Clan na Gael has chosen its fall play.
“The Uninvited” by Dorothy Macardle and Tim Kelly.
AUDITIONS NOW. PRODUCTION NOVEMBER.
Due to travel plans of the director early Open *Auditions will be held at The Gaelic American Club, 74 Beach Road Fairfield, CT.
Open Auditions Saturday June 10th 1:00-3:00 and Sunday June 11th 1:00-3:00
Casting four males, age range: 25-65 and six females, age range: 22-60’s
Those cast will receive scripts at the first reading.
Actors must be off book at the first rehearsal.
Scheduled rehearsals will be held beginning in October.
Production dates are November 16, 17, 18, 19
*Audition only if you are able to make the commitments as stated above. Thank you!
Information contact Peg at opeggyo812@gmail.com
Now is your chance to learn a cúpla focail in the new Irish language series presented by the GAC Language Group via Zoom. This short and fun series will get you started, so mark your calendars now for June 1, 8, 15, & 22 from 7:30-8 pm. More details coming. Bigi linn…be with us!
The game of 25 can be played with any number of players, preferably from 5 to 10, not to exceed 10 players. The object of the game is to see who gets 25 first. Each trick is considered 5 points. To begin the game, any player can deal out the cards. The first player to receive an ace is the player who actually gets the first deal. Each player receives five cards. When the dealer is finished dealing the cards, he turns up the next card. This card is called the head trump. Then each player looks at his hand to see how many trump cards he has. The more trump cards a player has, the better his chances are of reaching 25.
The leadoff man to start the game is to the player’s left. If he leads off with a trump, then all players have to play a trump if they have one. Otherwise, they can play any card. If a player has trump, and does not play it, he is guilty of reneging A simple thought to remember is, “the more of the red, and the less of the black.” Another thought is to watch who is getting close to 25. This is called keeping the game “IN.” It is okay to play a trump card anytime a player wishes. The Ace of Hearts is always a trump regardless of what is played. The 5 card is the best card when trumps are up, followed by the Jack of Trumps, followed by the Ace of Hearts.
A complete description of the game would take several pages. The game of 25 is best explained by sitting down and playing an actual game with people who have been playing the game for years. In short, hopefully in some way, this has helped to bring the basics of the game to you.
The late Tom McInerney, a long-standing member of the club, donated this article.
“The Poets Rebellion”, by Jason Downes and Martin Butler. The play is directed by Eamon Speer and Produced by Peg O’Leary.
Performances are Thursday 04/13, Friday 04/14 & Saturday 04/15 at 8pm
and Sunday 04/16 Matinee at 2:30pm
Featuring: Patrick Baldwin, Steven Bennett, Eileen Fickes, Alison Flannery, Joyce Fox,
Peter Haines, Bob Liftig, Marie Stehle and Byrne White.
The Poets Rebellion takes you to Dublin where a couple, tourists from America stop into the local pub, excited and enthusiastic about their day exploring the city. The bartender adds his thoughts, to theirs, on the events of the 1916 Uprising. Another patron, joins in, wanting his opposing views to be heard. The two men begin one-upping each other. Others coming into the pub dismiss the argument as “more of the same”. It becomes apparent that only those who were involved in the Uprising could speak to facts. Or could they?
Admission for the Poet’s Rebellion is $15.00. For reservations please email Nancy O’Neil at playresvcng@gmail.com
or call at (203) 377-1070
Then in March the Clan na Gael One Act Playwright Contest Winning entries will be read Sunday, March 26, 2023, 2:30pm – Admission is Free!
1st Place “The Head of Shamus Delaney” by Ben Scranton
2nd Place “The Turquois Sheep” by Alison Flannery
3rd Place “Leaving” by Brian Whelan
CnG is planning an Evening of Merriment for those involved in prior CnG productions. And all interested in learning more about us as we celebrate 36 years of presenting plays by or about the Irish. No Experience Necessary! But always welcome! Watch for more information.
Trivia Night takes place on the first Friday of the month – and hands down one of the highlights of the GAC’s monthly activities so don’t miss out – you could win some cool stuff!
