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The go-to guy for Irish accents

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Speaking Synge

Stephen Gabis comes across like speech therapy. That's because Mr. Gabis is a go-to dialect coach whose craft can be heard on Broadway and beyond.
He just did a production of "The Playboy of the Western World" for Queens College, NY. It's one of the most difficult things. I find it tougher than Shakespeare, that particular play by John Millington Synge.
He went to the Aran Islands and literally listened to people through keyholes. English was the second language. Most of them spoke Irish Gaelic first, and the specific Gaelic of that province, of Connacht. It's written in convoluted language. You can't say "I love you." You say things like [speaking in an Irish accent], "It is to you I might be thinking of giving love next Thursday if I'm not milking the cows and stuck somewhere because I drank too much." [back to an American accent] It's a real roundabout way of speaking. It's tonal, like Chinese.
WITH talk of diphthongs and tongue positions, a dialogue session with  His fluency with accents helps make the rounded vowels of "The Seafarer" or the dropped r's of "To Kill a Mockingbird" sound authentic enough to sometimes fool even native speakers of the represented regions.
Read the full NYTimes profile here

Tenement Museum Reflects New York Irish Immigration

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A wake was probably held on April 21, 1869, in a cramped walk-up at 97 Orchard Street. A 5-month-old girl, Agnes Moore, had died that morning of malnutrition. Her Irish immigrant parents, Joseph and Bridget, may have invited the German immigrant neighbors in the building and some co-workers from the saloons and restaurants where Mr. Moore worked to visit and mourn, as well as the Catholic priest who had baptized Agnes.


Librado Romero/The New York Times

The recreation of Joseph and Bridget Moore's 1869 bedroom and kitchen.

Librado Romero/The New York Times

A coffin for the Moores' 5-month-old daughter, Agnes.

There's more at the New York Times here

Inishmaan revival brings Irish cast to New York stage

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Over a decade after its original London premiere, Martin McDonagh's dark comedy stage play The Cripple of Inishmaan comes to the U.S. after a recent tour in Britain and Dublin.

 


Click here
 
 

The Atlantic Theater Company revival keeps its full Irish cast when it hits the Linda Gross Theater on Dec. 9 through Feb. 1. The story takes audiences to the Inishmaan - the middle Aran Island off the coast of Ireland - of 1934.

 The play's "Cripple" character, Billy Claven, sets his sights on being featured by Hollywood documentarians hoping to capture life on the Aran Islands.

 The play's narrative connects to the real life filming of the 1934's "Man of Aran," the Robert J. Flaherty production that portrayed native life - staged and unstaged.

 Claven is portrayed by Aaron Monaghan (pictured), with support from Kerry Condon as Slippy Helen.

 

Inishmaan revival, Irish cast to grace New York stage

Other cast members include Andrew Connolly, Dearbhla Molloy, Marie Mullen and Patricia O'Connell.

 The production is directed by Garry Hynes. Hynes is a co-founder of Druid Theater Company, which is co-producing this production.

 
McDonagh, whose recent film endeavors offered 2006 Academy Award-winning short "Six Shooter" and the Sundance Film Festival-premiered "In Bruges," penned two other stories following "Inishmaan" to complete what became the Aran Islands trilogy.

 

 Though the Irish playwright's third installment of the trilogy never saw the stage, the second - "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" - was given life, and it garnered a Tony Award for "Best Play" in 2006.
There's more from Andy Smith at The Irish World here

SYNOPSIS
Set in 1934 on an island off the west coast of Ireland, Hollywood filmmaker Robert Flaherty arrives on the neighboring island of Inishmore to film his movie 'The Man of Aran' and excitement ripples through the sleepy community of Inishmaan. For orphaned Billy Craven, who has been relentlessly scorned by the island's inhabitants, the film represents an escape from the poverty of his existence. He vies for a part in the film, and to everyone's surprise, it is the cripple who gets his chance.

