Beara Boston Dinner 2004

	This years 10th Annual Boston Dinner Dance had Riobard and Joan O'Dwyer, Eyeries as its Guest of Honour. The Mayor of Boston, Thomas M. Monino bestowed the great honour of declaring February 15th "Riobard O'Dwyer Day" in Ma. Riobard performed several tunes on his accordian , one of which he called "The Beara Boston Dance", specially composed for the event. He also danced a jig to a wonderful applause before thanking the committee who have always delivered a good show to those who travel to the event. The following are a few photos taken at the event by Máiréad O'Shea, Castletownbere, who kindly forwarded them on to me.

Booklet with this year's Dinner Dance
The Boston Beara Society Presents Riobard O'Dwyer National Treasure Sunday, February 15, 2004 At the Dedham Hilton, Dedham, MA Committee PatDwyer Mike Dwyer Roger Egan Pat McCarthy Mary Sullivan Kelly Alice Coakley Finbarr O'Sullivan Derven O'Shea Brian Crowley John Harrington Kathy Sullivan		Program ~ 2:00 ~ Opening Session ~ 3:00 ~ Dinner ~ 4:00 ~ Riobard O’Dwyer ~ 4:30 ~ Dance Music By Erin’s Melody
The Boston Beara Society The Society was established in 1995 to promote and celebrate the history, art and music of the Beara Peninsula and the achievements of its people in Ireland and the U. S. A. The Boston Beara Society has adopted as its logo an Image of the Chailleach Bhèara, the mythological figure whose petrified remains may still be seen in Kilcatherine in the parish of Eyeries. The Chailleach is featured in several Irish poems, including Pádraic Pearse's " Mise Éire":
Mise Éire: Sine mè nà an Chailleach Bhèara. Mòr mo ghlòir; Mè do rug Cùchulainn cròga. Mòr mo nàir; Mo chlann fèin do dhìol a màthair. Mise Èire; Uaignì mè nà an Chailleach Bhèara. I am Ireland; I am older than the Old Woman of Beare. Great my glory: I that bore Cuchulainn the valiant. Great my shame: My own children that sold their mother. I am Ireland: I am lonelier than the Old Woman of Beare.		Eyeries Prevailing winds their clothing send from Azores and Biscay, To waiting hills where Miskish lives regnant in her sway. A flimsy top, a sparkling vest, or weighty coat of grey, A waking glance will have us dance the lady's tune today. Begotten of your ancestors and molded in the thaw, By the cold receding fingers of that mountain crushing paw, Directing winds erosion and a warming Gulf stream flow, Sunshine in the valleys and early man can sow. Our progress traced in stone upraised, a spiritual erection. Our laws refined by Brehon mind before religious reflection. Our ancient roads and social codes from fosterage to tillage, A gradual evolution from a campsite to a village. A trading place with building stone and rafterwood nearby, A people tuned to nature note where cattle choose to lie. A tired row, sharing gables, buttress weather from the west, A squaring row defined the plan with church upon the crest. A nation's state reads up to date on the uniform facade, Soft spoken men and female kin with colour vision broad, Through grey and tan white passion ran with democratic roar, And coastal Force could not divorce the shavings from the floor. Eternal source bridged current, for the traveler passing by, Waves of comprehension flow inward from the eye, Nourishing the silent everlasting shoal and cove, Awakening child's innate resolve, love that which you love. Mike Dwyer October, 2003
Riobard O'Dwyer Riobard was born in Detroit, Michigan. His father, Liam O'Dwyer of the Eyeries parish, was Commandant of the Beara Battalion of the West Cork Brigade during the War of Independence. His mother, Ella Mae, nee Quill, was from Athea, Co. Limerick. They returned to Ardgroom village when Riobard was three years old. His father build a dance hall, where he played the accordion. Riobard’s mother played the fiddle and the concertina, and as they where growing up each of the children joined the family band. Riobard was playing the accordion on stage when he was eight. Riobard went to Ardgroom National School, and later to Rochestown Capuchin Franciscan College, where he won a Munster Colleges Senior Football Championship medal in 1950. He also won Cork City and Cork County minor football medals with St. Finbarr’s the same year. Having qualified as a primary school teacher in Dublin in 1952, his first two years teaching were spent near Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. He then came back to the Eyeries parish where he spent the next 39 years as Principal in two schools there. He was secretary of the Beara School’s Football for several years; Secretary of the Beara Senior G. A. A. Divisional Board, also for many years; and Chairman of the Beara Board in 1997, when Beara won their first ever double of the County Senior Football Championship and the County Under 21 Football Championship. He won a Kelleher Shield (County Senior League) medal with Beara in 1960, was goalie for Beara, winning the 1969 County Senior Football Championship. In 1976 he wrote a book on the history of Beara G. A. A.: Fifty Years of Beara Football. He won Munster Accordion Championship (traditional music), and was finalist in the All-Ireland Fleadh Ceoil and Oireachtas accordion Championships, and had Radio Eirèann broadcasts of traditional music. He won seven All-Ireland Hop, Step and Jump (Triple Jump) Championships, including a record five in a row, and Cork, Kerry, Wexford, Leinster and Munster Long Jump and Hop, Step and Jump Championships. He was awarded the West Cork Hall of Fame in 1986 His first genealogical book, Who where my ancestors? Eyeries Parish,was published in 1976.Then came Castletownbere Parish, Bere Island Parish and Allihies (Copper Mines) Parish,including Dursey Island. Later still, he finished researching Adrigole Parish and Glengarriff Parish. In 1994 a Radharc T. V. documentary film “From Beara to Butte” was produced based on his research work into the emigration of copper miners from the Beara Penninsula to the mines of Butte, Montana. Riobard introduced it, and played the background music for it on accordion. He has lectured in the home of world genealogy in Salt Lake City, Utah, on the occasion of the centenary of the foundation of the Genealogy Society of Utah, and also in Tampa, Florida, at the O’Sullivan Clan Rally, and at the Irish Genealogy Congress, among others. As a result of his research work, thousand of people from the States and other parts of the world have come to the Beara Penninsula to see their ancestral homes, and to make connections with several relatives they would not known without his forty years of research.
The Crane Lean as a gunslinger, Mean-eyed, austere, The crane in the Slack river raises One elegant leg ti its belly as if It might tend to an itch. This blackguard Fears nothing: watch now as it takes one Disdainful step forward, now As it tilts its caesarean head To approve its own likeness. Was there ever a fiercer Narcissus? Pity the fish it might Stab in midstream, the eel It might yank from the shallows. Pity the rat it might Snatch from the scurrisome bank. This crook Yields to nothing; watch again as it broadens Its infamous wings, and Flaps into darkness. The scandalised water Lies bloodied with cloud. Marc O’Sullivan Co-founder, Boston Beara Society