Dundalk singer Cathy Maguire to perform at Memorial Mass for Berkeley victims

Cathy Maguire

Dundalk born singer Cathy Maguire will take to the pulpit at St Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in New York City this evening to sing at a Memorial Mass in honour of the six Irish students who lost their lives when a balcony collapsed in Berkeley, California.

Commenting ahead of tonight’s Mass at 6.30pm, Cathy said she was absolutely honoured to have been asked to sign by the Consul General.

She said: “It is truly a privilege to sing in memory of those poor kids who lost their lives so tragically in Berkeley.”

Cathy, who shot to fame as a teenager, has resided in America for a number of years where she has made a big name for herself.

Collection in the Marshes this Saturday for Post Natal Depression

The Marshes

Local amateur photographer Darran Rafferty is planning to run the New York marathon later this year to raise funds for Post Natal Depression.

The 34-year-old will be collecting in the Marshes Shopping Centre this Saturday in aid of the worth cause, which supporters mothers who are suffering from depression following the birth of a baby.

Darran has previously raised over €5,000 by running three Dublin Marathons but hopes to add significantly to that tally this time around.

Anyone who would like to make a contribution can do so via PayPal to darranrafferty@gmail.com or by calling 087 1238421.

Cross Border Orchestra seeking ‘The Soloist’ to perform with them in New York

The Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland are inviting talented singers the chance to perform with them in New York this October.

The group will be playing Carnegie Hall on October 30^th and to mark the occasion they have launched a national talent search called ‘The Soloist’ in advance of the tour.

The prize includes the chance to perform with the orchestra in New York, including a fully paid trip to New York for five days for the winner and a chaperone, guardian, parent or friend.

You will also get the chance to perform with the CBOI on their national spring tour, which involves up to 15 concerts around Ireland.

Just as an added incentive, there is also a €1,000 cash prize.

The competition is open to young people aged between 12 and 23. You can perform in any genre: pop, jazz, classical or trad and you can either sing, dance or play an instrument.

Further details are available at www.cboi.ie

The Love-Hungry Farmer coming to Dundalk for one night only

Des Keogh in the Love-Hungry Farmer

Des Keogh, one of Ireland’s foremost actors and entertainers, will bring his hugely successful show The Love-Hungry Farmer to Dundalk on Friday May 9tg for one performance only at An Táin Theatre in the Town Hall.

Based on John B Keane’s best-selling book: Letters of a Love-Hungry Farmer, and adapted for the stage by Des himself, the show has been one of the most popular shows in Ireland and abroad in the last decade and continues to find new audiences.

It tells the story of John Bosco McLane, a bachelor of indeterminate age and according to his own assessment: ‘past his best’ and evidently still a virgin. McLane’s amorous adventures range from the hilarious to the pitiful.

John B. Keane is the legendary author of such classics as Sive, The Field and Big Maggie

The Love-Hungry Farmer began its life in the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York before being performed in Ireland to huge acclaim. Des Keogh received a Best Actor nomination when he performed the show at the Edinburgh Festival. He subsequently played it at the Adelaide Festival.  In 2013 the show played two sell-out seasons at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.

Des, who celebrated 50 years as a professional actor in 2013, has a formidable CV. He has been a constant presence on both the Abbey Theatre and Gate Theatre stages in Dublin.  He presented the hugely popular Music For Middlebrows on RTÉ Radio 1 for many years.

Des has had a long theatrical relationship with the actress Rosaleen Linehan. Their two-person comedy shows have been some of the biggest box-office attractions in Ireland.

Tickets, priced €18 or €15 for concessions are available from the An Táin Theatre box office at the Town Hall or by calling 042-9392919 or 086 8416876.

Dundalk Outcomers hit out at Taoiseach’s involvement in New York parade

The Dundalk Outcomers group are amongst many who have signed their names to an open letter to Taoiseach Enda Kenny, protesting at his decision to take part  in this year’s New York St Patrick’s Day parade.

The parade in the Big Apple has caused huge controversy due to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender groups being excluded from it.