Jerry O’Sullivan is June’s first Friday Trad Musician and has been widely hailed as America’s premier uilleann piper. His reputation for technical and melodic mastery of the instrument, an Irish bagpipe known for its subtlety and expression, is unsurpassed in the United States, and is demanding considerable attention overseas. Jerry is also widely recorded on the tin whistle, the low whistle, the Highland Pipes and the Scottish small pipes.
BRENDAN DOLAN FRODAY – MA Y 5TH FROM 6-8PM
Brendan Dolan is a multi-instrumentalist, excelling in the piano, Irish flute and tin whistle. He has worked with accordionist John Whelan, singer/songwriter Cathie Ryan, Andy Statman and Itzhak Perlman, and can be heard on the latest recordings of Billy McComiskey, Brian Conway and The Green Fields of America. Dolan is a teacher at the annual Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins West Virginia, and the Irish Arts Week in East Durham, New York. He maintains a vibrant school of Irish music for children in the New York City area.
LORETTA EGAN MURPHY FRIDAY MARCH 3RD FROM 6-8PM
This month’s Special Guest is Loretta Egan Murphy. Loretta plays the button accordion and the concertina. She is the winner of numerous national awards and has taught Irish music to hundreds of students in New York and Connecticut. Her CD, Beyond the Watery Lane, received critical acclaim in both the U.S. and Ireland. When she was younger, she and her sister Monica played the once bustling Catskills circuit. Loretta is also a GAC member and a key member of The Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society and a fixture at our weekly Trad Music Sessions Wednesday nights from 7-9pm in the Carolan Room.
Linsey Céitinn is February’s first Friday Musician Feb 3rd 6-8pm
This award-winning fiddler and teacher will play the February’s First Friday Trad Music Session on February 3rd from 6-8pm. An accomplished musician, she’s president of The PV O’Donnell Branch of Comhaltas and a student of Brian Conway.
Traditional Irish Music Session with Kira Jewett Friday January 6th @ 6pm
Kira Jewett our Frist Friday Trad Musician started playing classically when she was just three years old but fell in love with the music of Ireland in her 20s and studied extensively with the virtuoso fiddler Brian Conway. She is the 2003 All-Ireland fiddle Slow Airs Champion. She is also a member of New Leaf and the band will play that night from 8-11PM!
30TH LECTURE IN A SERIES ON IRISH HISTORY (STAIR NA HÉIREANN) “MARK TWAIN, T.S. ELIOT, AND IRISH AMERICA”
On May 7, 2023, at 2:00 pm in the Carolan Room, Christopher Dowd will be our lecturer
Dr. Dowd is Associate Professor and Chair of the English Department at the University of New Haven. His focus is on Irish-American literature and culture. In addition, he is the author of The Construction of Irish Identity in American Literature, and The Irish and the Origins of American Popular Culture.
Two of the most notable American writers of the 19th century helped shape popular perceptions about Irish-American identity. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain created one of the most beloved characters in all of American literature—Huck Finn—and describes him as an Irish boy. Yet, Huck’s Irishness has largely been ignored or erased over the past century. Similarly, T.S. Eliot’s character Sweeney appears in many plays and poems, including “The Wasteland.” Yet, the significance of his Irishness is also overlooked. This talk will consider the importance of Irish ethnicity to these foundational Irish texts by non-Irish writers and how it helped shape popular understandings of what it means to be Irish in America.
Tickets – $5.00 (Students with ID $2.00) Sorry we cannot accept GAC script or credit cards
Help us plan seating and refreshments by registering in advance. Register online at: gaclectures@gmail.com Subject: Irish History. Please provide name, address, phone and email.
Sunday May 14 | 2 Seatings
12pm-1:30pm or 2pm-3:30pm
Buffet style meal & a complimentary glass of Prosecco for Mom!
$35/person, $15/children 12 & under Reservations Required
Email tommyflaherty62@gmail.com
In your email please specify what seating time and how many in your party – limit 8 to a table. Include #adults, #kids, and a phone number. Space is Limited RSVP ASAP to ensure your desired seating time. Note: the GAC accepts credit cards, along with scrip cards and cash.
MEMORIAL DAY BBQ MONDAY MAY 29TH FROM 12-3PM
Good food & great entertainment with music by AleHounds (1-4)
No reservation needed just come on down and enjoy a fun afternoon for the entire family!
