(This story was updated to correct the spelling of a name)At the beginning of Worcester’s first Irish Cultural Festival last October, organizer Caitlin Sargent watched one memorable moment unfold as two Gaelic football teams lined up on the grass at Polar Park.
“Right before the opening ceremonies, we had a lineup with the Irish flag, the American flag, and one line was the American-born Gaelic football players and the other line was the Irish-born players,” Sargent said. “In that moment, I thought, 'There are people here who want this like we do.'”
This year, the Irish Cultural Festival returns to Polar Park Oct. 12 with a full slate of activities, in hopes of bringing Irish sports to town and becoming a yearly autumn counterpart to the traditional Irish Festival put on by the Ancient Order of Hibernians every March.
“We wanted to cover all of the bases, pun intended, of Irish culture, so it was really important to us to make sure to reach out to other Irish organizations,” Sargent said.
Sport and Irish culture
The festival kicks off at 11:30 a.m., and the highlight will be a series of Gaelic football and hurling matches held on the Polar Park field, with the Worcester Fenians playing against the Hartford Gaelic Athletic Association.
Both clubs are chapters of the Gaelic Athletic Association, an international sports organization that promotes and oversees traditional sports indigenous to Ireland.
Gaelic football is similar to soccer, except that players can use their hands to pass the ball and there is no offside rule. In hurling, players use sticks called hurleys to hit a small ball into the opposing team’s goal instead.
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Both sports are both played on the same pitch, which will make it easy for Polar Park to host both on Oct. 12. The first game, set for 12:30 p.m., will be men’s Gaelic football, followed by ladies’ Gaelic football, men’s hurling and a Gaelic football match between a team of Irish-born players and a team of American-born players.
Growing up in Ireland, Gareth McAlinden joined a youth Gaelic Athletic Association club alongside his brother when he was 5, and Gaelic football has been a constant presence in his life ever since.
“If you go to Ireland, you'll see every kid running around with a Gaelic Athletic Association jersey from either the club they play for or the county they live in,” McAlinden said. “The GAA is a huge part of Irish culture, and unfortunately a lot of the Irish-American community don't know a lot about that. That's where my goal is, to try to bridge that gap and get more Americans involved.”
'They were so welcoming to me in this area'
When McAlinden came to the United States in 2012, one of the first things he did was join a Gaelic Athletic Association club in Boston, and as the years went on, he found that Massachusetts’ Irish sports community was exactly what he needed.
“I moved just outside Worcester in 2020, the year of COVID when everything shut down. What really kept me going at that point was the Irish community here. There was the GAA, there was an Irish golf league at Wachusett on Tuesday nights,” McAlinden said. “As an Irish person from Ireland, you look for your own people, and they were so welcoming to me in this area.”
In addition to sports, the afternoon of Oct. 12 will feature live music from the Pourmen, Finbar Doyle, and the Healys, traditional dance performances from the McInerney School of Irish Dance, and, according to McAlinden, “a workshop about Guinness.”
McAlinden and Sargent met through Sargent’s father, Bud Sargent, who hosts the Four Green Fields Irish music broadcast on WCUW 91.3 FM every Saturday morning.
“My great-grandfather was born in Ireland and I'm sure you'll hear that story from everyone in Worcester,” Sargent said. “They all love their history so much and they're very proud of their Irish heritage, and I think every single one is so committed to making sure their culture is highlighted in any way they can.”
Keeping heritage alive
For almost two centuries, one of the centers of Irish-American Worcester has been the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a local chapter of the Irish fraternal organization that runs the Fiddler’s Green pub on Green Street, and Sargent said part of the plan for the autumn Irish Cultural Festival is to coordinate with the events the AOH puts on every spring.
“The AOH do such a great job of keeping Irish culture and Irish-American culture alive in Worcester,” Sargent said. “They work 365 days a year and put all of their energy into big events between January and March, so this is our way to highlight them and thank them as well.”
Fiddler’s Green, just blocks north of Polar Park, will be humming during festival weekend. A live band will perform there before the festival on the evening of Oct. 11, and the day after the festival, Oct. 13, the Ancient Order of the Hiberians will host a meat raffle at 2 p.m. and its biweekly Irish music seisiun at 4 p.m. A seisun, the Irish Gaelic word for "session," is a gathering of musicians and sometimes singers to play traditional Irish music.
On festival day itself, after the Polar Park celebration ends at 6 p.m., the craic will continue with an afterparty at Boland’s Bar and Patio on Water Street.
“There are a lot of Irish people off the boat here, but there are also a lot of Irish-Americans, and they've been so supportive since I've been here. It really comes down to celebrating that welcoming spirit, the community, and the culture,” McAlinden said.
The Worcester Irish Cultural Festival will take place 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 12 at Polar Park, 100 Madison St., Worcester. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students, and $5 for children 11 and under, available through polarpark.com/irish.
