Room 304 Presented by Celtic Women International, this is the place for a quiet cup of tea while you listen to literary presentations.

Saturday

11:30 - Celtic Women International Ceremony to Open the "Literary Salon" as an official CWI gathering
12:00    Virgina Boyle    Got Gaeilge? is a scene from Virginia Boyle’s latest drama, Ireland Abú. Following clues left in the 400 year-old Annals of the Four Masters, Virginia wanders the Donegal Gaeltacht searching for “The Boyle.” She finds herself at Oideas Gael in the “Irish Language Lesson 1” just in time -- It’s the night of The Solstice and you never know who… or what… you might bump into on the road!  Virginia Boyle has toured the world as an actress, performing original dramas. Virginia was awarded two Playwright’s Fellowships and a Playwright’s Grant Award from the Illinois Arts Council. She holds a PhD in Communications, an MFA in Theatre/Acting, an MA in Educational Theatre, and a Master’s Degree in Education. She has taught college-level speech/theatre, and currently teaches high school English and Communication. She is the Festival Coordinator of The Chicago Youth Community Film Festival and is the Curriculum Writer for the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. Her works include: Ireland a History in Song, What Parish are you From? and the landmark, Facets Non-violent, Non-sexist Children’s Video Guide.

12:30    Mary Malloy    The Keeners: Women     The keeners saw people into this world and out of this world.

1:00    Arthur Cola with singer Kathy Cowan on an otherworldly journey of haunting, magical and strange tales. Images of Ireland will take participants on a literary tour as the author presents the inspirational sites which resulted in the creation of his novels: Papa and the Leprechaun King and The Shamrock Crown.    Arthur Cola is the author of four novels: Papa and the Leprechaun King, The Shamrock Crown, The Stone Cutter Genius and The Brooch. His screenplay, "Ring of the Magi" is being developed as a movie project by producer/director Ron Kolman. His movie review column appears at http://www.itsfilm.com/

1:30    Mary Pat Kelly    Kelly Green, A Work in Progress    Mary Pat Kelly follows the Kelly Family of Galway Bay into the 20th century as Nora Kelly,  Honora's granddaughter, works in Paris where she meets Maud Gonne and Irish revolutionaries and writers in exile. She will return to Chicago and help her cousin Ed Kelly rise politically.  Get an insight into the process of writing historical fiction. Mary Pat Kelly, a proud member of Celtic Women, is a writer and filmmaker from Chicago whose best selling novel Galway Bay is being developed as a min-series with multi- award winner Jim Sheridan directing.

2:00    Mary Kunert    A Stitch in time    Mary will explain how she brings a vision of an event or place or person to life in fabric. She will share pictures of a couple of creations and some actual wall hangings. She will describe how and why some of the wall hangings developed. She will explain the process with a work in process. Mary Kunert is a retired mortage banker, mother of 6, grandmother of 4 and great grandmother of three and wife of one. She is a dabbler. She dabbles in poetry and other writings. She dabbles in fabric art. She is dabbles in music. She is full time caregiver for the greatest guy in the world.

2:30    Brenna Briggs   "Who is the Daughter of Mother Machree?"Brenna Briggs is a former documentary film producer who created Irish Dancer-Girl Detective Liffey Rivers so that the world of Irish dancing would have a heroine like Nancy Drew. She is the author of five Liffey Rivers Irish Dancer Mysteries and is noted for blogging about feis-related Post Traumatic Bling Disorder."

3:00    Kathy Cowan    Sean Nos Songs    Celebrate Samhain,Halloween,  the Celtic New Year, Kathy will present poems, stories and songs of ghosts, fairies, death and passing over to the other side: our Celtic heritage's eerie side. May 1 and October 31 are days the fairies come out!    Kathy Cowan is a well-known Chicago singer. She was the critically-acclaimed lead in "In the Deep Heart's Core," has sung with orchestras all around the united States and Canada, toured with the Paul Winter Consort and has performed her shows at the Kennedy Center and Smithsonian Institute, sings at Chicago weddings and funerals and teaches at the Old Town School and Northeastern Illinois University. She is currently playing Anna O"Neil, wife to Chief O'Neil, in Music Mad at Chief O'Neil's Pub.

3:30    Mary Wagner  Running with Stilettos    It's never too late to make mid-course corrections! The author changed careers from journalism to law after a long fall from a tall horse put her in a body cast. Still, the writer in her never quit, and Mary wagner's essays about discovering spike heels, power tools and the back seat of a motorcycle after turning (ahem) forty have won numerous awards. Chat with the author about the joy and power of following your heart.    Mary is an essayist, author, criminal prosecutor and granddaughter of Tipperary.

