St. Patrick's Day may be a month away, but the 17th annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry, sponsored by the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo), gets under way at 8 p.m. today at Smith Theatre in Howard Community College.
"There's too much else going on then," said Ellen Conroy Kennedy, executive director of HoCoPoLitSo, of the group's decision to sponsor the event before St. Patrick's Day. "We don't want to drown in whatever else is happening. Besides, Irish literature is around all year."
The event celebrating Irish culture will feature award-winning poet Eamon Grennan and traditional Irish music by the band Celtic Thunder, along with traditional step dancing by the
group's Irish-American pianist and Irish fiddling by a Japanese-American electrical engineer.
Irish coffee, Guinness stout and Irish beer will be available beforehand and during intermission.
The poetry group's first Irish Evening was launched in 1979 at the suggestion of Ms. Kennedy's husband, Padraic Kennedy, president of the Columbia Association.
For the past 12 years, the event has been chaired by Catherine McLoughlin-Hayes, a native of County Roscommon, Ireland, who lives in Columbia.
Poets who have attended past events include Seamus Heaney, who has a chair at Harvard University; Eavan Bolend; Nuala Ni Dhomhaill, John Montague and Sean O'Tuama from Ireland. Novelists have included John McGahern from Ireland and Edna O'Brien, who lives in London and whose first works were banned in Ireland.
"I follow the writers," Ms. McLoughlin-Hayes said. "I see if [there is] someone who published something new or who writes good stuff. There is no dearth of Irish writers. They're all so good."
Continuing a 10-year tradition, the Irish ambassador to the United States, Dermot Gallagher, will introduce Mr. Grennan, who plans to read from a selection of his works and others about Ireland.
The poet said he will interrupt the readings with "jovial observations of one kind or another. . . . I'll fill them in on where it comes from and its context. It makes going into a reading special from sitting and reading it alone."
A native of Dublin, Mr. Grennan, 53, is a professor of poetry and literature at Vassar College in upstate New York, where he has taught since 1968.
The poet, who lives with his wife and 8-year-old daughter in Poughkeepsie, is also the father of a grown son and daughter. His 1989 book "What Light There Is and Other Poems" and his 1992 "As If It Matters" focus on children and nature, parents and children, life and death.
"I write about small things -- a child on the way home from school or walking up a hill, a waterfall, birds, men coming to collect the garbage," said Mr. Grennan who owns a cottage on the west coast of Ireland in Galway. "The small, the minutia -- whether in terms of small objects or moments. Most comes out of the recesses of the self."
Mr. Grennan, who moved to the United States 30 years ago to study for his doctorate in English literature at Harvard, was awarded a 1991 fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts. This year, he received a Guggenheim fellowship.
His works have appeared in the New Yorker magazine. Two new books of his will be published this year including a book of elegies to his friend and mother, and "Selected Poems of Leopardi," a book of translations of selected poetry written by an Italian poet.
Mr. Grennan has seen a resurgence in poetry reading since the 1960s.
"More people go to readings than buy books," he said. "The source of traffic between the ordinary world and world of poetry is made by poetry reading. It's given a sense of continuity."
After Mr. Grennan's reading, Celtic Thunder will perform a mix of traditional Irish songs including reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas, and slow airs. The group will also play a fiddling duet, drum solo and a song sung a cappella.
The group's founders are Terry Winch, who plays the button accordion, and his brother Jesse, who plays the bodhran, an Irish drum, and the bazouki. Other members include lead singer Laura Murphy; vocalist Linda Hickman on the flute and tin whistle; and keyboardist Regan Wick, who also is a world champion step dancer.
The band will be joined by Dave Abe, a Japanese-American fiddler who lived in Ireland.
The 18-year-old Celtic Thunder, which will perform at the National Cathedral in Washington on St. Patrick's Day, is the winner of the 1988 INDIE award for Best Celtic Album from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors and two Washington Area Music Association awards (WAMMIE).
The group recently recorded "Hard New York Days" about life in the Bronx where the Winches grew up. Its last album, "The Light of Other Days," is a tribute to their Irish immigrant parents.
"We've gotten well-known as one of the leading Irish-American bands," said Mr. Winch, 49, a Silver Spring resident who is head of publications at the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. "We come out of the Irish tradition. A lot of Irish bands don't have the Irish cultural background, but we do."
An accomplished poet who is the recipient of the 1992 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mr. Winch also will read a few short poems from his books.
"Irish Americans-American Friends," winner of the 1986 American Book Award, is a narrative of poems about musicians he grew up with. His latest book, "Great Indoors," was just published.
Mr. Winch, whose group has performed at the event for 16 years, said the Irish evening is an excellent showcase for Irish culture.
"It's the only event of its kind that I know of that combines literary and musical performances," he said.
The 17th Annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry was nearly sold out as of yesterday. The event, which costs $17.50 per ticket, will begin at 8 p.m. today at Smith Theatre in Howard Community College. Information: (301) 596-1109.