Atlantic is thrilled to co-produce 'The Cripple of Inishmaan' with Druid, Galway, with whom we collaborated on 1998's Tony Award® winning production of 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane.'

by MARTIN McDONAGH
directed by GARRY HYNES
A co-production with Druid, Galway

with Kerry Condon, Andrew Connolly, Laurence Kinlan, Dearbhla Molloy, Aaron Monaghan, Marie Mullen, Patricia O'Connell, David Pearse, John C. Vennema

Designed by Francis O'Connor
Lighting Design by Davy Cunningham
Sound Design by John Leonard
Composer Colin Towns


To Buy Tickets in Person
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Ellis Island's first immigrant honoured

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LUCY KENNEDY in New York

FOR 84 years, the body of Annie Moore lay in in an unmarked grave in the New York borough of Queens.

On Saturday, a monument was erected at Calvary Cemetery commemorating the first person - Irish or otherwise - to be registered at New York's Ellis Island immigration centre.

Moore, who was aged just 17 when she arrived on Ellis Island on January 1st, 1892, had long been thought to have moved to America's west coast, and was reputed to have married a descendent of Daniel O'Connell.

But in 2006 genealogist Megan Smolenyak discovered that Moore married a German-American baker and lived on Manhattan's Lower East side.

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mini-Synge fest from coast to coast

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Members of the Irish theater company
Druid perform two John Millington
Synge plays as part of the Cal Perf-
ormances season in Berkeley. Photo
courtesy of Druid
October 9, 10:54 AM
by Chad Jones, S.F. Theater Examiner

Americans have been spared all 8 ½ hours of Druid's mammoth "DruidSynge" cycle of John Millington Synge plays. But in California they did get nearly three hours we do get.

Founded in Galway, Ireland in 1975 by fresh-faced theater graduates Garry Hynes, Marie Mullen and Mick Lally, Druid was the first professional theater company formed outside of Dublin (and its name hails from the "Asterix" comics).

In the more than 30 years of its existence, Druid has become a theatrical force in Ireland (along with The Abbey and The Gate), introducing the world to the work of Martin McDonagh and re-introducing the work of Synge in a 2005 cycle of all six Synge plays performed in one long stretch. "DruidSynge" traveled the world, and now, in a slightly reduced state, it makes its Bay Area debut as part of the Cal Performances series in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, who provides its Roda Theatre for the event.

Druid's traveling presentation comprises two plays: the short but potent "The Shadow of the Glen" and Synge's best known work, the beguiling "The Playboy of the Western World."

This mini-Synge fest, which opened Wednesday, Oct. 8, and continues through Sunday, Oct. 12, offers a unique opportunity to see Synge performed without the Irish cutesiness that so often accompanies American attempts at these dark, curious plays.

Directed by Hynes (the first woman to win a best director Tony for her work on McDonagh's "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" in 1998), these two plays are a fascinating double feature. Both feature men who are supposed to be dead but turn out not to be dead. Both plots are essentially fired up by protagonists striking out against the tyranny of deep country loneliness. And both feature Irish peasantry that seems as fantastical and poetic as something out of Shakespeare by way of Beckett by way of Gaelic mythology.

In "Shadow" we enter into a grim country home. The lady of the house (Catherine Walsh) is watching over the body of her recently deceased husband (Tom Hickey) when a tramp (Peter Gowen) drops in the hope of receiving some sustenance and getting out of the rain.

Within the half hour, the dead has arisen and lives are completely re-ordered amid much shouting and accusation hurling. No one is going gently into any good night here.

"Playboy" is, of course, the centerpiece of the evening, but the echoes of "Shadow" resonate. Hynes has set a tone of antic grimness, and that explodes in "Playboy," which is more of an outright comedy - a farce even, at some points.

Things must be pretty dull in the coastal region of Mayo because the arrival of a stranger named Christy Mahon (Simon Boyle) throws the whole area into a tizzy. Christy claims he has killed his father, and that badge of lawlessness makes him appealing to just about everyone, especially the fiery Pegeen Mike (Sarah-Jane Drummey), who will gladly dump her churchy fiancé (Marcus Lamb) for this hyperactive young murderer.

The whole town clamors for Christy - until his father shows up, very much not dead. Oh, how fickle the folk can be. You're a superstar celebrity one moment, the object of a lynching the next.

Hynes and her actors masterfully balance the darkness and the comedy, which makes for a strangely textured but highly enjoyable evening. The sadness, drinking and desperation that run through each play are tinged with manic comedy and laughter in the face of death.

