Press Release: Robbie O'Connell Lecture - March 22, 2009

The Newport Irish Heritage Association will be hosting a lecture by Robbie O’Connell, a former member of the Clancy Brothers, current member of Green Fields of America, and a singer-songwriter in his own right, on Sunday, March 22, at St. Augustin’s Church Hall in Newport.

The event which begins with a brief Heritage Association meeting and social at 1:00 o’clock is part of the Newport Irish Heritage Month celebration.

Robbie O'Connell was born in Waterford, Ireland and grew up in County Tipperary, where his parents had a small hotel. He began to play guitar and sing at age thirteen and soon became a regular performer at the hotel's weekly folk concerts. He spent a year touring the folk clubs in England before enrolling at University College Dublin where he studied Literature and Philosophy.

In 1977, he joined the Clancy Brothers and two years later he moved to Franklin, Massachusetts.

Since 1977 Robbie O'Connell has performed both solo and as a member of the Clancy Brothers & Robbie O'Connell, Moloney O'Connell & Keane, The Green Fields of America, Clancy, O'Connell & Clancy, and Aengus.

He has recorded fourteen albums for such labels as RCA, Vanguard and Green Linnet, and he has appeared on an additional seven compilation albums.Winner of the Boston Music Award as Outstanding Celtic Act, he has appeared at almost every major venue in the USA from New York's famed Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles.

He has played almost every major festival, from Milwaukee Irish Fest to the New York Guinness Fleadh and from the Skagen Festival in Denmark to the Los Angeles Irish Fair. He has played on international stages in such countries as Ireland, England, Scotland, Denmark, Germany, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

O’Connell will be speaking on “The History of Irish Music and America’s Role in its Revival.”. The event is free to Newport Irish Heritage Association members. A $10.00 donation is requested of nonmembers. Light refreshments will be served.

For information, call 846-6880.