Festival Workshops and Lecture Series
Irish Stories through Song with Ciara Ryan
August 11th at 10:00a.m. at Butte Brewing
From Gaeltacht areas on the west coast of Ireland, Butte’s Irish community in the early 1900s celebrated and showcased their language, songs and culture in the multi-ethnic mining city. In this talk, Ciara will trace the efforts of an Irish emigrant, Seán O Súilleabháin, to preserve and promote Irish traditional heritage in an industrial world. This discussion will shed light on the cultural richness that still prevails among the city’s Irish people and organizations.
The Journey of Irish Musicians: Winifred Horan and Katie Grennan
August 11th at 11:00a.m. at Butte Brewing
Please join fiddle players and champion dancers Katie Grennan and Winifred Horan for an inside look at life as working musicians and creatives. Follow their journeys as young women of Irish immigrants who helped to shape their musical, artistic and cultural identities. Both extremely successful performers who have travelled the world with their music and dance. It is surely to be a gorgeous presentation filled with stories, experiences and maybe some advice and a bit of wisdom.
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The Story of Us: The Women Who Shaped Montana
August 11th at 12:00 p.m. at Butte Brewing
This documentary examines the extraordinary lives of four women who came from humble beginnings and achieved incredible feats despite obstacles and tragedies along the way. Women have always played important developmental roles in the history of Montana, but often have their contributions overshadowed. The stories of Rose Hum Lee, Sarah Bickford, Maggie Smith Hathaway, and Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail are individually unique, but all feature a strong Montana woman aspiring to do better and be better. It is time to celebrate their achievements, understand their faults, be inspired by their determination, and applaud the spirit that drove them to help change and shape Montana. This is a production by North by Northwest and The Extreme History Project with support from The Montana History Foundation, Humanities Montana, The Montana Film Office, and the Greater Montana Foundation.
Genealogy and Beyond: Finding the Facts and Finding the Story
August 11th at 2:00p.m. at the Butte Archives
Christy Leskovar is a family genealogist and author of One Night In a Bad Inn and Finding the Bad Inn: Discovering My Family’s Hidden Past. At this presentation, Christy will provide practical tips to those searching for their family’s past, primarily the parts set in Butte and Ireland.




Beginner Irish Language
Debbie Smith
Saturday August 12 at the Silver Bow Archives
9 am to 11 am