The letter to the Taoiseach reads as follows:

We the undersigned wish to express our strong concerns regarding your proposed participation in the St Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City. By singling out openly LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) groups for exclusion from the parade, the organisers are sending out a message of discrimination and intolerance towards a section of the community and diaspora who deserve to have their contribution to the global Irish family celebrated and recognised on the same basis as everyone else.

It has been claimed, disingenuously, that because no group is allowed to display overtly political banners, the prohibition on LGBT people depicting any sign or symbol that would identify them as openly lesbian or gay is not discriminatory.

This is a claim that our identities are inherently political, which is false. Our organisations are first and foremost about community and visibility, not any political beliefs. The many other groups who make up the Irish-American community are all allowed to march under banners identifying who they are so we are clearly being subjected to a discriminatory double standard.

You gave a very welcome personal vow last November to actively campaign for what you describe as the ‘equality issue of gay marriage’ in next year’s referendum. You are also on record as stating that you are “proud to stand here as a public representative, a Taoiseach who happens to be a Catholic but not a Catholic Taoiseach. A Taoiseach for all of the people, that’s my job”. These were crucially important statements about the kind of Ireland you envision. You have an opportunity to serve as an ambassador for these same modern and inclusive values, ones which are shared by the vast majority of Irish people, at home and abroad.

Therefore, we strongly urge you to decline to march in the St Patrick’s Day Parade in New York next week – an honourable stance adopted by the city’s Mayor, Bill De Blasio, and the New York City Council. The exclusionary policies of the organisers are completely at odds with the statements you have made around these issues.  If, however, withdrawal at this stage is problematic, we ask that you wear the enclosed rainbow-flag lapel-pin as a sign of solidarity with the Irish and Irish-American LGBT communities.

Where we are banned from marching and representing ourselves, our organisations and our community, you can act as our representative, our “Taoiseach for all of the people”, and show New York, Ireland and the world the values of our proud, inclusive and modern Ireland, that draws strength from our traditions but has dispensed with the damaging prejudices of the past.

• LGBT Noise
• National LGBT Federation (NXF)
• Marriage Equality
• Gay Switchboard Ireland
• INTO LGBT Teachers Group
• Atheist Ireland
• Dundalk Outcomers
• Union Of Students In Ireland (USI)
• SIPTU LGBTQ
• BeLonG To Youth Services
• ShoutOut
• LGBT Lawyers Association of Ireland
• Trans Student Network Alliance
• Action For Russia
• Senator Katherine Zappone and Dr Ann Louise Gilligan
• Senator David Norris
• Senator Averil Power
• Panti Bliss – Rory O’Neill
• John Halligan TD
• Clare Daly TD
• Ailbhe Smyth, Feminist campaigner

Dundalk singer Cathy Maguire in line for top US award

Cathy Maguire

Dundalk singer Cathy Maguire is on course to be named one of The Irish Echo newspaper’s most influential Irish-Americans under 40 at a ceremony in New York on Friday February 28^th.

Cathy, who recently had her album Ireland in Song added to the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Merrion Square in Dublin, currently has over 30% of the vote – almost 12% ahead of her nearest challenger Michael Farrelly.

The Irish Echo 40 Under 40 awards is a popular event which celebrates Irish and Irish Americans who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields of work before reaching the age of forty.

This is the seventh year of the awards, with The Echo retaining its status as The USA’s largest and most widely-read Irish-American weekly.

You can vote for Cathy here.

Louth TD to travel to Germany for St Patrick’s Day

Minister Fergus O’Dowd

Louth TD Fergus O’Dowd will be amongst 27 government ministers travelling abroad this St Patrick’s Day.

The Drogheda man will be visiting Germany to try and promote the country there.

Meanwhile, Dundalk Town Council chairman Cllr Eamonn O’Boyle will be travelling to the Big Apple on March 17^th to try and promote the town in New York.

Donohoe murder suspect quizzed in Australia

The front page of today’s Herald

As the first anniversary of his murder approaches this weekend, there are numerous reports in today’s paper about Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe.

