America’s Other Irish Continues The Irish Legacy.

(Newswire.net — November 3, 2016) Franklin, TN — Each year sees a myriad of gatherings to celebrate the Irish culture amongst the guild that is fondly known as America’s Other Irish. From Savannah, Georgia, for a St. Patrick’s Day parade which has been rated as the second largest in the USA, to Dallas, Texas for the North Texas Irish festival (running since the 1980’s) to Jackson MS, a wonderful celebration of Irish music, song and dance that takes place every year, the first weekend after Labor Day. 

Each year sees a new city adding an Irish music festival to the calendar. In 2016, LaFayette, Louisiana added their name to the pot literally and metaphorically as the the Cajun Jambalaya and Irish music and craic came bubbling to the top. 

And Franklin, Tennessee is about to add their name to the list, playing host to an event with a unique twist. An Irish music and culture celebration where the music performances are based around a small area in Ireland known as East Galway.

“The East Galway Irish Music Tradition comes from the eastern part of the county of Galway in Ireland” explains Irish expatriate, Éilís Crean, founder of The Irish Gift, Inc, a company whose purpose is to promote and preserve this rare Irish music style that is in danger of dying out.

“Down through the years, the style has been alive and circulating in the seisiúns (jamming sessions) of the villages and towns of East Galway. People like Joe Burke and Conor Tully can still be heard in a local seisiún in Loughrea or Gort. The parish of Eyrecourt/Clonfert and Meelick was a major area for button accordion players, including Eddie Kelly, a legendary button accordion and fiddle player. He taught me the style when he moved from Eyrecourt to Castlerea, Co. Roscommon” continues Crean as she reminisces about learning the music from Kelly as a young girl growing up in Ireland.

“It is much harder to find the style outside of that area and even harder to find it here in the USA.  When I mention the East Galway Irish Music Tradition or particularly Eddie Kelly, people recognize Eddie’s name because of a few of his well-know compositions, yet hardly anyone knows that he plays the East Galway style or how passionate that he is in keeping this style alive. I became determined to create a space in this country, however small that it may be, where the music of Eddie Kelly and the East Galway Irish music tradition could be heard”

And that vision is about to be realized in McCreary’s Irish Pub, a bustling and friendly eatery located in the heart of downtown Franklin.

“Ever since I moved to the Nashville area six years ago, the interest and support for the roots of the Irish musical heritage has been heartening and energizing” says Éilís. “None moreso than Natasha Hendrix, the proprietor of McCreary’s Irish Pub. In the past few years we have taken small steps to bring together the Irish community in this area and as with all ventures that are starting out, the initial progress has been slow. And now we are excited about 2017”

McCrearys will host a live music performance of the East Galway Irish music tradition, one Saturday of every month, starting in January 2017. This will be the first of it’s kind in Tennessee and quite possibly the USA. Crean will have visiting Irish music artists to join her each month where the music featured will be from her debut album The Lonesome Fiddler and music from her second album which will be released in Spring 2017. The second album will feature twenty-three Eddie Kelly music compositions that will be circulated for the first time. 

This monthly performance is part of a larger collaborative venture between The Irish Gift, Inc, McCreary’s Irish Pub and The Big East Fork Retreat.

“The preeminent story here is that in 2017 we will unveil the first chapter of an Irish Music Academy that is dedicated to the teaching and performances of the East Galway Irish Music Tradition.”

“The Irish Gift Music Academy has an online music school which will be launched over the next few months. This online classroom will be supplemented with in-person workshops to be scheduled every three months and will take place at The Big East Fork Retreat with performances at McCreary’s. The difference in what we do at The Irish Gift, is that we teach and explain that the music is part of a bigger tradition that is multi-fold; it is the meaningfulness of both happy and sad times, it is community and the coming together through music; the value for the simple things in life. It’s music, dance, song, storytelling. Quite simply, it’s part of the Irish Folklore and shouldn’t be separated out from the rest of it” explains Crean.

And Franklin is all about Folklore, history and stories including stories of fallen Irish heroes. Patrick Cleburne was an Irish-born American soldier and a Major General in the Confederate army. He was known as “Stonewall of the West” and after many successful battles where he led his men to victory, he was slain in 1864, at the Battle of Franklin. The impact of his death was keenly felt and the memory of the Irishman lives on in Franklin, being  described by one as ‘A meteor shining from a clouded sky’. A park was created at the scene of his death, such is the veneration and respect for this local Irish hero.

And the Irish culture lives on in Franklin, as this town continues to memorialize their Irish companions through it’s advocacy of The Irish Gift, Inc and all her dreams to preserve Irish folklore and music in this area.

 

For more information about The Irish Gift, Inc programming send an email to eiliscrean@gmail.com or visit the website www.theirishgift.com.