(Bring a guest – but please sign’em in)
“Cead mile failte, 100,000 welcomes. Ireland and the Irish are famous for that sentiment, for the sincerity of their welcome and I want you to feel that uniquely Irish sentiment here today. I want you to feel like you’ve been welcomed home.
This past year, Ireland has felt much further away than any time is our life time and we appreciate even more our heritage, our culture and our home. We appreciate even more what’s it like to have a club like this, where we can feel that welcome, where we can meet a friend, enjoy their company, truly like a home away from home.
We pray that in this coming year, we can reflect NOT on what we’ve lost this past year, but what we’ve gained. An appreciation of what is truly precious in this life, the connection to those we love, and a deeper appreciation of what home and family really means.
We, as a community have learned that we must never take for granted what it means to have a home like this to come to. We must always remember the work the previous generations of Irish men and women have invested, and we must endeavor to continue their work so that our children can feel the same connection to our heritage that brought you all here today.
So today I wish you, with all my heart, Cead mile failte. Welcome home, and a very Happy St Patrick’s Day.”
The GAC will update safetyprecautions as necessary
KITCHEN HOURS
Wednesday & Thursday: Kitchen open at 4 closes at 9pm
Friday: Kitchen open at 4 and closes at 10pm
Saturday: Kitchen open at 12 and closes at 10pm
Sunday: Kitchen open at 12 and closes at 8pm
EXTENDED PUB HOURS
Wednesday & Thursday open till 10pm
Friday & Saturday open till 12pm
Sunday open till 9pm
The GAC Accepts All Forms of Payment Cash, Credit Cards or Scrip.
(Left to right) John Foley President of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield, Inc. Amy O’Shea Vice President of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield, Inc. Connecticut State Senator Tony Hwang Dr. Christine Kinealy PhD founding director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute Gerry Forde President of the Gaelic-American Club.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians hosted breakfast at the Gaelic-American Club on Sunday March 6th and a total of $10,000 was donated to the Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield, Inc.
Dr. Kinealy was the guest speaker for the event and was introduced by Amy O’Shea. The following was Amy’s speech.
“Good morning everyone. My name is Amy O’Shea and I’m delighted to be the very first speaker from Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield.
The journey you join us on today started when a few Gaelic-American board members joined the fight to reopen a shuttered museum in Hamden and it continued months later when we hosted an event there in the pouring rain in October.
What followed was months of quiet negotiations and representation of the Irish-American community in Connecticut.
Months of late night phone calls, text messages, emails and meetings in Hamden and Fairfield which lead us to this momentous decision by Quinnipiac on Friday.
The decision to transfer this great collection to the Gaelic American Club right here in Fairfield.
We are so very grateful that Quinnipiac is entrusting us with this incredibly important and prestigious collection and we fully understand and are prepared for the enormity of the responsibility we have undertaken.
The announcement has already been met with such an unbelievable outpouring of support from the Irish American community and we thank you for joining this small group at the beginning of our journey.
Over the coming months we will build something new and beautiful and we will show the world that Irish-America is as strong as ever. We will build on the story that Dr. John Lahey started and we will tell the story of our ancestors and how we got here.
Today I have the great honor to introduce someone who knows this great collection like no other and one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Great Hunger. It is truly my great pleasure to introduce Dr. Christine Kinealy.”
A total of $10,000 was donated to the Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield, Inc. at the event. Many thanks to Ted Lovely family , the AOH for matching their donation and those who donated anonymously.
(For more information visit https://www.ighmf.org/)
Gaelic Football can be described as a mixture of soccer and rugby, although it predates both of those games. It is a field game which has developed as a distinct game similar to the progression of Australian Rules. Indeed it is thought that Australian Rules evolved from Gaelic Football through the many thousands who were either deported or immigrated to Australia from the middle of the nineteenth century. Gaelic Football is normally played on a pitch (playing field) approximately 137m long (150 yards) and 82m wide (90 yards).
