When the captain offered to send him back to England, to receive an education, he said ““I AM HERE A PRISONER FOR THE LIBERTIES OF MY COUNTRY; I NEVER, NEVER, SHALL PROVE A TRAITOR TO HER INTERESTS” Forten was also the founder of a remarkable dynasty. His children and his son-in-law were all active abolitionists and a granddaughter, Charlotte Forten, published a famous diary of her experiences teaching ex-slaves in South Carolina’s Sea Islands during the Civil War.
When James Forten died in 1842, five thousand mourners, black and white, turned out to honor a man who had earned the respect of society across the racial divide.

James Forten stands beside Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the pantheon of African-Americans who fundamentally shaped American history.

You can find my album, “The Spirit of Freedom” here.

When roll call was taken the next day, only 68 men answered their names – 324 were killed, or missing and presumed dead, and 386 were wounded. I wrote this album to pay homage to those brave Newfoundlanders who gave their lives fighting in WW1.

Also, I wrote about the mothers who grieved for their sons, the wives left behind, the women from Newfoundland who joined the fight as nurses and ambulance drivers and the women who knit thousands of pairs of wool socks. I even included a song about Sable, the big Newfoundland dog who became the mascot for the soldiers.

For anyone wanting a CD, copies are available at:
http://rnfldrmuseum.ca/product-category/music/

All proceeds go to the Royal NL Regiment Museum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYxROCvMscQ

Under the advice of my doctors and my family, as well as with the deepest concerns over the safety of YOU, my fans, the risk of spread for the coronavirus is just too great at this time.

I am disappointed, but also looking forward to seeing you soon when we RESCHEDULE!

We will be processing refunds for those of you who purchased tickets through EventBrite shortly.

In the meantime keep tuned in to our social media and website. (We are working on a special something for you, more details soon.)

– Beannachtai Daoibh, Danny

You may have noticed, we have a new website!

Thank you to everyone involved and we will be adding more information and content over the weeks and months to come.

Show Announcement:

I will be performing in New Orleans on Sunday, December 1st, 2019 at Esplanade Studios.

Get more info by clicking right here.

I am originally from Connemara, Co Galway, but have lived in the US for the past 40 years. I am a singer, songwriter and entertainer, and have have spent much of my life dedicated to preserving and promoting Celtic Culture, particularly in the South. Hurricane Katrina was devastating to many, many people, myself included. In 2005, I was living in New Orleans and was heavily involved in teaching about and celebrating the Celtic culture to Irish Americans, and to anyone who was interested.  I owned and operated O’Flaherty’s Irish Channel  Centre. O’Flaherty’s was my dream come true. It was a place where we could teach Irish dance, speak our native Gaelic language and listen to and play Celtic folk music. We had a courtyard where we would have special outdoor concerts and weddings, and even held Mass there on occasion.  There was a restaurant and a pub, and many famous musicians came to play in the Ballad Room, including Tommy Makem, Eric Bogle and Danny Doyle.

Soon that would all change. While we didn’t know it at the time, the 2005 hurricane season would become the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history shattering numerous records. On Tuesday August 23, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, issued its first advisory about the tropical system that would become Hurricane Katrina. By Sunday, August 28,  Hurricane Katrina has mushroomed into one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to form in the Atlantic and The National Hurricane Center described Katrina as a “potentially catastrophic” hurricane.  That day my son Liam and I were at O’Flaherty’s Irish Channel Pub in the French Quarter. I remember looking at the sky and it was full of dark, menacing colors. I knew then that we had to leave the city as this was going to be dire, like nothing else we had ever experienced. The sky was an ominous mixture of reds, blacks, yellows and greens. It looked wild and crazy. The winds were picking up and the highways were jammed. Thousands had already left, and many thousands more had left it until the last minute. I was one of those. At 4:00 pm we hit the road. It would be 8 hours before the hurricane hit landfall.

I went east toward the hurricane, thinking most people would drive away from the danger. Along the way we could see fisherman frantically taking their boats out of the water, and people boarding up there homes. There was a sense of  foreboding in the air. I started to realize I had stayed too long and should have left days before. The highway going east was jammed with traffic, and I started to believe we would be caught on the highway, with no protection and no way to stay safe. I started to feel hopeless, and scared for our safety. My son, Liam, was just 14, and was trying his hardest to be brave, but I could see the tears in his eyes. Just when all hope seemed gone, my daughter Tara called to see how we were doing. At this point the winds were blowing, the waves getting higher and the skies darker and I had run out of ideas of how to get us to safety.  Like an angel, Tara used satellite imagery to guide us to safety. She directed me on which roads to take to get us to safety. She continued this for 5 hours, taking us through neighborhoods and towns until finally at 0300 we pulled into Monroe, Louisiana, which was 300 miles North of New Orleans. I have thought about that many times over the years, how from thousands of miles away, my daughter directed her brother and I to safety, potentially saving our lives. There are no words to express how grateful I am to her for that.

