Was over at the Irish Consulate this past week for a networking event and was very pleased to hear Dennis Brownlee, founder and president of the African American Irish Diaspora Network, and Prof. Christine Kinealy, founding director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute and a director at AAIDN, speak and also pay tribute to the great Lenford “Leni” Sloan as part of the Consulate’s Black History Month celebration. Sloan, who died in December, did groundbreaking work, often in partnership with legendary musician and scholar Mick Moloney, that explored and celebrated the historical connections between the Irish and African-American communities. Sloan’s work with Moloney in the area was preserved in Susan Wittenberg’s 2025 documentary “Two Roads,” which is now available through Prime Video. It was fabulous to see Sloan’s contributions recognized in such a nice setting, congratulations to the Consulate on hosting a fine event!
In other news, congratulations to accordion player Diarmuid Ó Meachair on his new endorsement from Saltarelle accordions! After a chance meeting at a festival in France last summer, Saltarelle’s owner approached Ó Meachair with the notion and as a result, you’ll now see Ó Meachair playing out on two different Saltarelles, one tuned C#/D and the other D/D#.
Ó Meachair is, of course, deeply deserving of this honor. From Cúil Aodha in Co. Cork, he’s released four solo albums that have yielded three RTÉ Folk Award nominations, has played and toured with De Dannan, and in 2022 was awarded Ceoltóir Óg na Bliana (Young Musician of the Year) at the TG4 Gradam Ceoil. With this endorsement, he follows in the footsteps of other brilliant Saltarelle players like Máirtín O’Connor and Jackie Daly. Congrats all around!
Next up, a bit of news for those inspired by historical research and resources: on Feb. 6, the University of Galway launched An Gaodhal Project. The project, years in the making, has culminated in a searchable digital edition of “An Gaodhal,” the world’s first bilingual Irish-English language newspaper. Published in Brooklyn between 1881-1898, “An Gaodhal” included articles, letters, advertisements, folklore, poetry, and songs among its contents and – significantly – it invited a surprising amount of content from its readers. It’s a fascinating look into the Irish community at the time, not so much from an explicitly journalistic point of view, but because the paper had a role as a community registry and a grassroots platform for cultural exchange. If you’re careful and use it constructively, you can get striking perspective on how people in that moment were thinking about and engaging with Irish culture.
Created through a partnership between the University of Galway and New York University, this project is not simply a cultural success, it’s a technological success as well. Much of this has to do with the effort that went into marrying Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, technology with artificial intelligence. This technological work facilitated the indexing of the Cló Gaelach Irish-language script, which has proven a real breakthrough!.
The An Gaodhal Project will absolutely shed new light. With much of this era yet to be explored, particularly by monolingual researchers, I expect it will help extend the scholarship! Thanks the Deirdre Ní Chonghaile for bringing this to my attention [link to: https://www.irishecho.com/2021/8/inspiring-fascinating-scholarship]! For more information and a far more detailed analysis of the An Gaodhal Project’s method and goals, visit here.
Finally, after last week’s feature on Sony Hall’s St. Patrick’s season concert series, I got a message from the Dervish camp to let me know that beginning Feb. 27, the band will be featured on its own PBS special! “The Great Irish Song Book” is aimed at celebrating the Irish tradition of song and will feature Dervish performing alongside several incredible guests, including David Gray, Imelda May, Moya Brennan, the Indigo Girls, Kate Rusby, Brian Kennedy, Kevin Burke, and Cara Dillon.
From the preview, the program sounds like it will be incredible, but it will have a look to match, as it will feature scenic footage from around Ireland alongside concert footage taken in venues large and small, from places like the London Palladium and Dublin’s National Concert Hall to those like Leo’s Tavern, in Meenaleck, Co. Donegal.
“The Great Irish Song Book” will premiere on Feb. 27! Check your local listings for time, it will also be available for streaming through PBS Passport membership. Dervish's North American tour starts March 7, visit here for information about dates and venues.
