Maine Irish Heritage Center | Genealogy Services Portland, ME

Open Hours!
2025-09-18 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-09-11 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-09-04 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-08-28 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-08-21 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-08-14 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-08-07 10:00 - 14:00, 2025-07-31 10:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) and 7 more dates | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
The Maine Irish Heritage Center is open to the public every Thursday from 10am-2pm! Stop in to take a tour of the building, do some research on our genealogy station, or peruse our library collection!
For more information, contact maineirish@maineirish.com!

Interviews with Thomas Hubka
2025-09-17 09:00 - 15:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
After his lecture at the Center on September 16th, Professor Thomas Hubka will be holding interviews at the Center the next day, Wednesday, September 17th from 9am-3pm, to take more detailed information and collect family history stories from the Portland Irish community. Eventually, professor Hubka hopes to visit and document the houses where Irish maids lived and worked in the Portland area! If you have information, stories, or want to learn more about these interviews, please RSVP for a slot, and email events@maineirish with some details of what you hope to share with Professor Hubka!
Interested in the lecture? Join us on Tuesday, September 16th at 6:30pm to hear more about Irish Maids and Portland Houses! Click HERE for more information!

Thank you to our sponsor for this event: Hyatt Place Portland Downtown-Old Port Square!

Irish Maids and Portland's Houses
2025-09-16 18:30 - 20:30 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Homes, Histories, and Women’s Networks
Tuesday, September 16th
6:30pm
Join us on Tuesday, September 16th at 6:30pm for a lecture with Thomas C. Hubka, Architectural & Cultural Historian.
Behind Portland’s grand homes and quiet streets lies a largely undocumented chapter of the city’s Irish story—one told in boarding houses, kitchens, and servant stairwells. Irish Maids and Portland’s Houses invites the community to explore the housing and domestic histories of Irish women who came to Portland as domestic workers in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
This talk aims to shine a light on the often-invisible lives of Irish women who arrived in America alone: where they lived, where they worked, and how they supported one another in a new and often difficult world. As single women, they navigated every phase of life—from immigration to labor to community building—without the legal or social protections often afforded to men or married women. Their histories are uniquely tied to the places they lived: domestic service placements, boarding houses, rented rooms, and homes shared with fellow migrants. These networks of chain migration and mutual assistance among women are difficult to trace in official records or family trees, yet they tell a vital and singular story. That is why we are reaching out to the broader Irish community: to help us uncover and preserve this essential chapter through shared family stories, photographs, oral histories, or even just names and addresses that may help us reconstruct this essential part of our heritage.
Whether you have roots in Portland’s Irish neighborhoods or are simply curious about the domestic work that helped build and sustain the city, we invite you to join us in preserving this overlooked legacy.
Professor Hubka will be available after the lecture to discuss further questions. He’ll also be holding interviews at the Center the next day, Wednesday, September 17th from 9am-3pm, to take more detailed information and collect family history stories from the Portland Irish community. Eventually, professor Hubka hopes to visit and document the houses where Irish maids lived and worked in the Portland area! If you have information, stories, or want to learn more about these interviews, please head HERE to learn more and sign up!

About Thomas C. Hubka
Thomas Hubka is a Professor Emeritus from the Department of Architecture, University of Wisconsin−Milwaukee. Through almost forty years of scholarship and teaching he has attempted to link the practice and teaching of architecture to historical and cultural context. He has published widely on topics of popular, vernacular architecture including theoretical works and detailed studies of common buildings such as New England farms, bungalows, ranch houses, and workers’ cottages
His latest books explore America’s most common housing such as workers’ cottages, bungalows, and duplexes: How the Working-Class Home Became Modern, 1900-1940. (University of Minnesota Press, 2021, and Houses without Names: Architecture Nomenclature and the Classification of America’s Common Houses (University of Tennessee Press, 2013).
His two previous books are: Resplendent Synagogue: Architecture and Worship in an 18th Century Polish Community (University Press of New England and Brandeis University Press) for which he received the Vernacular Architecture Forum’s, Henry Glassie Award, 2006; and Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England (University Press of New England) for which he received the Abbott Lowell Cummings Award in 1985.
He is currently living in Portland, Oregon where he has taught courses at the University of Oregon, Portland State University, and Portland Community College and continues to study the housing and neighborhoods of Portland and Oregon.

