Irish Cultural Week in Havana a huge success
Irish Cultural Week
Havana, March 2011
A student from the Escuela Elementa de Musica Manuel Saumell, who takes his lessons on a piano repaired by the project, performing Irish music at the concert at the Una Corda workshop during Havana’s Irish Cultural Week
Una Corda’s headquarters in Cuba, the National Workshop of Instrument Repair, was one of the venues for Havana’s first Irish Cultural Week. Organised by the Irish embassy in Mexico, which is also accredited to Cuba, the week of cultural events featured concerts of Irish music and a season of Irish films. Habaneros turned out in numbers to check out Irish culture, and many new friendships were forged during the week. Journalist Cormac Larkin was there, and you can read his Irish Times report on the week here.
Irish ambassador to Cuba, Mr. Eamon Hickey, unveils a new Una Corda plaque at the National Workshop of Instrument Repairs, watched by Sr. Osmery Falcón, co-ordinator of the project in Havana, and Mr. Ciarán Ryan, founder of Una Corda.
The concert in the workshop featured a programme of Irish piano music, played by students from the Escuela Elemental de Musica Manuel Saumell, one of the leading music schools in the city, whose pianos have been cared for by the workshop. Watch the video here to see the Una Corda team collecting a grand piano from the school and bringing it to the workshop.
Sean Nós singer Iarla O Lionaird, in Havana for the Irish Cultural Week, took time to visit the Una Corda headquarters, where he was welcomed by Una Corda founder Ciarán Ryan.
While Ireland has a history of cultural links with Cuba, and in recent years the Embassy has hosted a number of cultural events in Cuba, this was the first time an event of this size was staged in the Cuban capital. In recent years, the Embassy arranged for the “International Joyce” exhibition to be displayed in the José Martí National Library in Havana, book donations to universities and libraries, film series’, musical events, and has assisted in organising “CeltFest Cuba”, a week-long Celtic music festival in Havana in April 2010.
Pianist Mícheál O Súilleabháin and Sean Nós singer Iarla O Lionaird performing in the Basílica Menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís in Old Havana
The “Jornadas Culturales con Irlanda” also included a concert in the sixteenth century Basílica Menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís in Old Havana. Renowned pianist Mícheál O Súilleabháin and sean nós singer Iarla O’Lionaird performed traditional music and song from Ireland to a large and appreciative audience. A group of musicians and dancers from Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann performed at the prestigious Cuban National Theatre, and the week also featured an Irish film series. There was a round table discussion on Irish literature and its influence in Cuba at the University of Havana, and the Ambassador of Ireland also made donations of Irish literature to two Cuban libraries.
Ireland and Cuba
A number of Irish men and woman have played prominent parts in Cuba’s history over the last five hundred years and on both sides in Cuba’s struggle for independence from Spain. One of the more famous Cuban families descends from Ricardo O’Farrill, a native of Montserrat but whose antecedents came from Longford, who ran a slave trading company in Havana in the early 1700s. His grandson built a private residence on the corner of Cuba and Chacon Street, what is now known as the Hotel Palacio O’Farrill. In Havana today, there are streets in the La Vibora district named O’ Farrill and another called Alcalde O’Farrill, named after a descendent who was Mayor of Havana at the turn of the 20th century. The jazz trumpeter Chico O’Farrill who died in New York in 2001 was perhaps the most recent well known bearer of the surname.
O’Reilly Street, named after a Meath man, is one of old Havana’s busiest streets
O’Reilly Street in the centre of Old Havana was named after General Count Alejandro O’Reilly, a native of Baltrasna, County Meath, who organised the defences of Havana in 1763. Throughout the 18th century, descendants of the Wild Geese occupied positions of military, commercial or political power in Cuba. One of the more colourful characters who fought for Cuban independence in the late 19th century was Captain John Dynamite O’Brien, who successfully ran guns and ammunition from the US to the independent Cuban forces. Revolutionary journalist and poet Bonifacio Byrne and writer Richard Madden were very much involved in espousing the cause of Cuban independence. One of the founders of the Cuban Communist Party was Julio Mella, whose mother was an Irishwoman, Cecilia McPartland
Another possible Irish Cuban historical connection is whether Eamon De Valera’s father came from Cuba or Spain. Historians to date have been unable on the basis of existing records to confirm his father’s birthplace but many Cubans believe he was born near Matanzas, east of Havana, and later emigrated to the United States.
