Harriet Island - August 10-12
Free Admission!
Curtin-Conway Award
Honoring Leah Curtin and Roger Conway, two of original organizers of the festival, the Irish Fair of Minnesota presents this annual award to a person who has made significant contributions to the Irish cultural community.
The honor is presented to someone who has a long history of service or support to the Irish cultural community in the Twin Cities and/or Minnesota. The person chosen has made significant contributions and presents an inspirational example to others. The award includes a $1000 donation by the Irish Fair to the Irish cultural charity of the recipient's choice and the name of the honoree is placed on a plaque that is on public display at Irish On Grand.
Please submit your suggestion for our next recipient.
2006 Curtin-Conway Recipients
The 2006 Curtin-Conway Award recipients are Denis Clarke and Frank Joyce, founders of Gaeltacht Minnesota. Since 1981, Gaeltacht Minnesota has encouraged the use of the native Irish language through weekly classes, several annual multi-day works, special events, an electronic newsletter and by supporting an Irish language school in Ireland.
Now in its 25th year, none of it would have been possible without the interest, vision, passion and chance meeting of Denis and Frank in the early 80’s. Clark, who studied engineering in Belfast, worked in England and is now retired from 3M, learned his first Irish words from Father Lawrence Murray in Rannafast. After immigrating to Saint Paul, his desire to revise his Irish led to the creation of Gaeltacht Minnesota. After searching unsuccessfully for a mentor to help him, he became a teacher himself.
At one of his first official workshops during the Minnesota Irish Heritage Fair in about 1982, he heard the fluent Irish tones of Frank Joyce. They quickly joined passions and talents. Frank became the second teacher at Gaeltacht Minnesota and upon Denis’ retirement from teaching, became the leader of Gaeltacht Minnesota. From the late 1980’s through the turn of the century, Frank guided Gaeltacht and developed additional teachers like Sean Kelly and Will Kenny.
The Irish Fair is proud to recognize these two quiet leaders of the Minnesota Irish cultural community. They created an organization whose impact continues a quarter of a century later.2005 Recipient - Molly & Dermot O'Mara
For more than a decade Molly and Dermot O’Mara, the original owners of Irish On Grand, were leaders in the Irish business, social and cultural communities.
Although they've now moved back to Dermot’s homeland, their impact on our community continues and their contributions will be long remembered.
After wondering the coasts of Ireland and sailing around Europe as a young adult, Dermot landed in Saint Paul in 1984. One of his first jobs was wholesaling videos. He didn’t get rich in the movie biz, but he did meet a young Irish-American lass and together they dreamed of their own little retail shop.
Irish On Grand first opened its doors in 1990 in a spot about the size of your bedroom.
Molly and Dermot worked tirelessly selling claddagh rings, Aran sweaters and Chieftain CDs – probably cassettes when they first started!. Music, music, music. They built one of the best selections of Irish music available anywhere. They also dedicated much of their time and talents supporting local musicians and Irish organizations. As their business grew, so did their connection to the Irish community and Irish On Grand became the place to go not only for merchandise, but general information and good craic. Whether it was the increased sales or the people hanging around the joint that forced the move to a more spacious location on Grand Avenue, we don’t know.
Throughout their 13 years in business and before and after that, as well, Molly and Dermot had a fierce dedication to always portraying things Irish in the most authentic means possible.
Dermot served a couple terms on the Irish Fair board. He always was the strongest voice for keeping the Fair authentic and not letting the organization stray into things that were too Scottish or British or, God save us, American.
2004 Recipient - Eoin McKiernan
Eoin [pronounced OWN] McKiernan is universally recognized as one of the patriarchs of Irish Studies in the United States. During his career in education, he traveled to Ireland more than 200 times.
Born in New York City in 1915, McKiernan spent much of his childhood in County Clare. As a teenager, he won a scholarship to study in the village of Rosmuc, County Galway, where he became a fluent speaker of the Irish language.
McKiernan was educated at St Joseph's College, the University of New Hampshire, before completing his doctorate in English at Pennsylvania State University. In 1960, McKiernan, with his young and growing family, moved to Minnesota to become chairman of the English department at the then-College of St Thomas, a position he held until 1971.
During the 1960s, McKiernan gained national recognition when he scripted and hosted a series of 16 films and 53 half-hour television programs on Irish history, literature and culture. These were broadcast on public television; without sentimentality, McKiernan taught Americans that Ireland was a land of antiquity, dignity and achievement. The programs stimulated a national outpouring of support. McKiernan received more than 10,000 letters from viewers across the nation.
In 1971, the success of the TV shows spurred McKiernan to leave teaching and devote all of his energies to developing the Irish American Cultural Institute (IACI), a nonpolitical educational foundation that he had founded in 1962. With a family of nine, this was a decision of faith, but with his wife Jeannette's support, he made it. For the next 30 years, the IACI -- along with the American Conference for Irish Studies, founded in the same year became the most important force in North America for creating a serious approach to Irish culture. In 1966, he began publishing ire-Ireland, an elegant quarterly journal. The Butler Literary Award that he established, and other grants, provided much-needed support and recognition for artists and writers in Ireland.
Perhaps McKiernan’s most special passion has been the Irish language, for which he has tirelessly advocated for a half-century.
Honors given to recognize McKiernan’s cultural work include the John F. Kennedy Gold Medal of the AOH; the Eire Society of Boston Gold Medal; a life membership in the Royal Dublin Society, where he became the first American inducted into the RDS in 265 years; and honorary degrees from three institutions, including the National University of Ireland and the University of St Thomas.
Generations of Ireland's (and America's) civic and intellectual leadership revere Eoin McKiernan's judgments and look to him as the model of cultural stewardship.
2003 (Inaugural) Recipient - Martin McHugh
Martin McHugh, master accordion player and teacher of Irish tunes, through his playing and teaching is largely responsible for reviving Irish music in St. Paul during the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Although he spends about half his time back in Ireland, Martin can still be seen playing locally with his band, Tara Hill.