Update on Emily Oxenreiter

Tom Oxenreiter and wife Emily are waiting to see how she had responded to surgery. (See earlier note, posted below.)

Her address:

Emily Oxenreiter
c/o Allegheny General Hospital
Trauma ICU
320 East North Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

Tom Oxenreiter's wife in serious accident

Brother Tom Purcell sends word that brother Tom Oxenreiter's bride, Emily, was in a serious auto accident on her way to work on the snowy, icy morning of Nov. 18, 2008.

She was in surgery into the night. She is stable today (Nov. 19), but she suffered spinal damage.

At this moment, doctors are not sure if she has suffered paralysis below her stomach, but it is possible. The prognosis may not be made for another two or three days.

"Prayers are needed, Tom Purcell adds. "Tom and Emily were just married one month ago. John Graf did a tremendous job with the reception at the Priory. Emily is an archivist with the Catholic church. She accepted a promotion that required her to drive to West Virginia every day. We all hope and pray she'll come out of this 100 percent, but prayers are needed."

The Jeopardy/Hibernian link

On the November 18, 2008, "Jeopardy," during the annual teen tournament, the contestants had a category called Once A Year.

The $1,600 statement was:

"Look for the Ancient Order of Hibernians in this parade that has marched up 5th Avenue every year since 1762."

One student incorrectly guessed the question, "What is the Macy's parade?" The other two did not even attempt a guess.

Irish Joke of the Week

Finnegin: My wife has a terrible habit of staying up 'til two o'clock in the morning. I can't break her of it.

Keenan: What on earth is she doin' at that time?

Finnegin: Waitin' for me to come home.

Irish Song - Lay Me Down

The Frames have existed since 1990 and consist of survivors of Dublin's prolific early 1990s rock-and-roll scene. In 2007 The Frames toured Australia and New Zealand as the support act for Bob Dylan.

Irish History - November 16 - 22

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

November 16
1272 - Henry III dies; his son Edward I, who has been Lord of Ireland since 1254, succeeds him
1754 - Birth in Verval, Co. Wicklow of William Marsden, orientalist, Malayan scholar and numismatist
1793 - Francis Danby, landscape painter, is born near Killinick, Co. Wexford
1814 - Michael Kelly Lawler, general in the Union army during the American Civil War, is born in Co. Kildare
1816 - Benjamin Woodward, architect, is born in Tullamore, Co. Offaly
1893 - Death of George A. Osborne, Irish composer, organist and director of the Royal Academy of Music
1939 - Birth of Luke Kelly of the Dubliners
1965 - Death of William Thomas Cosgrave, first President of the Irish Free State
1999 - In Lismore, Co. Waterford, a tradition stretching back almost 130 years passes away as the last remaining Christian Brother Patrick Ryan turns the key on the front door of the monastery for the final time; the order has had an uninterrupted presence in the town since 1871
2000 - Furious taxi drivers have to be restrained from protesting outside Leinster House following reports that the Government is poised to completely deregulate the industry
2000 - In the largest class of graduates since the BSN degree was introduced in 1997, more than 50 nurses are presented their diplomas at the Royal College of Surgeons
2000 - Dr Therese Kinsella, a senior lecturer at University College Dublin becomes the first woman to receive the prestigious Royal Irish Academy Medal in Biochemistry
2001 - American ambassador Richard Egan is presented with a book of condolences compiled from IrishExaminer.com since the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in NYC
2002 - Niall Quinn is chosen as Man of the Year at the 28th annual People of the Year awards. A special one-off award to mark the 75th anniversary of the ESB is made to Dr TK Whitaker who is named Greatest Living Irish Person for his role in transforming the Irish economy in the 1950s.

November 17
1814 - Joseph Finegan, a Confederate general in the American Civil War, is born in Clones, Co. Monaghhan
1922 - The Irish Free State begins the executions of seventy-seven anti-Treaty republican prisoners
1852 - Donegal-born Brigadier Michael Corcoran's Irish Legion is mustered into the Federal service; it is involved in the defense of Washington D.C.
1930 - The first Irish Hospital Sweepstakes draw takes place; three Belfast men share a prize of £208,792
1994 - Taoiseach Albert Reynolds is forced to resign
1999 - Christian churches reject idea of elections on the sabbath day as a means of trying to increase voter turnout
1999 - The owners of the first cars to be called for inspection under the new National Car Test receive notification in the post
2001 - An £8.5 million annual pay deal for local politicians is to be finalised before Christmas, giving them a salary for the first time.