Thank you to our sponsor for this event: Hyatt Place Portland Downtown-Old Port Square!

Interested in learning more on this subject? There are some fantastic local researches doing great work right here in Portland!
Check out the Portland Bridgit Project to learn more:

The Portland Bridget Project is an independent research initiative led by Michelle O’Donnell Josephson and Hannah Marcel Field. The goal of our work is to find and tell the stories of 19th and early 20th century Irish domestic servants in Portland, Maine. These women are an important part of our local history, but their stories have not been told. You can learn more about us on The Portland Bridget Project Facebook page and on Instagram as @theportlandbridgetproject

MIHC Day of Caring 2025
2025-09-13 09:00 - 15:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Saturday, September 13th
9:00am-3:00pm
We are looking for:
Painters | Carpenters | Cleaners | Gardeners

The Center – originally St. Dominic’s Church – was constructed in the late 1800s, and has long served as one of Portland and Maine’s preeminent cultural centers, meeting spaces, research institutions, libraries, concert halls, wedding venues, and more.
We are hosting this Day of Caring to ensure our beloved space receives the attention it needs and deserves. With many important concerts, fundraisers, and cultural festivals on the horizon, this is the perfect chance to donate your skills, tools, and passion for just a few hours.
If you or your organization are interested in volunteering for this event, please contact us at volunteer@maineirish.com. We want to ensure your skills and expertise are put to the best use possible!

Day of Caring Project Options:
Interior Cleaning:
Sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, and dusting
Exterior Cleaning:
Picking up trash, removing debris, etc
Gardening:
Weeding, pruning, and otherwise tending to flowerbeds
Painting:
Repainting doors, pillars, walls, and trim
Carpentry:
Fixing doors & cabinets, repurposing old scrap wood
Special Projects:
We have a number of larger carpentry & electrical projects for larger, experienced teams.

Maine Irish Reads "The Pull of the Stars" by Emma Donoghue
2025-09-11 19:30 - 21:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Maine Irish Reads, our monthly book club, meets every second Thursday here at the Center!

From 7:30 – 9 PM in the MIHC Library. Bring a friend. The more, the merrier.
About this month’s book:

In Dublin, 1918, a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a small world of work, risk, death, and unlooked-for love, in “Donoghue’s best novel since Room” (Kirkus Reviews)
In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders — Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police , and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.
In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.
In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.

Lane to the Glen in Concert
2025-09-05 19:30 - 21:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Friday. September 5th
7:30pm
Doors open at 7:00pm
Join us for an incredible evening of music with Lane to the Glen!
Tickets are $25 for general admission and $35 for priority seating. Don’t wait to get your tickets: the price at the door will be $30 for General Admission and Priority Seating is only available in advance!
About Lane to the Glen
Sligo Traditional Trio comprising Oisín Mac Diarmada (fiddle), Daithí Gormley (accordion), Samantha Harvey (piano, dance)
Oisín and Daithí are steeped in the music and history of the Sligo area, having previously collaborated on ‘Fiddlers of Sligo Tunebook’, a publication which set transcriptions of the fiddle repertoire of key Sligo exponents alongside historic images and context.
Daithí Gormley is widely regarded as one of the finest button accordion players of his generation. His remarkably accomplished debut album Fiddling without a Bow brought an expressive mix of old and new tunes played with an attention to detail, and he is regarded as a conduit to past masters of Irish traditional music.
Oisín Mac Diarmada and Samantha Harvey perform frequently with Téada, a worldwide-touring band founded by Oisín in 2001. Oisín and Samantha previously recorded The Green Branch, a sparkling album of fiddle and piano in 2015, with subsequent teaching and performing engagements in places such as the United States, Italy, France, and Japan.
Learn More about the artists:
https://lanetotheglen.com/
https://lanetotheglen.bandcamp.com/

A Huge thank you to our Sponsor for this event:
Holiday Inn By the Bay!

Maine Irish Writes: September
2025-09-04 17:00 - 19:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
We are thrilled to present our inaugural season of Maine Irish Writes, an inclusive monthly Writer’s Group that will meet in the MIHC Library on the first Thursday of each month!
Led by the incredible poet and author Robert Breen, this welcoming writers group is open to all—whether you’re just starting out or deep into a manuscript. Bring your works in progress, share your voice, and receive supportive, thoughtful feedback in a relaxed and inspiring setting. Together, we’ll explore storytelling, poetry, memory, and the written word in all its forms. Come to listen, come to write, come to connect.
Check out the rest of the series dates HERE!

