Schools
Cause it's Cool to be Celtic
Local Irish preservation society, Claddagh na nGael, teaches wee ones the olde ways.
Some years ago I went to Ireland to connect with my roots.
People marveled when I told them I was going for three months to a three mile island with a population of 80, where I knew not a soul. Why, they wondered, wouldn’t I go to Dublin or Galway or even Belfast. Why wouldn’t I be puckering up to kiss the Blarney Stone.
But my intention wasn’t to tour Ireland, but to live it. And live it, I did. It wasn’t always easy: the roads barely paved, the rock of an island (Sherkin Island, off of West Cork) battered by the Atlantic, the wind at times, the rain at times, the gray skies at times, enough to make you go mad or go to the drink. But the good times knee deep in the true Irish culture, not the one we’re all so familiar with in America, the one we pull out every March, but the one they live and I lived along with them is so rich and wonderful you understand how it has spread around the world.
In Fair Haven that same cultural experience, the connection at least to the real stuff of Ireland is being shared, taught and appreciated because of the work of Claddagh na nGael (clad-dah nah-ngayle) or Irish Shore, the newest branch of Comhaltas, a preservation and promotion society working for the cause of all things Irish. Since 1951, Comhaltas with branches all over the world, even as far out as Japan, has been endeavoring to spread and increase the zeal, appeal and appreciation of Irish music, dance, history and language.
Claddagh na nGael, our local branch was officially chartered in August of 2010. The group’s chairman, Dermot Farley, came to this calling, inspired or lured as he was, as many are, because of the music, when he attended an Irish musicians convention. Farley, not a musician, was moved, however, to form the group and began reaching out to others to help. At a local meeting of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Farley met Sean Hennessy.
Today Hennessy is the group’s Public Relations Officer. "Dermot told me all about it," he said, "and then I was roped in." Himself a musician (he is in three Irish bands), Hennessey is not surprised that it is the music and dance that draws people initially to the culture. “It’s just that good,” he said, “And it allows people to connect with it. It has influenced so much of the music we know. And it has the most popular and commercial appeal of all Irish exports.”
It is, therefore, the centerpiece of the new branch. Instruction is strictly based in the old world ways. “Everyone loves Danny Boy,” Hennessey said. “Every March, what we in the Irish music world call March Madness, people are screaming for it. And it is a beautiful song when it is done well by someone like Ronan Tynan. But when it’s your drunk Uncle Larry who only does it every March 17th, it’s not the same thing. We’re more about jigs and reels and laments, the very traditional Irish sounds that you’d hear in Ireland.”
Hennessey, of Middletown, who grew up splitting time between America and County Waterford, said the local response to Claddagh na nGael has been overwhelming and a bit surprising, a bit. Hennessey acknowledged that Monmouth County alone has a very large Irish-American community (20% or so of the population is Irish), but the group’s first event had a crowd over 200, which was a bit of shocker. “We thought we'd start small, with an Irish Music coffee shop series,” he said. “But it has just been tremendous. Our classes are quite full.”
Currently, Claddagh na nGael, is offering after-school group lessons for grammar school aged children in both traditional music, including all types of instruments and step dance. The plan is to expand the educational opportunities to include Irish language courses, certification workshops and week-long summer camps that offer a range of instruction and fun for kids of all ages.
The group is also blessed with extraordinary instructors including the likes of Erin Loughran, All Ireland Champion Fiddle Player. Loughran travels down to Fair Haven from New York, where her mother has her own Irish music school in Rockland. Loughran attended Limerick University. Her classes are a mix of musical instruction and fun discourse about Irish culture, with an occasional American influence. After practicing the Irish National Anthem, the class broke out into a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
Both Loughran and Hennessey received their Irish education the old fashioned way, passed down within the family. And with St. Patrick’s Day approaching, Hennessey reflected on the Saint’s day in Ireland.
“My grandfather was a seanachies, an Irish storyteller,” he said. “That’s where I get it from. And on St. Patrick’s Day there we’d get up at the crack of dawn and go out back with grandfather and look for the first shamrocks and then go off to mass and just have ourselves a family day. There wasn’t a green Budweiser vibe going on, but there was always music. There’d be a kitchen hooley (a gathering where music is played) or something going on, not like it is here. But that’s what Claddagh na nGael is all about: imparting the real culture of Ireland to those who don’t have first hand experience.”
Claddagh na nGael instruction is conducted at the Church of the Nativity in Fair Haven. For a full listing of classes, days and times as well as membership info visit them on the web at: www.irishshore.org
