WSWNE at Celts and Currachs festival
New London, CT 2007

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CELTS & CURRACHS, New London, Connecticut - report by Susan Davies Sit and Shirley Gilmartin

On Saturday, August 25, 2007 New London, CT hosted the second annual Celts & Currachs, a unique waterfront festival featuring Celtic music, food, dance, and exhibition rowing races of traditional Irish Currachs. City Pier, located in Waterfront Park, behind Union Station in the downtown Historic Waterfront District, came alive with musical performances by the likes of Danny O'Flaherty, Faire Prospect, Deirdre & Sean Murtha, the McKaig Highlanders, the Mystic Highland Pipe Band and Irish Step Dance teams and Scottish Dancers too. Workshops included: the CT Irish American Historical Society, Irish Genealogy Workshop, the Scottish Culture Workshop, the Welsh Culture Workshop, the Irish History Workshop, and a Fiddle-making Workshop.

Shirley and Daniel Gilmartin and Susan Davies Sit attended the Festival and hosted the Welsh Society's booth (the "Welsh Culture Workshop") on the water's edge with a nice breeze on a hot and humid day. Shi rley had obtained many beautiful posters and handouts from the Welsh Tourist Board and other sources, which enhanced the booth and the Welsh experience. Attendees took travel information, talked genealogy, asked about Welsh surnames, took membership information, ate Shirley's Welsh cakes displayed on her grandmother's very heavy bakestone (she wrote out the recipe many times!) and generally talked about their Welsh connections. Shirley and Susan also marched in the parade with 2 Welsh flags hoisted high following behind a Scottish Marching Band.

Some interesting snippets from the day:

• A potential returning member Susan Jenkins Meers with ancestors from Shirley's home town of Aberdare, South Wales.

• Hoisting the Welsh flags higher than the Irish Tricolor during the parade.

• a woman who had taken a trip into North Wales from Chester, England and had fallen in love with the town of Conwy and its castle.

• a lady's Welsh grandmother who had married into English gypsies living in Wales, and later lived in Connecticut.

• a man whose neighbor's father lived in Colwyn Bay, North Wales with whom he had spoken on a ham radio for many years.

• A lady with the surname of Evans who's father was

• born in Wales and who was very excited to hear about our Society.

• A Texan soldier, with a nose ring, wearing the Prince of Wales tartan kilt, wanting to trace his family to Wales.

• A lady who had biked through parts of Wales, showing us on the map where she had traveled.

How many times did we say Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch?

Being asked about Welsh song books, the Welsh translation of The Lord's Prayer, Welsh food recipes, Shirley's Welsh harp, the best season to travel to Wales, Welsh novels, Welsh films, Welsh genealogy research and so much more.