Gloomy clouds could not damper Seattle's 39th annual Irish Festival as parade-goers lined up on the sidewalk of Fourth Avenue to watch and hear marchers fill the streets with the sounds of bagpipes, chants and a celebration of Irish heritage.
The two hour event highlighted organizations from all over the Northwest, including the Delta Police Pipe Band and the Kenmore & District Pipe Band. To many people's pleasant surprise, the Northwest DeLorean Club also made an appearance in their DeLorean sports cars, made famous by the blockbuster film trilogy "Back to the Future." The cars manufacturing history stems from Northern Ireland's DeLorean Motor Co. in the 1980s.
The parade ceremonies concluded at the Center House of Seattle Center, where St. Catherine's marching band from Killybeg's County Donegal of Ireland performed to an approving full house. The Irish Festival's honorary guests then took the stage, which included the 2010 Grand Marshal Desmond Guinness, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, as well as Declan McDonnell, who is the mayor of Seattle's sister city of Galway, Ireland.
McGinn, who himself is of Irish descent, and McDonnell presented Guinness with a parting gift, to which Guinness enthusiastically declared, "This will be a reminder of a happy day in your beautiful city of Seattle."
While the crowd was relatively lighter on Sunday, the mood was just as festive. Patrons near the Center House stage were treated to a nice mix of music and dance as kids tried their hand at the Irish jig, imitating the skillful dancers seen over the weekend.
Along with performances, the emphasis of Sunday's events was a culmination of history and culture. Ciaran O'Mahony, who studied at the National University of Ireland in linguistics, held a class on the Gaelic language for a group of 25 people.
Ranging in age from 6 to 60-years-old, the attentive crowd recited words and phrases that were a far cry from the English language.
As people stumbled over words that would be considered elementary to Gaelic speakers, O'Mahony jokingly said, "Don't worry folks, it's a difficult language that takes a while to master."
Just a few rooms down, a workshop on genealogy was available, where historical scholar Charles Hadrann was teaching people about studying family lineage.
With 22 years of experience in the field, as well as being an owner of nearly 100 books that traced Irish history as far back as 1152, Hadrann explained, "They're trying to make a connection to their family name, so I guide them along and try to pinpoint where their particular name originated from."
Not to be overlooked was a large display of Irish post cards from owner John Cooper, who has been collecting them over the last decade. With close to 3,600, all categorized by city and date, his oldest collection included post cards that were more than a century old.
This is the seventh year Cooper has displayed his collection at the Irish Festival. He said the post cards serve as lasting memories. "I get interesting stories from people who have a connection to the cities in the post cards. They tell me about growing up there or family roots that started in these cities. It's really fascinating."[[In-content Ad]]
