No matter what ethnicity or culture they identify with, every University student will likely feel a little bit of Irish spirit this weekend.
Today and Saturday, the University and Sheldon High School are hosting Eugene’s eighth annual Eugene Irish Cultural Festival to educate the campus and surrounding communities about traditional Irish customs, culture and history.
The festival will have music and dance performances, a hurling match, lectures discussing contemporary and past issues in Irish history, and workshops in Irish music, dance, arts and crafts, language and history. Vendors will also set up booths selling various goods, and festival-goers can enjoy authentic Irish cuisine provided by Alpine Catering.
This is the fifth year in a row the University has invited the festival to hold its Irish evening concert at the Beall Concert Hall. Tonight’s musical experience at 8 p.m. will feature well-known fiddler Kevin Burke and composer Cal Scott.
Festival coordinator Peggy Hinsman, who helped start the annual festival, expects between 600 to 1,000 people to attend the two-day event. Hinsman encourages everyone to attend the festival, regardless of ethnicity.
“It’s not like you have to be Irish to be interested in this,” Hinsman said. “We don’t restrict anything.”
Festival volunteer coordinator Erin Maloney said she feels the festival is not getting as much attention as it should. As a University doctorate student in linguistics, she understands how busy students can be during Dead Week, and she worries that few students will attend because the festival coincides with the beginning of finals weeks.
“There is so much going on right now on campus,” Maloney said. “And the fact that the festival is kind of at inopportune time as it’s right before finals week, so it’s not that there’s going to be a whole lot of free time available for students to go out and visit, even though I think that they should.”
Hinsman said organizers work the festival dates around St. Patrick’s Day to provide an educational opportunity at a time when people are thinking more about Irish culture.
“We try to do it before St. Patrick’s Day so people can learn a little bit about Irish culture and things like this because on St. Paddy’s Day,” Hinsman said, “they say everyone’s Irish.”
Shaul Cohen, an associate professor of geography at the University, has been conducting lectures on Irish history at the festival for the past three years. The lectures revolve around what he has learned about Ireland through his various research projects to the country. This year his lecture will relate the Irish potato famine to the more recent Bloody Sunday massacre, and discuss what historical lessons can be learned from those two events.
Although Cohen isn’t Irish, he says he still enjoys attending the festival.
“I like the festival a lot,” Cohen said. “I think that there’s pleasure and value in exposure to any ethnic or cultural tradition. People at this festival have a lot of fun and (the organizers) worked hard to have it be a blend of just a good time and also education.”
Maloney said she hopes students who participate in the festival will expand their perceptions of what Irish culture is about.
“The goal of the organization is as much about education as it is about having fun,” Maloney said. “So I would say that the hope is that students that go would attend a workshop or two and learn about a certain aspect of Irish culture that maybe they didn’t know about before.”
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