Irish Cultural Centre celebrates 17 Days of March

For the second year, the Irish Cultural Centre of New England, located at 200 New Boston Drive, will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with various events and activities throughout the month of March. The month-long celebration, coined “The 17 Days of March,” is open to the general public and aims to expose attendees to multiple aspects of Irish heritage.

“St. Patrick’s Day is one of the premier holidays in the Irish community,” said Vanessa Leite, executive director of ICCNE. “Instead of celebrating just one day, we wanted to put together activities and events for the month leading up to St. Patrick’s Day.”

Events are segmented based on age and aim to incorporate all aspects of Irish culture, from dance and music to genealogy and history.

The anchor events for this year’s celebration include Noel V. Ginnity’s Irish Cabaret, a concert by the Joshua Tree, and the annual St. Patrick’s Open House.

Ginnity, a comedian, first gained fame for his cabaret at the Jurys Doyle Hotels in Dublin almost three decades ago. The cabaret on March 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m. will involve comedy and music provided by Irish tenor Paul Hennessy and soprano Emer Hartnett.

The Joshua Tree, a Boston-based band, is noted as one of the country’s top U2 cover bands and will perform at the Irish Cultural Centre March 18 at 8 p.m.

The open house is the longest-running St. Patrick’s Day event at the centre and the “known event of the year,” Leite said. Last year, the event drew more than 800 attendees, and about half were not members. The celebration on March 12 starts with a traditional Irish mass at 6 p.m. and includes three rooms of entertainment, complete with a traditional Irish band and a Celtic session.

The Irish Cultural Centre also plans to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in style.

“It will be just a grand, old traditional celebration of Ireland,” Leite said.

Doors open for the event at 3 p.m. Additionally, attendees will learn the winner of a five-day, four-night trip to Ireland. Anyone who becomes a member of the ICC through March 17 will be entered to win. Annual membership costs $50 for an individual and $130 for a family of four, and includes discounts to all of the centre’s events and programs as well as discounted rental fees for function facilities and special member-only events.

Leite and the staff at ICCNE have also worked to bring new events this year, including a genealogy lecture series on March 4 at 8 p.m., an Irish cooking class March 7 at 7 p.m., and a luncheon with the Irish Shamrock Club — the centre’s 55 and older group — March 2 at 12 p.m.

For more information on events, visit www.irishculture.org or call 781-821-8291.

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Posted by Jeffrey Cattel on Mar 3 2011. Filed under News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.