Ron Caplan introduces his book.
The final ceilidh of the Chestico Museum’s 2014 summer ceilidh series was held on Thursday, August 28, 2014. The evening was extra special because we also had Ron Caplan of Breton Books on hand for the launch of his latest publication Cape Bretoners in World War One: In Their Own Words.
Stuart Cameron was our fiddler for the evening and he was accompanied on piano by Cathy Hawley. Lots of wonderful tunes!
Lauchie Beaton brought along his guitar and treated us to a number of songs including Kilkenny Ireland and An Old Log Cabin for Sale – lots of people were singing along on that one!
KC Beaton was with us and performed a selection of beautiful Gaelic songs and KC’s daughter Siobhan was on hand to step dance. Certainly a lot of talent in the family!
As we moved into the book launch portion of the evening, Cathy Hawley accompanied Cathy Gillies and Phyllis MacDonald as they sang a number of songs that were popular during WWI. The ladies were dressed in period costume and performed beautifully.
John Gillies introduced Ron Caplan and Ron spoke very movingly about the stories that he had included in the book. As John Gillies pointed out, the stories are not told by Ron Caplan – they are told in the words of the men and women who went overseas and experienced the horrors of war first hand. Ron was available for questions while people had their tea and many took the opportunity to have their copy of Cape Bretoners in World War One: In Their Own Words signed by him.
And so we ended another year of Chestico Museum ceilidhs. This year, our ceilidhs were organized by Clayton MacDonell who was one of our summer students. Anne Beaton, President of the Chestico Historical Society, took the opportunity at the ceilidh to thank Clayton for all his hard work.
And thank you as well to everyone who so generously gave of their time to perform at our ceilidhs, to all who baked for our ceilidh teas and to everyone who came out to support us on Thursday evenings this summer. We hope to see you all again next year!
As always, photos of our can be found on our Facebook page.
