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Thank You iFest Fans! Wow! Thank you so much ...

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Ok, so you missed the first weekend of iFest. Don't worry, fans, iFest is going on this weekend too and is jam-packed with amazing entertainment. You can check out Hugh Masekela, Los Lobos, Rootz Underground and Little Joe just to name a few on twelve different stages. Or you can take a trip to Ireland without ever leaving Houston and kiss the Blarney Stone, take Irish step dancing lessons and sample Irish cuisine. Kick back and relax in the Mucky Duck Irish Pub and grab a pint of Guinness and ...

The 38th annual Houston International Festival has a schedule chock-full-of activity for this weekend - Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26. The Festival continues the celebration of Ireland with delicious food, fine arts and crafts and the best music from around the world. Hugh Masekela, Los Lobos, Rootz Underground, Cherish the Ladies and more are scheduled to perform this weekend. See the music schedule below for performance times.

THE BIG DON’T MISS LIST! Romancing the Stone: Here’s what you do when you go to Ireland: you take the train to Cork, stand in a horrendously long line at the Blarney Castle and you lie on your back perilously and kiss the Blarney stone and buy a picture of yourself doing this while being held around the waist by some big Irish lad. And why do you do this? So that you can grab the gift of gab – just like the Irish. Ifest has a Chevron Living Museum; iFest has a Blarney Castle in it; ...

HOUSTON INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OPENS GATES AT 12 P.M. Festival is Geared Up For Sunny Weather on Sunday, April 19 WHEN: Sunday, April 19 12 p.m. – 9 p.m. WHAT: Despite the inclement Saturday weather, the 38th annual Houston International Festival has a schedule chock-full-of activity for Sunday, April 19. The Festival kicks off the celebration of Ireland with delicious food, fine arts and crafts and the best music from around the ...

Due to inclement weather and safety concerns, the Houston International Festival has decided to close the event for the remainder of Saturday, April 18 in the best interest and safety of our patrons. Pre-purchased tickets will be redeemable for tomorrow and next weekend. The Festival will resume at noon tomorrow, Sunday, April 19 as scheduled."

Hey iFest Fans,  ...

The trials of the Fianna With Finn as their leader, the Fianna entered into an age of such glory that news of their courage and strength spread far and wide, and stories of their wonderful adventures were told for many hundreds of years afterwards. Men came from all over Ireland to join the Fianna, but only the strongest, swiftest, most honorable and courageous were accepted as one of Finn Mac Cool’s elite army. Any man who wished to become one of his warriors had to undergo many ...

IRISH STORIES It is not all that long ago since Ireland was a complete stranger to technology. Many of our parents and grandparents can remember when electricity was introduced to the country in 1927, or when the first television broadcasts were made in the early 1950s. These important events were to herald great changes in Irish life, and a decline of many of the pastimes and traditions that had been a feature of Irish society for centuries. One such tradition was that of storytelling ...

The Story of Saint Patrick St. Patrick was an ordinary man who did extraordinary things in Ireland. Born in Wales to wealthy parents at the end of the 4th century, at the tender age of 16, young Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders and whisked across the Irish Sea, where he spent the next six years in captivity working as a lonely shepherd. His religion was his solace, and so he became a devout Christian. So how did he manage to convert the Irish to Christianity? ...

iFest announces music lineup for 2009 event in downtown Houston spotlighting Ireland. Headliners include Ohio Players, Los Lobos, Mavis Staples, Hugh Masekela, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Cherish the Ladies, Plena Libre, Marc Broussard, Marcia Ball, Flaco Jimenez, Rootz Underground, The Wailing Souls, Alpha YaYa Diallo, Joe Y La Familia, CJ Chenier, BeauSoleil, Keith Frank, Beoga, Kevin Burke, Julie Fowlis, Step Ridgeau, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Soul Rebels, J. Paul Jr., Danny O'Flaherty, Jody Nix

People & Culture The Irish culture has taken thousands of years to develop, so cherish every moment of your cultural discovery Did you know? The Irish love traditions. So much so, in fact, that the country is full of them – from eating colcannon (a mixture of cabbage and mashed potatoes) on Halloween to wearing something green on St. Patrick’s Day. Two of the most enduring and internationally famed, however, are traditional music and Irish dancing. Northern Ireland also has its ...

By Rick Mitchell Music and dance play a vital role in virtually all of the world's cultures. But of the European countries, Ireland arguably is the most musically inclined. In 1183, the Welsh scholar Giraldus Cambrensis visited Ireland not long after the island had been claimed by Norman conquerors from Britain. Giraldus, who had studied philosophy and theology in Paris and wrote in Latin, was largely unimpressed by the rural "barbarians" he encountered ...

By Jim Austin It is clear that Ireland has produced more than its fair share of literary giants. The student of Irish writing comes across such luminous names as Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, Edmund Burke, Seamus Heaney, Thomas Moore, George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats. But no writer in the English language, Irish or otherwise, is more interesting than the great genius of the turn of the century, James Augustine Aloysius Joyce. Many ...

The Houston International Festival is honored to spotlight Ireland as the country of honor for the 2009 festival. Ireland is one of the world's most popular and fastest growing tourist destinations and its influence will infuse the entire festival from the music and main stages to the educational exhibits in the Chevron Living Museum. 2009 iFest is one not to be missed.