Catskills Irish Arts Week brings the old country to Greene County

Photo from Catskills Irish Arts Week’s Facebook page.

The Catskills have been a favorite haunt and cultural crucible for wandering Irish folk for well over a hundred years. The Michael J. Quill Center — christened for the indomitable Mike Quill, who took on the British occupiers back home in his youth and led New York City transit workers out on strike in the 1960s — has been giving this freethinking centuries-old style of bliss a home in East Durham since 1987. This week, you’re invited to join in the joy, as the Catskill Irish Arts Festival draws world-class talent together for a week of teaching, learning and lots and lots of music.

“They call East Durham the Emerald Isle of the Catskills,” says Myron Bretholz, artistic consultant to the festival, “and this week in particular, it certainly is…it’s one big party made up of a lot of little parties, just about 24/7. There are five official jam sessions each night, not counting the spontaneous ones, and the pubs stay open till the music stops.”

Bretholz has been helping make the festival happen since it began 19 years ago.

“Our first year, we had around 60 students. Now we have 55 instructors and over 400 people registered for classes,” he said. “And that’s not counting the family and friends who come to dance and stay out all night.”

Workshops in Celtic music, song, dance, and crafts like jewelry casting, sculpture and plein air oils began on Monday, July 15, and are going on all through the week, with instruction for anyone from the rawest beginner to the veteran performer. There’s a Tír na nÓg (Country of Youth) immersion program with divisions for kids and teens. Each day begins with yoga before class; after class come the lectures, jam sessions, concerts at the pavilion, and ceili dances in Shamrock Hall, and the public’s welcome to come join the students and instructors for all that fun extracurricular stuff.

On Saturday, July 20 is the grand finale of this Irish village that’s been gathered by choice in the Catskills all week: The Andy McGann Festival, seven ecstatic hours of music, dance and storytelling. A “rare feast of music and song,” is how CIAF organizers describe just one set, that of Séamus Begley & Oisín Mac Diarmada, a singer/accordion player from Dingo and a fiddler from Sligo, who will be joined by a pile of friends. Then there will be NicGaviskey, two Irish sisters and two young men from this side of the pond, who will woo and win you with uilleann pipes, flute, accordion, concertina, fiddle, and flying feet. Come and hear Mary Bergin, the woman the Irish Times has called “just about the best tin whistle player this century.” And those are just a few sets from a long lineup on two stages of the finest Irish wildness you’ll find anywhere.

“The music sells itself. It’s infectious,” says Bretholz. “Much of the festival is designed for people who want to dip in and have a taste. A lot of them end up coming back the next year for the whole week. I didn’t grow up in Irish culture — I’m 100 percent Hebrew National — but I love playing Irish drum. There’s something about cultures that have known suffering. Somebody said, ‘The victors write the history, but the losers write the songs.'”

East Durham’s festivities have made themselves a fine name in the lively world of Irish culture: “The biggest assembly of traditional Irish musicians and dancers performing in North America,” according to the Irish Emigrant Online a couple of years ago. All are invited to join in for the sessions, concerts and dancing; see the Irish Arts Week website for a full schedule, details and directions.

Catskills Irish Arts Week, July 13-19, 2014, Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural and Sports Center, 2267 Route 145, East Durham. Concerts and sessions at multiple venues around town. For a complete schedule, see catskillsirishartsweek.com.