The Baton Rouge Irish Club

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The Baton Rouge Irish Club Board of Directors

Message from the President of the Baton Rouge Irish Club:

The Baton Rouge Irish Club has an exciting year ahead of us. We now have over 90 members and 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 Day Parade.
We actively support the McTeggart Irish Dancers, Danny O’Flaherty concerts and other Irish groups in our area, Irish movie nights and similar events and organizations that promote Irish culture in the Greater Baton Rouge area. We host the annual Shamrocks & Champagne Brunch and new this year we will hold theThird Irish Film Festival in conjunction with our annual Bloomsday celebration at the Shaw center downtown on July16^th.

^{We enjoy the abundance of
food and beverages at our meetings held on the third Wednesday of every
month @ Café American on
Jefferson Hwy. The meetings 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!}

^{Laura McDavitt}

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.