November 18
1703 - On 18 November the Commons hears a petition from Sir Kildare Dixon Burrowes, John Allen, Robert Dixon, Francis Spring, Alexander Gradon (all MPs) and 'other inhabitants of the County of Kildare complaining, that the inhabitants of the said County have been under great oppressions and grievances by the exorbitant power of Maurice [another MP], John and Francis Annesley, Esqrs, Justices of the Peace'. Shortly before this, the burgesses and freemen of Naas have also complained about the activities of the Annesleys. The allegations against Maurice and Francis are found not to be proved, but John is found to have illegally extorted money under cover of warrants and fees and is removed as sheriff
1709 - Birth of Henry Loftus, Earl of Ely and 4th Viscount; politician and proprietor of several boroughs
1873 - A three-day conference begins in Dublin to establish the Home Rule League. It will supersede Isaac Butt's Home Government Association
1880 - An historic meeting takes place at Queens Hotel, Belfast which will have far reaching effects on the administration of football in Ireland. At what is, in effect, the inaugural meeting of the Irish Football Association, the IFA elects its first President, Major Spencer Chichester and agrees to stage an annual Challenge Cup Competition
1899 - Death of William Allingham, poet
1922 - Court martial of Erskine Childers begins
1926 George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the Nobel Prize money of £7,000 awarded to him a year earlier. He said: "I can forgive Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."
1960 - The first Aer Lingus Boeing jet Padraig arrives at Dublin Airport
1999 - Former US senator George Mitchell makes his final report into the Good Friday Agreement; he urges the IRA to appoint its representative to discuss disarmament on the same day the new power-sharing government is set up
2000 - Ensign Marie Gleeson of Cashel becomes the first female cadet to capture the prestigious Fastnet Trophy. The award is given to the cadet who achieves first place in his or her class
2002 - The Belfast High Court is told that Sinn Féin's administration office manager at Stormont, Denis Donaldson, is an active member of the IRA's intelligence unit with connections to terrorist groups in Europe and in El Salvador.

November 19
1783 - The Volunteers' parliamentary reform bill is rejected by the Irish House of Commons, 157 to 77
1798 - Theobald Wolfe Tone dies from a stab wound to his neck which he inflicted upon himself on November 12; his attempted suicide is the result of being refused a soldier's execution by firing squad and being sentenced to death by hanging
1821 - 17 people are burned to death in a house in Tubber, Co. Tipperary, probably by 'Rockite' agitators
1871 - Margaret Emmeline Conway Dobbs, Irish historian, language activist and defender of Roger Casement, is born
1900 - Birth of Pamela Hinkson, daughter of Katharine Tynan; she's best known for her novel "The Ladies Road" which sold over 100,000 copies in the Penguin edition
1913 - Irish Citizen Army is formed
1924 - Death in Ara Coeli, Armagh, of Cardinal Michael Logue, Primate of All Ireland
1944 - Denis Brosnan, managing director of Kerry Group, is born in Tralee
1954 - First performance of Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow at the Pike Theatre in Dublin
1957 - Affectionately known as "Jacko", Jack O'Shea, Kerry Gaelic footballer, is born in Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry
1998 - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr Mary Robinson, is elected as chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin. Dr Robinson is the first woman in the college's history to be appointed to the position, making her the head of the University of Dublin of which Trinity College is the sole constituent
1999 - The life of eighty-five year old Eamon Kelly is celebrated at a banquet in his honour held at the Listowel Arms Hotel in Co. Kerry. Among the 250 guests are John B. Keane, Barry McGovern, Niall Toibin and Frances Black
2001 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announces that low-cost airlines will have a dedicated wing at Dublin Airport in 18 months; Aer Rianta is told to drop airport charges to attract tourists into the country.

