September 11 2005

September 11, 2005

02/17/08

September 11th, 2005 - The Great Irish Fair

We were very Irish this weekend. Well, Steve actually is, by heritage anyway, but this weekend didn't start out that way.

On Saturday, we went to a street fair in Jackson Heights, in Queens. We browsed through a Colombian neighborhood, then a Korean one, and ended up in one of the many Irish pubs/restaurants in Woodside. Everywhere we went, we saw posters for the Great Irish Fair in Coney Island, scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday. We promptly changed our plans for Sunday.

It was a bit of a haul to get there on buses and subways, including a shuttle provided by the fair to get from the subway station to the fairground. Worth it, though!

We headed straight for the main stage, to watch the Black Velvet Band, a group that has played traditional Irish music since my early days in New York. We've always had a weakness for Irish music - years ago, we spent a lovely evening in a local bar, listening to a young man named Jimmy Walsh, newly arrived from Dublin. So imagine our delight at hearing them announce..."And now, with the Black Velvet Band, our friend Jimmy Walsh." And there he was. Not so young any more - none of us are - but he still has the voice, and a joy in singing all the favorites. We left with two CDs!

In Memoriam...

Although the date was Sept. 11 (2005), the mood was celebratory. When the musicians and the dancers took a break, the crowd headed for the makeshift bar.

Then a young guy, carrying bagpipes and wearing an "FDNY Pipes and Drums" t-shirt, climbed up on the bar. He played a melody that got the crowd listening, then a fellow piper climbed up beside him. (Turned out they were brothers.) More lively tunes, the crowd clapping and smiling, then a pause. When the crowd stilled, they started the mournful melody of "Amazing Grace", that we heard so often at funerals after 9/11. The audience, many of whom were off-duty cops and firemen, stood in silence, tears in their eyes.

Another pause, then the two pipers broke into "God Bless America." The audience sang their hearts out, then cheered and applauded wildly. Then our two pipers hopped down off the bar, probably to accept the drinks the bartender held out to them.

The regular musicians came back, and the band played on.

Eventually (I was getting sunburned), we moved on to the rest of the fair, and wound up in a tent where a band called Shilelagh Law was playing loud, enthusiastic Irish-type rock. The dancers were on the floor, the drinkers were at the bar, and everybody was having a great time. Check the photos to see what I mean.

In the other tents, people were selling Irish handicrafts, priests were selling raffle tickets, and everybody was selling food. One guy did an enthusiastic rendering (with gestures) of The Unicorn Song - audience members knew the routine, and sang and gestured right along with him. I bought the best soda bread I've ever tasted - yum - and everywhere, children played.

We didn't see everything - the step dancers were done before we got there, and we didn't stay long enough to hear Black '47, the weekend's headliners. But that's OK - we'll probably be back next year!

(By the way, we took a quick look around Coney Island - there's a couple of photos of that, too.)