Harp

The Official Newsletter of the Harp & Shamrock Society of Texas

StringsEstablished 1966

Volume 47 Issue 5

www.harpandshamrock.org

Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day!Summer 2014

Mark your Calendar for the 8th Annual Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day Hooley and Irish Stew and Irish Soda bread Tasting Contests. The Event will be held at the Beethoven on September 20, 2014. Doors open at 4 pm. Installation of the Harp and Shamrock Board of Directors takes place at 4:30. There will be music, bagpipes, dancing and Food, food, food. See the application in this newsletter, page 7, to be part of this fun and friendly tasting competi-tion. We hope you will enter into the lively competition along with many of our past champions taking part again this year. And of course we hope Christine Hipp (picture left) joins us to defend her historic “ Double Crown”, winning both Peoples’ Choice and Official Irish Stew Tasting in last year’s competition. No Pressure!The Beethoven is at 422 Pereida St, San Antonio. Where there is always plenty of free parking.

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We had great crowds for the St. Patrick’s Day River parade. The weather even cooperated! The hit of the parade was the amazing homemade T-shirt cannon. Pictured at right at the front of the Lion & Rose sponsored SAGAC boat. Pictured left with Carolyn Dowd, are the inventors, Laura Domyanic and Joshua Hunt. It was a real crowd pleaser! At left was the fun crowd in front of Durty Nelly’s. At right it was a standing room only crowd at the Arneson Riv-er Theatre as our member barge entered.

St Patrick’s Day River Parade

HARP AND SHAMROCKSOCIETY OF TEXAS, INCP.O.Box 15306San Antonio, TX 78212

PRESIDENTKevin P. Dowd 210-845-4424VICE PRESIDENTBob Meade 210-946-72202nd VICE PRESIDENTMelissa Schulz 210-445-2777TREASURERJ.T. Norris 210-621-3407SECRETARYDana Goodman 210-219-7356CHAPLAINBill Merriman 210-259-3482

BOARD of DIRECTORSMelinda Britten 210-699-8632Carolyn Dowd 210-896-1598Darryl Britten 210-215-9952Elissa O’Brien 210-348-6877Joan Moody 210-656-2666Erin O’Brien 210-348-6877Ryan Stone 210-849-1215Rob Holden 210-243-5067Terence Peak 210-829-3920Derek Cossey 210-886-8640J. Sean Habina 210-523-9267Allison Hicks 210-822-1182

IRISHMAN OF THE YEAREileen Burke Faught 2014

EDITOR IN CHIEFKevin Patrick Dowd 210-845-4424The Staff:

Carolyn DowdJohn McCarthy

Mariee PilkingtonTerry Peak

Remember PayPal™for your online donation!

©2014 Dowd Ranch Publishing

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From the President

As my presidency comes to a close I’d like to reflect on some of the hap-penings over the past two years. Our Saint Patrick statue was repaired and is now prominently on display in the library at UIW. Plans are in the works to do some educational talks about it and Irish history as part of our March events on the campus of the University of the Incarnate Word. There will be plenty of volunteer oppourtunities! We’ve been working closer with the SAGAC and helping them promote the golf scramble and raise their profile in SA. Pictured below center: the chairman of the SAGAC Sean Hipp pre-senting me with the newest kit with all the Irish organization logos printed on it. Below right: I was able to help at a Fiesta fundraising event helping Laura Domyancic serving cerveza. Below left: I want to welcome Dana Goodman as our next president, we seem to be having fun at last years Halfway. I hope I can help Dana as much as she has helped me. Plus my predecessor, Terry Peak, has set the bar high! He has worked harder than ever to keep this society going in the right direction. Thanks also to my VP Bob Meade, who stepped in to help cover while I spent some time in NYC cleaning up after Super storm Sandy. Big thanks to our treasurer, JT Nor-ris. He has reignited the society’s dream of an Irish center! Thanks go to all my hard working board members. I’m not going anywhere since our by-laws have the past president staying on the board for 2 more years. Which will bring us to our 50th Anniversary. Why don’t you think of helping us plan that big event? Volunteers are what keep non-profit organizations alive. And over the past years I’ve found our volunteers are AMAZING! Go raibh maith agat. Slainte!

Kevin Patrick Dowdshamrockeditor@gmail.com

At one point the youngsters took over the silent auction table for some fun and games at the election meeting.