November 20
1762 - Francis Andrews is appointed first professor of history at the University of Dublin
1719 - Spranger Barry, actor, is born in Skinner's Row (Christ Church Place) Dublin
1800 - Richard Rothwell, painter, is born in Athlone, Co. Westmeath
1830 - Birth of Patrick Henry Jones, Union General from Co. Meath
1840 - Birth of John Russell Young, journalist in American Civil War, from Co. Tyrone
1889 - Donn Byrne (real name Brian Donn-Byrne) novelist and short-story writer, is born in Brooklyn, New York of Irish parents
1908 - Birth of Alistair Cooke who describes himself as a "Lancastrian Irishman" - his mother was from Co. Sligo
1917 - The 16th Irish Division of the British army assaults an area of the German lines known as Tunnel Trench
1925 - Eoin MacNeill resigns from the Boundary Commission
1959 - Stephen Roche, champion cyclist, is born in Dublin
1998 - An historic union between Labour and Democratic Left is agreed. Unveiled by the two top negotiators, Labour's deputy leader Brendan Howlin and DL Deputy Eamon Gilmore, the merger proposal will go before Labour's General Council and DL's Executive for ratification
2000 - Three Galway pubs are prosecuted by the Director of Consumer Affairs for failing to display correct price lists, in the first ever such prosecutions brought under new Retail Price Display regulations
2001 - Cash-strapped Aer Lingus auctions its collection of paintings. Most money went on "By Merrion Strand" by Jack B. Yeats, an oil on canvas, which is sold for £290,000
2002 - The last surviving member of the recruits which founded the Garda Síochána is laid to rest. Galway-born Charlie Clarke, who spent most of his career in Dublin, celebrated his 100th birthday last summer.

November 21
1281 - Stephen de Fulbourne, bishop of Waterford and treasurer, replaces the infirm Robert de Ufford as justiciar and establishes a mint at Waterford
1759 - Henry Flood enters parliament and becomes leader of the opposition
1767 - United Irishman Thomas Russell is born in Kilshanick, Co. Cork. Although born in the Rebel County, he is now identified in the popular imagination of Co. Down and elsewhere as "The man from God-knows-where", from the ballad which recalls his charismatic but doomed efforts to raise the county in support of Robert Emmet’s rebellion of 1803
1887 - Joseph Mary Plunkett, Irish patriot and poet, is born in Dublin
1918 - The Parliament (Qualifications of Women) Act entitles women to sit and vote in the house of commons
1920 - On the morning of this date, 14 British intelligence officers are shot dead in Dublin by Michael Collins' men. In the afternoon, at a GAA match in Croke Park, Dublin, between Tipperary and Dublin, 12 civilians including one of the players die after Black & Tans open fire; auxiliaries kill three prisoners, including two IRA men, in Dublin that night; the date becomes infamously known as 'Bloody Sunday'
1929 - Birth in Cork of stage, television and film actor Niall Toibin
1952 - Birth in Dublin of middle distance runner and former World Champion Eamon Coghlan
1974 - Bombs believe planted by the Provisional IRA devastate two central Birmingham pubs, killing 19 people and injuring over 180
1999 - Victims of Birmingham IRA bombings are remembered in a 25th anniversary service at St. Philips Cathedral
1999 - President Mary McAleese pays a warm tribute to former President Dr Erskine Childers on the 25th anniversary of his death. Speaking at Derralossary Cemetery, Co. Wicklow, Mrs McAleese describes Dr Childers as a pivotal figure in politics for more than 35 years.

November 22
1773 - Lord John Beresford, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, is born in Dublin
1830 - Justin McCarthy, politician, novelist and historian, is born in Cork
1869 - Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, Fenian, contests and wins a Tipperary by-election in abstentia, but is declared ineligible as a convicted felon
1912 - Birth in Dublin of poet, dramatist and lawyer Donagh MacDonagh, son of Thomas MacDonagh
1919 - Birth of Máire Drumm, Irish Republican, in Newry, Co. Armagh
1963 - C. S. Lewis, Irish writer, dies
1963 - The first Roman Catholic president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, is assassinated in Dallas, Texas
1974 - Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Hill, Robert Hunter, Noel McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker, who become known as “The Birmingham Six” are charged in connection with pub bombings which took place earlier in the week. Nineteen people were killed.
They are found guilty in August 1975 of carrying out the bombings and sentenced to life imprisonment. But they are released after 16 years in jail when their convictions are quashed by the Court of Appeal in May 1991. The real bombers are never prosecuted and no group has ever admitted planting devices. Three detectives are charged with perjury and conspiracy in connection with the investigation, but their trial is halted in 1993 on the grounds of prejudicial media coverage. The six men finally agree undisclosed compensation settlements in June 2002 - more than 10 years after they are freed.
1998 - Security forces in Northern Ireland brace themselves as fears grow over a new bomb-blitz alert, the first since the Omagh massacre
1999 - The North’s politicians are given an ultimatum when the British Government warns it will pull the plug on the planned Stormont institutions if the IRA fails to decommission its arms
1999 - A timetable for the transfer of power to an inclusive Northern Ireland executive is outlined to the House of Commons
2000 - Blockades by taxi drivers brings the threat of serious confrontation with gardaí, mainline train services are paralysed by strike, and secondary schools are again closed
2000 - Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams meets with Bertie Ahern on the forth coming Irish Budget

