Burning Bridget Cleary: News

Hey chickens,

Can you believe St. Patricks Day is in a few days? I'm so pumped. This year we're playing at Puck in Doylestown, the Saucon Valley Country Club, and The Covered Bridge Inn. We really hope to see you over the weekend! Puck is a club like atmosphere (over 21) and will be extremely fun. I had my college music audition this past week and it went really well so we'll see! I also am auditioning for another university for music education so wish me luck yes? I also learned to drive stick shift today hah although I stalled a million times (not good) but alas! I will one day be fantastic at it. Well kids please make it out to one of our shows this weekend you won't regret it!
Rose and Burning Bridget Cleary

Hey!
So my family and cousin went to Ireland this past November and it was absolutely fantastic. Genna was busy in her play MacBeth (she was the lead yeah boy!) We basically stayed on the West Coast and it was gorgeous, it was a fantastic trip. We played with Sean Garvey as well as Amergin in Kenmare which was an awesome experience. We also met a few fantastic musicians such as Hugh Healey and John O'Gorman in Ennis at the Old Ground Hotel. That was honestly the must fun session I have ever been to in my life. Everyone was in super high spirits, one guy kept mumbling random things in my ear, another was bleeding all over his guitar, and everyone was dancing. It was the best ever. In the beginning of November, Burning Bridget Cleary got airplay on a variety of NPR stations nationwide. Listen for us! We also have some excellent shows coming up so check out or calendar and get out there! See ya around!
~Rose and Burning Bridget Cleary

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year to all from Lou, Rose, and Genevieve!

We ended 2007 in grand style, taking part in Bethlehem’s spectacular First Night Celebration. Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate and dance in the New Year! The acoustics at the Salem Lutheran church were stellar! It was a blast!

There are some exciting new gigs coming up, and, we want to take this opportunity to share some related “Bridget Cleary” events.

First! This Saturday, January 19th, we’ll be appearing at the SnowBlast Winter Festival Blizzard Ball in Emmaus. (It’s fun just to say that)! The SnowBlast Festival runs Friday night and Saturday with all kinds of family activities – indoors and out. For details and ball tickets, check out their website at www.snowblastwinterfestival.org or call them at 484-201-0026.

Next – an intriguing story about our connection with Bridget Cleary. Most of you have heard Bridget’s cruel story, the story of a lively young woman who fell ill, was accused of being a “fairy witch” by her husband, and was eventually burned to death by his hand. Michael Cleary, and those who passively stood by, were eventually convicted of murder and sent to prison. Thereafter, laws were changed in order to protect women from such terrible acts. Our band, Rose and Genevieve especially, found this a compelling story and one which should be remembered.

This past November, Lou and Rose’s family traveled to Ireland for a long awaited family holiday. Of course, it was a priority mission to find Bridget Cleary’s house! Along the way, asking directions, we found that the cottage is well known among local people as the “Fairy Cottage”. After several u-turns, we found it, on a narrow farm lane, between the little towns of Cloneen and Drangan in Co. Tipperary. It was unoccupied, with a realtor’s sign out front that read “Sale Agreed”. We recognized it from pictures that we had found on various internet sites – there is no identifying marker.

It was a thrilling moment to have found the place and we couldn’t resist looking around the vacant property. (See attached photo of the front door). On a whim, we left one of our CDs and a note, hoping that the new owners would write us.

On Christmas Eve, we got an e-mail with “Fairy Cottage” in the subject line. It was from the brother of the new owners, passing along a message of thanks for the CD and an invitation to tour the house the next time we were in Ireland. We were excited beyond belief and so thankful for this Christmas greeting! And, this brings us to the next bit of news in Bridget’s ongoing saga.

There is a theater company, from Waterford, Ireland, traveling to NYC this week to put on a play, “Are you the Wife of Michael Cleary?”. Below, I have copied an e-mail from Philip Furnell, the brother of the owners of the fairy cottage. He gives the details about the play (only 6 shows, running Tuesday through Sunday of this coming week). There has been very little, if any, publicity about the production.

