Public Employee Press


Irish Heritage Celebration
Tradition binds a community

By JANE LaTOUR

DC 37 members, retirees, leaders, staffers and friends with ancestral roots deep in Cork, Donegal, Galway, Sligo and all the counties of Ireland joined in the festivities March 4 at the union's 19th annual Irish Heritage celebration.

Other participants were Irish for the evening as they enjoyed a delicious traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage and tapped their feet to the stirring sounds of the Emergency Medical Service Pipes and Drums.

The Canny Brothers' band led "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the Irish national anthem, "A Soldier's Song," and played time-honored Irish favorites. The O'Malley Irish Dance Academy performed traditional Irish step dancing and once again invited members of the audience to join them on the dance floor.

Local 2627 member Eugene Olmstead, an American of Irish descent, enjoyed the celebration. "My maternal grandmother was born in Galway, my mother is 100 percent Irish and my father is three-quarters Irish," he said. "It's important to keep the traditions alive because of the distinguishing characteristics of the Irish people, especially their willingness to fight for what is right."

Sister Mary O'Connor, a retired member of Local 299, provided the blessing. Colleen Detroy spoke on behalf of Executive Director Lillian Roberts, ending with the old Irish blessing: "May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, and may the Lord hold you in the hollow of his hand."

Irish Heritage Committee Chair John Huber, the president of Climbers and Pruners Local 1506, and Vice Chair Bernadette O'Leary Enzmann led the celebration and praised the contributions of the committee members who organized the program.

O'Leary Enzmann prepared a special program for the evening, a compilation of Irish history, folklore and recipes. Committee members also sold Irish soda bread in the union lobby March 11 and marched in the St. Patrick's Day parade March 17.

The celebration was a grand occasion and a fitting tribute to (as the anthem says) "the children of a fighting race . who set the tyrant quaking."