She grew up in a home where both Irish and English were spoken.
Mary Ellen O'Brien
When Mary Ellen O’Brien was growing up in Springfield, her Ireland-born parents, the late Dave Russell and Bridie Sheehy Russell, spoke Irish as much as English; as a young child, she thought that was the norm.
Since then, the retired junior high school English teacher who also taught at the now closed Our Lady of Hope School in Springfield, has put into action her belief in the importance of continuing the Irish heritage in Western Massachusetts.
“I think it is important for every culture to be perpetuated and respected; I believe that is what makes our encompassing American culture so great.”
O'Brien studied Irish dance as a young girl with Helen Sears and Maureen McDonnell Cawley and continues in an adult class at the McDermott Academy of Irish Dance in Westfield.
She facilitates the Irish set dance lessons that take place on Tuesday nights at the John Boyle O'Reilly Club in Springfield.
O’Brien, a member of the board of directors of the Irish Cultural Center at Elms College in Chicopee, also oversees the center's summer camp, "Celtic Adventures For Kids" at Elms College.
The camp offers participants lessons in Irish dance, sports like hurling, craft making and even Gaelic-Irish.
Many grandparents have paid for their grandchildren to attend the camp, a sign of “a real desire on their part to have the kids become somewhat knowledgeable about their heritage and culture,” said O'Brien, who authored articles on music and dance for the recently published, "The Irish Legacy: A History of the Irish in Western Massachusetts," the first in a series of hardcover books on ethnic groups in the area from The Republican.
During the week-long program, youth in grades one through nine play the tin whistle and bodhran, listen to stories and folktales from Ireland and participate in Irish football, road bowling and hurling clinics.
“It is the type of program that differs from say, sports camps, because it offers kids the opportunity to develop other interests and talents,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien’s parents both emigrated from the Parish of Moore in the west of Dingle in County Kerry, Ireland.
She grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in the Hungry Hill section of Springfield, where many from Ireland first settled, and attended the now close Our Lady of Hope Church,
“There is so much about the Irish that I have seen as invigorating and life giving,” she says, mentioning the passion for music, dance, language and literature that were characteristic of many of the adults that were part of her childhood.
She and other children of Irish parents learned early from their example what was important.
“I never saw my parents miss a voting day. It didn't matter how insignificant the election may have been. When my brothers or I came home, we had better been able to say we voted,” she says.
Her parents taught their four children that there was no freedom or privilege that came without responsibility. Their children never saw them miss Sunday Mass. Their faith was not something displayed for a special occasion; it was a part of their daily life.
“They valued family, faith, loyalty and friendship more than material wealth and expected the same from their children. I think those attributes breathe life and vitality into every human regardless of ethnicity,” O'Brien said.
Many Irish Catholics coming here in large numbers, starting the 1840s, faced discrimination; “No Irish need apply” was a familiar sign in store windows.
“I think that is something that a lot of young Irish Americans find hard to believe primarily because they do not know the history of their people in this country,” O’Brien said.
“This is where a program like Celtic Adventures For Kids becomes so important. It exposes the kids to so many aspects of Irish culture that they don't experience on a regular basis,”
The former acting administrator of the Irish Cultural Center hopes participants will retain much of what they learned and realize how much a part of their own history it is.
“That being said, I think that sometimes that is something that none of us really came to appreciate until we are older,” she said. “But this program sets the foundation in place.”
O’Brien, 60, earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in secondary education in 1974 from Westfield State University.
She was married to Springfield Fire Lieutenant A. Paul O'Brien; he died in 1990 at the age of 45 after battling lung cancer. She has two step-daughters and three step-grandchildren.
During the heritage fairs that took place when she was teaching, students did projects on one of their ethnic backgrounds.
“They came to appreciate their culture,” she says, adding that she too came to a better understanding of other ethnic groups.
Her parents instilled in their children “a love of an old culture and old country but also at the same time inspired us to a deep pride in the new country.”
“This country offered them and their children a better life, and they were extremely grateful,” she says, emphasizing that they were willing to work and asked nothing from anyone.
“We can all celebrate our ethnic backgrounds and know that because we can embrace them as Americans, it doesn't get any better than that.”
Related:
For more information, including any programming interruptions due to renovations on Berchmans Hall related to the building of the Center for Natural and Health Sciences at Elms College, visit:
http://www.irish-cairde.org/