Summer Storytelling Series: Mast Landing Brewing Company
2025-08-28 18:30 - 19:30 | Mast Landing, Freeport, 200 LOWER MAIN STREET, Freeport, United States
The Maine Irish Heritage Center is bringing the cherished Irish tradition of storytelling to Maine this summer!
In days gone by neighbors would gather at night in the local ceili house, the home of a storyteller. They came for conversation, and to hear stories of their community, its history, old tales handed down by the ancestors, some music. These gatherings helped build community and preserve the culture and values of the Irish people.
We invite you to join us this summer at one of our storytelling events! Bring a story, a poem, a song, or simply come to listen and enjoy an evening among friends—or friends-in-the-making.
Event Details:

Location: Mast Landing Brewing Company, Freeport, Maine
Time: 6:30pm-7:30pm
Host: Cathy Furness
Story Guidelines:

Stories, songs, or poems should be 10 minutes or less
A timekeeper will help us keep things moving
No hate speech – creative freedom is welcome, but kindness and inclusivity are essential

All are welcome – come to share or simply to listen

Storytelling is central to Irish culture—as it is to so many cultures around the world. These outdoor events are part of MIHC’s mission to share this tradition across Maine while also supporting local businesses and gathering spaces. Let’s build community together, one story at a time.

Summer Storytelling Series: Belleflower Brewing
2025-08-20 18:30 - 19:30 | Belleflower Brewing, 66 Cove Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
The Maine Irish Heritage Center is bringing the cherished Irish tradition of storytelling to Maine this summer!

In days gone by neighbors would gather at night in the local ceili house, the home of a storyteller. They came for conversation, and to hear stories of their community, its history, old tales handed down by the ancestors, some music. These gatherings helped build community and preserve the culture and values of the Irish people.
We invite you to join us this summer at one of our storytelling events! Bring a story, a poem, a song, or simply come to listen and enjoy an evening among friends—or friends-in-the-making.

Event Details:

Location: Belleflower Brewing, Portland Maine
Time: 6:30pm-7:30pm
Host: Cathy Furness
Story Guidelines:

Stories, songs, or poems should be 10 minutes or less
A timekeeper will help us keep things moving
No hate speech – creative freedom is welcome, but kindness and inclusivity are essential

All are welcome – come to share or simply to listen

Storytelling is central to Irish culture—as it is to so many cultures around the world. These outdoor events are part of MIHC’s mission to share this tradition across Maine while also supporting local businesses and gathering spaces. Let’s build community together, one story at a time.

Summer Storytelling Series: Orange Bike Brewing
2025-08-05 18:30 - 19:30 | Orange Bike Brewing, 31 Diamond St Suite D, Portland, 04101, United States
The Maine Irish Heritage Center is bringing the cherished Irish tradition of storytelling to Maine this summer!
In days gone by neighbors would gather at night in the local ceili house, the home of a storyteller. They came for conversation, and to hear stories of their community, its history, old tales handed down by the ancestors, some music. These gatherings helped build community and preserve the culture and values of the Irish people.
We invite you to join us this summer at one of our storytelling events! Bring a story, a poem, a song, or simply come to listen and enjoy an evening among friends—or friends-in-the-making.
Event Details:

Location: Orange Bike Brewing, Portland, Maine
Time: 6:30pm-7:30pm
Host: Cathy Furness
Story Guidelines:

Stories, songs, or poems should be 10 minutes or less
A timekeeper will help us keep things moving
No hate speech – creative freedom is welcome, but kindness and inclusivity are essential

All are welcome – come to share or simply to listen

Storytelling is central to Irish culture—as it is to so many cultures around the world. These outdoor events are part of MIHC’s mission to share this tradition across Maine while also supporting local businesses and gathering spaces. Let’s build community together, one story at a time.

