February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Good music, dance, food and drink, conversation and that wraparound idea we call “craic,” have all sprouted under tents and skies, blue and gray, from coast to coast and in the nation’s heartland from the first days of the year that the thermometer crept above, well, Irish weather level.
The next up on the calendar will be this weekend in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The Great Irish Fair is a celebration open to all during which the Irish of the borough and the city remind themselves of the importance of preserving a unique and priceless legacy, and having a rare old time to boot.
Much effort goes into the staging of events such as the two-day Great Irish Fair and its many equivalents. The reward for this work is to be found in big crowds for sure, but more quietly in the knowledge that the Irish of former times would smile in approval of the sustaining of public events that remind us of why we should enjoy that ageless sense of who and what we are.