The goalposts are the same shape as on a rugby pitch, with the crossbar lower than a rugby one and slightly higher than a soccer one. The ball used in Gaelic Football is round, slightly smaller than a soccer ball. It can be carried in the hand for a distance of four steps and can be kicked or “hand-passed”, a striking motion with the hand or fist (similar to serving in volleyball). After every four steps the ball must be either bounced or “solo-ed”, an action of dropping the ball onto the foot and kicking it back into the hand. You may not bounce the ball twice in a row. To score, you put the ball over the crossbar by foot or hand / fist for one point or under the crossbar and into the net by foot or hand / fist in certain circumstances for a goal, the latter being the equivalent of three points. Each team consists of fifteen players, lining out as follows: One goalkeeper, three full-backs, three half-backs, two midfielders, three half-forwards and three full-forwards.
Goalkeepers may not be physically challenged while inside their own small parallelogram, but players may harass them into playing a bad pass, or block an attempted pass. Teams are allowed a maximum of five substitutes in a game. Players may switch positions on the field of play as much as they wish but this is usually on the instructions of team officials. Officials for a game comprise of a referee, two linesmen (to indicate when the ball leaves the field of play at the side and to mark ’45” free kicks and 4 umpires (to signal scores, assist the referee in controlling the games, and to assist linesmen in positioning ’45’ frees). A goal is signaled by raising a green flag, placed to the left of the goal. A point is signaled by raising a white flag, placed to the right of goal. A ’45’/’65’ is signaled by the umpire raising his/her outside arm. A ‘square ball’, when a player scores having arrived in the ‘square’ prior to receiving the ball, is signaled by pointing at the small parallelogram.
Hurling
Hurling is a game similar to hockey, in that it is played with a small ball and a curved wooden stick. It is Europe’s oldest field game. When the Celts came to Ireland, as the last ice age was receding, they brought with them a unique culture, their own language, music, script and unique pastimes. One of these pastimes was a game now called hurling. It features in Irish folklore to illustrate the deeds of heroic mystical figures and it is chronicled as a distinct Irish pastime for at least 2,000 years.
The stick, or “hurley” (called camán in Irish) is curved outwards at the end, to provide the striking surface. The ball or “sliothar” is similar in size to a hockey ball but has raised ridges. Hurling is played on a pitch approximately 137m long and 82m wide. The goalposts are the same shape as on a rugby pitch, with the crossbar lower than a rugby one and slightly higher than a soccer one.
You may strike the ball on the ground, or in the air. Unlike hockey, you may pick up the ball with your hurley and carry it for not more than four steps in the hand. After those steps you may bounce the ball on the hurley and back to the hand, but you are forbidden to catch the ball more than twice. To get around this, one of the skills is running with the ball balanced on the hurley To score, you put the ball over the crossbar with the hurley or under the crossbar and into the net by the hurley for a goal, the latter being the equivalent of three points. Each team consists of fifteen players, lining out as follows: 1 goalkeeper, three full-backs, three half-backs, two midfielders, three half-forwards and three full-forwards.
Thursday May 25th@ noon with our special guest The Youthful Hearts so come enjoy the music!
Please make reservations by Sunday 05/21 Lunch price is $9 members. non-members $11 Shirley McMenamy 203-268-5083;Sally Savage 203-366-4826.
Lunch price is $9 members. non-members $11 Please make Reservations by phoning: Shirley McMenamy 203-268-5083; or Sally Savage 203-366-4826. Senior Lunch is generally the last Thursday, of the month at 12 noon. But please do call for reservations by the Sunday prior to the Lunch. Cost for lunch $7 for members and $9 for non-members. Shirley McMenamy 203-268-5083; Sally Savage 203-366-4826.
Are you retired with some free time? Why not get active with the GAC Seniors? Join us for Senior Lunch on the last Thursday of the month.
Celtic Rovers on the Road
for more information:
Ann Ford Roach, 292 Parkwood Rd., Fairfield, CT 06824. Call 203-520-1677
Other Senior Activities include:
Day Trips
Bingo & 50/50 raffle
Movie viewings
Musical entertainment
The Senior group also participates in charity activities for organizations like Operation Hope, Turkey Drive, Under the Bridge, Salvation Army, and the Merton House.
For more info contact Faith Maciver at fmaciver@easct.com or 203-520-8048.