Marathon headaches
Big and all as New York City is, the half marathon hosted on Sunday was able to cause havoc for the Timahoe Male Choir, requiring many of them to walk a lot more than they wanted.
More 27,000 runners pounded the streets of the city from 7am and right throughout the early part of the day but it was the closure of 7th Avenue leading down to Central Park that led to most of the problems.
You almost had to walk half way round the city to get from one side to the other, meaning those out and about for a walk – in search of breakfast, mass, a bit of shopping or an early settler – clocked up record-breaking steps.
Some eventually found a solution – to go via the underground stations.
When there’s a will, there’s a way.
Laois runners in the marathon
It seems you’re never too far from someone from home.
Among those to run the New York half marathon were three Laois women – Siobhan Delaney and Grainne O’Connor from Timahoe and Fiona Conroy from Portlaoise. All are over for the weekend too.
And also clocking a good time was Shane Bolger from Killeshin.
Shane is a former Laois footballer who lined out for New York in last year’s All Ireland championship but he’s stepped away from the football scene this year due to work commitments. He has been living and working in New York for the past couple of years.
Shane’s younger brother Ross has been playing American Football with Idaho State for the past two seasons and for the last couple of days has been in Indianapolis for an NFL combine.
Talk about leading very interesting lives.
What time’s mass?
A lot of them might have been out drinking porter until the early hours of Sunday morning but that didn’t stop there being a great showing from the Timahoe Male Choir members at 10am mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Stradbally parish priest Fr David Vard – a member of the Timahoe Male Choir – was a co-concelebrant in the famed St Patrick’s Cathedral which is in a prime location on 5th Avenue and has had steady footfall all weekend.
On what was the second Sunday of Lent, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, said mass and was assisted by Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh.
Also on the alter was Fr Barry Matthews, a native of Dundalk, who is a priest in Armagh. Fr Matthews was a classmate of Fr Vard’s during their time in Maynooth.
You can go nowhere
The Timahoe Male Choir event in the Irish American Historical Society on Saturday night was a high-brow affair with everyone on their best behaviour for the attendees who had all booked and paid for their tickets in advance.
Among those in attendance was Jacqueline Doyle, originally from Kilkea near Castledermot in Kildare.
Jacqueline has been living in the USA for more than 30 years but made the trip down from upstate New York – or Nanuet, Rockland County, to be precise.
Jacqueline was there to support her brother-in-law Niall Walker and was accompanied by her husband, Donal Lehane from Cork, and their children Jack and Julia.
Incidentally one of Jacqueline’s other sisters lives in the Catskills but couldn’t attend as they were at the St Patrick’s Day celebrations there.
In another reminder of how small the world can be, another of the attendees was Maire Kennedy from Coolderry in Offaly who has also been out here for the best part of the last three decades.
It turns out she’s actually a distant cousin of my own. She was Maire Miller, whose dad Charlie is originally from Vicarstown. Maire’s mother, Shelly Harris, is from just across the Kildare border near Athy.
Maire was with her husband Cathal Kennedy from Dublin and her son Hugh.
You can go nowhere!
Our video coverage
Our video updates from New York over the weekend have surprised us with how much interest and engagement there has been. In short, they’ve gone down a storm.
Our cameraman Paul Dargan has been on his A Game and he brilliantly captured the Timahoe Male Choir’s performance of ‘Isle of Hope’ in Ellis Island on Saturday.
The song tells the story of Annie Moore, the young Cork woman who was the first through the gates of the Ellis Island immigration station in 1892.
In all 12 million people – from various countries – passed through there over the next 60 years.
It is reckoned that 40% of the US population are descended from these immigrants.
Tough times for the New York Rangers
The New York Rangers ice hockey team haven’t won the famed Stanley Cup since 1994 and the way things are shaping up, they’re not going to win it this year either.
After attending the latest Timahoe Male Choir gig in Phoebe’s Tavern, hosted by Sean Michael Manley from Potrarlington, the LaoisToday team of Steven Miller and Paul Dargan made a quick getaway to get across the city to Madison Square Garden for the National Hockey League game between the New York Rangers and the Edminton Oilers.
We made it just in time for tip off, catching the last few bars of a spine-tingling version of the USA anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner.
Our tickets were high up in the very back row but it was a wonderful occasion and ice-hockey is a thrilling, high-paced and physical game in the 18,000-seater indoor arena. It’s not a sell-out but it’s fairly close to it.
The man sitting next to us tells us he’s from New Jersey but his surname is Kelly and he thinks his family have roots in Northern Ireland.
Because it’s St Patrick’s weekend, the first 10,000 people through the gates get a free green Rangers jersey, sponsored by Conor McGregor’s whisky brand. They also have an Irish-themed quiz between three random members of the crowd with a $500 cash prize for the winners.
One of the questions asks what apparently lies at the end of a rainbow. To continue the Irish theme, there are occasional interludes of ‘When Irish Eyes are Smiling’ from the resident organist.
Though the game is non-stop, they do have plenty of time for crowd engagement with one gimmick after another.
On a couple of occasions they throw t-shirts into the crowd, there is a go-kart race between the first and second period, a tenor during the second and third, celebrity shout outs and tributes to former players. It all makes for great entertainment to be fair.
It’s a decent game too but the Rangers fall 1-0 behind, fight back to equalise only to concede two more goals in the third and final period to lose 3-1.
It’s their third home loss in a row, leaving them in danger of missing out on the playoffs.
But it’s a 82-game season and they have five more regular season games to play by the end of March.
They’re back in action on Tuesday night against another of the Canadian teams, the Calgary Flames.
SEE ALSO – Check out all our St Patrick’s weekend coverage from New York
