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/2014/12/13/a-candle-in-the-window-to-light-the-way/ https://dannyoflaherty.com/2014/12/13/a-candle-in-the-window-to-light-the-way/#comments Sat, 13 Dec 2014 00:19:19 +0000 https://dannyoflaherty.com/?p=897

A Light in the Window

I’ve been on the road a lot these last few weeks for performances and events all over TX and LA. I love seeing towns and cities come to life with twinkling Christmas lights and decorations. But when I see a single candle in the window it takes me back to being a boy growing up  on the West coast of Ireland. All the Celtic countries have a similar custom of lighting a candle at Christmas to light the way of a stranger. In Ireland, we have the lovely tradition, passed down from ancient times, of “The Candle in the Window“. On Christmas Eve, just after dark, the youngest child named Mary or John would be the one to light the candle, often using a scooped out turnip for the candlestick! In every household there was always a Mary or John….(if God forbid there wasn’t, the honor would fall to the youngest child). The last time I was home in Connemara for Christmas, it was so heartwarming to see villages come alive with the flickering glow of candlelight in every window, saying “Welcome Home”. Nowadays, people continue to place candles (usually battery operated or electric for obvious safety reasons) in the window, echoing the message of our ancestors of reaching out to our fellow man, to help light the way for him or her in some small way. The candle in the window is sign of welcome, and of the love and warmth of the home and the people in it. It is a symbol of safety and peace. Wouldn’t it be grand if we would continue this ancient tradition year round, and always remember to reach out to our fellow man.

I wish each and everyone of you a blessed Christmas and may there always be a light to help light your way.

Danny

My sisters and nieces in Connemara at Christmas

Holly in front of a thatched cottage in Ireland

For thousands of years, Celtic people decorated their homes with the mystical plant during Yuletide or winter solstice because it was believed the Holly symbolized the strength of hearth and home, while the prickly leaves offered protection against hostile energies! So as you hang your Holly and Ivy this season, you will be taking part in a custom that is thousands of years old and still done today! If your ancestors were Celtic people, they would have taken part in this tradition for many, many generations! Nollaig Shona Duit!  Danny

 

The roots of the Christmas traditions that we recognize today can be traced back to pre-Christian celebrations of the Winter Solstice. To the ancient Celts, the Winter Solstice was their Christmas. It was a time for clansmen and women to gather together with their families to celebrate the shortest day of the year and the rebirth of the sun. As Christianity spread across the western world and mixed with pagan customs, the festivities of the winter solstice became linked with the advent of the nativity. Back in 1990, myself and Robin James-Jones wanted to produce an annual Christmas concert that would honor the old customs, stories and songs from each of the Seven Celtic Nations. We spent untold hours researching the project, and in December 1990, Robin and I performed our very first Celtic Christmas program.  In 1993 a half hour version of the show premiered on the PBS affiliate WLAE-TV in New Orleans and was soon picked up by other PBS affiliates around the country. In 2004, Celtic Christmas was televised by Louisiana Public Broadcasting at McNeese University in Lake Charles. 

We wanted the program to show that, while all of the Celtic nations shared many of the same Christmas customs, each of them also developed their own distinct traditions, pageantry, music and feasting, many of which continue to be celebrated to this very day. For instance, the Scots celebrated  “Oidche Choinnle” (Night of Candles). Candles were placed in every window to light the way for the Holy Family on Christmas. In Ireland, the day after Christmas Day, December 26, was called Lá Fhéile Stiofán (Day of the Wren). This goes back to ancient times when a real wren was killed and carried around in a holly bush. Some processions still take place, but no wren is hunted or used.

                For many of us, Christmas traditions are such an important part of the Holidays. As a young boy growing up in Ireland, the Holidays were filled with many wonderful traditions. We would decorate our thatched cottage with holly berries which my brothers and sisters and I gathered from the yard. My mom would place them around our home and candles would be lit to protect the house and bring good fortune throughout the coming year.  There was always music and song filling the air and, of course, plum pudding!! Every year, as the season approaches, I recall these and so many more wonderful memories spent with family in the west coast of Ireland. It is my hope that Celtic Christmas brings you back in time to capture the essence of those wonderful Celtic custom. 

I hope this season is filled with love, peace and joy for each and every one of you. The next few weeks will be busy as the general hustle and bustle of the Season is upon us. But Christmas is an ideal time to reflect on the many blessings in our lives and to be grateful for the many gifts in our lives. The true spirit of Christmas is about love, children, good health, friendships, and so much more. From my family to yours, I wish you a very merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy new year!

Nollaig Shona Duit! Merry Christmas!
Danny