Today I launched a sale of my new Irish paintings. It includes some that were exhibited in the Europa Hotel in Belfast earlier in the year.

In this group of paintings you’ll see scenes of Dublin, Kerry, Mayo, Donegal, and Cork, and some birds on wires.

They launch at prices up to 50% less than normal, and will revert to normal prices at the end of the sale.

There’s 21 paintings in total, all of which are Irish scenes, and many more paintings are planned to be added into the sale.

At the time of writing this post 11 paintings have sold. If you’d like to be among the first people notified the next time there’s a big sale - add your email address to my mailing list in the sidebar when you go look at my Irish paintings sale

Read: Irish Paintings - The 2011 Year-End Sale »

We had it before you.

Once upon a time Halloween in Ireland was a bit like this.

We did, and still do, what you call ‘trick-or-treating’ but we called ‘trick-or-treating’ something else (Though, with the increasing Americanisation of the holiday, we’re increasingly dropping our terms for yours).

Take my Halloween in Ireland Quiz for a flavour of a certain time.

And this is how you pronounce Samhain

Read: Yes, We Have Halloween in Ireland »

If you subscribe to the Irish Times, then when you receive it you’ll see a feature on me in the magazine of the current Saturday edition. For now the article is also available online.

Other articles on my recent 12 week, 2,000 mile, cycling tour of Ireland in Irish and international media can be found on my Painting Tour site.

Dozens of paintings were completed on site during the tour. Others were started and are currently being completed, and will be posted online with all the Painting Tour paintings when ready.

Approximately 3,000 photos were taken, about 1 for every kilometer cycled, and to date over 250 have been posted online. More are being posted daily and added to the main collection of Ireland Painting Tour photos.

Over the next 3 months, once several commissions are finished, concentration will be on new paintings of Ireland coming out of the tour, and made available in a large December sale.

New commissions are being taken for starting in January and February - with January being close to booked up already with commissions received. The best place to stay up on news of new paintings and sales is to join my mailing list (simply enter your email address in the sidebar box on my personal Bicyclistic blog), or follow me eolai on twitter

With painting at the forefront IrishKC will continue to occupy a low priority with just sporadic postings, especially as it needs some backend updating before it’s in a position again for regular posting of Irish events in Kansas City.

For the most part the stronger regular events are already more than adequately catered for on FaceBook or elsewhere online though it’s still somewhat of a surprise to me that there is no site that attempts to pull together and aggregate content relating to all Irish news in the city rather than what is simply in its own interest.

Read: IrishKC after the Painting Tour of Ireland »

The Irish Government recently launched the Certificate of Irish Heritage, an official recognition by the Irish Government of those who are proud of their Irish Ancestor and their own Irish heritage.

Gavin O’Sullivan, customer service team leader for the project responsible for the certificate, on behalf of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, asked me if I would share the Certificate of Irish Heritage website with you.

The certificate is available only to those who have an Irish ancestor and can provide required information about their ancestor and their Irish line of descent.

You may already have this information, or you may need to do some work in advance - for which help and guidance (online and by email or phone) is available from the project team.

The information and documents you submit will be checked and validated before your application is approved and your certificate shipped.

While a selection of design backgrounds are available - Emigrant Ship, West of Ireland, Celtic Knot - each Certificate shares the same fundamental design, which includes the Harp (the State emblem of Ireland), and a quote from Article 2 of the Constitution of Ireland.

The Certificates are signed on behalf of the Government of Ireland by the Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade.

The Certificate will be unique to you, showing your name and the names of up to 2 of your Ancestors who were born in Ireland. If you know their year and county of birth, this will be printed also on the Certificate.

The price of a standard Certificate is €40.00, plus delivery costs which are specific to each country - €15.00 to the US for an unframed certificate, and €22.50 for a framed certificate. The cost of a frame is an additional €60.00 plus delivery.

Visit the Certificate of Irish Heritage” website for full details on how to apply and information packs. It’s a very detailed website with genealogy resources and features.

Read: Certificate of Irish Heritage »

In July & August, 2011 I’ll be doing a painting cycle tour of Ireland driven by social media.

People all over the 32 historic counties are volunteering to provide me with lodging in return for me doing a painting for them when they host me.

And people who aren’t in a position to host are commissioning me to cycle to a place of their choosing anywhere in Ireland in order to paint a scene for them - a limited service I’m offering for just €75. Already people from America, Australia, and England have commissioned paintings. There are only a few commission spots left.

The plan, the questions & answers, and the blog of the trip will all appear on my Painting Tour site.

Read: A Tour of Ireland, Painting & Cycling »

Every minute.

