Downeast Ceilidh Celebrates 40 Years on the Air

Over the past year, there have been several notable 40^th Anniversary celebrations in the broadcast industry: National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and 60 Minutes stands out in my mind, as does Sesame Street and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve event.

But we have our own special celebration going on this weekend at WUMB, as Marcia Young Palmater celebrates her 40th anniversary of producing and hosting Downeast Ceilidh.  If you’re not familiar with the show, it features traditional music of Canada’s Atlantic Provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. It also features news of interest to the Canadian-American community of greater Boston. You can hear the show every Sunday night at 8pm on WUMB.  

The Boston area has long been a popular destination for Eastern Canadians, and Downeast Ceilidh has done a great job helping Atlantic Province Canadians feel like they’ve been transported back to home. Each week, using a foundation of Cape Breton fiddle music, jigs and reels Marcia tells stories of the musicians both living and those who have passed on; some of the music includes songs in Scottish Gaelic and Acadian French. She highlights Canadian celebrations and events such as the Halifax Explosion in 1917, and relays accounts such as the help provided by Bostonians to care for the wounded from that devastating event. To this day, the residents of Nova Scotia give a Christmas tree to the people of Boston each year in thanks.

If you want to find out what’s happening each week at local venues such as the Watertown Canadian American Club or where to find Boston area Cape Breton concerts and dances, there’s no other radio program in the area to find out the information.

Marcia’s deep interest in the music and culture of the Canadian Atlantic Provinces are a result of her visit to the area in 1961. She describes it as a “life-changing” experience. She says, “I wanted to give something back to the Canadian-American community centered around Boston, in gratitude for the wonderful music and culture they have shared with me.”

Downeast Ceilidh was first broadcast from MIT’s radio station (then WTBS, now WMBR) in Cambridge, MA on February 3, 1972. It has been on WUMB for the last ten years, after the show was cancelled by WMBR.

Tune in this Sunday night at 8pm for a special Downeast Ceilidh 40^th Anniversary show featuring classic recordings from musicians who were alive when the show first started.

Happy Anniversary, Marcia!

-        Pat Monteith

Songs about The Halifax Explosion - Sunday night at 8pm

Thursday evening was the annual lighting of the official Boston Christmas Tree, a gift from the people of Nova Scotia in gratitude for the generosity of the people of the city following what is know as The Halifax Explosion.

On the morning of December 6, 1917, a French cargo ship, overloaded with munitions bound for the war in Europe, that had taken refuge in Halifax Harbor, collided with another ship and caught fire. The resulting explosion which leveled much of the city, was the largest man made explosion in history eclipsed only by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It is still the largest accidental man made explosion ever.

Enough time elapsed between the collision/fire and the explosion that many people had gone to their windows to look when the blast hit. Many not killed outright were blinded by flying glass. As it was a cold morning many stove that had just been relit were tipped over by the concussion causing fires that raced unchecked through the city. An overnight storm left the city streets unnavigable by the horse drawn fire wagons and the fires burned much of the city that was not destroyed by the blast. .

When word of the explosion and resulting fires reached Boston, relief trains were immediately dispached. Many doctors left their posts to ride north. As the trains from Boston eventually met trains carrying wounded out of the city, the trains slowed and doctors jumped from train to train to care for the evacuated wounded. Within days a massive benefit concert was held at Symphony Hall and much of the relief for the city came from the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee. This is the reason that the people of Nova Scotia give a Christmas Tree to the people of Boston every year.

This Sunday evening on Downeast Ceilidh (8 PM) Marcia Palmater presents songs about the explosion including one about Vince Coleman, a heroic telegraph operator who stayed at his post and stopped incoming trains from entering the danger area, thereby saving hundreds of lives but losing his own.

This is the Canadian Broadcast Company page about the event: http://www.cbc.ca/halifaxexplosion