3www.harpandshamrock.org

The San Patricios, pictured above, at the Texas League Finals in Austin, Jun 14th. The boyos played their best but fell short of a win. They are getting stronger every season and will be heading to the North American Gaelic Games Finals in Boston, Mass. Fri. August 29th. What a weekend!When they return from there they will be in full swing promoting the 4th Annual SAGAC Golf Scramble! The Harp and Shamrock is proud to give our full sup-port to this event. And your donation to support Irish football is tax deductble! Mark your calander for Oct. 3rd, 8a.m. @ Silverhorn Golf Club.

Facebook/SAGAC or www.sanantoniogac.org

Sue Brannon, San Antonio Pipes and Drums, Kelly Singers, and Inishfree Irish Dancers will provide the afternoon’s entertainment.Come on out for some fun, fellowship and some “friendly” competition to support your Harp and Shamrock Society. For a $10 donation “ You can be the Judge” in the Peoples Choice category.As always our events would not be successful without the volunteers who make it happen. Thank you!Please contact Carolyn Dowd or David Patrick if you would like to volunteer to help at the halfway.

Letter to the Editor:Just a note to thank everyone associated with the golf scramble, as always everyone made us welcome. My daughter, Kate, and I were lucky enough to win, not once but twice for closet to the pin. It would be a shame for these to go to waste on a couple of Florid-ians. We do plan on returning again next year… we would like the Harp to put these to good use. Thanks again for making us feel like family each year that we attend. Looking forward to next year.Regards, Jack & Mary Collins

Ed: Thanks to the Collins for the re-gift! We’ll put them to good use. Look for them at our Halfway Hooley. (Letter edited for space.)

Awards Dinner

We had an historic awards dinner at the Petroleum Club. Eileen Burke Faught received the Irishman of the Year for 2014! Her father, Professor Sean Burke was one of our founders and was the recipient of the very first Irishman of the year, as well as her mom, Margaret also a past recipient of this honor. Pictured above: Mary Jo Quinn, last years Irishman, is presenting Eileen the honor with the able assistance of Shannon Faught. Congratulations! Outstanding members and volunteers Dana Goodman and Ked Mullins received the Cusack Family Awards. Pic-tured below: Eileen Burke Faught, Ked Mullins, Dana Goodman and Kevin Dowd. We had a well attended truly classy awards banquet and will be planning to do it again with style. See you in 2015!

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Sports Report

Irish @ Fiesta SA!Barb Patrick and Linda Grosse helped us repre-sent the Irish at Pindemo-nium Alamo Plaza during the citywide Fiesta cel-ebration. Terry Peak’s designed pins were a big

hit this year.

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STAIF @University of the Incarnate Word

The rain held off for our first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in three years. Thanks to Linda and Marty Grosse for all the hard work. The Memorial Services Detachment (MSD) Friday Squad Color Guard led the way and our parade banner was back in business. We had Sr. Walter Maher of UIW as our 2013 Grandmarshal. The Fiesta Military Ambassadors were kind enough to judge our parade entrants. Once the parade ended the sky opened up and didn’t stop. Blaggards rocked the house! They were joined by Irish dancers who also braved the cold rainy evening.

Thanks to Carolyn for also braving the rain to get this shot. For more photos see or website.www.harpandshamrock.org

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San Antonio Food Bank

Part of our mission in San Antonio is to give back, impact our community and let people know the Irish are here. We had a great turnout for some hard and rewarding work at the San Antonio Food Bank. All those food drives and donation bags end up having to be broken down into food groups. Just a little FYI: Peanut butter is #1! Top right: Elvira Holden is almost moving too fast for the camera to catch her. Bottom right: Sean Habina takes a much needed break. That empty wall behind our folks was filled with food that needed dividing. Left is our very proud group shot in front of the tote board. from left to right, standing: Darryl Britten, Mary Jo Quinn, Sean Ha-bina, Phil Harris, Melinda Britten, Peggy Harris, Pat Peak, Barbara Patrick, Terry Peak, J.T. Norris, Elvira Holden

and David Patrick; kneeling Carolyn Dowd, Kevin Dowd and Melissa Schulz. To see how you can help visit: www.safoodbank.org

The Alamo Ceremony was a beautiful day. Pic-tured right: I was hon-ored to be presenting the wreath with Irish-man of the Year, Eileen Burke Faught, while her mother, Margaret Burke watched, and her daugh-ter Shannon Faught read the names of the Irish and Irish Americans who died

at the Alamo.Upper left: getting ready for the river parade. Left: Sue and Bob Brannon lead one member barge, while at right another members barge enjoys

the parade.

