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CIARAN PROUDLY RE-INSTATED THE SONG  "DANNY BOY" AT FOLEY'S RESTAURANT IN NYC ON APRIL 2!

Foley's Pub and Restaurant in New York City has banned "Danny Boy" from being sung in the pub for the month of March. The owner Shaun Clancy thinks "Danny Boy" fits a funeral more than a celebration, and that it is too depressing and has been over done.

Owner Shaun Clancy poses for a picture behind the bar at Foley's Pub and Restaurant in New York, Wednesday, March 5, 2008. Clancy has banned the popular Irish song "Danny Boy" for the month March, just in time for St. Patrick's Day. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo)

By CHRIS FRANCESCANI

After 18 years behind a bar, Manhattan pub manager Shaun Clancy had decided he'd had enough of "Danny Boy," the maudlin Irish evergreen that has haunted the hearts and ears of Irish bar owners for nearly a century. What's more, the lyrics are constantly butchered by boozy patrons, he insisted. Clancy banned the song from his tavern for the month of March. Since banning "Danny Boy,'' Clancy has been profiled in 70 newspapers around the world, from The China Post to the Derry Journal, as well as The Associated Press and dozens of television and radio stations. He's done 60 interviews for news outlets in six countries. And he's taken more than one crank phone call from angry or simply bored citizens who laughingly -- or bitterly -- burst into the song as soon as he picks up the phone.

"The Irish are not known for being a depressed group of people,'' Clancy said. "For the song associated with them to be 'Danny Boy' -- that's kind of akin to the Yankees winning the World Series and the fans breaking out into 'Ave Maria.''' Clancy insists he's not trying to be disrespectful of the song, which is well-loved by many and has become a staple at the funerals of American police officers and firefighters.

Ciaran's singing of Danny Boy at the funeral mass for Bobby Kennedy Jr.and his wife was broadcast throughout the world and the song is a much-loved highlight of his concerts. The song is recognized as having one of the loveliest melodies ever written and the words are spoken by a parent sending a beloved son off to war.

SEE SAUN CLANCY'S HILARIOUS INTERVIEW WITH STEVEN COLBERT ON "The Colbert Report" March 17 http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?episodeId=164008

SIGNED! SEALED! DELIVERED!  - YOU ASKED FOR IT!

ONLINE ORDERING will soon be available from ciaransheehan.com for Ciaran's CDs. We will be accepting credit card orders through Pay Pal or a personal check made out to Ciaran Sheehan Fan Assoc. at 1541 Winchester Dr. Westlake, OH 44145. Items will be signed by Ciaran.

Ciaran has asked for your assistance and support in the effort to preserve Ireland's most revered national treasure, the Hill Of Tara.  PLEASE take a moment to read and sign the petition and help stop this outrageous desecration.

Please visit TaraWatch or mail us at info@tarawatch.org to read-sign full petition. We urgently need your help.

To:  Prime Minister of Ireland, Mr Bertie Ahern

Dear Taoiseach Ahern,

I object the planned routing of the M3 motorway through the Tara-Skryne valley, and the resulting despoilment this will cause to Ireland’s oldest and most revered national monument.

The archaeological importance of this area is beyond question. After seven years surveying the Hill of Tara and its 80km? hinterland as director of the government funded Discovery Programme, Conor Newman said: “Tara is one of the most important and famous archaeological complexes in the world.… all of our researches point to the valley between Tara and Skryne as an area of paramount importance throughout the history of Tara.”

More recently, 12 eminent Irish historians and archaeologists in letters to the Irish Independent and The Examiner wrote: “The Hill of Tara constitutes the heart and Soul of Ireland. Its very name invokes the spirit and mystique of our people and is instantly recognisable worldwide. The plan approved recently by An Bord Pleanála for the M3 motorway to dissect the Tara-Skryne valley, Ireland's premier national monument, spells out a massive national and international tragedy that must be averted.”

Can anyone doubt the profound cultural importance of Tara and its unique landscape? A landscape honoured and revered by millions throughout the world today and countless generations of Irish people gone before us.

Nowhere else in Ireland is there a landscape that can claim the Tuatha de Danann, Celtic Gods and Goddesses, St. Patrick, Daniel O’Connell, Thomas Moore, heroes and High Kings from Fionn MacCumhail to Brian Boru, an archaeological complex of temples, tombs, enclosures and henges spanning five millennia, and a continuous place at the centre of Irish spiritual, cultural, political and literary history, as part of it’s fabric.

Yet it is through the very heart of this landscape, that Meath County Council, the NRA and the Irish Government wish to build a motorway, which will impact at least 141 known sites. According to Dr Conor Newman, this is just “the tip of the iceberg”.

PBS SPECIAL

From Galway To Broadway will be broadcast in LOS ANGELES during the month of June on PBS STATION KOCE. PBS Channel 50 will show the program twice on June 3, at 10:30 AM and 2:30 PM. The program includes "in studio" interviews.

Stations in several cities across the country have picked up the program and will broadcast it in the near future.  As information comes to us,we will advise you of specific dates and cities where it will be shown. As of December, 2006 these stations have selected FROM GALWAY TO BROADWAY for future showing.

"From Galway To Broadway" recorded live at the Marble Collegiate Church in NYC, stars Ciaran and Gay Willis. The concert was produced and directed by Bob Marty, co-produced by Eily Patterson, and will be available on DVD and CD in the near future. Currently these items are available as membership gifts during WLIW's pledge drive.

CALIFORNIA CONCERTS JUNE 24

CIARAN, GAY & EILY will perform at The Great American Irish Fair and Musical Festival at the Irvine Meadows Fair Grounds in Irvine, CA (adjacent to the Verizon  Amphitheater) Sunday June 24,  at 1 PM 3.30 PM & 6.30 PM. (Three shows) www.irishfair.org. Click here for pictures.

Saturday, January 27 at 6.00 PM

Irish tenor Ciarán Sheehan performs emotional classics from the Emerald Isle and Broadway favorites at New York City's historic Marble Collegiate Church, accompanied by award-winning soprano Gay Willis and The New York Festival Orchestra conducted by David Holcenberg. Filmed in June 2006, the production has toured across America and Ireland for four years, selling out venues including The National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland and New York's Carnegie Hall. Songs include: "Memory," "Danny Boy," "Galway Bay," "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "When Irish Eyes are Smiling," "God Bless America" and more.

Sheehan made his Broadway debut in Les Miserables, and was later cast as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera for over 1,000 performances. Award-winning soprano Gay Willis starred in the world tour of The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber: A Concert Spectacular with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman. Gay later starred as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera opposite both Colm Wilkinson and later Sheehan. Conductor David Holcenberg is the current music director and conductor of Broadway's Mamma Mia! Holcenberg's past credits include The Phantom of the Opera, Show Boat, Titanic and Seussical.

Presented nationally by WLIW New York. ST and CC.