By Paul Keating

On the second floor of Glucksman Ireland House at One Washington Mews are the cosy parlour rooms that meet in an L-shaped formation with a central space offering a focal point for the many cultural happenings at the New York University home for Irish studies.

On Friday night the doors were opened again for the Blarney Star concert series in residence there still under the very nurturing hands of founder Don Meade. The evening once again defined why the highly respected series in New York City continues to thrive as fiddler Marie Reilly and flute player Seamus MacConaonaigh gave us a splendid evening of music to warm us from the cold wintry weather outside the Greenwich Village mews house.

A New York native, Reilly learned her music from the late Maureen Glynn, who influenced a great number of musicians during her all too brief time in New York. Reilly’s parents Martin, from Edgeworthtown, Co. Longford and Nora, from Ballyduff, Co. Waterford, encouraged her and her brother Martin Jr. to carry on the musical tradition from an early age and Martin Sr., who is a fine whistle player, shared his love of the music at every opportunity.

A lawyer by training, Reilly took a career break and toured with Cherish the Ladies for a couple of years before settling down into her professional career in 2003. Around the same time her younger brother Martin brought a young software engineer who happened to play the flute from Spiddal, Co. Galway around the house. In Nora’s kitchen a musical match was lit that has since sparked a romantic link for Marie and Seamus that will lead to marriage next June.

The pair prepared a fine varied program for the night which showed off their considerable skills, like Reilly’s adept bowing and lift and MacConaonaigh’s powerful but fluid flute playing.

The tempos were so spot on and the toe-tapping so fierce, it was a wonder that the carpet wasn’t rolled back for a set to spring onto the fine timber floor. (Perhaps it was the fear of those anachronistic New York City cabaret laws that once threatened the forerunner of this series in the old Eagle Tavern that caused such restraint).

In any event it was gorgeous music that was only enhanced when proud papa Martin Sr. took out the whistle along with his son Martin on button accordion, all to the steady accompaniment of Dubliner Eamon O’Leary. Look for a CD from the young couple after they get all that matrimonial business out of the way.