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Feis to spotlight Irish traditions - 13 July, 2004
By SUZAN CLARKE
THE JOURNAL NEWS
Irish culture will be showcased in a big way Sunday at the 31st annual Rockland County Feis, the festival of traditional Irish field games and art that draws thousands from across the nation.
Patricia Dwyer, president of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians and organizer of the event for the past 25 years, said the feis — Gaelic for "festival" and pronounced "fesh" — has grown.
When the festival began in the 1970s, "it was like, 150 competitions," Dwyer said, "and now we have over 450 competitions."
The contests will include dance, music, song, art and Celtic design, soda bread baking, basketball hoop shooting, Gaelic language, Gaelic football and other games that Dwyer said people will find interesting.
"Oh, we have the sheaf-throwing contest. That's become very popular," said the Stony Point resident. "They have two bars with the pole ... and they take a pitchfork and they have to get a bale of hay and throw it over the bar and they keep raising the bar."
Sheaf throwing will be open to men and women.
Long puck-hurling also will be one of the challenges offered.
Vendors will sell Irish goods, including linen, dancing shoes and jewelry. The day will start with Mass at 9 a.m. and end at 8 p.m. A second Mass will be at 11 a.m.
"This is a true, total family event," said Dwyer, who has attended the event every year.
This one will be different for her, though. Her husband, William A. Dwyer Jr., died July 4. He was to have been the guest of honor at this year's event.
William Dwyer was to have been recognized for his lifetime accomplishments, including his work with the feis, being a master electrician and his involvement in the community.
"Oh, he liked working with the feis and he worked on the original feis and every one ever since," Patricia Dwyer said.
Michael Halpin of Pearl River has lived in America for 50 years and has attended every feis in the county. He was chairman of the 1979 festival, the year it was held at the Rockland Community College Field House. The festival began at the Marian Shrine in Stony Point. Now it is held at the Anthony Wayne Recreation Area of Harriman State Park.
Halpin said the feis remained popular because it was a living testament to Irish culture, resonating with Irish natives and connecting Americans of Irish descent with their heritage.
"It's a big family event," he said. "The whole family gets involved in it and they all come and participate, even if their kids are not involved in it. It's a great occasion ... a continuation of the history of Ireland."
About 4,000 people are expected to attend, and possibly thousands of others to participate, including 50 pipe bands, 1,300 dancers, 100 musicians, 75 singers, 300 individual pipers and 200 youth sports competitors.
Dwyer said Rockland's feis is considered the biggest event of the more than 200 feiseanna — that's plural for "feis" — across North America every year. It draws people from all over the country as well as Ireland.
Nearly 51,000 of Rockland's 284,000 residents claim Irish ancestry, according to census figures.
Dwyer said those who attend the feis will be in for a great experience.
"The families, they bring their tents, their chairs, their coolers," she said, adding that the venue, in Harriman State Park on the Rockland-Orange border, provides grills and outdoor picnic tables. "There's something for everybody in the family."
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