Grades are Posted

The Fall Semester Grades for the Irish History and Literature class have been posted and should be available through the my.gcc site. Questions about the grades should go to Mr.Doyle. Questions about your essays should go to Dr.Queen. Good Luck; see you next year.

Questions for the Final Exam Essay

Our Final Exam is Friday, December 11th at 1:30PM in our regular classroom. Here are your options:

1. Our study of Irish history, literature and culture has shown a profound impact of forces from Britain and Europe (and to a lesser extent, North America) on Ireland. From the point of view of modern-day Ireland, what have been the most important influences from abroad? How have those influences been expressed in Irish literature? Are there any challenges left to the Irish from the legacy of those forces?

or

2. If you were to visit Ireland, what would you most be interested in seeing? What would you be least interested in? Be sure to support your itinerary with examples from history and literature!

John Millington Synge

Playboy of the Western World

Project Bartleby Version (with numbers)

Clip from a Galway production of the play

Clip from a NJ production

James Joyce

Araby

The Dead

The Lass of Aughrim (Frank Paterson)

Another clip "all the living and the dead"

Portrait of an Artist

Ulysses

Joyce reads a bit from Finnegan's Wake

William Butler Yeats Reads the Lake Isle of Innisfree

William Butler Yeats reads the Lake Isle of Innisfree

An actor reads Easter 1916

Music We've been Playing in Class

Album Title - Artist - Style
Irish Rebel Songs - The Battering Ram - group vocals
The Parting Tide - Nightnoise - Celtic new age, some artists from the Bothy Band
The Golden Dawn - Loretto Reid & Brian Taheny - excellent tin whistle
The Man that I Am - Sean Keane - solo vocalist
Here Among Strangers - Siucra - US-based Celtic ensemble
The Best of Altan - Altan - Donegal-base ensemble, hot fiddle, great Gaelic vocals
Riverdance, Music from the Show - Bill Whelan - featuring various artists
Best of the Bothy Band - The Bothy Band - groundbreaking ensemble trad band, with great vocals
The Chieftains 8 -The Chieftains - the first and the best Irish trad ensemble
The Long Black Veil - The Chieftains
Live From Dublin - The Chieftains
Live - Celtic Thunder - boy band, great vocals lush arrangements
The Back Door - Cherish the Ladies - my favorite group US based - all women - all very talented, group flute and whistle work
Threads of Time - Cherish the Ladies
This is the Day - Christy Moore - traveling balladeer, singer, song writer
Irish Blessings - Dennis Doyle - your humble instructor, US based traveling bard specialises in pieces by Carolan and Celtic Spirituality
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem - classic Irish vocal ensemble, heard on the Ed Sullivan show, most of the music from the collection of Sarah Makem
Deanta Live - Deanta - ensemble out of Donegal, excellent instrumentallists
Wild Blue - Eileen Ivers - one of the top Irish America fiddlers, versatile,exciting, worked with Mick Moloney, Cherish the Ladies and Riverdance, now does world music
Immigrant Soul - Eileen Ivers
Watermark - Enya - related to the Clannad ensemble, then took traditional Gaelic song into a new age direction
Shepherd Moons - Enya
Ancient Rite - Eoin Duignan - excellent flute and tin whistle from the Dingle area
Half Moon Bay - Gerry O'Beirne - excellent soulful guitar player and vocalist, also produces others, worked with Patrick Street
Blath Gach Geag da dTig - Lillis O Laoire - sean nos singer works in Limerick
Great Songs of Ireland and Scotland - Men of Worth - Scoth-Irish ensemble US based
Far From the Shamrock Shore - Mick Moloney - classic trad vocalist, banjo player, now college professor from Limerick but working in Philadelphia, expert on early Irish-American ballads
The Best of the Pogues - The Pogues - ultimate Irish punk experience
Bonny Bunch of Rose - Seamus Ennis - classic trad vocalist
The Brendan Voyage - Shaun Davey - lush arrangments for the uillean pipes
Harmonic Motion - Slide - jazzy, upbeat instrumentals with original songs
For Love and Laughter - Solas - classic upbeat instruments with top musicians from Ireland
The Ultimate Collection - Clannad - Gaelic songs and instrumentals from Donegal, some Carolan
Flight of Green Linnet - Various Artists - sampler from the Green Linnet Label
The Lark in the Morning - Various Artists
Noirin Ni Riain - Noirin Ni Riain - Gregorian Chant through a sean nos and Celtic filter
From My Tradition - Seosamh O hEanai (Joe Heaney) - Classic Sean Nos from a Connamara native who lived in the USA

Writer Mary Pat Kelly Visits our Class

Mary Pat Kelly's most recent book is a fictionalized account of her family's emmigration from Ireland to Chicago during the Potato Famine.

More about the author and her book.