A pleasant high summer’s evening saw a great turnout for a mid-August salon at The Ellington in uptown Manhattan. Tonight’s host was Katharine McNair, an accomplished writer and director for stage and screen, and now a warm and welcoming emcee.
To start things off Katharine introduced Mark William Butler to the audience. Mark is a playwright and composer and a longtime member of the IAW&A. He gave us a quirky original composition from his musical “Ugly Christmas Sweaters.” Just to add a little snow to the spritzers, as he sang “life can be a blizzard…” More from Mark later.
There were heartfelt well wishes for the absent and sorely missed IAW&A President, Brendan Costello, before Maureen Kenney shared a story of her Irish immigrant grandparents and great-grandparents. It was a historical memoir of factory workers, bare-knuckle fights, “the Drink” and “the Pledge,” told to a hushed audience. Maureen publishes her stories in TIARA (The Irish Ancestral Research Association, Tiara.ie.) newsletter, and encourages others to share theirs.
Mark Butler.
Vinny Simpson’s stream of consciousness, time-hopping monologue was also biographical. He detailed the tough upbringing of immigrant kids of the 1960s through ’80s in Queens, N.Y. There were vignettes full of characters, like Flying Father Quinn, and quick-fire incidents that spurred memory and chuckles in equal measure.
There was a short interval where there was a chance to hear details of IAW&A member, Kate McLeod’s new show – “For the Love of Me” which started as monologues first heard at earlier salons. This will be performed at the American Irish Historical Society (AIHS.org) on Sept. 17 at 4 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. Tickets will be available on AIHS’s website.
After the half-time music of conversation subsided, the audience was treated to a scene from new work by playwright Maura Mulligan. County Mayo native Maura corralled three thespian friends to enact her words in “Cursing at Lughnasa.” The friends in question were actor, teacher and dancer Deirdre Danaher, actor and singer Jack DiMonte, and award-winning actor Terry Donnelly. Terry is well known to Dublin, London and New York theatre audiences, as well as film and television viewers. In 2019, Terry was awarded the Sustained Excellence Award from Irish Repertory Theatre. It was a thrill to see her at this salon.
The scene itself dramatized a hallucinatory encounter between John Durkan (Jack DiMonte) and his dead grandma, Ghost (Terry Donnelly). Deirdre Danaher provided narration. There was much humor and great use of vernacular in ghost granny’s enticing of her grandson to cook up a Trump curse using traditional ingredients including poitín, crúibíns and wild mountain thyme. This also gave way to song, as Jack showed off his crooning ability, and the audience got to join in and evoke memories of Malachy McCourt singing the same air in the same room not so long ago.
Katharine McNair.
And of Malachy McCourt, the IAW&A salon progenitor – his longtime friend, co-host and confidant John McDonagh, followed with details of an event in Dublin to commemorate Malachy’s passing.
At David Gilna's play, “A Bolt From D’Blue,” at the Lark Theatre in Balbriggan, Dublin, on Oct. 9, there will be a heartfelt tribute to Malachy McCourt live on stage. David will be joined by Malachy's daughter, Siobhan McCourt, along with John McDonagh and Al Gonzales, as they honor Malachy’s memory with his ashes. The tribute will also include video highlights from the Malachy McCourt Memorial at Sympathy Space in New York.
John McDonagh then recounted a howling tale of his own new found TikTok and Instagram stardom. They are even talking about his 90 seconds of fame in the August 12th edition of The New Yorker, although “you can’t buy a copy of that in Queens!” You can however still hear John on WBAI as the host of Radio Free Eireann.
Mark Butler rounded off the evening with a playful song that evoked traditional and popular Irish songs from the ages, a melodic fiddle-dee-dee medley!
Mark was an integral part of five of IAW&A’s Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award events, and Kathleen Walsh D’Arcy was on hand to tell us that the next Eugene O’Neill Award event will take place at The Ellington on Oct. 21 to honor writer and professor, Alice McDermott.
For more about the IAW&A visit iamwa.org; and for more about Katharine McNair, see her on Instagram @kikivandee.
