Page 33 - 45th East Durham Irish Festival

MAY 28 & MAY 29, 2022
45TH EAST DURHAM IRISH FESTIVAL NEWS 33
PAUL KEATING
Irish Catskills where they have been well received in the past. Of course, as you might expect Andy Cooney and his Band will be performing along with the Narrowbacks, Derek Warfield and the Young Wolftones, Young Dubliners (from Los Angeles), McLean Avenue Band, Tom Comerford, The Byrne Brothers, Canny Brothers, Get Up Jack, Nine Mile House, Kilmaine Saints and Dee Reilly. A very special guest appearance is on Sunday afternoon with tenor Ronan Tynan from 1-2 pm.
Filling out the entertainment roster are the Diddley Idols, Seamus Kelleher, Allen Gogarty, The Hibernian Festival Singers, Sean Feeney, Jimmy Gallagher, Farrell School of Irish Dance, Mary G and Frankie Lees, Susan & Gerard, The Pipes and Drums of Greene County and the Pride of Moyvane Ceili Band and friends including caller Ron Bruschi for a ceili on Saturday from noon to 2 pm. The Master of Ceremonies over the weekend is Jimmy Walsh.
One inspired and respectful innovation by Cooney and Balfe this year is to name their four performance spaces in honor or memory of four gentlemen who made massive contributions over the years as the festival evolved. The main stage with the largest festival dance floor in the Northeast in the John McGrath Pavilion will be named for Jack Gavin sponsored by Gavin’s Irish Country Inn and Nellies, owned by Bernadette Gavin and Brian Palmieri. The second large stage donated from the town of Kingston will bear the name of Tom McGoldrick. Matty McGrath’s Pub stage is courtesy of McGrath’s Edgewood Falls Pub and B & B Motel and the Peter McKiernan Stage sponsored by Guaranteed Irish Imports Shop.
Now in his 40th year celebrating a Catholic Mass to open the EDIF on Sunday, Fr. Richard Fragomeni will be on hand and there will be music by Andy Cooney and the Hibernian Irish Festival Singers with the Farrell School of Dance also participating. A Color Guard will follow the service and then a very special tribute to Jack Gavin, Tom McGoldrick, Donal Gallagher and Bob Handel whose sizeable efforts at building and maintaining not only the East Durham Irish Festival for 45 years but the general health and welfare of the Irish Catskills for decades. While it is true that they had many who worked along with them, their inspired leadership and the challenges they faced is worthy of such recognition by the new team in place shepherding the East Durham Irish Festival.
For further details and tickets visit www.EDIrishFest.com
It may be only a coincidence that the Irish have been coming to the Northern Catskills centered around towns like Catskill, Leeds, Cairo and East Durham that happen to be in Greene County in upstate New York going back well into the last Century. For decades Irish men and women were drawn to the lush green hills and country lanes reminiscent of the homes they left behind in Ireland.
Seeking escape from busy urban centers like New York City, Boston, Hartford and Albany they looked forward to coming to the Irish Catskills where they could relax and enjoy Irish music and dancing to their hearts content. For
years entertainment could be found every night of the week in July and August in many of the Irish resorts and roadhouses catering to the Irish who made the Irish Catskills a historic cultural crossroads for Irish America.
A coalition of resort owners decided to “expand the season” in East Durham starting with Memorial Day Weekend (last weekend in May) and organized the first East Durham Irish Festival in 1978. Under the leadership of Jack Gavin of Gavin’s Golden Hill Resort, Tom McGoldrick of the Weldon House, and a coalition of other area businesses they formed the East Durham Vacationlands Association in 1978 to further cultural tourism as it existed back then. It would become the biggest event to hit the hamlet of East Durham accomplishing the aims and reputation of keeping the Irish tradition alive in the Irish Catskills.
In 1987, the Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural and Sports Centre, a non-profit organization was formed and took over the role of fostering Irish cultural events through acquisition of the property that the Vacationlands group acquired to run the EDIF. Seeing the event as a prominent public event luring people to the area as well as a major fundraising event, the Quill Centre asked Tom McGoldrick to continue to organize it every year which he did for 38 years until 2015.
The Pandemic’s arrival in 2020 canceled the EDIF that year and hampered any attempts to gather folks in May of 2021 also. Like many other events during the Pandemic, a virtual pathway was possible in 2021 and Robert Heuston, publisher of Irish Music Magazine who had developed a strategic affinity for the Irish Catskills as a unique bastion of Irish culture from previous visits to the Catskills Irish Arts Week stepped up to the plate.
He took the initiative to set up a two-day festival totally online mostly with pre- recorded material from over 24 acts in Ireland and the USA to keep the festival going and also developing a wider audience and awareness where geography wasn’t an inhibitor. Ironically, the weather last year on Memorial Day Weekend was nothing but heavy rain yet the resorts who were open found great life for those who ventured up to the Mountains, a sign that “liquid sunshine” didn’t discourage those who wanted to jumpstart the summer season in the Irish Alps.
With the Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural and Sports Centre taking heavy hits on its two large fundraising cultural events, the EDIF and the CIAW in 2020 and 2021, its ability to formulate a viable approach for 2022 was not a realistic possibility. President Ken Dudley and Treasurer Terry Patterson, two long-time dedicated volunteers made a realistic assessment that the Cultural Centre did not have the resources to revive an in- person event this year so they looked around to see if it could outsource it to someone with experience who would take on the challenge.
Into the breach came the very seasoned entertainer and artist with a brilliant track record as a multi-faceted Irish entrepreneur, Andy Cooney. Not only was Cooney very familiar with the EDIF format performing at it most years but he is one of the most popular acts not only in the Catskills all season but all around the USA with lots of crossover street credibility as well. He teamed up with Seamus Balfe, a Limerick man with a savvy eye on the Irish entertainment scene with promotional and logistical skills as well with the significant advantage of living in East Durham. They have proven to be a formidable team in very short order preparing for a memorable 45th East Durham Irish Festival for Saturday, May 28 and Sunday, May 29.
For veteran followers of the EDIF and the East Durham entertainment scene there will be a number of familiar acts who are anxious to return to live performances and the
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE HONOREES
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