That night we stayed with friends. We were thankful to get a few hours sleep, and when we woke at 9:00 am we were relieved! It seemed that New Orleans had been spared. Katrina had passed through, but caused no significant damage. It seemed we would be able to return to our beloved city the next day. However, the worst was yet to come. At 12:00 noon, a news report stated there was a breech in the levee. An hour later, another levee breeched. More reports of more breeches followed. New Orleans sits in a bowl, and it is below sea level.The levees were built to keep water out. Once they are breeched, there is no way to stop the flooding. I knew at that moment that life as I had known it was over, that New Orleans would be devastated, her people scarred forever. My hopes and dreams of continuing to spread the Celtic culture through rowing, regattas, concerts and so much more were destroyed. I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.

It was a week later before anyone was allowed back in to the city. My first thought driving into the city was that it was like a war zone. There was death and destruction everywhere. If you think about what it would look like at the end of the world, this was it. Over 1600 people were dead or dying, and thousands more had fled, many never to return. There was no light, just darkness-no sounds, just deafening silence. Everything was under water, people were on their rooftops waiting to be rescued. You could smell the decay in the air. Toxic poisonings from the refinery and the chemical plants had bled into the standing water. To this day, anyone who was exposed to this poison are still experiencing health problems.

The National Guard were riding around the city in army jeeps, armed and ready to fire.  Multiple police departments from around the country had come to help try to resist order and peace because there was no law and order. There was widespread looting. The LA National Guard had just been deployed home from Iraq. They were quoted as saying that what they witnessed in their home city was worse than anything they had experienced in the war torn country of Iraq. Hospitals were loosing their generator power, there was no food. There were no sounds of life…no birds, no music, no anything. Just death and decay and devastation.

As a singer and song writer, I was able to turn to music to ease the pain slighting in the clean up phase of Katrina.  In the years that followed I wrote an album called Secret Garden. The album celebrates the magic and mystery that continues to live on in a city full of secret gardens and magical courtyards. So many people lost so much in the natural disaster, yet in the face of adversity, they found the strength to start over. I wrote “Droch Sceal Go New Orleans“ which means “Bad News for New Orleans”. I wrote it in my native Gaelic language because I wanted people at home in Ireland to understand the trauma this city had experienced. It was part of a documentary I did for Irish TV. Coming Home to You is another song on the album and was  written when  Liam and I were evacuating  the city that Sunday as the black clouds rolled in. The line  “Will We Ever See You Like You Were Before?” makes reference to the fact that, as I looked back over my left shoulder,  I knew the city we would come back to would not be the city we all Knew and loved.  The album is dedicated to the beauty and magic of New Orleans. It is about the city’s hope, rebuilding and triumph over the destruction and despair. The magic’s still there.

There were many losses, many tears and many fears in the months and years following Katrina. I lost my home and  O’Flaherty’s Irish Channel Pub was forced to close. I relocated to another state to start over. There were also many lessons to be learned. No matter what life hands you, you have the ability to rise above it. Never let adversity dim your light and your love for life. Keep singing and dancing and most of all, always remember to do good whenever you can. Ten years later the city is still rebuilding. The magic’s still there!

God Bless
Danny

New Orleans was home to me for many years. Her soul and spirit have etched a place in my heart that will always remain. Here’s a song to reflect the magic of New Orleans ~

