Irish Heritage Month Includes Music, Dance and Theater at College

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: January 5, 2009

CONTACT: Lisa Saunders

(845) 574 - 4244

Irish Heritage Month Includes Music, Dance and Theater
at SUNY Rockland Community College

Suffern, NY - Actors, dancers, musicians and scholars will present Irish Heritage Month at SUNY Rockland Community College. All events are free and open to the public.

March 3, 12:30 & 7:30 p.m.

Cultural Arts Center, Room 7100 (Black Box Theater)

One-Act-Play: "Lovers/Winners" by Brian Friel

Evening performance followed by light refreshments

Admission: Free

Playwright, Brian Friel, tells the story of a 17-year-old girl and boy who meet upon a hilltop to study before examinations and perhaps talk about marriage. As the power and beauty of this love scene develops, the fate of the young lovers is revealed.

March 5, 7:00 p.m.

Technology Center, Room 8180 (Ellipse)

Documentary: "A Celtic Journey Through Time: A Short History of Ireland"

Light refreshments

Admission: Free

Panel discussion to follow with:
Maire Liberace, Professor, Philosophy and Speech
Pam Floyd, Professor, English
Keith Walters, adjunct faculty, English

George Leahy, adjunct professor, History, St. Thomas Aquinas College

March 12, 7:00 – 9:30 p.m.

Cultural Arts Center, beginning in Atrium then the theater

Demonstrations, exhibits and performance: "CrossRoads Ceili"

Light Refreshments.

Admission: Free

Evening events include:

Lisa Buteux, a local fiber artist, will demonstrate different aspects of fiber preparation, including carding, combing, and spinning wool into yarn on a spinning wheel.  Accompanying music will be played by Lisa’s husband Chris, and her two daughters, Lindsay and Sarah.

The Danu Gallery, Pearl River, will display an oasis of contemporary classics from admired Celtic artisans.

The Ha'Penny Irish imports will also bring a piece of Ireland to us with a display of Aran Sweaters, Capes, tweed caps etc.

7:45 doors open to theater:  

Girsa, (gaelic for girls), an Irish traditional band made up of young women from the Pearl River area, will perform lively and traditional Irish songs.

"First Confession" by Frank O’ Connor, read by K.J. Walters, adjunct faculty, English. Frank O’Connor was born in 1903 in County Cork. A working class writer, O’ Connor became a librarian and director of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre.

The O’ Flynn family, from West Cork, Ireland, will dance an eight-person jig and hornpipe called the Borlin set, which is a dance indigenous to the Borlin valley in Co. Cork, where the family grew up. In olden times, neighbors would walk to the crossroads and dance on a makeshift wooden platform—their main form of entertainment until the mid 60’s. 

March 19, 7:30 p.m.

Technology Center, Room 8180 (Ellipse)

Film: "The Wind that Shakes the Barley"

Light Refreshments

Admission: Free

Based on a true situation, it follows the dangerous and violent fight for freedom through the Irish Black and Tan War to the treaty with England and finally through the Civil War that followed.

March 26, 7:30 p.m.

Technology Center, Room 8180 (Ellipse)

Film: "A Love Divided"

Light Refreshments

Admission: Free

Based on a true event, it is the dramatic story of a marriage between a protestant and a catholic and the resulting tension and debate that erupted in the community. In microcosm, this movie looks at the religious divides in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s.

March 31, 12:30 p.m.

Technology Center, Room 8180 (Ellipse)

Lecture: "Hope from the Ocean: The Irish Serving Girl in America"

Light Refreshments

Admission: Free

Maureen Murphy, Ph. D, professor of curriculum and teaching and interim dean of the School of Education and Allied Human Services at Hofstra University, will lecture on the book she edited, "Your Fondest Annie: Letters from Annie O'Donnell to James P. Phelan 1901-1904." Annie O'Donnell left her native Galway for America in 1898. She became friends with Jim Phelan on the ship to Philadelphia. He was a 22-year-old farmer from Co. Kilkenny who had run away from home during Sunday mass to join his uncle, a tile setter in Indianapolis. Annie went to work as a children's nurse for the W. L. Mellon family of Pittsburgh.

Maureen Murphy, Ph. D, is a well-known authority of Irish folklore, literature, and history. She was a Fulbright Fellow at University College, Dublin, and is the historian of the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City.

For more information, contact Irish Heritage Month Committee Co-Chairs Patty Maloney-Titland, Professor, Performing Arts, at (845) 574 - 4380 or Maire Liberace, Professor, Philosophy and Speech, at (845) 574 - 4276.

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Rockland Community College, a unit of the State University of New York, is located 25 miles northwest of NYC. The majority of its students transfer to four-year colleges, and many find immediate employment upon earning their associate's degree or certificate. The College also offers others, from preschoolers to senior citizens, the opportunity to simply learn something new. Quality education...at a price you can afford.