Sources: Irish Culture and Customs,
The Celtic
League, Irish
Abroad, The Wild Geese

Irish Joke of the Week

Definition of an Irish husband: He hasn't kissed his wife for twenty years, but he will kill any man who does.

Irish Song - The Old Bog Road

Johnny McEvoy performing the classic "The Old Bog Road".

Irish History - November 9 - 15

Here is your Irish history lesson for this week.

November 9
1711 - The first Irish parliament of Queen Anne is dissolved
1791 - Napper Tandy convenes the first meeting of Dublin's United Irishmen
1875 - Sir Hugh Lane, art collector and critic, is born in Ballybrack, Co. Cork
1926 - Birth in Dublin of Hugh Leonard, pseudonym of John Keyes Byrne, playwright
1935 - Nineteen Donegal islanders are drowned when their currach founders
1966 - Jack Lynch becomes leader of Fianna Fáil
1999 - Ireland’s most accomplished mountaineer, Pat Falvey, conquers Ama Dablam in the Himalayas
2000 - The largest prison outside Dublin, the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, goes into operation. It was built at a cost of £43m and boasts the most advanced technology and the highest standards of prisoner accommodation in the State
2000 - Martin McGuinness accuses David Trimble and Ulster Unionist cabinet colleagues of jeopardising the Good Friday Agreement’s political institutions with their ban in a bid to force progress on IRA disarmament.

November 10
1728 - Birth in Pallas, Co. Longford of Oliver Goldsmith, playwright, novelist and poet
1783 - National Volunteer convention on parliamentary reform begins at the Rotunda in Dublin
1795 - Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough, student and promoter of Mexican antiquities, is born in Cork
1798 - Theobald Wolfe Tone tried and convicted of treason
1813 - Thomas Lloyd, son of John Lloyd, former MP for King's County and Innistiogue, is killed at the head of his regiment at the passage of Nivelle in south-west France
1832 - Charles Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Killowen; lawyer and Lord Chief Justice of England, is born in Newry, Co. Down
1841 - Death of Sister Catherine McAuley, founder of the order of the Sisters of Mercy
1861 - In Dublin, thousands turn out to view the coffin of Terence Bellew MacManus, Young Irelander who died in poverty in San Francisco
1879 - Padraig Pearse, Irish revolutionary and one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rebellion, is born
1896 - Lady Mary Heath, née Sophie Catherine Pierce, pioneer aviator and athlete, is born in Newcastlewest, Co. Limerick
1902 - Leon Ó Broin, writer and public servant, is born in Dublin
1966- Fianna Fáil's Jack Lynch replaces Seán Lemass as Taoiseach
2002 - Ireland and Sunderland soccer star Niall Quinn announces his retirement from club football.

November 11
1171 - Henry II holds his court in Dublin from this date to 2 February 1172
1718 - Birth of Thomas Waite , MP and Under Secretary for the Civil Department: pillar of the Irish administration 1747-80
1873 - Birth of Daniel Daly, double Medal of Honor winner in Glen Cove, NY
1880 - Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger and son of Tipperary transportee, is hanged in Melbourne
1887 - Birth of John M. Hayes in Murroe, Co. Limerick; priest and founder of Muintir na Tíre
1918 - World War I ends
1919 - The first edition of the Irish Bulletin is published
1923 - Birth of F.S.L. Lyons, historian and biographer
1941 - Birth of Eddie Keher, Kilkenny hurler and winner of six All-Ireland medals
1998 - Paddy Clancy, Irish folk musician dies
1999 - The peace process is on a knife edge after Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble fails to get his Assembly members to support the latest proposals for a route to devolution
1999 - Dublin confirms itself as Europe’s most vibrant music capital as an estimated 300 million people tune in to the sixth MTV Europe Music Awards live from The Point
2000 - A massive fault on an ESB 110kv powerline results in a nationwide power surge, triggering the automatic shutdown sequence at the State’s only oil refinery
2002 - IRA intelligence-gathering in Belfast is smashed open by one of the biggest police investigations in Northern Ireland in the last decade
2002 - A huge temple, once surrounded by about 300 huge posts made from an entire oak forest, is discovered directly beneath the Hill of Tara in Co. Meath.