Summer Storytelling Series: Banded Brewing Co.
2025-07-24 18:30 - 19:30 | Banded Brewing, Building 13-W, 32 Main St, Biddeford, ME, 04005, United States
The Maine Irish Heritage Center is bringing the cherished Irish tradition of storytelling to Maine this summer!
In days gone by neighbors would gather at night in the local ceili house, the home of a storyteller. They came for conversation, and to hear stories of their community, its history, old tales handed down by the ancestors, some music. These gatherings helped build community and preserve the culture and values of the Irish people.
We invite you to join us this summer at one of our storytelling events! Bring a story, a poem, a song, or simply come to listen and enjoy an evening among friends—or friends-in-the-making.
Event Details:

Location: Banded Brewing Co., Biddeford Maine
Time: 6:30pm-7:30pm
Host: Cathy Furness
Story Guidelines:

Stories, songs, or poems should be 10 minutes or less
A timekeeper will help us keep things moving
No hate speech – creative freedom is welcome, but kindness and inclusivity are essential

All are welcome – come to share or simply to listen

Storytelling is central to Irish culture—as it is to so many cultures around the world. These outdoor events are part of MIHC’s mission to share this tradition across Maine while also supporting local businesses and gathering spaces. Let’s build community together, one story at a time.

Summer Storytelling Series: Maine Celtic Celebration
2025-07-19 11:00 - 12:00 | Maine Celtic Celebration Steamboat Stage, 34 Commercial St, Belfast, 04915, United States
Saturday, July 19th
11:00am
Steamboat Stage, Belfast ME
The Maine Irish Heritage Center is bringing the cherished Irish tradition of storytelling to Maine this summer! Join us for the first installment of our new summer series: Maine Irish Summer Storytelling!
In days gone by neighbors would gather at night in the local ceili house, the home of a storyteller. They came for conversation, and to hear stories of their community, its history, old tales handed down by the ancestors, some music. These gatherings helped build community and preserve the culture and values of the Irish people. Storytelling is central to Irish culture—as it is to so many cultures around the world. These outdoor events are part of MIHC’s mission to share this tradition across Maine while also supporting local businesses and gathering spaces. Let’s build community together, one story at a time.
We’ll be up at the Maine Celtic Celebration with some incredible featured tellers. Join us at 11am at the Celebration’s Steamboat Stage for storytelling, and then enjoy the rest of the festival! We’ll have a table set up where you can chat with the artists after the show, and perhaps even snag a souvenir or two!
Our Tellers:
Cathy Furness
Although three generations removed from the family farm in County Laois, Cathy felt drawn to Ireland from a very young age. She followed that gravitational pull to Dublin, where she earned a graduate degree in Irish literature and folklore. She also studied traditional music while she was there by attending sessions at O’Donohue’s on Merrion Row nearly every night.
Cathy retired early from her professional life in New York to take a deep dive into storytelling. Since then, she has told stories on two continents to audiences of all ages. She likes to share the layered wisdom of folktales of many cultures, but is especially drawn to the heroes, heroines and stories of her Irish ancestors. Now living in the woods outside Brunswick, Maine, she shares her home with Redmond, Conor and Molly, three very spoiled cats.

Robert Breen
Robert (Bobby) Breen was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, where he served for decades as a Boston firefighter. His poetry is deeply rooted in Irish-American heritage, working-class life, and the storytelling traditions of New England. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts Boston, Breen honed his craft through Harvard University’s Summer Writing Program and has been published in The Harvard Summer Review. His work has earned numerous awards, including the Joy of the Pen competition and the Margaret F. Tripp Poetry Award. Breen’s writing reflects a lifelong friendship with Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, who celebrated Breen’s fireman’s helmet in his poem “Helmet” and considered Breen’s work rich with personal voice and lyrical strength. He lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Karen, and continues to write about place, memory, and the endurance of ordinary people.

Julia Lane & Fred Gosbee
Julia Lane, singer, songwriter, and folklorist, has been playing the Celtic harp since 1989. Self-taught, she rapidly became a skilled and exciting player, winning the Senior Professional division at the New Hampshire Scottish Games Harp Competition in 1990 and 1991 and the International Folk Harp Competition at Stonehill College in 1992. Julia has done extensive research in folksong archives throughout New England and is currently transcribing songs from the Flanders Collection at Middleburg College, Vermont. This audio archive has over 3000 songs, 900 collected in Maine.
Fred Gosbee, singer, songwriter, and storyteller, plays classic and 12-string guitar, violin, viola and Irish flute. He learned many traditional songs from his family, who worked as lumbermen in the forests of New Brunswick and Maine. His original songs have been sung and recorded by other artists.Fred has engineered most of Castlebay’s recordings and has also built Julia’s harps and many other instruments.

