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L.L. OWEN STUDENTS IMMERSED IN IRISH CULTURE FOR A DAY

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 9:49 AM CST

Thanks to a visit Monday from a husband and wife from Ireland, students at L.L. Owen Elementary School seemed to be just as jazzed about Irish culture as their principal, Tim Taylor.

Dearbhail Finnegan teaches Brooke Topping about Irish culture on Monday at L.L. Owen Elementary School. Special to The Commercial/Rusty Reid

“I’m a personal fan of the Irish culture,” Taylor said in an interview between a schoolwide assembly and a classroom workshop. “I play a lot of Celtic music during lunch for background music.”

Taylor heard about the “Irish Kaleidoscope” program presented by Dearbhail Finnegan and Robin Slater about a year ago.

It is part of a Kansas City-based organization called The Cultural Kaleidoscope, which offers similar programs about Russia, Australia and Ukraine.

Students learned about everything from Irish jigs to Gaelic football, with Finnegan often playing the harp and Slater playing the flute to exhibit the music of their country as well. The kids offered a generous applause after each serenade.

The luck of the Irish rubbed off on one eager volunteer during a workshop. Finnegan gave second-grader Brooke Topping a brief lesson on how to play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on her harp. Asked if she’d ever played an instrument before, Topping shyly shook her head no, but gave an enthusiastic nod in the other direction to indicate that she wanted to give it a shot.

In response to another student’s question, Slater gave a quick demonstration of how his flute worked.

The couple also played a video of the annual March 17 St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin, and sports clips of Gaelic football and hurling, a popular sport played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar.

Slater set the record straight on St. Patrick, whose death is celebrated as an Irish national holiday, while giving a brief geographical lesson as well.

“I’m going to have to shatter your illusions,” he said, as he told them that St. Patrick was actually from Whales and had been enslaved in Ireland and eventually escaped, only to return as a Christian missionary. Slater also told of a legend that credits the saint with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian belief of three divine persons in one God.

“They’d never heard of God before,” Slater said. “They were pagans at the time.”

Youngsters also learned about the difference between euros and American currency. Finnegan said although the euro is used throughout Europe, the Irish euro can be distinguished by the harp on the back of the coins because it is the country’s national emblem.

“They were really excited about it and they’ve really liked it,” Taylor said of the students’ reaction to the program, adding, “Their accents are great.”

Finnegan seemed excited, too, telling students that the pair had had “a fascinating time” traveling the Midwest putting on the program. Their next stop is Oklahoma, Taylor said.

“I am fascinated that we are so far away from the ocean,” she said, explaining to students that Ireland is a 150-mile-wide island surrounded by the Irish Sea, which is too chilly for swimming. In fact, she said, no one in Ireland has air conditioning because it doesn’t get warm enough to need it.

Asked “How beautiful is Ireland?” by one little girl, Finnegan said she has seen many beautiful islands, but is reminded of why it’s dubbed “the Emerald Isle” each time she looks out the airplane window on her return home.

Finnegan and Slater are from County Meath, Ireland. Both have received widespread acclaim for their performing arts skills.

“I learned that they [the Irish] do tap dance and it’s almost the way we do it but it’s not the same way because they’re almost on their toes,” second-grader Marissa Godwin said after a workshop.

Godwin, along with second-graders Jasmine Thomas and Logan Kidd also particularly enjoyed learning about the music and dancing.

“I already knew that they danced liked this,” Kidd said as he gave his best rendition of an Irish jig.

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