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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 Muggivan’s Irish Dancers, Danny O’Flaherty
concerts, Irish movie nights and similar events and organizations that
promote Irish culture in theGreater Baton Rouge
area.
We host the annual Shamrocks & Champagne Brunch and new
this year we will hold the first Irish Film Festival in conjunction with our
annual Bloomsday celebration at the Shaw center downtown on June 13th.
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.