4:00    Helen Davies    Medieval Scholar    Viking History in Dublin    Although known more as raiders, the Vikings were also settlers and commercial traders.  They played a major role in the establishment of Dublin, as evidenced not only by a wealth of archaeological remains, but also of family names, place names and fieldnames.  Helen will discuss the Viking history and influences in Dublin.  Helen Davies has Master in Medival Studies from the University of York and is currently pursing a second master's degree in Loyola University's Digital Humanities program.

4:30    Joan Kramer  Celtic Spirit    Expect to travel along a Kripala meditation path to explore scenery, listen to nature, feel at one with your spirit, and charm your senses with all things Irish. Give yourself a mere 30 minutes of blissful relaxation to awaken to peace within knowing you are in the right place at the right time to replenish your mind, body, spirit and soul. "Following 17 years as an Intensive Care Registered Nurse I developed a path for myself as a Health Care Consultant, Reflexologist entrepreneur, university professor and intuitive water therapist.

5:00    Theresa Choske     The Art of Matt Lamb    While much of the art of contemporary Chicago artist Matt Lamb is colorful fantasy, Theresa is struck by similarities of his other work depicting floral arrangements with the works the Scottish artist Anne Redpath. Theresa is a lecturer who specializes in art, Irish history, and other cultural topics.

Sunday

11:30 - Dedication of the Celtic Women International Collection (in the library)
Partricia Monaghan donated a large number of books to the Irish American Library, many of them on Celtic Spirituality and Irish women history.  Together with books donated in the past and in the future, they form the new IAHC Celtic Women International Collection. 

12:00    Maureen Tolman Flannery    Poet    Poems to Honor the Irish Ancestors  
"Maureen will read from her books Tunnel into Morning, Ancestors in the Landscape, and A Fine Line.  We will accompany her, via her poems and stories, back to the stone ruins of grandparents’ cottages in Galway and Mayo.  Delight in her intricate designs of Irish lace, stitched together with threads of pishogues, history, family lore, imagination, conjecture, and a knot or two of poetic license.
Maureen Tolman Flannery, the offspring of a Wyoming sheep rancher and the daughter of New England Irish immigrants, writes extensively about the inter-weavings of family and place.  She is the author of seven books of poetry, her most recent volume being Tunnel into Morning. Her other books include Destiny Whispers to the Beloved, Ancestors in the Landscape, and A Fine Line. Maureen is a Wyoming native living in Chicago where her four children were raised.  Her poems have appeared in fifty anthologies and over a hundred literary reviews, including Feile Festa, Birmingham Poetry Review, Xavier Review, Calyx, Pedestal, Atlanta Review, Out of Line, North American Review, Poetry East, and Santa Fe Literary Review."

12:30    Michael McDermott    Brigit, Sun of Womanhood
In celebration of a new anthology of essays and poems dedicated to Brigit, this reading/discussion will introduce some of the connections between the ancient Celtic goddess and the later Christian saint Bridget. Contributors include writers from Scandinavia, Cornwall and Scotland as well as Ireland and America.
Michael McDermott is a semi-retired physician and social activist. With his wife, Patricia Monaghan, he is the co-founder of Brigit Rest in Black Earth, Wisconsin and for the last 15 years he has worked to develop Brigit Rest into a retreat for artists and activists based on a reverence for the land and as a setting for Celtic influenced spirituality. He has provided Brigit Rest as home for the Black Earth Institute.

1:00    Patricia Monaghan    Celtic Spirituality    Brigit Today
Who is Brigit today? As part of the celebration of the anthology "Brigit, Sun of Womanhood," this discussion explores the various ways in which Brigit moves through the world today, including inspiring an African-American woman to find a way to accept her Irish slave-holder ancestors, connecting Appalachian women to their Irish roots, and literally rooting Brigit in the soil of Connemara through establishing of Brigit's Garden.
Visionary poet Patricia Monaghan celebrates the mythic in the ordinary, the spiritual in the mundane, the sensuous in the scientific. An impassioned teacher and performer, she has won awards for creative nonfiction as well as poetry. Her highly crafted work remains accessible to ordinary readers interested in spirituality, peace, and environmental issues. Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at DePaul University, Patricia is also Senior Fellow of The Black Earth Institute, a think-tank for artists seeking to connect social justice, environment and spirituality.