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In MemoriamElection Meeting and Whiskey Tasting

Above from left to right: Mike & Christine Dodd, Brenda Tobey, Melissa Schulz, Steve & Summer McKenna and Ath-ena Dodd. Pictured left: David Patrick looks ready to join the SAGAC boys on the pitch for the next game. Below: Carolyn Dowd, Mary Jo Quinn, Terry Peak, Pat Peak and Barbara Patrick look like they are hav-ing fun waiting for the election

results. And here they are: Dana Goodman, president; Melissa Schulz, vice president; Melinda Britten, 2nd vice president; J.T. Norris, treasurer; Diana Jordan, secre-tary. Board members: Michael J. O’Brien, Mike Dodd, Barbara Patrick, and Terry Peak. Plus the bylaw change passed by a healthy majority. Special thanks to Phil and Tim at Waxy O’Connor’s Irish Pub on the Riverwalk for their generous donation!

Donald J. Mach has entered into our Lord’s care on Mon-day, February 11, 2014. Born in El Campo,Texas he attended St. John’s Seminary followed by graduating from St. Mary’s University with his law de-gree. Don practiced law in

Bexar and Atascosa counties for over 40 years. He was very well respected by his colleagues and was once voted one of “The Best Criminal Lawyers in San Antonio.” He was an active, original member of the Harp serving many years on the Board and as our president, and served as parade commissioner for several years. Don was honored as Irishman of the Year in 1982. He was a tremendous help to my Uncle Pat on the ranch, and a big influence on me the summers I lived here. He had a great sense of humor and would take me to court with him as his intern. Many of his clients will remember him for his pro bono services helping them through difficult times in their lives. He is survived by his former spouse Sue Miller and their son Patrick Mach and his stepsister Trisha Miller, her three grandchildren, his loving wife Sharry Mach, and his five bothers and sisters.

Harry William Brooks, age 93, passed away May 2, 2014, in San Antonio. One of the Greatest Generation, he was a survivor of Pearl Harbor. He served in the Navy in World War II and the Korean War. He was preceded in death by his

wife, Kay. Harry and Kay Brooks were tremen-dously hard working members of the Harp and Shamrock Society. He is survived by his son, John L. Brooks and wife Deborah of San Anto-nio; son, Robert W. Brooks and wife Nancy of Friendswood; daughter, Melissa E. Seitze and husband David of San Antonio; grandchildren, Christy Brooks, Sarah Rhoads and husband Jona-than, Timothy Brooks and Madeline Seitze.

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The 2013 San Antonio Highland GamesThanks to all the volunteers who manned our booth for the Highland Games. It is always a fun weekend and a chance to make new friends! Pictured right: Some visiters got a chance to meet our salesman of the weekend, Bill Kennedy! Behind him are Mi-chael J. O’Brien, Kevin Dowd and Phil Harris. Below: Me with Bill and Elissa O’Brien, Melinda and Darryl Britten, and Marian Freeland. Below right I’m talking with a new member and great vol-

unteer James Gorman.

The Harp & Shamrock Society of TexasNewsletter EditorP.O. Box 15306San Antonio, TX 78212

Cultural Civic Patriotic SocialEducational

Thank Our Sponsors

©2014 Dowd Ranch Publishingwww.harpandshamrock.org

Shamrockeditor@gmail.com

Thank you to our sponsors: McCombs Foundation

Waxy O’Connor’s Irish Pub

Highland Games 2013!Thanks to the volunteers manning our booth. Phil Harris, Pat O’Connell, Melinda Britten, Bob Meade, Darryl Britten and Kevin Dowd.

September 20th, Saturday Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day

More info page 1.

October3rd, Friday 4th Annual SAGAC Golf Scramble

8a.m. @ Silverhorn GC, more info page 3.8th, Thursday Board Meeting

March 201514th, Saturday South Texas Alamo Irish Festival

At the University of the Incarnate WordTexas Gaelic football and Parade

Donovan’s Run - 14th, 2015River Parade - 15th, 2015

Alamo Wreathlaying - 17th, 2015Golf Scramble - 20th, 2015