September 18th was, according to my calendar, Respect For The Aged Day in Japan. Now I know that was yesterday, and I know that we're not in Japan, but bear with me here. Because today is Irish Fest director Ed Scanlon's birthday. And if ever one of our esteemed aged deserved some respect, even a day late, it's Ed.
Ed was one of the four people present at the birth of the Kansas City Irish Fest in Kyle Kelly's kitchen back in the fall of 2002 and he has been instrumental in the growth and success of KCIF from its beginning, and of the Brookside Irish Fest before that. The list of his contributions to Irish Fest is too long to list here, and the list of his contributions to his friends, family and colleagues is too long to list, period. If generosity, wit, loyalty, love of family and the ability to tell a great story (regardless of its basis in fact) are Irish traits, then Ed Scanlon is the most Irish man I know.
Unfortunately, he's also the least Japanese man I know, so that's the end of "respect for the aged".
Breithlá shona duit, ya auld fecker.
Your Guide to the 17th Annual Kansas City Irish Fest at Crown Center. www.KCIrishFest.com
About Me
- Danny Regan
- Danny is a founder, past president, and creative director of the Kansas City Irish Fest. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri, the greatest city in America. He's authored Tir na Blog since 2006.
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8 comments:
Happy birthday, Ed! You know, it hasn't been THAT long since Kearney State College became UNK!
Aaron
Happy B-Day Ed! Who is Regan calling old? Has he looked in the mirror lately? Cheers!
McCarthys
I try not to!
Happy Birthday Colonel!
Happy Birthday Ed!! If I were you I would be upset that Danny didn't write a song for your bday! :-)
No better time for another good Ed Scanlon story. I'll try to keep this short. It was LAST year's KC IrishFest. Hurricane Katrina had just hit. My wife, Martha and I were at KC IrishFest. We got a call from Don Penzien of the Jackson, Mississippi CelticFest scheduled for the week after KC. More than half the bands scheduled for Jackson were from New Orleans and were now "missing persons". No one knew if they were dead or alive. Don asked if Martha and I could see if any bands from KC could make it to Jackson. Entire
Jackson Celticfest had now become a Red Cross benefit concert. Martha and I said "of course" but didn't know anyone at all. We arrived at the festival Saturday morning and decided to just try and talk to the first "official" looking person we ran into. That
was Ed Scanlon. Not only did he listen to the story... he immediately gave us permission to poll all of the KC entertainers
and he had ideas of his own. I sat
on the side of the green fountain and wrote up a poster explaining things and when I finished it and called Ed Scanlon back... here he
came RUNNING from the distance to get the information from me and post it backstage. We ended up getting THE FUCHSIA BAND down to Jackson and OLD BLIND DOGS was on the way as well but had to divert to Chicago after appearing in Little Rock. THE FUCHSIA BAND saved the day in Jackson. Their broad talents alone were able to fill in for missing band(s), Ceili
teachers and dancers, and storytellers. It's now the stuff of legend down south but the legend started with two motivated but confused people in Kansas City running into a saint named Ed Scanlon.
Happy Birthday, Ed.
Yours...
Kevin Kiley
Packy's other kid says:
I agree with all that has been said.
Ed was my 5th birthday present and it is a present that just keeps on giving. Love you, Ed.
Margaret
packy's kid said...
"The kind words are no doubt much like many of my stories--laced with just a slight bit of creative license to the actual reality."
Well... maybe a slight bit... but no way does it qualify as "BS"( Blarney Stone ).
That's really what went down that day.
Would we have stumbled across someone else eventually and would they have pointed us in the same(right) directions AND helped us spread the word about people trying to do a good thing down in Jackson?... Sure... probably... especially knowing the KC Irishfest community... but it was Ed Scanlon that we met FIRST and he got us off to a good start on polling the talent, etc. That's simply the way it happened.
So Happy Birthday again to Ed!
May the road rise up to meet you
a half hour before the devil knows
it's the top of the morning!
( Hmm... not sure I got that quite right... but you know what I mean.
Best wishes, etc! )
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