Robert Breen Launches "The Light of Civil Day" - A Maine Irish Author Event
2025-06-27 18:30 - 21:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
Join us on Friday, June 27th for an evening of poetry and celebration as Robert Breen launches his new poetry publication The Light of Civil Day!
Our cocktail reception begins at 6:30 – enjoy hors d’oeuvres and beverages, and the beautiful harp music of renowned harpist Julia Lane. At 7:30, Bobby will take the stage, and share his work. This event is free, and open to all! Come join the celebration!
All of Bobby’s books will be available for purchase at the event, and Bobby will be signing! Don’t miss your chance to snag your signed copies, and help us celebrate Bobby’s incredible work!

About the Author:
Philosophy of Poet Robert Breen
Tragic be as it may.
Time does not heal,
it whispers
an epic narrative differently.
Warfare ought
not occur after Troy.

I envision a Wordsworthian viewpoint stretching to feel a spontaneous flood of powerful feelings, recalling that spirit of serenity found in everyday experiences. Unswerving to be inclusive in writing and speaking, a communal language, with a sense of inquisitiveness to find the familiar in catching the heart of episodes, occurrences, in those relationships coexisting between nature and humanity.

Robert (Bobby) Breen was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, where he served for decades as a Boston firefighter. His poetry is deeply rooted in Irish-American heritage, working-class life, and the storytelling traditions of New England. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts Boston, Breen honed his craft through Harvard University’s Summer Writing Program and has been published in The Harvard Summer Review. His work has earned numerous awards, including the Joy of the Pen competition and the Margaret F. Tripp Poetry Award. Breen’s writing reflects a lifelong friendship with Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, who celebrated Breen’s fireman’s helmet in his poem “Helmet” and considered Breen’s work rich with personal voice and lyrical strength. He lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Karen, and continues to write about place, memory, and the endurance of ordinary people.

About the Book
In The Light of Civil Day, Robert Breen—Boston firefighter, Irish-American poet, and observer of life’s quiet reckonings—delivers a collection of lyrical reflections on loss, love, endurance, and place. Grounded in the working-class streets of Boston and the coastal landscapes of Maine, these poems bear witness to the fragile moments of life and the deep human need for connection.
With the eye of a first responder and the heart of a storyteller, Breen explores both private grief and public tragedy. His poems, many previously published in respected journals, are informed by a lifetime of service, family heritage, and his friendship with literary legend Seamus Heaney. This collection speaks to readers who find grace in small details, reverence in ordinary moments, and resilience in the face of hardship. To learn more or purchase the book, click here!

Enjoy this example of Robert Breen’s work:
Skating
Your joy,
Our civility,
in harmony,
with sharing
a cooperation
to be amiable.
All in balance on a thin single blade.

We are also launching the newly printed Second Edition of Bobby’s magnificent collection, Shore Digger!
A moving collection of poetry by Boston firefighter Robert Breen, exploring Irish heritage, immigrant stories, and working-class life with lyrical grace and hard-earned wisdom. Inspired by his friendship with poet Seamus Heaney. To purchase Shore Digger, click here!

Can’t get enough? Us either! We are also carrying Bobby’s first chapbook, Undertow: A Tide Pool of Poems!
Robert Breen is the author of Undertow: A Tide Pool of Poems. His poems have been published in Harvard Summer Review, The Café Review, Boston Literary Magazine, and Communion Arts Journal. His correspondence with Seamus Heaney resides at Emory University’s Rose Library. His life journey has taken him from a Boston firefighter to a poet published by Harvard Summer Review and a lifelong friend of legendary Irish poet Seamus Heaney. He now lives in Maine. To purchase Undertow: A Tide Pool of Poems, click here!