1:30    Kathy Cunningham    Art    Telling Stories through the Visual Arts   
Kathy will present examples of her artwork in watercolor, clay, and metal, and will relate how she tells stories through her work.    Kathy is an artist who works in many media including watercolor, clay, steel, bronze, copper, and wood. She has also taught for almost 40 years, working with ages 3 to 102.

2:00    Brigid Duffy / Lillian Lewis Readings From Book
Readings by Brigid Duffy from the novel All Shall be Well: an Irish Inheritance by Lillian Lewis
Morgan Kenny is many things but she is not a psychic. As she flies across the ocean to Ireland to bury her eccentric Aunt Mary, she has no idea that her last link to the old world is about to lead her straight into an intriguing murder mystery.Morgan must mine the old ways and old myths to break the cipher. She has help from a saint, a boy and a handsome archeologist.
Brigid Duffy Gerace: While teaching in the Chicago Public Schools, Brigid won the prestigious Golden Apple Award. She has performed at major theatres in Chicago and is the co-producer with Frank Mahon of Stone Hearth Theatre at IAHC

2:30    Fr. Dennis O'Neill    Early Irish Saints    St. Brigid: New Artistic Project
The Celtic saints who appeared in the generation after St. Patrick and in the centuries afterwards had several unique characteristics in which they differed from contemporary saints in continental Europe. Dr. O'Neill will discuss these celtic saints, and will also present information on a new sculpture which has been commissioned on the theme of St. Brigid.
Fr. O'Neill is currently pastor of St. Martha Church in Morton Grove. He has authored the books Lazarus Interlude and Passionate Holiness and co-authored with Celtic artist Courtney Davis Celtic Beasts, Celtic Crosses, and St. Patrick: A Visual Celebration, as well as writing the introductions to other books on Celtic Medieval illuminated manuscript.

3:00    Joanna Trotter    Play    Interview with Granuaille: The Pirate Queen       
Original one-act play written by Joanna Trotter and performed by Joanna Trotter and Cathy McDonagh
Joanna Trotter has written, produced, directed & performed in two historical plays about famous Irish women.  Her play "Maud Gonne" premiered at IBAM in 2010 and delighted the standing room only crowd and was performed again at last year's IBAM.  Chicago born and raised Joanna lived for six years in Ireland.  A Chicago trained actress, she taught, coached and directed actors while there.  She has taken up writing in the last few years and hopes to do more with IAHC.

3:30   Kathy O'Neill   Contemporary Writer   Who Let You In? Fitting in and Standing Out in Irish America
Kathy will read short stories and poems about growing up American Irish in Irish America.
Kathy O'Neill is a freelance writer who covers pop culture for various newspapers and magazines. She has been published in NewCity, New Jersey Monthly Magazine, on CitySearch.com and was Midwest correspondent for ABCNews.com.
She is the Public Relations Manager for the IAHC. Previous editorial positions included producer for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Nightline, 20/20 and as a live shot producer and booker for Good Morning America, She frequently appears in print and on radio, discussing issues of Irish and American identity. Most recently she appeared on National Public Radio, discussing Irish stereotypes.

4:00    Mark Piekarz    Music    Stories of Ireland in Song    Mark Piekarz will be singing and playing Irish songs complemented by a few of his other favorites.   
Mark Piekarz is a lyric tenor and pianist who has appeared in many cultural events at the Irish American Heritage Center. He’s performed with many fine vocal ensembles in the Chicago area: the New Classic Singers (Glen Ellyn), Bella Voce (Chicago) and Coriolis (Evanston). He's an Actuarial Science graduate of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and lives in Logan Square.

4:30    Maureen Smith    History    Irish Revolutionary Women   
Women played key roles in the early 20th century fight for Irish freedom. Maureen will offer a brief overview of their involvement in the event so  1916-23 through a glimpse at some of the participants.   
Maureen co-founded and facilitates the CWI Chicago Branch.  Her historical lectures focus on early 20th century Irish women, but is always willing to delve into other Celtic topics.

5:00   Brigid O'Malley    Poetry Reading Favorite Irish Poems
Brigid will read Irish poetry in Irish Gaelic and translations in English.
From County Mayo, Brigid truly embodies the "wise woman" motif.  She is an educator, counselor, linguist, graphologist, and a wonderful reader and interpreter of Irish poetry

5:30    CWI "Scattering" ceremony
For every event, there is a begin, a middle and an ending.  Please join us for closing remarks,your  reflections and farewells.