The fleadh down in Parsippany
MAYOMAN Tom Vesey from Ballaghaderreen, one of the key Comhaltas movers and shakers in North America and a long-time CCE operative in the New Jersey area for decades through his Martin Mulvihill branch, is always thinking about how to do things differently and get more young people involved.
When he was chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Region he turned over the reigns of running the New York Fleadh to the next generation. It was their children who would be benefitting directly from keeping the competitions going, he reasoned, and he also recruited the nascent crop of teachers centered in Pearl River and elsewhere in New York City.
The senior guard stepped aside and let the young Turks provide the much needed energy and new thinking to allow it to grow substantially, encouraged by Vesey’s mantra of “looky-here, whatever ye want to do.”
The new blood also energized him and he was still respected as a man who could get things done, climbing every mountain and challenge to raise the Comhaltas banner higher and higher and more profitable, allowing it to underwrite its cultural mission, particularly in promoting Irish music education and travel to Ireland for Fleadh Cheoils.
Having negotiated and run five successful CCE conventions at Hilton Hotel properties in New Jersey, the last four in Parsippany, Vesey was convinced that the New York Fleadh was ready to be moved to this hotel in Northern New Jersey and out of a less accommodating and limiting school locales.
When he was chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Region he turned over the reigns of running the New York Fleadh to the next generation. It was their children who would be benefitting directly from keeping the competitions going, he reasoned, and he also recruited the nascent crop of teachers centered in Pearl River and elsewhere in New York City.
The senior guard stepped aside and let the young Turks provide the much needed energy and new thinking to allow it to grow substantially, encouraged by Vesey’s mantra of “looky-here, whatever ye want to do.”
The new blood also energized him and he was still respected as a man who could get things done, climbing every mountain and challenge to raise the Comhaltas banner higher and higher and more profitable, allowing it to underwrite its cultural mission, particularly in promoting Irish music education and travel to Ireland for Fleadh Cheoils.
Having negotiated and run five successful CCE conventions at Hilton Hotel properties in New Jersey, the last four in Parsippany, Vesey was convinced that the New York Fleadh was ready to be moved to this hotel in Northern New Jersey and out of a less accommodating and limiting school locales.
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