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Brian o h-Eachtuigheirn (Brian Heron) 1941-2011
Ar Dheis De go rabh a anam mor
(On the Right of God be his great soul)
(Photo courtesy of his family and An Claidheamh Soluis / The Celtic Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA. )
We recently learned from our friend Adrien at An Claidheamh Soluis in L. A. that Brian Heron had "crossed the bar." I knew Brian over 30 years, both in America and Nova Scotia, Canada, and helped get him started on the pipes.
Like his famous grandfather, James Connolly (one of the martyred leaders of the 1916 Rising in Dublin), Brian was always a true "soldier of the Gael" and a great champion of the working class. As the old Gaelic saying went, "No braver warrior was seen in this country since the Raven perched upon the shoulder of Cuchullainn.
We wish him safe harbor. He has earned his rest. His passing is sad on more than a personal level, because this country and many others (including Ireland) desperately needs men to champion the again down-trodden working class.
There follows a lightly edited version of the official obituary sent by An Claidheamh Soluis / The Celtic Arts Center in Los Angeles, CA.
Brian, 70, was the charismatic visionary and founding member of An Claidheamh Soluis / The Celtic Arts Center in Los Angeles; An Claidheamh Soluis / the Irish Arts Center in New York City; the Brave Hearted Woman Theatre Company in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and An Claidheamh Soluis Gaelic Adventure, all of which were created to preserve the Irish language, music and theatre.
Born Brian Samuel Connolly Heron in Dublin, Ireland on January 24, 1941, Brian was the grandson of James Connolly, the General, Commander-in-Chief and martyred hero of the historic Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916. Like his famed grandfather, Brian was a true champion of workers' rights.
He first came to America with the assistance of Mike Quill of the Transport Workers Union. He subsequently worked as a union organizer. Often risking his life, he organized the exploited Chinese sweat shop workers of San Francisco, CA, and working alongside Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, he was instrumental in founding the United Farm Workers. He also worked with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
He was nominated as Vice Presidential candidate by the Peace and Freedom party, and helped organize the anti-war protest in Chicago in 1968 during the infamous Democratic National Convention.
Brian was a founding member of the National Association for Irish Justice as well as the National Association for Irish Freedom serving as their keynote speaker and fundraiser. Both of these organizations were committed to Ireland's complete freedom from British colonial rule.
Brian was also a lifetime supporter of Native American rights, language and cultural preservation, and took his entire family across the United States, Canada and Central America visiting Indian reservations and forming alliances with Native American tribes.
Above all, he was devoted to the preservation of traditional Irish language, Celtic arts and culture. At the time of his death, Brian was working on the creation of "An Claidheamh Soluis Gaelic Adventure," a multi-media/living-theatre piece. Like his grandfather, Brian never shied away from posing challenging concepts, striking up unpopular dialogue or asking the difficult questions. The most common of his controversial questions were regarding the Irish language: "Can a person of Irish descent really call themselves Irish when they cannot even speak their own language?"
Locally, the Celtic Arts Center has carried out its founder's vision, training countless artists, musicians and dancers and continuing to produce plays, weekly Irish jam sessions of Celtic music, teaching Celtic dance and the Gaelic language, and operating a daily 24-hour online radio broadcast.
Brian returned to school in his fifties and receive a Ph.D. in theatre from U.C.L.A. and then went to Nova University Law School and passed the Bar on his first test at age fifty-seven. In spite of his achievements he said, "I didn't do enough!"
His love of the Uillean pipes was immense. The image of him playing the pipes and his twinkling gaze with the shake of his head would pierce anyone's heart. And furthermore if you had no place to stay and were a stranger, he'd put you up and you would now become part of Heron's extended family. No matter how little he had, he didn't have it in him to turn a person in need away.
From the days of supporting his young family as a fisherman Brian loved the sea and his last project was to row a curragh that he and others had hand built across the Atlantic ocean with the assistance of a large sailboat to relieve the rowers on the expedition. The purpose, to connect one's Irish identity with those in America through language and to come full circle to connect with the native speakers of Ireland.
His dying wish was to return to Ireland and become politically active, but his cancer prevented this from happening. In one last memorable dying breath he seemed to grab two oars and set off once again, always keeping true to his visions even when others didn't believe they were possible.
Brian o h-Eachtuigheirn is survived by Belinda, his wife; three sons, Che, Morghean, and Yury Heron; his grandchildren Hayim, Larissa, Fionn and Iona; and his first wife, Aine, as well as nearly 80 million Irish people around the globe destined to learn their own language.
A memorial celebration of Brian o h-Eachtuigheirn's life will be announced at a future date on the An Claidheamh Soluis / The Celtic Arts Center website www.celticartscenter.com
As Brian often said, "Tír gan Teanga - Tír gan Anam" - "A land without (its own) language is a land without (its) soul."
Brian provided his services free of charge, and like most visionaries and leaders in the not-for-profit arena he relied heavily on his family for his health care for the last few years. During this difficult time for the family, donations of any amount will be greatly appreciated; contributions in his memory can be sent to:
The Brian Heron Family Relief Fund, S.F. Police Credit Union, 2550 Irving St., San Francisco, CA 94122.
Tributes to Brian
A web site dedicated to Brian Heron from his family.
From Liam Ó Cuinneagáin, the Language Director of Oideas Gael, a fine Irish Gaelic language program in Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal:
Séamus,
Is trua liom é sin a chloisteáil. Ba fear an-mhaith é.
Go ndéanfaidh Dia grásta ar an anam.
Liam
A web tribute from the Celtic Arts Center in New York City, one of those co-founded by Brian.
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