IRISH STEW

Left, guitarist Dennis Cahill will perform Friday at Shryock Auditorium as part of the third annual Southern Illinois Festival of Irish Music & Dance. Right, Laurence Nugent is a flute and whistle player from Lack, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. He also will perform Friday night at Shryock Auditorium.

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Carbondale must be pronounced with a brogue this weekend as the third annual Southern Illinois Festival of Irish Music & Dance is celebrated Friday and Saturday.

The festival begins Friday night with performances by John Timm and Heather Donovan of The Celtic Foot Force at Shryock Auditorium. Appearing on the same stage will be vocalist Connie Dover and guitarist Roger Landes. Also on the bill are Uilleann piper Paddy Keenan, flutist Larry Nugent, guitarist Dennis Cahill, fiddler Sean Cleland, and Southern Illinois' own The Dorians.

Keenan was born in Trim, County Meath, and took up at pipes at age 10. His new album is "Na Keen Affair," out on the Hot Conya Records label.

Cahill is a Chicago native whose parents were from County Kerry. He appears in concert halls and festivals throughout the U.S., Europe, China and Australia.

Cleland also is a first-generation American who began studying classical violin at age 7 but soon switched to Irish music. In 1989, he founded the alternative Irish/Celtic rock group The Drovers.

He traveled to Ireland for the first time in 1997 and competed in the All-Ireland Fleidh Cheoil in Ennis, County Clare.

Nugent is a flute and whistle player from Lack, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. His father, the late Sean Nugent, was an all-Ireland fiddle champion and led the Pride of Erin Ceili Band.

The Irish play "Dancing at Lughnasa" will be performed both nights and Sunday afternoon at the Stage Company in Carbondale.

On Saturday, the first Celtic Fair will be held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in the Main Street and South Illinois Street areas. Featured will be Celtic arts and crafts, vendors of Irish merchandise and food, a children's village, music and dance performances, poetry and literature readings, Irish films and discussions of Irish history, theater, art and music.

Sessions on genealogy research will be held from 9-11 a.m. and from 1-3 p.m. Saturday at the Carbondale Public Library.

Also scheduled are music and dance workshops and a conference on Celtic spirituality. The spirituality conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Interfaith Center, corner of South Illinois and Grand avenues. It will include a Celtic lunch. To register, call the SIUC Division of Continuing Education at (618) 536-7751.