For the wee bit o' the Irish in all of us.

Byline: Paul Denison The Register-Guard

Concert producer Mike Meyer has been called the patron saint of folk music around these parts. But it has bothered him that a more famous saint, Patrick, has been getting short shrift - musically and culturally.

"I've been sort of stewing about the fact that the last two or three years, the St. Patrick's Day celebrations have been mostly non-Irish and in hip-hop or country bars," Meyer says.

Seven months ago, he decided to do something about it. By e-mail and word of mouth, he put out "a pretty general call" for help in planning an Irish festival. It would emphasize music and culture, and take place in alcohol-free venues so whole families could attend.

"We need to bring music to the younger generations," Meyer says. "They really don't have choices around here, with a lot of clubs going over-21 and school programs being cut, so it's somebody's responsibility to bring them some music."

This weekend, the first Eugene Irish Cultural Festival will take place at the Eugene Public Library, the WOW Hall and Cozmic Pizza on Eighth Avenue.

Music, education on tap

The headliners will be the Paperboys, the Juno Award-winning Canadian folk-rockers led by Tom Landa, and the Celtic Fiddle Festival, a triple-threat show featuring Kevin Burke, Andre Brunet and Christian Lemaitre.

The fiddlers' program, to be presented twice, will be a tribute to founding member Johnny Cunningham, who died unexpectedly in December of a heart attack.

The festival also includes many individual musicians and ensembles well known locally and regionally as Celtic performers: button accordionist Johnny B. Connolly; fiddler Linda Danielson; harpists Janet Naylor, Laura Zaerr and David Helfand; multi-instrumentalist Sharon Rogers; dulcimer and Celtic harp player Glenn Falkenberg; and the Nettles.

Less familiar perhaps will be singer, fiddler and step-dancer Laura Cortese (who also performs at Cafe Paradiso tonight), the Comerford Dancers from Albany, the Heather and Rose band from Portland and Heather Alexander, whom Meyer describes as a Renaissance fair performer who plays "pagan-type" music.

This being an Irish festival, spoken words also will be heard. On tap: a "Bloomsday" lecture about James Joyce's "Ulysses" by retired University of Oregon English professor George Wickes; a slide-illustrated talk on Irish geography by Joe Searl; and stories told by Robert Rubinstein, Louisa Lindsay-Sprouse, Yvonne Young, Mark Lewis, Tracy Chapman-Kavaney and Paulette Ansari.

And there'll be dancing, too, at a traditional Irish dance party called a ceili.

Family activities, primarily at Cozmic Pizza, will include opportunities to hear young fiddlers and harpists perform, make a St. Bridget's cross, grow shamrocks, draw Celtic knots, make an Irish flag, learn some Irish Gaelic and do Irish cal- ligraphy.

Two movies will be shown Sunday afternoon at the WOW Hall: John Sayles' "The Secret of Roan Inish," a story about a young girl and a selkie (half human/half seal), and "Under the Hawthorn Tree," about the potato famine of the 1840s, adapted from a children's book by Maria Conlon-McKenna.

Putting together this inaugural festival has taken $16,000 in front money from Meyer and a lot of help from others, including government agencies, private organizations and individuals, as financial supporters and volunteers.

As a UO senior interning with the prevention team in the Lane County Health and Human Services Department, Meyer got help with red tape and other problems from county prevention coordinator C.A. Baskerville and her assistants, Brinda Narayan-Wold and Julie Hynes. Sandy Shaffer of the Eugene parks and recreation department helped pull together facilities for the festival.

Community pitches in

The festival's official sponsor is the Eugene Community Partnership, a nonprofit organization that also has sponsored First Night, the alcohol-free New Year's Eve event on which Meyer has modeled the Irish festival.

Financial help also has come from Work Drug Free and Downtown Eugene Inc., and "guidance and moral support" from Steve Remington at Downtown Events Management.

Volunteers have done the rest. Meyer says planning the event was "sort of chaotic and haphazard at first," when several people answered his call to form a steering committee.

But it's all come together, Meyer says, thanks to individuals such as Peggy Hinsman (family activities), Thomas Sharkey (the ceili and other tasks), John Eagan (literary activities) and Kevin Kidwell (volunteer coordinator).

"We wanted to be ambitious this year to get some momen- tum into future years," Meyer said, "hoping it will last and be sustainable through the years. I hope next year we can have even more dancing and drama, enriching the choices even more."

Meyer says he has taken some kidding from people who find it strange to promote an Irish festival without beer and whiskey.

But, "People are getting it," he said. "They understand what it's all about. They may laugh, but they understand the need for it.

`This is truly needed, and it's not going to hinder someone's Irish culture by not having alcohol."

EUGENE IRISH CULTURAL FESTIVAL

When: 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. today, 9 a.m. to midnight Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: Eugene Public Library (100 W. 10th Ave.), WOW Hall (291 W. Eighth Ave.) and Cozmic Pizza (199 W. Eighth Ave.)

Tickets: $9.50 advance for adults, free for children 12 and younger; $11 for adult wristbands during the festival, sold only at The Atrium, 99 W. 10th Ave.; Celtic Fiddle Festival concert $18.50 in advance, $22.50 at the door, available at TicketsWest outlets (800-992-8499 or www.ticketswest.com) and at www.eugene.com

CAPTION(S):

Tom's Kitchen will perform tonight at 7 p.m. at Borders Books in the Oakway Mall.