Americans go wild for Wexford band Green Road

This concert was in aid of bursaries for students in Georgia to attend the Georgia Southern Campus the Wexford. 600 people attended the concert…

Green Road and Clodagh Kinsella concluded their coast to coast US Tour in Boston on the St Patrick’s Day weekend where – along with being the headline act at the Irish Cultural Centre festival where they played to full houses – they performed at the St Patrick’s Day Mass at Holy Cross Cathedral and also at a special event at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of JFK’s visit to Ireland as President of the USA in 1963 .

Clodagh Kinsella and Uileann piper Ned Wall – along with accompanist Tomas Kavanagh – performed at the St. Patrick’s Day Ceremony at Holy Cross Cathedral, receiving rave reviews by all who attended. The mass was also live streamed to a very wide audience .

A concert in the stunning pavilion at the John F Kennedy Library followed where they performed, among other songs, the two songs sung for President Kennedy by the schoolchildren’s choir in 1963, Boys of Wexford and Kelly the Boy from Killanne. This concert was streamed live on the social media channels of the library and is available for viewing on Youtube and Twitter (and on Green Roads Facebook page).

The final curtain call for the band was in the South Boston parish of St Brigid’s where they were special guests at a St Patrick’s Day Parade Party.

The band performed to a large congregation at a mass where Clodagh Kinsella ‘s rendition of Hail Glorious St Patrick and Our Lady of Knock evoked spontaneous rounds of applause and the bands instrumental airs on Uileann pipes, mandolin, banjo and guitar provided a unique and evocative Irish cultural setting for the ceremony.

They then played to a select audience at the parochial house which included the former Mayor of Boston and former US Ambassador to the Vatican Raymond Flynn and the recently retired US Ambassador to Russia John O’Sullivan.

It was fitting that the tour ended in one of the most Irish American communities in the US of South Boston.

Lead singer of the group PJ Sinnott said: “The tour of the United States was an amazing experience and we were proud to have the endorsement and support of Culture Ireland.

“We have many people to thank for hosting us in the US, particularly Newell Arnerich and Dan McGovern in Danville, Liam Reidy and the United Irish Cultural Centre in San Francisco, Howard Keeley of Georgia Southern University and Frank Rossiter of the Hibernian Society in Savannah, and Aoife Griffin of the Irish Cultural Centre in Boston and many others.”