Remembering Miles Byrne; Some Noteworthy New York Events

Welcome to Hell's Kitchen, the official blog of TheWildGeese.com website, or WGT, as we affectionately call it. Everyday (or nearly so) we chronicle "The Epic History and Heritage of the Irish." On Jan. 24, 1862, Miles Byrne, United Irishman and officer in Napoleon's Irish Legion, died in Paris. Byrne fought in the 1798 Rising, through the rebels' climactic defeat at Vinegar Hill. He escaped to the Wicklow Mountains and served with Michael Dwyer until the failure of the rising led by Robert Emmet, a close friend of Byrne's, in 1803. Byrne then traveled to France, like so many Irish revolutionaries, hoping to arrange for more French aid to Ireland. Failing, he joined the Irish Legion being formed in the French army. Byrne rose to command a regiment in that army, and was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. After his retirement he wrote his Memoirs, which were published in 1863, a year after his death in Paris. You can read more about this week's key dates and about the '98 Rising, where else, but on WGT.

'IRISH MUSIC ON FILM': See The Dubliners' Luke Kelly, The Pogue's Shane McGowan (right), trad musician Micho Russell, and fiddler Martin Hayes on film over the course of three days. The venue: Hell's Kitchen's own Irish Arts Center. The Center, for more than 30 years a hub of Irish culture in metro New York, brings the lives of these musicians to the silver screen Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings. See these films for a song, too (ahem), at $8 for nonmembers or $5 for members. For tickets and reservations, call 212-757-3318, x203. The center is located 553 West 51st St. @ 11th Avenue. Say WGT sent you!

'WRAP THE GREEN FLAG': The National Irish Freedom Committee (Cumann Na Saoirse Náisiúnta) will honor Gaeilge activist and former New York Parade Grand Marshal Mary Holt Moore, Black 47 founder and leader Larry Kirwan (seen left, Black47.com), and political activist Karen Ingenthron Lewis at its 11th annual Michael Flannery Testimonial Awards Dinner on Friday evening. The venue is Astoria World Manor, 25-22 Astoria Boulevard, Astoria, Queens, New York City, 7 pm to midnight. According to the committee's site, Mary’s granduncle, John Kevin O'Reilly, author of ‘Wrap The Green Flag Round Me Boys,’ fought in the GPO in Dublin in 1916. Read about that action here.

LAST CALL: Talk about our favorite Sons of Granuaile! See Gabriel Byrne as Major Con Melody in Eugene O'Neill's "Touch of the Poet" in Manhattan's Studio 54. The production closes after Sunday's matinee. WGT's drama critic Patricia Jameson-Sammartano writes "Touch" is "for lovers of O'Neill and Irish-American theatre."

THE PIPES, THE PIPES: The Eastchester Irish American Social Club is sponsoring Eastchester’s 2nd Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Sunday, March 12 at 2:30 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.eastchesterirish.org/.