We are going to drive up on Friday night to see the show. We know it’s not “around the corner”, but if anyone has friends or relations in the New York area, please pass this on, as we would like to support our Irish friends in their venture to bring this piece of history to life. As John Seraphin says, “We’re all in this together”! Here’s the e-mail:


Hi Lou
I spoke to my brother and he will send you some pics. Have you read the book that came out last year about it, there was a tv documentary made from it also. Its very good and has photos of the inside of the house. see here...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Burning-Bridget-Cleary-True-Story/dp/1844139344/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200174699&sr=8-1

We all went to Waterford last wednesday night to see the play thats going to new york, "Are you the wife of Michael Cleary". It’s on in the Irish Arts Centre, 553 west 51st street, NY. Tickets at www.smarttix.com
It’s on 15th to 20th of January. We spoke to some of the theatre group, and ticket sales are slow so they need people to go!!! We told them about your band and they said they would love to meet you! I think my girlfriend Linda is going on the Friday night with some friends. She says it is not well advertised.
Sorry we could not get to you on new years but we had a full schedule. Maybe another time? I am watching seattle against green bay right now (in Ireland). very exciting, 14 to 7!!
all the best
Philip

Hey kids,
Well we just played at the Cooldog Concert Series this past Sunday and it was absolutely amazing. The house was beautiful and even though it rained, we played in the upstairs concert room. We opened up for Cara, an incredible Celtic band from Germany...and I had the honor of jamming with them a bit after the show. They are absolutely amazing musicians and have the most wonderful personalities so it was such a great gig. This coming Saturday BBC has the Irish Oyster Festival in Reading, so come see us! It's going to be a really great festival...don't forget the Green Lane Scottish/Irish Festival too. I was actually over in Green Lane Park today playing tennis and eating Wawa hoagies with my friend. They seriously have the best sandwiches ever. But the park was already decked out in festival stuff already, and there are about a trillion signs everywhere...so come see us there too. Hopefully we'll see you this Saturday!
~Rose and BBC

Everyone in the entire world,
A huge thank you to everyone who came out and saw us on Saint Patricks Day...and those of you who didn't...no big! There will be plenty of opportunities coming up so don't freak out. The Covered Bridge Inn was supa fun and a big thanks to Ron for making that happen. Also a great thanks to Patrick for the wicked article in the Souderton Independent. So, I (Rose) got a new violin which I am psyched about. Anyone who hit up the Covered Bridge Inn were the first to hear it so good for you! It's a 1976 fiddle (one of about 200) made in Montana by Olaf Andersen and I am basically in love with it. Well everything is going great and make sure you keep checking our news and upcoming dates for shows! Talk to you soon!
~Rose and BBC~

Hello people of the land! We hope your Christmas was an excellent one! Personally, I think it should have snowed but it's cool. Anyway, we would absolutely like to invite all of you to come over to Porter's Pub in Easton for Kilt Night! It's going to be an amazing night and we shall be playing there. I for one am pumped! The address is on this website so come check it out! Happy New Years, yayyy for 2007!
Lovely Dovely,
Rose and Burning Bridget Cleary

Hello everyone!
We would like to thank every single person who made it to Godfrey Daniels! You all made it a sold-out show which made it super exciting to play there! I know I can speak for all of us when I say that we've been wanting to play an amazing place like this for years. It was really weird because my Dad and I have been there so many times, and yet we managed to get lost for about 45 minutes on the way there. We basically drove around the entire town of Bethlehem and that was hilarious considering in the end we weren't even close to it. No big no big! I hope you all had a great time and leave us comments in our guestbook for they are quite fun to read! I hope we see all of you at our next show at Porter's Pub on January 6th. I hope you all have a superb holiday season, see you soon!
~Rose, BBC

Hey everyone! Well we just started this new website which is pretty exciting. We also will be having a CD release party coming up at Godfrey Daniels in November so look for us. Hope to see you all there!