Every second.

Read: Every Day »

I took this photo of an Obama t-shirt as Gaeilge (in Irish) in town - Dublin - a couple of days ago.

When I lived in America I got very tired explaining to people who wanted literal translations that languages don’t work that way, to which the response was yeah, yeah, yeah, before embarrassingly inaccurate Irish would appear on websites, posters, t-shirts and signs. So I gave up.

click to enlarge

This t-shirt says:

Sea, Is Féidir and it means to be a translation of the Obama campaign slogan “Yes, We Can”.

And above that is an attempt to make Obama’s name seem Irish by, and I like this bit on an Irish language t-shirt, anglicizing it. If it was being Gaelicized it would be Ó Bama meaning literally ‘grandson/descendant of the non-existent Bama’. The O’Bama is what the English visitors did to Irish names because it they didn’t do those funny marks we put over vowels at certain times. I’ve seen genealogists write names beginning O’ on documents purporting to be in Irish (Gaelic) - you might want to question them when you see them do it.

A couple of things about “Yes, We Can” in Irish.

“We can” typically would be Is Féidir Linn - the ‘Linn’ bit being the first person plural which is absent from the t-shirt. Is Féidir without the ‘Linn’ means “It’s Possible”. Or it could be “We can” - if the ‘we’ is implied. If someone asked “Can we?” (think of it as ‘Is it possible for us [to do it]?) then the answer is Is Féidir (”It’s possible”) would therefore imply it’s possible for us, indeed, yes, it’s possible for us. Which is the same as “(yes,) we can”.

There is no literal translation for the word “Yes” in Irish. “Yes” is expressed through saying the positive form of a verb e.g. I do, It is, She understands, etc. As written here Sea (pronounced ’shah’) and sometime ’sea is a contraction of Is ea and is one of the 2 forms of how you say the verb “to be” in Irish, the one that expresses identification or classification - as opposed to the one that expresses a state or condition.

So all in all that means, who knows, but we do know that they mean it to be the equivalent of “Yes, We can” - just don’t go telling your friends it literally means that, because the chances are they’re not your friends.

Here is President Obama himself, due in Ireland tomorrow, saying those very words in Irish. Well, saying Is Féidir Linn

Read: Obama in Ireland: The Yes We Can in Irish T-shirt »

Perhaps you missed it yesterday while your stomach was turning green, but as Kansas City began its festivities IrishKC passed its one millionth view, fittingly on St Patrick’s Day.

There were over 2,000 peeps at the site yesterday, following on from 1,800 the day before. However much I have failed the rest of the year, covering all things claiming to be Irish or Irish-related in the St Patrick’s Day season is impossible - so I don’t even remotely try.

Which makes the large numbers all the more gratifying. Thank you. For yesterday, and for the million. Pure and simple. Thank you.

I’m off to Belfast in a few minutes to exhibit my paintings there tomorrow. As such I won’t be pointing you at photos of the parade (300,000? Wow! Really?) or Browne’s etc., but I’ve already seen a good few myself and looks like you had a great time. Go on FaceBook, you ‘ll see a million. (Ha! A Million!)

For what it’s worth people here reckon the parade was the best Dublin St Patrick’s Day parade ever. Sounds like the idea of commisioning Roddy Doyle to write a story which could then be used as the theme for the parade was a ‘brilliant’ one. Download it for free from Roddy Doyle’s site - you and your kids will love it.

A million is also kind of a nice round number to go out on, now that I think of it…?

Read: Thanks A Million »

The main Irish related events in Kansas City this St Patrick’s Day are listed on the Irish events page, and many are also over there on the far sidebar. I’ve been adding more links through the night.

There’s also more St Patrick’s related stuff from today going back several years, in the St Patrick’s Day posts category.

Enjoy yourself, be careful, and maybe take a moment to think about emigration by those who would rather not. It takes mass emigration to create such a holiday, and sadly Ireland is currently investing heavily again in this holiday.

In about 1 hour IrishKC will pass one million views. Thank you all, or nearly all, for your visits these 5 years. On with ya now, enjoy yourself. I’ve pictures of Ireland to paint.

NOTE: Dear America, if you care, and you may not, in Ireland it’s Patrick or Paddy, never Patty or Pat.