November 12
1798 - In the early morning hours on the day he is due to be executed, it is discovered that Wolf Tone has inflicted a deep wound in his neck; a French emigrant surgeon is called in, closes the wound and reports that, "as the prisoner had missed the carotid artery, he might yet survive, but was in the extremest danger." Wolf Tone on hearing this prognosis is quoted as saying: "I am sorry I have been so bad an anatomist."
1934 - Birth of John McGahern, known primarily for his novel, The Dark
1971 - RTÉ bans several patriotic ballads including Dublin In The Green and The Patriot Game
1998 - The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) announced it has made a commitment to an "act of decommissioning" within weeks. The announcement comes following the British Government decision to recognise the organisation's ceasefire
1998 - Prompted by the loss of more than £60m every year because of the negative impression created by the raucous vulgar nature of stag-hen parties in Temple Bar, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce announces plans to ban them
2000 - O´gra Fianna Fáil votes to support blanket ban on abortion

November 13
867 - Death of Pope Nicholas I
1643 - Charles I appoints James Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormond as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1726 - At Clonmel, Joseph Slattery, MP for Blessington, dies from wounds received in a duel with Stephen Moore, MP for Fethard
1923 - Leonard Boyle, priest and palaeographer, is born in Donegal
1998 - Paddy Clancy of the Clancy Brothers is laid to rest in Faugheen cemetary, Carrick-on-Suir
1999 - Environmentalists warn that Killarney’s picture postcard Lough Lein is in danger from pollution
2000 - A report on the status of the Irish language in Loughrea Co. Galway indicates there are Irish speakers in 362 of the 500 households who returned questionaires. The report also shows 91% of the town’s people want Irish language names for housing estates and 88% want more Irish used in signposts and public notices. All Irish education was also overwhelmingly accepted with 91% supporting the recently opened Gaelscoil Riabhach
2000 - Clamping of illegally parked vehicles goes into effect for the first time in Galway city centre
2000 - Former Secretary of State Dr Mo Mowlam is chosen Ireland’s International Person of the Year. She secures the accolade for her enormous contribution to the quest for peace
2001 - RTÉ announces it is to become the first broadcaster in Europe to provide an on-screen aid to warn viewers of programmes containing sex, violence or foul language
2001 - Irish troops walk out of the gates of Camp Shamrock - ending more than two decades of peacekeeping duty in Lebanon.The camp is handed over to a contingent of troops from Ghana
2002 - A major fire in a Dublin industrial complex continues to blaze more than 16 hours after flames are first spotted
2002 - The Irish and British governments invite the north's political parties to take part in talks at Stormont to try to ease the crisis in the peace process
In the liturgical calendar, it is the Feast day of St. Kilian of Aubigny. In the 7th century, he becomes the only Irish person in the entire history of the Church to be offered the Papacy; he declines the honour.

November 14
1669 - St. Oliver Plunkett becomes Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland
Image: Head in bronze by Peter Grant
1832 - Birth near Letterkenny, Co. Donegal of Stopford Brooke, chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria, writer and literary critic
1873 - Michael Healy, stained-glass artist, illustrator and painter, is born in Dublin
1907 - Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, Irish arctic explorer, dies
1913 - Official founding date of the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers
1918 - Seumas O'Kelly, playwright, novelist , short story writer , and journalist, dies
1921 - Roy McFadden, poet, is born in Belfast
1923 - W.B. Yeats receives the Nobel Prize for Literature
2000 - Teachers begin the first of eight planned days of industrial action. More than 4,200 teachers take to the picket lines in Dublin in pursuit of their 30% pay claim. Over 620 secondary schools are closed as a result of the strike
Image: Esther Griffin on picket line duty outside St. Marys Secondary School, Mallow, Co.Cork. 2000 - Irate business leaders renew calls for competition on the railways as up to 50,000 commuters are left stranded by the 24 hour strike involving 138 train signal staff
2002 - Restoration work on a fountain built near Dublin in memory of Queen Victoria is halted following threats made by suspected republican paramilitaries against men carrying out the job
2002 - Ireland's first cancer patient retreat and help centre opens outside Mullingar in Co. Westmeath
In the liturgical calendar, it is the feast day of St. Laurence O’Toole, the first Archbishop of Dublin and the city’s patron saint. It is on this date in 1180 that he dies at Eu in Normandy.

