The sixth annual IRL Festival is bringing the fun online with Trasna na dTonnta:- Across the Waves .This magical image for IRL Fest 2021 is exciting as we showcase new programming of Irish culture across the North Atlantic waves to the Waterloo region and across the cyber waves into the comfort of our homes. Connecting with community is more important than ever and we’re doing that from March6th to 17 th , 2021.Trasna na dTonnta is the title of an old Irish song learned in all Irish schools in early childhood.The first two lines are particularly significant for these Covid times as we long for a return to normal andlook forward with hope to once again meet each other face to face with hugs and joyful celebration.In Irish they read:Trasna na dtonnta, dul siar, sul siarSlan leis an uaigneas ‘is slan leis an gcianWhich translates as:Over the waves, going west, going west!Goodbye to loneliness and to the distant remoteness.What seemed like a daunting task when we set about planning our Covid festival several months agohas developed into an absolute gem of a festival lineup. We have curated a virtual festival that will beengaging and fun for all ages. With 20 events ranging from film to cuisine, Celtic Music School, theatre,music performances and family events all online! We have maintained our partnerships with localbusinesses in an effort to support them in these times and do what we can to keep the communityengaged with them as well. We are still able to provide many free events for your enjoyment, andmonies raised through paid events will be much appreciated by local artists who have suffered greatly financially through this whole pandemic.

No plans for St Patrick’s day? Ottawa Irish Arts has just the thing to sweeten your St Patrick’s at home! Seeing as we cannot gather for our traditional St. Patrick’s Day Dinner and Céilí, we propose a virtual arts showcase and a non-virtual snack box!The performance pieces will be accompanied by a box of Irish-themed snacks to enjoy at your own leisure. To allow for shipping time, we will require all orders for snack boxes to be made on Eventbrite by 13 March at the latest. Entry to the art performance is included with the purchase of a snack box.These snack boxes also make the perfect Irish-themed gift for a friend so you can celebrate St. Patrick’s together!

CelticFest Vancouver is Western Canada’s biggest annual Celtic festival. CelticFest is a rich cultural celebration of the seven Celtic nations’ kinship and community. The festival showcases the best of Celtic music, dance, spoken word as well as film, food and fare and the much-anticipated St. Patrick’s Day Parade.Given the virtual nature of the world these days I thought it was worth reaching out with some highlights of this year's CelticFest Vancouver! The silver lining of Western Canada's largest Celtic Festival going virtual is that all of Canada can join in! As you know, St Patrick's Day festivities worldwide were the first public events to be cancelled in 2020 due to COVID. But a year on, the CelticFest committee is ready to launch their inaugural virtual program.

A project to build a beautiful world class Memorial Space around the Black Rock on the Montreal side of the Victoria Bridge. Fergus Keyes talks about recent developments.This space would remember the 6000+ Irish immigrants, fleeing the Great Hunger in Ireland, that died and were buried in the area in 1847.It would also honor the many Montrealers of every language, religion, and heritage that provided help and comfort to these dying Irish. Many of these “caregivers” also gave their life in this great humanitarian effort.Members of the Montreal local Irish community are optimistic about the prospects for a proposed memorial park to honour Montreal’s Irish famine victims after meeting with Mayor Valérie Plante.Mayor Plante expressed willingness to reroute part of Bridge St. so the park can be created on the site where up to 6,000 Irish immigrants died of typhus in 1847-48. Mayor Plante also indicated she might be willing to reconsider her controversial proposal to name the future Réseau express métropolitain (REM) station in nearby Griffintown after late premier Bernard Landry, according to people who attended.“She said, ‘Yes, it’s our intention to move Bridge St. Yes, we’re 100 per cent committed to do a study on moving Bridge St.,’ ” said Victor Boyle, a director of the Montreal Irish Memorial Park Foundation, who attended the meeting with co-director Fergus Keyes. The foundation has been fighting for more than a decade to create a commemorative park on the sitehttp://www.montrealirishmonument.com/

Global Greening 2021: hundreds of iconic landmarks and buildings around the world will take part in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening 2021 initiative around St Patrick’s Day. From Brussels to Buenos Aires and from Sydney to San Francisco, a host of buildings and sites around the world will light up in green. This will be the 12th year of Global Greening.Niall Gibbons, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, said: “This has been a catastrophic year for everyone in our industry, but I do believe that tourism can, and will, recover from this pandemic. Recent news about vaccines is really positive and gives us hope for travel in 2021. In our research, Northern Ireland and Ireland have consistently been among the destinations that holidaymakers say they would be most comfortable visiting, even while social distancing measures are in place. So, while we in Tourism Ireland certainly don’t underestimate the challenges that may lie ahead, we look to 2021 with hope and optimism.