The Herald claims today that a suspect for the father of two’s murder has been quizzed by gardaí in Australia.

The newspaper reports that detectives travelled to Sydney, where a member of the five man gang who carried out the robbery at Lordship Credit Union on January 25^th last, made a witness statement.

The suspect who fled his home in the North just months after the shocking murder is said to have provided “some level of co-operation”.

Meanwhile, the Irish Daily Star claims that one of the two suspects who fled to New York after the killing was home for a week at Christmas. It is believed one of this pair was the man who pulled the trigger that killed Garda Donohoe.

However, gardaí were unable to arrest him as he was north of the border with family.

Sources said that “major movement” is expected in the case in the coming months, with the three men who fled abroad due to be returned home and ongoing surveillance continuing on the other two men who are based in south Armagh.

Meanwhile, an anniversary mass for Garda Donohoe will take place at the Redemptorist Church tomorrow at 7.30pm.

A candlelight walk will also take place from Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan to the St Patrick’s GFC grounds on Saturday night.

The event gets under way at 9.15pm from the credit union, where there will be a short period of reflection followed by the walk to the GAA grounds – a club which Garda Donohoe was a proud member of.

The front page of today’s Star, with a report on one of the suspects being home for Christmas

Just one to face murder charge for Donohoe murder

The late Adrian Donohoe RIP

Just one person is likely to be charged with the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe despite the fact there were several involved in the robbery of Lordship Credit Union last year.

According to a report from experienced crime correspondent Paul Williams in yesterday’s Sunday Independent, a South Armagh man with close links to the GAA is the only member of the crime gang likely to face trial for the killing of the popular father of two on January 25^th last.

The four other gang members will face lesser charges, including possession of firearms and attempted robbery.

Detective Garda Donohoe was shot at close range without warning by one of the gang members as he got out of his unmarked patrol car in the car park of the credit union almost a year ago.

Investigators have said that footage of the incident shows that the gunman, who has been identified, clearly intended killing the 41-year-old St Patrick’s GFC clubman.

According to The Sunday Independent, the investigation into the killing was “quietly making steady progress” in building a case against the South Armagh gang.

Detectives have seized CCTV footage from over 200 locations in order to gather vital information about the gang’s movements before and after the robbery, which contradicts their version of events.

A source told The Sunday Independent that they were confident the culprits would be brought to justice.

Two of the five suspects are brothers and all gang members have close links to the GAA and Republicanism. The prime suspect for the murder is said to have played for his club in the past.

All of the suspects are in their 20s and were well known to Gardaí prior to the murder of Garda Donohoe. They are said to be part of a wide circle of 20 young Republican thugs responsible or a crime spree along the Border in recent years.

Security sources believe that members of the robbery gang who had not been involved in the shooting were afraid to come forward because they might also face murder charges.

“One member of the gang deliberately shot Adrian Donohoe dead and it is possible that the others had no intention of killing anyone but they need to come forward before they also face murder charges,” said the source.

Gardaí have been working closely with the FBI in recent months to monitor two of the suspects who travelled for work to New York and Boston last summer. This pair were interviewed in America recently as they were obligated to do so under US law. However, they refused to answer any questions.

Source: Just one gang member is likely to be charged with murder of Adrian Donohoe (Sunday Independent)

Tommy Fitzpatrick to feature on tonight’s In Off The Post

Tonight’s In Off The Post GAA show on Dundalk FM will have former Naomh Malachi and Kilkerley Emmets star Tommy Fitzpatrick as a special guest.

The Hackballscross native has spent the last 50 years resident in the USA and will be speaking about his time there and his contribution to the GAA in New York for over half a century.

A successful businessman, he will also be reflecting on his time in Louth.

In Off The Post airs each Wednesday night at 9pm on Dundalk FM 100 and is presented by former County Board chairman Peter Brannigan and Naomh Malachi clubman, Dermot Woods, a former chair of the Louth Ladies County Board.

The show can also be accessed online at www.dundalkfm.com and is repeated on Saturdays at 6pm.