Apparently there were riots at the opening of both these Synge plays back in the early part of the 20th century because of the way he portrayed Irish peasantry, and especially the way he portrayed women. But here in the 21st century, Synge seems a master of many levels - an ironic farceur laughing through the pub and the graveyard.


 Retired US senator George Mitchell, who steered the tough negotiations that led to lasting peace in Northern Ireland, threw his support Thursday behind fellow Democrat Barack Obama in the US presidential race.

Speaking to local newspaper editors in his home state of Maine, Mitchell said he was "quite good friends" with Republican contender John McCain, having sat in the US Senate with him for 10 years.

"I think he's a good guy; I just think that Barack Obama is the right guy to be president," he told the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal editorial board, in an interview carried on their website.

Mitchell said am Obama presidency would represent a sea change after the eight-year administration of President George W. Bush which, he argued, had landed the United States in a serious financial crisis and lowered the nation's esteem in the eyes of the world.

Of McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Mitchell -- who brokered the Good Friday peace accord in 1998 that ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland that cost around 3,000 lives -- said she was unknown to him.

Her husband Todd Palin, a endurance snowmobile racer, is to campaign for McCain and his wife this weekend in Maine where the Republican ticket has the support of the state's 30,000-member snowmobile association.

The George Mitchell Scholarship

   

US presidential candidate Barack Obama has backed calls for an inquiry into the murder of Northern Ireland solicitor Pat Finucane, campaigners said today.

Two Irish-American lobby groups said they had secured the senator's support for the campaign to compel the British government to allow an independent, international probe into the killing.

Mr Finucane was shot dead in front of his family by loyalist paramilitaries in 1989, but the security forces have repeatedly been implicated in the killing of the solicitor, who had represented republican suspects.

The British government has faced widespread criticism for its attempts to examine the case under new public inquiry legislation that critics say would allow ministers to intervene to obstruct the search for the truth.

Tonight the Irish-American Unity Conference said it had secured Mr Obama's support for a fully independent inquiry, as recommended in a report compiled for the British government by Canadian Judge Peter Cory.

"We are extremely grateful to senator Obama for lending us his support," said the murdered solicitor's son, Michael Finucane.

"As senator Obama points out, this was a recommendation of Judge Cory as a way to look at all the very serious circumstances arising out of the death of Pat Finucane.

"And it is a recommendation that has not been implemented by the British government."

In response to a questionnaire on establishing a truth process for Northern Ireland, Mr Obama's team said: "senator Obama would support a reconciliation process that seeks the comprehensive truth about past violence."

It added: "senator Obama believes there should be an independent, public inquiry as Judge Cory recommended."

Michael Finucane said the 20th anniversary of his father's death was to be marked next year and added that the campaign to uncover the truth of what happened would continue.

"As senator Obama himself points out, disclosure of information would increase community confidence in the security forces and ultimately the institutions responsible for shaping the new society," said Mr Finucane.

"In order to ensure that this society has the best chances of success, difficult issues such as the death of Pat Finucane must be completely and publicly addressed."



Last year Senator Obama was asked about the controversial Pentagon contract with LT Col Tim  Spicer, the former Scots Guards officer whose troops murdered Peter Mc Brideand calledfor the Aegis contract to be rescinded.
PFC July 08

"...As you know, the CEO of Aegis Defense Services Tim Spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe.  Given his history, I agree that the United States should consider rescinding its contract with his company." US Senator Barack Obama

SEVENTY TWO YEAR OLD Roger Kearney of Troy, Ohio stopped joking about his humble roots when he read an article about Barack Obama's Irish ancestry and realized he is a distant cousin, writes Carol Simmons

In the decade or so since he  first researched his family tree, and Kearney has often joked that there were no dignitaries nor horse thieves amidst its branches -- mostly just hard working, salt of the earth folks who helped settle rural Ohio 

(Read the full Cleveland Plain Dealer investigation here)

A supporter of Obama's presidential bid even before he knew of their family relationship, Kearney is delighted by his personal connection to the candidate.

