S.I.G.H. IRISH VILLAGE 2022
SHARING OUR IRISH, GAELIC & CELTIC CULTURE TOGETHER!
Wow, we had a wonderful Irish Village at the St. Petersburg International Folk Fair. (SPIFFS)
This only happened because of you, our volunteers - our sponsors - supporters and our SIGH officers all coming together to make this event a grand one! Thank you to each of you!
The activities, and the opportunity to share some of the Irish culture, folklore and customs, is what we work towards all year!
The Irish village at the SPIFFS Parade of Nations was spectacular. I counted about 35 folks - and then the Pinellas Park Promenade Squares also marched with our banner. EXCITING!
It takes a great amount of set-up and break-down work for an event like this... and we want to especially express our thanks to Michael Ward, Kimberly Gonzalez, Skip DeMontozon, Tom Wheeler, and Kim Graham & Paul Graham who came early and stayed late to do this hard work.
There were some BIG happenings at our "Mary Margaret's Irish Village Pub Stage"!!!
The Florida Gael Online Newsletter, published by Oisín Ó Ruacháinn & Brittany Ó Ruacháinn will be presenting it's next edition in December. There will be a featured article about our sweet- and busy- Irish village. Thank you to Florida Gael for their support over the past year and a half!
Among these "absconded" photos are a couple that show Oisin and Brittany sharing some Gaelic language tips... As well as they were doing some fun HURLING moves.
Grand musical entertainment all 3 days - we thank Danny Daniel O'Dell for providing some great tunes at the SPIFFS Main Stage and also at our Irish Village Pub Stage.
The ol' Chicago music man himself, Steve Arvey , visited our village and also played a set on the International Folk Fair Main Stage. I am appreciative of being invited to accompany Steve with the bodhran for a few songs.
Irish/Shantie/Folkie musician, Bob Lusk , played 2 great sets at the Irish pub stage as well as joined in with the Shanties in their performance.
TRADITIONAL music at it's finest: Irish and old time tunes that can be traced back to Irish & Celtic heritage were brought to our Irish Pub stage as well as the Folk Fair Main Stage by the incredible Barking Dogs Old-Time Jam band.
Thank you to noted Florida musicians, Jim Strickland , Deborah Gilman, Steve McClure and several more folks in the group for bringing beautiful music from the Barking Dogs Old TIme String Band to SPIFFS.
Our very own village wandering minstrel, Jen Shumilak , serenaded us with his concertina as he meandered about! Thank you for providing the awesome vibe!
The St. Pete Shanties had a terrific performance at the Folk Life Stage at SPIFFS as well as a Shantie sing-a-long headed up by Dennis Devine at the Village Pub Stage.
The Gilleoghan Irish Dance academy was a big hit on the International Stage just prior to the Parade of Nations.
Thank you to Philip & Terry Gillan for bringing their talented students to SPIFFS to entertain the world! We look forward to next year!
The Irish Village at SPIFFS was filled with living history with Libby Higdon & the Seanchai Productions reenactors. We say a very big THANK YOU to Miss Libby, John Fritz Karrer & Jack Duncan for 3 days of interactive education & entertainment as historical Gallowglass encampment.
On Saturday, the Irish Village was visited by the "8th Earl of Kildare"... Gerald Fitzgerald. He is considered the uncrowned king of Ireland.He regaled our village with stories of his life, battles and even his demise.
We welcome Timothy Fraley (as the Earl), and Hugo to our village.
"Liam the Leprechaun" brought big smiles, to young and old alike, at the Irish village.
The leprechaun is a well known figure in Irish folklore, and we thank Lordl Cain for such an awesome presentation!
"Liam" also did an awesome job of managing the turn area of the Parade of Nations for SPIFFS, keeping everybody moving along and in configuration. Thank you for your wonderful assistance!!
Many thanks to our friends and fellow Celtic organization… the New World Celts.
They had the opportunity to represent NWC as they volunteered at our IRISH VILLAGE at the 47th Annual St. Petersburg International Folk Fair .
A special shout out to Lori M. Smith , Janette Pomeroy & Matthew Mitchell for going "above and beyond" to assist with SPIFFS directly with the beer truck on Saturday.
Thank you Matthew Fitzgerald & Tracey Hammond & Kirsten Marie S (and her family)...
for their involvement with the school children and fair-goers!!!
Thank you Teres Russell for some of the cool pictures and for the help, along with Ann Hazlewood-Seidl and Kim Cheng at the Vintage Celt table.
Pinellas Weavers Guild representative, Haley Lemon, showcased techniques on her spinning wheel.
More names will be added to this list shortly!! Many more folks to thank!!!
My heart was full to see what started out as an Irish/Gaelic/Celtic cultural dream, and a big idea, to actually become a reality. Let's give the world a big Irish "what-for" at next year's fair. Many new ideas are already in the works. We invite you to help SIGH continue this.
There are loads of pictures and recaps on our Suncoast Irish & Gaelic Heritage facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/suncoastirish/
Thank you for visiting our SCRAPBOOK PAGE of our website.
We appreciate your participation and hopefully you'll become a member to support our goals & mission.
We are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that focuses on the sharing of our Irish heritage and culture through events such as SPIFFS. We invite you to become a member today!
Yours in Celtic Harmony,
Goody Haines
President
Suncoast Irish & Gaelic Heritage