BACKGROUND & FACTS on St Patrick & Irish Customs:
  • Irish Things I Never Heard Until Moving to America
  • Corned Beef & Cabbage, is it Irish?
  • A Sausage in Ireland is NOT called a Banger
  • Is it “craic” or “crack”?
  • Is Ireland Really Green, Potato-Eating, and Red-Haired?
  • St Patrick Was Not From Ireland? Big Deal
  • What the Irish Eat at Christmas
  • Miss-spelled Irish
  • St Patrick’s Day in Ireland in 2008
  • 22 Infrequently Asked Irish KC Questions
  • 31 More Infrequently Asked Irish Qurstions
  • 25 Things from an Irish View, about Kansas City
  • Inflatable Shamrock
  • Black Puddings
  • The Irish Panda

PREVIOUS YEARS on Irish KC:
   • St Patrick’s Day in KC 2009
   • St Patrick’s Day in KC 2008
   • St Patrick’s Day in KC 2007
   • St Patrick’s Day in KC 2006

Read: Go on then Kansas City, enjoy yourself on St Patrick’s Day 2011 »

Tom Lenehan gave me a shout the other day. His is a name that should be instantly recognizeable to those of you who are fans of Celtic Rock. Previously a visitor to Kansas City, where I’ve seen him play, now KC are in for a treat - because…

Celtic rock pioneer Tom Lenahan is debuting a new act on St. Patrick’s Day at O’Dowd’s Little Dublin in Kansas City’s Zona Rosa. If you’re worried about hearing the music on a day which is rather noisy inside the pubs, well, Tom plays the bagpipes.

One of America’s first and foremost Celtic rock artists, Lenahan has teamed up with prominent local musician Christa Kelly Scott to form Lenahan & Scott, a duo that combines impressive instrumental versatility with exceptional vocal talent to create a unique and exciting musical experience.

Performing on a small roomful of instruments, the pair play and sing their way through fiery instrumental sets, rollicking songs and beautiful ballads with equal ease and enthusiasm. The show includes traditional and contemporary music from all the Celtic nations as well as original tunes and songs by Christa and Tom.

Born in Chicago, Tom Lenahan founded The Clan, one of America’s first Celtic rock bands, in New York City in 1986. Eight years later, he started Lenahan, and proceeded to tour extensively in the U.S. and in Europe, releasing 5 albums along the way.

Tom is the winner of 6 ASCAP songwriter awards and performs on guitar, bagpipes, tin whistle, harmonica and various percussion instruments. (Find out more about Lenahan at www.celticrock.com - see, he got that domain name because he was playing Celtic rock before you heard of it.)

Originally from Texas, Christa Kelly Scott is a well-known Kansas City Irish vocalist, musician and composer who plays fiddle, mandolin, keyboards and guitar. She sang with the St. Louis Symphony for 4 years and toured the U.S. with The Spirit of St. Louis.

Christa formed and fronted her own Kansas City Irish band, Kelawen, in 2008, and has composed and published two books of Celtic music. She also teaches master fiddle workshops at Kansas City’s Irish Center in Union Station (formerly referred to as the Irish Museum & Cultural Center - IMCC) and at the KC Irish Festival in the fall.

Lenahan & Scott will be performing two shows at O’Dowd’s Little Dublin in Zona Rosa, from 2-4 pm and from 5-7 pm on Thursday, March 17, 2011 - St Patrick’s Day.

O’Dowd’s North
O’Dowd’s Little Dublin is located at 8600 NW Prairie View Road. You can find them online at www.odowdslittledublin.com, or phone 816-268-6333.

St Patrick’s Day 2011
There are more Irish and Celtic related events for St Patricks Day 2011 to be seen if you click that link.

Read: Lenehan & Scott - Celtic Music on St Patrick’s Day in KC 2011 »

At this moment in time I’m holed up in the loft of a stable in Ireland, my studio, for every waking hour and most of the sleeping ones too.

On Saturday, March 19th 2011, I’m showing paintings in Belfast at the Europa Hotel. I’m leaving Dublin west and taking them up on Friday but first I have to finish painting them or there’s nothing to take.

That means Thursday is the final day for painting. Thursday, March 17th - St Patrick’s Day. National holiday it may be but there’ll be no parade, festival, music, or drink for me that day in Dublin as I’ll be working away here maybe stopping to watch the chickens or walk through the woods to the river.

If I get a chance I’ll post some more Irish events in the KC area for the rest of this week and the big day - but I may not get that chance. You’ll be grand without me again anyway, I’m sure.

The paintings in progress are all Irish ones - of Dublin city centre, trees, leaves, and birds, and Donegal, Kerry and the west of Ireland. After the show I’ll post them online. They’ll first be shown to my mailing list, then onto my personal blog, then I’ll tell people following me on twitter, and finally I’ll tell those who have friended me on FaceBook.

