The Wild Geese, Inc., the Irish cultural organization, is pleased to announce the selection of Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt as their Twentieth Anniversary Celtic New Year Ball Honoree for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Culture.  McCourt is known the world over for Angela's Ashes, his sensitive and truthful portrayal of his "miserable Irish childhood" that became a publishing phenomenon.

The Ball is to be held on Saturday, October 26, 2002, 8 PM to 12 midnight, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.  The evening will start with a cocktail hour at 6:30 PM, which ends when the guests are lead in to the grand ballroom by the Emerald Society Pipe Band of Greenwich.  Following the invocation, the black-tie event begins with dinner, then dancing, and traditional Irish entertainment, as well as the presentation of the award to Mr. McCourt.

The Wild Geese Celtic New Year Ball is a celebration of an ancient Irish tradition.  The Celtic New Year was coincidental to the contemporary holiday of Halloween, the modern practices which have been attributed to Irish immigrants.  In old Irish calendars, the end of the old year, signifying the end of the growing season and harvest time, was October 31, and the new year began on November 1.  It was also a time of the year when the ancients remembered the dead of the past, an annual memorial of ancestors as well as a night of spirit and mischief.

Mr. McCourt's life is modern legend.  His childhood, form its beginning in New York City tenements, to the slums of Limerick, is the basis of the prize-winning 1996 biography, Angela's Ashes.  It is a story that, if not for the fact that it was real, could have been written by Charles Dickens.  It has all the elements of a Dickens tale - death and dying, disease, illness and disability, family tragedy, poverty, survival, lost youth, alcoholism, romantic politics and bitter hatreds.  It includes the influence of religion, secrets, and above all, humor, love, and a look at life through the eyes of a child.

McCourt eventually made it out of the Irish ghetto he lived in, and cam e to America when he was nineteen, the subject of his second book, Tis.  This work recounts his struggles as an immigrant working in New York City, while he earned his teaching degree, married, and eventually taught at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in New York City.  Currently, Mr. McCourt lives in both New York City and Connecticut with his wife, Ellen.

The award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Culture is given to those individuals who have had a singular impact in advancing a more universal awareness of Ireland's unique culture and traditions.  Among past honorees are Irish playwright Brian Friel, Paddy Maloney, founder of the traditional music group The Chieftains, film and stage actor Milo O'Shea, Claire Grimes, former owner and publisher of the Irish Echo newspaper, and most recently international film star Gabriel Byrne.

The Celtic New Year Ball is the organization's major fund-raising event of the year.  Proceeds from the Celtic New Year Ball have enabled The Wild Geese to award grants to groups whose projects foster and reflect positive and productive attitudes of Irish culture.  Some of the past recipients have been: Armagh Together (Ireland), Book of Kells Reproductions, Crawford Municipal Museam (Ireland), Fairfield University Irish Cultural Series (Connecticut), Famine Symphony (New York), Glucksman Ireland House (New York), Irish Repertory Theatre, Irish Way Program, Northern Irish Children's Enterprise, Project Children, The Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society (Connecticut), Stokestowne Famine Museum (Ireland), The Tara Circle (New York), and Teach Synge (Ireland).

For a formal invitation to this event, when they are available, click here.