Featured Musician:
Julia Lane – Celtic Harp, Song and Story
Julia Lane has had a lifelong passion for Celtic folk music and lore and is a self-taught player of the Celtic folk harp which she began in 1989. Her unique style has won three international competitions. Judge/harpist Kim Robertson praised her “innovative arrangements and energetic performance” and Irish harpist Dennis Doyle declared “she really captured the spirit of the music”. Her versatile solo performances include playing at the Maine state capitol rotunda to calm legislators as well as accompanying poets and fire-eating jugglers. Julia Lane is also an exceptional vocalist, “one of the Maine coast’s foremost voices”, whose voice has been called “lovely, vibrant, and haunting”, and compared favorably with Loreena McKennitt, Triona ni Dhonaill, and Judy Collins. Julia Lane’s performances include both original and traditional music and lyrics inspired by her Celtic heritage. Haunting ballads and spritely dance tunes are interspersed with legend and lore. She plays with her husband, Fred Gosbee as “Castlebay” performing at festivals, folk clubs, schools and arts centers, as well as on radio and television. They maintain a commitment to cultural education and have an ongoing exchange with folklorists and musicians worldwide. Castlebay’s historically informed entertaining presentations delight audiences from Cape Breton to Florida and in Ireland, England and Scotland. The duo has also created full theatrical musical renditions of historic stories which include both traditional and original music. Since 1985,Castlebay has recorded over 27 albums and have composed and recorded award-winning video soundtracks. After years of archival research, they have recently begun publishing a series of books containing transcriptions of traditional Anglo-Celtic songs sung in Maine with historical background information. The first, titled “Bygone Ballads of Maine Songs of Ships & Sailors” has received international attention. The second volume is due to be released in 2026 and will feature numerous Maine traditional songs with Irish sources.
For more information
website www.castlebay.net
phone 207-529-5438
email castlebay@castlebay.net

Irish Night at the Sea Dogs 2025
2025-06-20 17:00 - 21:00 | hadlock field
S O L D O U T !
General Admission Tickets are still available at the Sea Dogs box office.

Friday, June 20 | Game Time: 6:20 PM | Hadlock Field
Join us for a festive evening celebrating Irish culture and community at Irish Night at the Portland Sea Dogs! Enjoy an exciting matchup between the Portland Sea Dogs and the Akron RubberDucks, with a full evening of entertainment and Irish spirit. Celebrate community, heritage, and hometown baseball at Irish Night with the Sea Dogs!

Tickets:

$20 General Admission

$18 for Maine Irish Heritage Center and Irish American Club members

Event Highlights:

Jim Brady performing live outside the stadium from 5:00–6:00 PM

A spirited Parade of Flags kicks off the game pre-show

A special performance by Stillson School of Irish Dance

Fireworks Spectacular immediately following the game

⚾ First pitch at 6:20 PM – don’t miss a great night of baseball, music, dancing, and fireworks!

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Want to volunteer to carry a flag in the pre-game Parade of Flags?
Sign up here: https://volunteer.maineirish.com/

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IMPORTANT
Special pricing is available for members of the Irish Network which includes MIHC, IAC, GAA, Stillson School of Irish Dance, and the Portland Rugby Club. When you purchase discounted tickets, you will be asked for your affiliation. Please check your affiliation for each member of your group. If you do not indicate your membership status, you will be prevented from purchasing the discounted tickets. If you have questions or need to verify your membership, please contact the organization that you are affiliated with. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the game!!

Bloomsday at the Maine Irish Heritage Center
2025-06-14 18:30 - 20:30 | ME
Saturday, June 14th | 6:30 PM
Join us for a lively and literary evening as we celebrate Bloomsday—the annual tribute to James Joyce’s Ulysses—with a unique Building Crawl through the historic Maine Irish Heritage Center.
Wander through the former St. Dominic’s Church and encounter live performances by local artists, each offering a creative interpretation inspired by Joyce’s iconic novel. At each stop along the way, enjoy bespoke beverages crafted to pair perfectly with the performances.
Celebrate one of Ireland’s greatest literary figures in a setting steeped in Irish heritage and history.
This is an immersive cultural evening you won’t want to miss—whether you’re a lifelong Joyce fan or simply curious about this storied tradition.
Our Bespoke Beverage Menu!
Episode 14: The Oxen of the Sun
Rubycoloured Egos from the Second Constellation: A delightful, citrusy concoction of Ruby Red Grapefruit vodka, lemon, grapefruit juice, and a touch of sweetness
Episode 15: Circe
Circe’s Revival: An enticing pairing of Gin, Cointreau, Absinthe and lemon – topped with sparkling soda water for a refreshing sipper!
Episode 12: Cyclops
Guinness: An Irish classic for a reason! When someone looks at you and says “Pint?”, this is the pint they’re talking about. It’s rich, it’s creamy, it’s black, and it’s a staple for any Irish gathering!
Episode 8: Lestrygonians
Irish Coffee: Enjoy delicious coffee paired with Jameson Whiskey, optional Baileys Irish Cream, and whipped cream!
☕
All bespoke beverages will be available as full pours or as flight tasters! Pre-purchase a 4-drink flight tasting card in advance at a special price (the cost of 3) with your ticket. These beverages, and a limited selection of our standard offer beverages will also be available for individual purchase at the bar.

