Emerald Isle Irish Festival thanks community foundation for support
BEAVER ISLAND — The Emerald Isle Irish Festival has announced that they are the recipients of yet another grant from the Charlevoix County Community Foundation to support the Sept. 8 and 9, 2023 Féile.
This grant of $1,500 from the Geographic Enrichment Cycle will help offset the cost — estimated at $4,740 — of bringing the Milwaukee Currach Club and members of the Boston Currach Club to the 2023 Irish Festival for an American Currach Association-sanctioned regatta.
The currach is a flat-bottomed Irish boat with no keel that has been used in Ireland for centuries for fishing, transportation and rescue; and, now for racing. Currachs have a hand-made wooden frame and are today covered in canvas that is hardened and water-proofed with oil-based paint; older currachs were covered in cow hide and tarred. The introduction of currach racing in Michigan is expected to generate nationwide enthusiasm and lead to future sanctioned regattas, drawing rowers from the traditional Irish Currach racing strongholds of Boston, Philadelphia, Albany, Annapolis and Milwaukee.
According to festival organizers, the community foundation's support started with the inaugural Féile in 2019 with a grant of $1,000 from the SUN fund.
After COVID-19 related delays, the Féile was reborn in 2022 with help from the community foundation. The community foundation provided $4,600 through the Community Priorities Grant Cycle on May 1, 2022, which allowed the festival to bring acclaimed Irish musician Aoife Scott and Band from Ireland to Beaver Island as a core component of the 2022 Emerald Isle Irish Féile. Scott’s presence reinforced the connection between Beaver Island and Ireland and complemented the other scheduled artists and cultural activities.
The Emerald Isle Irish Féile directly and authentically benefits the arts and culture of Beaver Island, as organizers said the whole purpose of the event is to strengthen and enrich the community’s connection to its Irish cultural heritage through the arts.
The Charlevoix County Community Foundation’s SUN Grant also assisted the festival by providing $1,000 for the publication of an eight-page festival program. The program is a keepsake and can be viewed at the Féile website.
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The 2023 Féile (festival) is slated for Sept. 8 and 9. The theme is "Historic Island to Island: Celebrating the Connection between Arranmore Island IRE and Beaver Island USA."
Beaver Island is referred to as America’s Emerald Isle because of its unique Irish heritage dating back to the mid 1800s when hundreds of Irish migrated to the island from Ireland, a trend that continued into the early 1900s. The early settlers to America’s Emerald Isle came primarily from County Donegal and specifically from Arranmore Island off the Northwest coast of Donegal. Today’s year-round Beaver Island population still reflects these Irish family names: Boyle, Connaghan, Gallagher, Green, McCafferty, McDonough and O’Donnell, for example. Beaver Island place names also attest to this Irish heritage: Mike Boyle’s Beach, Martin’s Bluff, Paid Een Og Road and Donegal Bay, to name a few.
A focal point of the 2023 festival will be bringing the Arranmore Pipe Band to Beaver Island, which will be an historical event for both islands as there is a long ancestral and cultural connection attached to both islands. The person that will be leading the pipe band is Finbar Gallagher, a descendant of the first Gallaghers to settle on Beaver Island.
— Contact reporter Annie Doyle at (231) 675-0099 or adoyle@charlevoixcourier.com
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Emerald Isle Irish Festival thanks community foundation for support
