Library hosts “Sláinte: A Celebration of Irish Culture”
“Sláinte, a Celebration of Irish Culture,” was Harrell Health Sciences Library’s St. Patrick’s Day gift to Penn State College of Medicine.
Hosted and organized by the library’s Seamus Carmichael, the event featured performers from the Hershey community, including Mary Kate Lee and Jamie O’Brien, who are regular visitors to the campus as part of the Center Stage arts program, and a group of musical performers who are Penn State staff or faculty. The Humanities department was represented by Danny George. Marc Lubbers represented for Medical Student Affairs, and Eliza Donne (Penn State College of Medicine) and Henry Koretzky (Penn State Harrisburg) represented the libraries.
Sláinte, which means “to your health,” is the Irish-language equivalent of “cheers,” said when raising a glass; while there was nothing stronger than tea and scones on offer, there was plenty to amuse and enlighten at the event.
The opening pieces linked early-20th-century Irish poet W.B. Yeats with a contemporary Irish songwriter, Foy Vance, whose “The Wild Swans at Coole” and “The Wild Swans on the Lake” were read and sung by Carmichael with accompaniment from Mary Kate Lee on harp and harmony vocals from Henry Koretsky.
Koretsky, on mandolin, and his musical partner Jamie O’Brien, on guitar, provided a song called “Slip Jigs and Reels,” and followed it with an assortment of jigs and reels, starting with “The Road to Lisdoonvarna” and finishing with the American reel “Whiskey before Breakfast.”
Eliza Donne and her ukulele took the stage then, with Donne singing “The Star of the County Down” followed by “The Rocky Road to Dublin.” This was followed by Marc Lubbers, who played the Steinway grand piano and sang the 19th-century Thomas Moore ballad “The Last Rose of Summer.”
Jamie O’Brien and Henry Koretsky returned to sing “The Boys of Barr na Sraide,” and Mary Kate Lee played two hornpipes on harp, then sang “A Maid going to Comber.”
Carmichael finished out the show with two comic songs, “Lament for a Dead Dog” – a self-penned number about the experience of being declared dead online – and an Irish musician’s revenge fantasy about the death of an offensive percussionist, “The Spoons Murder.”
Recordings of the event are available on Carmichael’s YouTube channel.
Read more
If you're having trouble accessing this content, or would like it in another format, please email the Penn State College of Medicine web department.