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05 November 2010
“My glory was I had such friends” is the phrase that best sums up my recent book reading stint in Vancouver. It was my long time friend, Catherine Brennan, a Scottish actress and business woman who is an active and popular member of the Vancouver Irish community who set the whole enterprise in motion when she put a whole floor of her house at my disposal for two weeks. Her widely circulated invitation to a Celtic Woman reading soiree at her Kerrisdale home, included a copy of Therese Schroeder-Sheker’s glowing review of my book in The Celtic Connection, a newspaper that had taken root in my North Vancouver home in 1991. Common Ground magazine had also risen to the occasion with a two page extract from Celtic Woman in their October issue.
Catherine Brennan’s abundant provision of food and drink rendered her gathering of literati and glitterati well disposed to a series of poems and songs interspersed with readings from chapters of the book that relate to my Irish background. It was clear from the thank-you cards and calls that Catherine received in the days that followed that several people were already immersed in the book, a fact borne out by the parade of satisfied customers showing up at her door before I left, each with and order for- not one-but for either three or four further copies of Celtic Woman!
I was hosted in North Vancouver on the previous night by Les Tulloch, a passionate patron of the arts and a board member of the local Waldorf School and former IDRIART colleague of mine. I was not aware that the house I was familiar with had burned to the ground a month after his beloved wife died of cancer some years ago and that a grieving Les had raised an even finer house from the ashes…. Like a hymn to nature itself, this magnificent structure stands among tall trees. I was there early enough to observe sunlight streaming through its many skylights to warm the gleaming wooden walls and floors of rooms that opened to one another in a gesture of inclusion that reflected later in the social ease of all present. It was a delightful setting with acoustics that only the finest church could rival, calling forth more songs than usual. Attired in a unique garment that Les’s new partner, Suzanne, had woven and crafted, I adapted readings and poems to the interests of this Waldorf School community audience that included several former associates and friends.
Walter Daroshin, founder and president of the Leo Awards who had produced my Magic of the Celts for CBC TV was in attendance with his wife Teena Thorndycraft-I subsequently spent an afternoon at their home and attended a great party with them where I met Vicki Gabereau who, with no knowledge of my Blue Butterfly affiliation, informed me that she was going to Toronto soon where her friend Elsa Franklin would be launching a book!
Banyen Bookstore proved a welcoming venue for my first reading. Event manager, Michael Bertrand, lamented the passing of author, John O’Donohue, who had visited the bookstore only weeks before his death in 2009. Since the geography and traditions that shaped the poetic consciousness of O’Donohue are close to my heart, I devoted the first part of my programme to a recitation of his poems before moving on to my romantic encounter with Frenchman, Claude Bellin, in that very book store and the further unfolding of our relationship that I describe in a chapter entitled, Entering the Overlap Zone. As serendipity would have it, there was a man in the audience who proudly declared himself French, who rejoiced in my references to the South of France since he had it on good authority that it was from there that the Celts had originated. Thus does a story grow in the telling….
I approached the North Vancouver Parkgate Library by a ‘commodious vicus’ of buses and boats where conscientious librarian, Elizabeth Austin, had mounted an impressive Irish display in my honour and spread the word with great enthusiasm. Each of the eight women who braved the inclement weather that night introduced themselves to me before the reading and I could then improvise, glad of the diverse themes that thread through my book. Turning to the last chapter I read about Glada McIntyre and B.C.’s Singing Forest since one of the women present was an environmentalist. A young mother of three, she was a recent emigrant whose father, mother and sister had all died within weeks of each other of different causes since shortly after she moved from Ireland to Canada. I knew, as we made our farewells, that the journey had served its purpose in this meeting with a courageous fellow countrywoman.
This tour has laid a good foundation for a future foray into friendly territory. The enthusiastic response to my presentations assures me that a further market remains to be tapped in British Columbia and I now have the backing of friends, encountered along the way all urging for my return there next Spring. In the course of a joyous and productive meeting with Maura McCay, publisher of The Celtic Connection and a dedicated advocate of Celtic consciousness, I quoted a familiar line from Yeats-”Think where one’s glory most begins and ends, and say-my glory was I had such friends!”
