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The Baton Rouge Irish Club Board of Directors

Angie Daly, Laura McDavitt, Joe Sullivan, Denise Aymond, Allen Kinney, Liz Walker
Missing from photo Bob Kane

Upcoming events

A Message from the President of the Baton Rouge Irish Club

There are now over 50 members of the Baton Rouge Irish Club and we wish to welcome more.
We celebrate our culture and traditions in a variety of ways. Our club participates in the
Annual International Festival and the Saint Patrick's Parade. We actively support the Swamp Celt Games,
the Innisfree School of Irish Dance and similar events and organizations that promote Irish culture in the
Greater Baton Rouge area. We plan to expand our activities to include an Irish Music Concert, informal
gatherings to hear Irish music and to see and experience Irish jigs and reels, watch movies with Irish themes,
and to enjoy the abundance of food and beverages offered at Opie's Cajun Cafe on Government Street
in Baton Rouge. Our Board meetings are held on the third Thursday bimonthly and are open to all.
You are welcome to come and join us for some fun and fellowship!
There is much to learn and even more to celebrate!
Join us at the Baton Rouge Irish Club.

Cead mile failte! Ten Thousand Welcomes!

Joe Sullivan

The Importance of Irish Culture

Over 40 million Americans consider themselves Irish or Irish-American. For a nation similar in size and population to Louisiana that fact seems remarkable to me. There seems to be many parallels between the cultures of Louisiana and that of Ireland. The unique and distinctive styles of Cajun and Celtic music and dance are unmistakable. In addition, the close connection between the languages and particular cultures has been rejuvenated in the past three decades on both sides of the Atlantic. The revival of Americans interest in their family histories and genealogies is also noteworthy. In ancient times during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age inhabitants of Ireland possessed a potent, mystical culture that paralleled the Egyptian period of the pyramids. Celtic warriors sacked Rome on July 18, 390 B.C. over an unresolved land dispute. Throughout the Dark Ages Irish monks and priests were gifted in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. They maintained and treasured the "ancient Classics" of Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Homer, Greek and Roman literature, history and the law. Through the works of Columba, who founded a monastery on Iona, culture was saved from oblivion and rediscovered in the late-Middle Ages and enhanced during the Renaissance. Contributions made by Irish authors and playwrights have been acknowledged throughout literary history through the works of Keats, Joyce, O'Neil, Swift and many others. The great contributions made by Irish Celts to religious and secular culture, especially in the U.S., has been a source of pride for descendents of the Irish from many years preceding the Great Famine of 1848 to the present. Irish history includes many rebellions, wars and historical personalities from the High King Brian Boru defeating the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf on Good Friday in 1014 to The Easter Monday Rebellion of April 14, 1916 at the General Post Office in Dublin led by Padraig Pearse and Michael Collins. Today Ireland has evolved into an economic European power known as, "The Celtic Giant". This is due to a well educated youthful population as well as thoughtful and sound land management and monetary policy making by recent legislation.