]]> https://dannyoflaherty.com/2015/07/24/new-orleans-after-hurricane-the-magics-there/feed/ 9 1408 https://dannyoflaherty.com/2015/04/23/cead-mile-failte-ever-wonder-what-it-means/ https://dannyoflaherty.com/2015/04/23/cead-mile-failte-ever-wonder-what-it-means/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:06:50 +0000 https://dannyoflaherty.com/?p=1307 C’ead Mile Failte means A Hundred Thousand Welcomes in Irish Gaelic! Gaelic is the ancient and modern language of Ireland and is also my native language.  Irish was once the majority language in Ireland and its decline began under English rule in the seventeenth century. By the early 19th century, Gaelic as a spoken tongue had died out except in isolated rural areas; English had become the official and literary language of Ireland. The introduction of a primary education system, in which only English was taught by order of the British government while Irish was prohibited was one reason for the decline of the Irish language. The Great Famine (an Gorta Mór) which hit a disportionately high number of Irish speakers, especially in the Gaeltacht areas of the western seaboard, resulted in the deaths of over a million people and caused a tidal wave of emigration, which was also a major factor in the decline of the language.  By the turn of the century, only about one percent of the population spoke Irish Gaelic in Ireland. Most emigrants traveled to England, America, Canada & Australia and had to learn English to survive. I myself left my home in Connemara when I was sixteen and emigrated to England for work. Before leaving Ireland I remember having someone write out how to ask for a bus ticket in English and I practiced it over and over so that when I got to the bus station I would know what to say.

The late 19th century saw a renewed interest in the Irish language. Many writers and scholars felt that the Irish language was very important for maintaining an Irish identity. In 1893, the Gaelic League was established. Its main goal was to revive the Irish language and protect its status. It also promoted the development of  national literature, music, and theater. In 1937, with the birth of the Irish Constitution, Irish was declared the ‘first official language” of the county, with English being second.

Today, Irish as a first language is spoken mostly in the Gaeltacht areas of rural western and north-western parts of the country, where it is estimated that approximately 30,000 speak the language, while another million or so Irish people can speak more than just a few words. It’s wonderful to see the Irish language develop outside of Ireland. Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame University, The Center for Irish Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston and The center for Irish Programs at Boston College have excellent Irish study programs. The North Texas School of Irish Music in Dallas teaches the traditional folk music of Ireland. I was invited to perform there this past Christmas and it was so heartwarming to hear American children speak and sing in Gaelic. In Canada, St. Francis Xavier offers a Celtic language program with the literature and history of the Celts from about 800 BC to the present and Memorial University of Newfoundland teaches an Irish Gaelic program. Newfoundland remains the only place outside Europe that can claim a unique Irish name (Talamh an Éisc, meaning Land of the Fish). Tamworth, Ontario, is also home to the first Irish Language speaking area, or Gaeltacht, to be announced outside of Ireland. This is an important symbol of hope for the struggling minority language. Plans for the site include cabins to house upwards of 100 people, classrooms, and a museum.

It is my hope that the Gaelic language continues to flourish, both in Ireland and around the world. Several years ago, my brother Patrick and I recorded a video known as A Night In Gaelic  It was filmed at O’Flaherty’s Irish Channel Pub in the French Quarter in New Orleans. I am currently in Nashville, Tennessee, recording a song I have written in Gaelic and have plans to do an entire album in Gaelic. In my children’s programs, I teach the kids how to count to ten in Gaelic, and they always love learning a new language! If you are interested in learning the language, visit your local college or university or click on the links above. As well, there are many online programs available. In May, 2016, I will be leading a tour to Ireland and will visit the Gaeltach area where Gaelic is alive and well. There we will meet with seanchai ( storyteller, pronounced sha-na-kee), learn how to Sean-nós dance (an older style of traditional solo Irish dance), and so much more. Details can be found by clicking here!

Go raibh maith agat!

Slainte!

Danny (Donal Ó Flaithbertaigh)

One of the most widespread Irish customs associated with St. Brigid/ Brigit is the making of the Cros Bríde ( St Brigid’s Cross). On February 1st, many Irish people will adhere to an ancient tradition of making St. Brigid’s Cross and placing in their home, usually above the door. It is believed the cross offers blessings to all who come in or go out, and it also protects the home from fire and illness.

Another custom we celebrated in Ireland was to eat “Boxty” on St. Brigid’s Day (click for recipe). It’s a traditional Irish potato pancake and the word is from the Irish “Bacstai” and refers to the traditional method of grilling over an open fire.

Making Boxty

One my most recent tour to Ireland this past September, we spent a beautiful day in Carrigallen, Co Leitrim. This is where Margaret of New Orleans was born on Christmas Day, 1813. The town of Carrigallen  welcomed our group with craft people, music, songs, dance, drama and art. Above is a photo of one of the many talented people from that area making Boxty for us. And let me tell you, it was delicious! I can’t thank these people enough for everything they did for us. We ended the day with a delicious meal and even more dancing and singing. It was a truly incredible time.

So on Febuary 1, as you welcome the start of spring, I hope you will take a moment to think of St. Brigid. Perhaps you can start a new tradition of making a cross in her honor, or cooking some boxty for supper!

Danny