From The Hob
by Paul KeatingRSS 
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The doom and gloom cycle continues unabated, so it seems like the new ambitious Culture Ireland initiative christened Imagine Ireland couldn’t have come at a better time to America to counter some of that negativity, and also to spark renewed interest in Irish culture for its own sake.
One of the chief architects of that campaign launched recently in New York at Lincoln Center was Eugene Downes, the CEO of Culture Ireland who is positively upbeat about the importance of Irish culture on the world stage and for the year 2011 across the length and breadth of the U.S.
Musician Don Meade has curated that series (www.blarneystar.com) for over two decades as it moved from the Eagle in the West Village to the actual Blarney Star Pub on Murray Street and for a number of years, and now at Glucksman Ireland House near Washington Square in Manhattan.
Coming up this Friday, January 28, in the first of the series in the new year are the Pearl River Mommas who anchor the great teaching and learning environ that has established that bustling Rockland County community as the center for Irish music education thus far in the 21st century.
That was on my mind when I, along with a number of other invited guests, traveled to Lincoln Center last Friday to hear some good news from Ireland on a frosty New York City day.
Outside the glass-walled Café 65 in Alice Tully Hall the snow fell softly and harmlessly while we were being told of a historic Irish cultural initiative being launched in 2011.
