We confess: We’re addicted to the Rambling House events at the Irish Center. There won’t be another one until January and we’re looking at a month of withdrawal.
For those of you who just joined us, a Rambling House is a tradition of rural Ireland in which neighbors would gather together at someone’s house and entertain one another with their “party piece”—a song, story, recitation, something they did well. And the Irish Center’s Rambling House events, started last year by WTMR Irish radio hosts Vince Gallagher and Marianne MacDonald, are authentic. Audience members, occasionally fortified at the Center’s bar, have gotten up to sing, tell jokes, play an instrument, and, last week, to delve into local Irish history.
Part of last week’s excitement was hearing Karen Boyce McCollum sing, with her brothers Mike and John Boyce (of Blackthorn) accompanying. She was “due any minute,” and a few days later did deliver a boy, Daniel Terrence McCollum. Congratulations to Karen, Brian, and Sarah Carmel!
We were there, of course, and did the photo thing.