Karan Casey

On Sunday, I was in Binghamton for the Karan Casey benefit concert. Karan is a friend of the Grady's, two of whom were arrested in a protest of the Iraq war. The protesters soon became known as the St. Patrick's Four. Scott knows John Grady from the session in Ithaca, and he offered up his apartment for people to hang out afterwards a few weeks earlier. Scott hadn't heard from John, so he figured that nothing would happen. (But he bought a lot of beer anyway, just in case.)

After the excellent concert (which also consisted of an art show, a bake sale, a documentary, and a poetry slam), Scott gave John his phone number, address, and crude map, and we rushed home to clean things up and to make pizzas for the party. As these things go, we had no way of knowing if people would come over, if John would call Scott and say "We're heading to... (misc. bar/hotel/place)," or if we would just not hear anything at all and the night would be over. About an hour after the concert, we get a call from John for directions. Two hours after the concert, I look out the window and see heads heading up the stairs for the porch. I inform Scott, who goes down to greet whoever it is. As they come back upstairs, I realize that it's Scott's friend John and Karan Casey and her band. I hadn't really expected anyone but John and the Grady family, but being able to hang out with a famous Irish musician is pretty incredible. As the evening progresses and more pizza, beer, and fantans and rolls are eated (we baked them in the afternoon) more and more people come by. Scott is very excited all evening, especially since he gets to chat with Niall Vallely, another concertina play, and his very first teacher at Irish Arts Week. It was interesting to hear everyone's stories, jokes, and chatter. Most people departed around 3:00 am, but the last few stragglers headed out at 4:30. I think everyone had a great time.