I may or may not post them here on IrishKC too, but if I do it’ll be the last place to be notified. If you wish to see the paintings first - go to Belfast. If that’s not an option then if you want to be among the first to see the paintings online sign up for my mailing list - you can do that in the sidebar of my blog, Bicyclistic. It should only take a few seconds as nothing is needed except your email address (and you have to confirm it so I don’t spam you).

In case we don’t talk again: Enjoy your week! I’ll be working.

Read: Paddy’s Week For Me »

It’s that time of year.

5 years ago yesterday IrishKC started quietly with this tiny post. A week from tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day, traditionally the biggest day by a mile on IrishKC, followed shortly after by Hoffenpurpenburger Day.

Before we get to those dates IrishKC will tick over its one millionth visit. If I paid close attention I could even give the millionth visitor a prize. I won’t (give a prize, or indeed pay close attention).

While IrishKC might have appeared semi-dormant this past year there are still typically 400-1,000 views a day here on the site and hundreds more elsewhere. Also it’s not as neglected as it may appear; every week I work away on it in the background - adjusting navigation, tweaking elements of design, and updating links. There’s approximately 5,000 pages here and it takes a bit of work keeping them in order.

Every week the blog brings in questions from people looking for info and unfortunately I only get to reply to about 20% of them - sending them to the relevant Irish shops, performers, etc. This may or may not be related to the fact that a much smaller % actually get back to me and thank me.

I also get many people thinking the site is where they book a table at an Irish restaurant, book an Irish performer, volunteer for an Irish festival, register for an Irish parade, etc - as if it were the official site for those businesses. I used to point those people in the correct direction too, as well as let the relevant business know, but with an almost non-existent % of thanks for that I no longer do this. If people choose not to read and to believe that this is the official website of Daniel O’Donnell or KC Irish Pub Dot Com etc., I’ve decided it’s not my responsibility to disavow them of the notion.

Some good things come out of the archives too. In the last year a painting that featured on IrishKC was chosen to be the cover of a book of true Irish stories. And a post that first appeared on IrishKC was selected to be among the 70-odd stories included - it’s the only story in the Irish book with a reference to Kansas City. The book sold out its print run of 2,000 so you can now only purchase it as an e-book - I heartily recommend it.

To those who only perceive a lack of activity on IrishKC and think I’m therefore fairly inactive these days online, I’ve never been more active.

In the 5 years since starting IrishKC I’ve also started my cartoon site American Hell - in 2007. It’s been a finalist in the Irish Blog Awards, had syndication requests, and been the subject of a possible book deal. It’s readership is around the 1,000 a day mark and growing.

In 2009 I also started the blog that concentrates on my paintings, my photographs, my cycling, and my dog - Bicyclistic. Much of this is material that once would have appeared on IrishKC. It gets just 100 visitors day typically but with major spikes over 1,000 for certain posts. Last year in Galway it made me very proud when it won at the Irish Blog Awards.

Also, today 4 years ago - after lurking for a few months - I joined twitter. I was just a few days outside the first 100 Irish people to join, and I have been singing its praises since. In fact not only am I eolai on twitter, but the dog is on twitter (1st dog in Ireland on twitter), American Hell is on twitter and even IrishKC has its own account.

When you throw in a few accounts on FaceBook, and even keeping up with communications from people on MySpace, I’ve never been busier, or more present, online. And Kansas City is still in there. It’s a lot of work, but like a seemingly dormant IrishKC, it sells paintings. That’s the bottom line for me.

To those who are interested in my take on things Irish, you can follow me on twitter or my Bicyclistic blog. I still follow online everything Irish and related in KC but rarely get to write things up. Painting and paintings dominate. When television and radio programmes want to talk to me about my paintings, IrishKC is first to take the hit. I wished I’d told you about that presentation by Dr. Matthew L. Jockers on Charles Driscoll’s Irish in Kansas at Benedictine College in Atchison the night before last. I’d planned to for ages, but…time. Did you go?

If you are interested in Ireland itself (rather than slagging off green beer whilst drinking copious amounts of other beer so as to celebrate the country, your heritage, or something) you might be interested to know that later this year I’ll be doing my biggest adventure since cycling across America 15 years ago. It should be my biggest online venture yet - when I tour Ireland, thousands of miles of it all going well, painting it, photographing it, and blogging & tweeting it as I go.

It’ll probably mean a new website. I might tell you on here about it, I might not. But I’ll definitely be talking about it on twitter and on my personal blog.

Talk to you later - maybe tomorrow, maybe next month. If you’re reading this on my IrishKC rather than on a reader, your visit is one in a million. Thank you.

Read: One Million and Five »

It’s that time.

A special time.

Here’s a new painting of a panda.

Party.

It’s not for sale.

Read: Panda Picnic »