November 15
1881 - William Pearse, brother of Patrick, is born in Dublin
1923 - Birth of Tom Clifford, rugby player, in Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary
1945 - Petrol for private cars goes on sale in the State again for the first time since before the War
1968 - Córas Iompair Éireann (CIE) retires its last dray horse
1985 - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald sign the Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA) at Hillsborough Castle. It it is considered to represent the most significant development in the relationships between Britain and Ireland since the partition settlement in 1920. The Agreement is an international treaty lodged at the United Nations and supported by the House of Commons and Dáil Éireann
1998 - Bridget Dirrane, who was imprisoned with Kevin Barry and who canvassed for John F. Kennedy in the United States, celebrates her 104th birthday with news that she is to be featured in the new edition of the Guinness Book of Records. Earlier this year, Bridget received an honorary Master of Arts degree from NUI Galway which makes her the oldest person in the world to be awarded a degree
1999 - Gardaí order the cancellation of a lecture by British revisionist historian David Irving after 600 anti-fascists stage a protest at the University of Cork
2000 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is placed in a political minefield on the abortion issue as a Dáil committee fails to agree on the way forward. He now faces demands from the four Independents to hold a referendum on the issue
2000 - The Northern peace process is plunged into crisis when Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams announces the party will mount a legal challenge to David Trimble’s ban on its ministers attending North South meetings
2001 - Jacob's Bakery celebrates its 150th anniversary with the launch of a book detailing its history, "Jacob's Bakery - Limited Twiglets." The author, Séamas O´ Maitiú, jokes that the working title was Quaker Bakers go Crackers. The famous bakery was founded in 1851 by two Quaker brothers from Waterford, William and Rober Jacob
2002 - The number of people on waiting lists for local authority houses is set to soar following government spending cutbacks. Fresh figures show the number of applicants waiting for social housing has reached 50,000 - a 25% increase in just three years
2005 - The only remaining medal from the first All-Ireland, one of the rarest pieces of GAA memorabilia goes up for auction at Sotheby's in London.

Sources: Irish Culture and Customs,
The Celtic
League, Irish
Abroad, The Wild Geese

St. Ignatius Irish Dinner

Please tell one and all and please do attend a fantastic Irish Dinner at St. Ignatius Church's Social Hall (125 Finley Ave., 412.276.2353) Sunday, November 16, 2008 from Noon to 5:00 PM.

Enjoy a great Ham Dinner or a Beef Stew Dinner, Potato Soup and Dessert. Jack Puskar has graciously donated his services and will be performing, St. Patrick will stop by and even maybe a bagpiper (he does have a previous commitment that day) a leprechaun, whatever else Maureen and Denny Donnelly can conjure up for FREE.

To help, donate or for more information, please email Maureen Donnelly.

Irish Movie Screening Three Times

Brothers,

The 2008 Three Rivers Film Festival will include three showings of an Irish film comedy called "How About You?," which is based on a Maeve Binchy story of the same name.

Hayley Atwell ("The Duchess," "Brideshead Revisited") plays the free-spirited, short-fused Ellie, a young woman left in charge of the residential home run by her older sister during the Christmas holidays.

Most residents bail out for the holidays, but Ellie must cope with the four cantankerous residents left behind.

Also in the cast are Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave ("Julia") as a retired screen beauty, Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton ("Vera Drake") and Oscar winner Brenda Fricker ("My Left Foot") as unmarried sisters and Joss Ackland ("Asylum") as a sober alcoholic.

Anthony Byrne directed the comedy.

It will be shown at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 15 (a Saturday), noon Nov. 16 (a Sunday) and 7:30 Nov. 21 (a Friday) at the Harris Theater (formerly the Art Cinema) at 809 Liberty Ave., Downtown.

(The film doesn't even begin its first regular U.S. engagement until Nov. 14, so we're getting an early look at something that will be released gradually on the art house circuit.)

Admission will be $8 at the door, but anyone can purchase a six-pack - good for admission for a party of six - for $40 at performance times or use the leftover admissions for other festival movies.