Fáilte go Féile Pádraig 2021! Dúisigh Éire! Awaken Ireland! is ea téama na Féile i mbliana.Tugaimid cuireadh daoibh dorchadas na míonna fada a chaitheamh díobh agus croí isteach a dhéanamh leis na laethanta geala atá romhainn. Welcome to St. Patrick’s Festival 2021! The theme of this year’s Festival is Dúisigh Éire! Awaken Ireland!We invite you to throw off the long, dark months and rise to embrace the brighter days ahead.The Festival runs from March 12 – 17 and here’s how you can watch all our 100+ events, no matter where you are in the world:Streaming live globally here at our website through our TV channel — St. Patrick’s Festival TV (SPF TV)and you can replay all programmes on their event page after they have broadcast, up to March 21.You can watch the SPF TV live stream on www.rte.ie/culture.

Gene Fitzpatrick is of the most sought-after compéres and after dinner speakers on the circuit today and is described as the "Man for all Occasions".Gene Fitzpatrick can appeal to any audience winning them over in minutes, whether it's a Chartered Accountants dinner, a 100 year old's birthday party or a church hall event or full concert. Gene Fitzpatrick has exceptional crowd-control and has that rare ability to make everyone feel at home..Gene Fitzpatrick is a first class act mixing one-liners with a wealth of hilarious gags and stories. An act that is always, clean, funny and inoffensive. He has a natural charm and warmth, along with an enviable ability to create a relaxed, friendly atmosphere in any room.Passionate about giving an audience what they need “information and entertainment”. Gene Fitzpatrick can provide a first class stage After Dinner Speaker, Golf Events Master Of Ceremonies, Compère, Road Show Compère, Corporate Master of ceremonies, Wedding Master Of Ceremonies and Gertrude Byrnes Irish cruises on Holland America and Fred Olsen cruises from San Diego to Barbados.Gene Fitzpatrick is well known, has a limitless fund of jokes and a unique and friendly way with his audience that ensures their full attention.

Ruth Smith is a musician, teacher and producer living in Clare. She is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and one third of the female vocal and instrumental trio The Evertides. During the summer of 2017, she played the role of Ex-Girlfriend in ‘Once’ at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin. Ruth made her presenting debut on RTÉ Radio 1 in 2017 also with a one-hour special and followed up as a presenter on Late Date. She recently presented an 8-week series on RTÉ Radio 1 called ‘Simply Folk with Ruth Smith’.

Irish Poet’s collection evokes memories of Ireland’s past. Irish poet Dr Arthur Broomfield has launched Ireland Calling, a new book of poems of special interest to Irish people residing in Canada . The collection is written in ballad form and recalls stories, characters and events – some humorous, some sad – that will evoke nostalgic  memories of Ireland’s past. Love for his subject, for the Irish characters, stories and landscape, is the inspiration that drives Broomfield’s work. Clare Bolger, Irish author, academic and literary critic writes: Broomfield’s poetry is ‘written in the language of the people, it digs deep into the Irish tradition of telling yarns...it comes  from the “deep heart’s core,” ’ as readers will note when poems such as ‘Planting the Spuds’, ‘The Fairy Bush’. The Rambling House’ tug the heart strings. Revival Press, Broomfield’s publishers, insist ‘if there’s a drop of Irish blood in your arteries, this book is for you’. Arthur Broomfield’s Ireland Calling truly comes from ‘the deep heart’s core’.  Written in the language of the people  it digs deep into the Irish tradition of telling yarns and bringing characters to life, through dramas and events,  that, in their telling, sparkle with  vitality, ‘spakes’ and humour that will draw those of Irish origin back to their roots, and for those less fortunate, open valuable insights into the Irish character. In ‘Making the Deal’ the young boy learns the art of buying cattle at the April fair ‘every trick and nod, every nudge and sign’. The emigrant in a North American city, in a sensuous Heaney like image recalls ‘the Cappagh soil between my hands, the smell of the dung, the sunset and the view,’ in ‘Planting the Spuds’.  ‘Flour bought in Mansworth’s, buttermilk from the cow’, is ‘shaped round with floury hands, some upon her brow’ in a poem that aches with the longing for soda bread [He Dreams of Soda Bread].

In 2020, the IBSBC launched the first annual St. Brigid’s Day Festival (Lá Féile Bríde) with the support of the Consulate General of Ireland, Vancouver.It is thanks to our generous supporters that we were able to present our inaugural event at Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre in February 2020. Now, we are absolutely delighted that we can present the 2021 St. Brigid’s Day Festival in week-long virtual format with registration is open to participants across North America and Ireland.Our festival offers a wide range of voices and viewpoints with many inspiring and thought-provoking insights into the goddess and saint known as Brigid