Our performers (in no particular order):
Katharine Doughty, Episode 14: The Oxen of the Sun
Katharine Doughty is a multi modal artist and performer. In 2017 she completed “In My Own Language” an 18 year series of self portraits and while receiving expressive arts certification at Tamalpa Institute, Kentfield, California and continuing to navigate metastatic breast cancer. Returning east 2021, she continues developing “Finding The Ocean” a 365 found object jewelry project and offers expressive arts and somatic therapies to individuals and groups. Katharine is a recipient of the 2024 Tanne Foundation award.

Jared Mongeau, Episode 15: Circe
Jared Mongeau (he/him) is an actor, physical comedian, and musician. His career began in the circus, touring with the historic Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey as a clown. He is an MFA graduate of Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California, which took him to Bali, Indonesia, to study traditional mask carving and performance. As a musician, he has toured through 16 European countries, playing accordion from shipping containers in Berlin and dive bars in Amsterdam to headlining on London’s West End. Locally, he has appeared in productions with Portland Stage, Good Theater, Portland Theater Festival, Mad Horse Theater Co., Camden Shakespeare Festival, The Theater Project, Zuggurat Theatre Ensemble, Portland Shakespeare Co., and the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine. His award-winning original work has been presented by PortFringe, Mad Horse Theatre Co., and the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine, as well as the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival, the largest theater festival in North America, and for the United States Association of Fringe Festivals.

Daniel Gunn and Dr. Eric Brown, Episode 12: Cyclops
Daniel Gunn (right) is Professor Emeritus at the University of Maine at Farmington, where he taught a seminar on Joyce in the Honors program for many years. He lives in New Sharon.
Eric Brown (Left) is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Maine Farmington and current Executive Director of the Maine Irish Heritage Center. His publications include essays on Irish poetry, the books Milton on Film, Insect Poetics, and Shakespeare in Performance, and recent poems appearing or forthcoming in Scientific American, Enchanted Living, Rust & Moth, The Galway Review, and elsewhere. He lives in South Portland.
“Escape from the Cyclops’s Cave”

Daniel Gunn and Eric Brown will read a brief excerpt from the “Cyclops” episode of Ulysses, featuring Leopold Bloom, the Citizen, the Dunsink Observatory, a dog, a milkwhite dolphin, a biscuit tin, “a violent atmospheric perturbation of cyclonic character,” and “all of the ragamuffins and sluts of the nation.”

AIRE Theater, Featuring Tony Reilly, Episode 8: Lestrygonians
Tony Reilly. has been seen in Desperate Measures, A Funny Thing Happened…, Frost/Nixon, Moonlight and Magnolias, and An Inspector Calls at the Good Theater. He has been the artistic director of AIRE since it was conceived in 1997. He has directed and acted in many of AIRE’s productions, including The Seafarer, The Lonesome West, Faith Healer, A Couple of Blaguards and Outside Mullingar. At Mad Horse, he was seen in The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Titus Andronicus and Grey Gardens . And at Portland Stage he was seen in Ma Rainey’s Black Bo*om, Much Ado.. and Bart Sher’s Romeo and Juliet. In New York, Tony studied at the Juilliard School; he was a member of the American Globe Theater and worked with The Irish Repertory in Grandchild of Kings (directed by Hal Prince) and The Hasty Heart.

Maine Irish Reads "Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story" by Bono
2025-06-12 19:30 - 21:00 | Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME, 04102, United States
“Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story” is a compelling memoir by Bono, the frontman of the legendary rock band U2. Released in November 2022, the book intertwines personal anecdotes and reflections with insights drawn from the band’s music, featuring forty pivotal songs that have shaped his life and career. Through heartfelt storytelling, Bono explores themes of love, loss, faith, and activism, offering readers an intimate glimpse into his journey as an artist, a humanitarian, and a husband and father. The narrative is both a celebration of his musical legacy and a poignant examination of the experiences that have informed his identity over the decades.
