Saturday was an incredibly busy day for the Timahoe Male Choir with a detailed schedule of events mapped out by their redoubtable leaders, Damien Bowe and Roghan Headen.
First on the agenda was a trip to Ellis Island, which required a bus trip initially and then a boat to Ellis Island and out to the Statue of Liberty.
The initial plan had been for the Timahoe gang to sing Isle of Hope on Ellis Island with their speaker system and backing tracks.
The multi-talented choir member Noel Brennan from Rathdowney is, among many other things, a DJ but the speakers weren’t allowed on to the boat.
One leading member of the organising committee did offer a bank-hander to try to get the equipment through, though that didn’t go down well at all. The US security man even threatened to not let the offending individual through at all himself.
Thankfully peace broke out and we all duly proceeded.
History is all around you at Ellis Island and though it was a brief stop, the museum is a fascinating one, detailing the various nationalities that made their way to the USA from the late 1800s.
Annie Moore was the young Irish lady who was the first person pass through immigration in Ellis Island in 1892. A boat in the dock bears her name and only a short distance from that spot, the Timahoe group performed ‘Isle of Hope’, the song that tells her story.
Because of time constraints, the Timahoe lads only sang the chorus though that didn’t go down particularly well with some of the contrary members of the group.
“We’re after coming 3,500 miles,” raged one of them. “I want to sing the whole f**king lot of it.”
The Ellis Island hospital
Back when immigrants arrived to New York, they were subject to a six-second inspection by doctors to see if they were healthy enough to be allowed to enter the country.
Anyone that had any hint of an ailment was immediately placed in the hospital – which was a grim place with patients carrying all sorts of diseases.
An information board in the museum stated that it was “everything from a maternity hospital to a mental asylum”.
During the years it was in use, approximately 3,500 people died there – while about 350 babies were born.
After a night sampling some of the New York bars and clubs, there was a few sick looking Timahoe heads there on Saturday morning that wouldn’t have fared too well on the six-second inspection.
But in a reversal of times past, the sickest of them didn’t even make it to Ellis Island. Staying in the bed was a better option.
Run Forest Run
No matter how tired you might be in New York, even after all the travelling and essentially a 28-hour day on Friday due to the time difference, it’s still hard to get a decent night’s sleep in the city.
So when the offer came to LaoisToday to go for an early morning run on Saturday, we jumped at the opportunity.
Two of the choir members – Niall Walker and Chris Fraser – are keen runners both in training for either marathons or half-marathons.
Originally from Terenure in Dublin, Niall is preparing for the Cork marathon in June while Chris, from Melbourne in Australia but now settled in Timahoe with his wife Siobhan (O’Connor) and young family, has the Limerick half-marathon in May.
Your LaoisToday correspondent plodded along with them through the streets of New York and did a couple of loops of one of the routes in the glorious Central Park.
The place was buzzing with dog walkers, joggers and indeed plenty of squirrels.
After plenty of huffing and puffing on our part, we let the lads on to do a leisurely 10k. We were more than happy with our 5k effort.
All polished off with a big breakfast in the Brooklyn Diner.
A breakfast of champions.
Daddy’s girls
One of the real gentlemen of the Timahoe choir is Jim Walsh who is from up the road in Ballyroan.
Aged in his early 70s, his enthusiasm for his involvement and the sheer enjoyment he gets from it is palpable from even a very short conversation with him.
This trip is his first time ever in New York and to make it even more memorable, his three daughters have also come over for the weekend.
Brid, Catherine and Claire Walsh all made it just in time to see their dad perform in the Beer Authority and are looking forward to seeing the rest of the performances over the weekend as well as the parade on Monday.
Also there as a supporter was Gemma Hogan from Abbeyleix, a friend of the girls from home, but who has been living in New York for the past year and was previously based in Boston.
An army (or choir) never marched on an empty stomach
It’s hard to keep up with the pace of the Rock and Roll lifestyle – but it’s also important to make time for the dinner.
Another of the great characters of the Timahoe Male Choir is Jim ‘Jessie’ Delaney.
The food in the Beer Authority has been top notch but Jim’s evening meal hadn’t arrived in time before they were due on stage.
Jim wisely opted to tuck into the dinner and only join the rest of the lads on stage when he had that taken care of.
As the great saying goes, an army never marched on an empty stomach.
International fans continue to grow
In the luxurious surrounds of the Irish American Historical Society, there was plenty of curious well-heeled members of the diaspora in attendance to check out their St Patrick’s weekend entertainment.
We were chatting to one man from Minnesota whose ancestors came from Ireland to America during the famine. He and his Colombian wife brought their 13-year-old son to New York for the weekend to soak up some Irish heritage.
Also in attendance was a woman from Argentina who was there with her friend from Dublin.
Across in the Beer Authority, we were ‘chatting’ to a French family who were giving it socks to the classics the choir were belting out while two young men from Mumbai from India were also completely taken by the performers.
“The best Irish band we have ever seen,” said one of them. After getting their photo taken, they duly downloaded the LaoisToday app so they’d be able to follow our coverage for the rest of the weekend.
Quote of the evening though had to go to a young American girl who was dressed from head to toe in green. “Happy birthday St Patrick,” she roared at us.
It seems the whole world just loves the Irish.
SEE ALSO – Check out all our weekend coverage from New York here
