.” Emphasizing the importance of cross-cultural cooperation, McGuinness added, “It is wonderful to come here at a time of peace.”
As a Donegal lad, I experienced first-hand the impact of theNorthern Irelandtroubles on our community. To hear McGuinness commit to this message and to participate in this historic event was personally very meaningful and I applaud the organizers for their initiative.
Nobel Peace Prize honoree John Hume and other dignitaries from both sides of the border attended the event. Over 100 guests, including Irish schoolchildren, senior church leaders from both Catholic and Protestant traditions, and politicians from both sides of the border representing the full spectrum of political affiliation, were guests of Inisowen Tourism in association with Tourism Ireland’s The Gathering and 2013 Derry-Londonderry. The new viewing point is part of an ongoing plan to create an Amazing Grace experience for visitors to the region, with work set to start on a new park in 2014.
Representing the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Jonathan Bell, MLA said, “Amazing Grace is a hymn that has transcended countries and people. It was sung at Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream speech’. It was sung as theBerlinwall came down. That message of the grace of the Lord Jesus comes to all of us here today.”
“We’re honored and immensely proud that the inspiration for the world’s most famous hymn came from an event that happened here on the shores of our beloved Lough Swilly and set in motion a story that changed history, ” added Buncrana mayor, Cllr Peter Mc Laughlin.
Caught in a violent storm in theAtlantic Oceanin 1748, John Newton cried out to God for mercy. Stepping safely ashore a changed man, his experience later inspired him to write “Amazing Grace”.Newtonlater mentored English parliamentarian William Wilberforce, whose untiring political campaign eventually resulted in passage of the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, which abolished slavery in most of theBritish Empire.
Speaking for the Amazing Grace Initiative, Padraig Mac Lochlainn, TD, said, “I hope we can embrace the story of ‘Amazing Grace’ and champion the values of John Newton and William Wilberforce. I would love to make Buncrana and the shores of Lough Swilly a centre for all that is good about humanity – for peace, hope, justice and human rights – a place for rediscovering faith and finding our soul’s resting place.”
Other dignitaries at the opening acknowledged the contribution of Inishowen Development Partnership in funding the viewing point. Cllr Nicholas Crossan, Chairman of the Amazing Grace Initiative said, “Our hope is that, here on the shores of Lough Swilly, people may be inspired like John Newton to champion justice, peace and reconciliation both on this island and all over the world.” Local Deputy Joe McHugh TD added, “We can be inspired by the Amazing Grace story. I feel inspired today.”
The Amazing Grace Initiative is a joint project of Inishowen Development Partnership and Buncrana Town Council together with local businesses and community groups.
Visit www.amazinggrace.ie or find Amazing Grace Country on Facebook
(from left) Fr Francis Bradley, representing the RC Diocese of Derry, Rt Rev Ken Good, Bishop of Derryand Raphoe, John Hume (Nobel Laureate), Peter McLaughlin Mayor of Buncrana, Rev David Latimer, Presbyterian minister and peace worker, office of the First Minister, Jonathan Bell, MLA, deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, MLA
(from left) office of the First Minister, Jonathan Bell, MLA, Peter McLaughlin Mayor of Buncrana, deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, MLA
Posted in news | Comments Off on Amazing Grace unites traditional divides in DonegalAntwerp New York
August 18, 2013Eugeen Van Mieghem (1875-1930)
and the Emigrants of the Red Star Line
Growing up in the docklands of Antwerp in the late nineteenth century, Eugene Van Mieghem watched the comings and goings on the Red Star Line from his parents’ cafa across Montevideo Street. His early years coincided with the expansion of Antwerp Harbor and an increasing exodus to the New World. As a child and then a young adult, he spent as much time as he could sketching harbor views and portraits of the people around him, often in the midst of those historic departures. Antwerp-New York intermixes that work with historical material to create a moving profile of the massive movement of humanity that brought 3 million people past Van Mieghem’s doorstep and over the Atlantic to New York.
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