But he certainly wasn't prepared for some of the "hateful" reactions he's received in response to the identity of this distant cousin. He said both overt and covert racist remarks have galvanized him to work even harder on Obama's behalf.


But we now know that the Democratic presidential candidate is a direct descendant of Fulmoth Kearney, who left Moneygall, Ireland, as a young man in 1850 to come to Ohio's Ross County.

The contemporary Kearney, who traces his family to the same Moneygall clan, estimates that Sen. Obama is his fourth cousin, three times removed.

"A lot of Kearneys lived here (in Ohio) in the mid-1800s," settling in Ross, Pickaway and Fayette counties, Kearney said on Sunday, Oct. 5, the day the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer published an extensive story tracing Obama's Ohio family tree.

The Kearney name eventually spread across the country, although many descendents remained in Ohio.

Obama's local relatives include the award-winning chef and restaurateur Anne Kearney, the proprietress of Rue Dumaine in Washington Twp.

"She's a cousin," Roger said.

"There are a number of other cousins in Dayton, and some in Washington Court House and Springfield," he added.

Being related to someone who grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, the son of a Kenyan father and a Kansas-born mother, "shows you what a small world it is," Kearney said.

(Read more from the Cleveland Plain Dealer investigation here)

Obama, Chicago and the Irish

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Before he was the trailblazing Democratic nominee for president, Barack Obama was an ambitious young politician who learned a valuable lesson thanks to the Chicago Irish.

The year was 1999. Obama, a state senator, announced he was going to challenge Congressman Bobby L. Rush, a legend in the working-class African-American wards of Chicago's South Side. Decades earlier, the South Side was heavily Irish. It was the world that James T. Farrell recreated in his famous Studs Lonigan trilogy of novels from the 1930s.

In fact, for all the changes in Chicago, the same rules have always applied when it comes to politics: you have to pay your dues before you challenge a veteran.

Meanwhile, though it's true that the district that Obama hoped to win was 65 percent black, it also had "several relatively affluent Irish-American neighborhoods," as The New York Times noted recently.

Obama (himself Irish on his mother's side) was ultimately trounced in the South Side race, and learned that when it came to Windy City politics, he still had some dues to pay.

Obama's loss illustrates key facts about the Chicago Irish experience. First, the Irish have been playing a crucial political role in Chicago for over 150 years. Furthermore, the Irish have always had to build coalitions among other racial, ethnic and religious groups. Often, they did so successfully, though other times, the result was tension and violence.

Either way, from Studs Lonigan, Michael Flatley and Mrs. O'Leary's infamous cow to Comiskey Park and O'Hare International Airport, the Irish have left a deep impression upon Chicago. Read the rest of Chicago and the Irish  by Tom Deignan



Way out West

The go-to guy for Irish accents
Speaking SyngeStephen Gabis comes across like speech therapy. That's because Mr. Gabis is a go-to dialect coach whose craft can…
Tenement Museum Reflects New York Irish Immigration
A wake was probably held on April 21, 1869, in a cramped walk-up at 97 Orchard Street. A 5-month-old girl,…
Inishmaan revival brings Irish cast to New York stage
Over a decade after its original London premiere, Martin McDonagh's dark comedy stage play The Cripple of Inishmaan comes…
Ellis Island's first immigrant honoured
LUCY KENNEDY in New YorkFOR 84 years, the body of Annie Moore lay in in an unmarked grave in the…
mini-Synge fest from coast to coast
Members of the Irish theater companyDruid perform two John MillingtonSynge plays as part of the Cal Perf-ormances season in…
N.Ireland peacemaker Mitchell endorses Obama
 Retired US senator George Mitchell, who steered the tough negotiations that led to lasting peace in Northern Ireland, threw his…
Obama supports independent inquiry into murder of Irish solicitor
    US presidential candidate Barack Obama has backed calls for an inquiry into the murder of Northern Ireland…
Obama's Irish relatives in southern Ohio endure racist jibes
SEVENTY TWO YEAR OLD Roger Kearney of Troy, Ohio stopped joking about his humble roots when he read an…
Obama, Chicago and the Irish
Before he was the trailblazing Democratic nominee for president, Barack Obama was an ambitious young politician who learned a…