|
Of all the world’s shimmering love stories, few have the transcendent quality of the love between Irish poet/Nobel laureate W. B. Yeats, and the beautiful English aristocrat who was to become a militant Irish nationalist, suffragette, feminist and prisoner, Maud Gonne.
The first time he saw her he said she was “luminous as apple blossoms through which the light shines”. The poems he wrote to her and about her will stand as long as the English language stands. With their latest album, Celtic Knots: An Irish Love Story, renowned native Irish writer and storyteller, Tomáseen Foley; traditional Irish musician, Brian Bigley, and Grammy Award-winning Celtic guitarist, William Coulter, like tapestry, they weave this radiant love story around the immortal poems of W.B. Yeats. |
|
CD: $20 Credit Card (Free Shipping in the US)
OR Mail Cheque To: The Gaelic League, P.O. Box 6114, Brookings, OR 97415 |
Stream or download:
|
|
A CELTIC CHRISTMAS: Parcel From America
AN IRISH CHRISTMAS STORY Tomáseen Foley
|
|
|
Written and narrated by Tomáseen Foley over 20 years ago, Parcel From America is becoming a classic Christmas story - a story of the joy and innocence of Christmas in rural Ireland in the 1950s.
In his native parish of Teampall an Ghleanntáin in the West of Ireland, in the days before the motor car, the television or the telephone, the first sure sign of Christmas was the arrival of the brightly-colored, gaily-wrapped parcels from America - faithfully delivered on the bicycle of the beloved whistling postman, Davey the Post. In the weeks before Christmas, the wildly-anticipated parcels arrived into almost every home in the townland, since nearly everyone had a family member in America, but no Christmas parcel ever arrived into the home of the local widow woman, Bríd na nÉan, Bridget of the Birds. This is Bridget’s story. * Soon to be a musical - developed by the Irish Theatre of Chicago |
|
THE PRIEST AND THE ACROBAT: Stories and Music from the Irish Tradition
Tomáseen Foley
|
|
|
Poet W.B. Yeats said of his fellow Irish citizens, “We have made our art of simple things.” Indeed we have. Unlike the ‘high culture’ of continental Europe, it was the ordinary people, very often rural people, who gave birth to our heritage – the great and priceless treasury of Irish culture.
The music, the singing, the dancing, the storytelling – all were created and nurtured in the heart by the hearth of small farmers, tradesmen, labourers, spinners and weavers, servant ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ who had no concept at all of themselves as artists. We, their kith and kin, are their blessed beneficiaries. This is a recording of a live show at the Old Siskyiou Barn, Ashland, Oregon - with my friends, Grammy Award-winning Celtic guitarist, William Coulter; Todd Denman - uilleann pipes; Deby Benton Grosjean, fiddle. |
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“2000 seats sold out!”
WEIDNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS, GREEN BAY, WI
Title / Company
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“ . . . charmed a sold-out house at the Lied Center for the Performing Arts.”
LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR, LINCOLN, NE
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“A very large audience turned out and sat rapt for A Celtic Christmas, 2½ hours of jigs, reels and wordsmithing.”
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER, SPRINGFIELD, IL
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“We had to move the performance to a venue with twice as many seats . . . the mix of stories, music and dance was perfect.”
ROCKPORT OPERA HOUSE, ME
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“The most popular performance this year.”
MELLON ART CENTER, WALLINGFORD, CT
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“Like a pint of Guinness, Tomáseen Foley’s “A Celtic Christmas” is going down rich and smooth with . . . another packed house . . . at the Keith-Albee Performing Art Center.”
THE HERALD-DISPATCH, HUNTINGDON, WV
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“A rousing success . . . a magnificent performance.”
WEST VALLEY FINE ARTS, LITCHFIELD PARK, AZ
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“1,800 Lied patrons joined the stage musicians for ‘Silent Night’ to close Foley’s warm, intimate and personal look at Irish history and culture.”
THE LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“What a terrific program! The audience was completely charmed and captivated…wonderful storytelling…the best I have ever heard.”
THE SOCIETY FOR THE FOUR ARTS, PALM BEACH, FL
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“In the tradition of great Irish storytellers…Tomáseen Foley is a master of the Irish narrative and a keeper of the flame for a priceless piece of Irish culture.”
TOM HORAN, REGO IRISH RECORDS
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“Like a cup of Irish coffee in a neighbor’s kitchen on a dark night, it was warm, comforting and full of cheer.”
JUSTINE SUTTON, SANTA BARBARA NOOZHAWK
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“Move over, Garrison Keillor. As a presenter of the performing arts who’s always looking for a sure bet, I assure Tomáseen delivers. He deserves a world stage.”
CRATERIAN GINGER ROGERS THEATER, MEDFORD, OR
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“…a masterful weaver of a good tale… One of the great charms of the evening was Tomáseen’s skill in relating a story…a gentle and easy humor made his tales fascinating and eminently human.”
PALM BEACH DAILY NEWS, PALM BEACH, FL
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
"...people told me that they LOVED it, that it was just what a Christmas show should be, that it fit in beautifully with our Arts Series and that we should have you back every year!”
ARLENE SHAW, HOUSE MANAGER, OLIN FINE ARTS CENTER
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“I want to thank you for an absolutely terrific show! We have not had such a large crowd since the Juilliard String quartet six years ago. You are all sooo talented.”
JANE CARTAGE
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“You’ll love his warm-hearted, poignant stories of life in the homeland.”
MIKE STURGILL, BRITT FESTIVAL, JACKSONVILLE, OR
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“A good storyteller . . . can carry (his) audience to another time and place. It’s an art—and a gift—and Tomáseen Foley has it in spades."
THE SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“In between musical presentations by five wondrously talented guest artists, storyteller and Ireland native Tomáseen Foley regaled the sold-out crowd of "good people of Cleveland, Ohio" with poetry, tales and jokes, evoking a quiet evening spent sitting around the hearth."
THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“Foley runs pictures and thoughts across the mind like shooting stars on a crystalline night, with emotions shaking the ground.”
THE GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE, GREEN BAY, WI
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“Tomáseen Foley brings to his audience a mastery of the oral tradition that has marked the Irish spirit for generations.”
ROBERT CASEBEER, PROF. EMERITUS, SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“His warm voice wraps you with vivid imagery and stealthy Irish humor.”
DIRTY LINEN MAGAZINE
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“With dramatic impact, Foley brought his tales to a fitting close. He has captured the charm of the wit and wisdom inherent in a locality where people lived within the shelter of their neighbours.”
PAUL KEATING, THE IRISH VOICE, NEW YORK CITY, NY
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“Tomáseen Foley has made it nationally - and internationally - with his warm-hearted “A Celtic Christmas.”
RICHARD MOESCHL, MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OR
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“Great storytelling swept up more than 1,000 listeners . . . "A Celtic Christmas" received a standing ovation at the end. Some people may have been standing to reach for a tissue . . . it was heart tugging."
GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“Foley had people rapt and delighted . . . he has an engaging manner, a lightness of wit and a silver-tongued way of unwinding a tale.”
GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE, GREEN BAY, WI
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
“He’s a spell-binding storyteller.”
ROBERT MILLER, ASHLAND DAILY TIDINGS, ASHLAND, OR
/
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 0
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
IRELAND PHOTO BY SPLINE SPLINSON
