Encino Fair-Goers Get Their Irish Up

Irish-born William Mulholland probably never imagined that 40,000 people would be celebrating Irish culture and heritage in the San Fernando Valley nearly a century after the city engineer established Los Angeles’ municipal water system.

Mulholland is a prime example of Irish American contributions to Southern California and one of the reasons that 1.7 million Irish Americans live in the Southland today, said Terry Anderson, founder of the Irish Fair Foundation, which organized the weekend event held at Woodley Park in Encino.

But at the 26th annual Great American Irish Fair and Music Festival, the Irish culture on display was of a sort dating back several hundred years before Mulholland rode into Los Angeles on horseback.

Large crowds gathered for attractions such as scores of Irish step-dancers.

“It’s extremely beautiful,” said Janine Alfaro of Los Angeles. She said the dancing attracts people of many different cultures.

“It’s very detailed in expression and very graceful,” she said. “Anyone can get into it.”

Celtic rock bands and Irish folk groups played all day on several stages. Violins could be heard at one corner of the fairgrounds, while at another, someone was rapping in brogue over hip-hop beats.

Actors, dressed in costumes ranging from the medieval era to Elizabethan times, paraded amid the bagpipers, vendors and a roving leprechaun.

Joyce Cook of Huntington Beach said she made her costume to represent 15th century Western European royalty. She was playing the role of a Swedish dignitary, representing a group that played a major role in Ireland’s formation, she said.

“We’re kind of stupid wearing clothes like these here [in the Valley],” she said, under several layers of fabric and bound tight in a corset. “The weather in the British Isles is more suited for this stuff.”

There was a great deal of attention paid to Renaissance heritage as well. Brady Hufer of Modesto was selling swords and other knightly paraphernalia. He said interest in medieval and Renaissance culture has bloomed since such blockbuster movies as “Braveheart” hit the screen several years ago.

“It’s a romantic period,” he said. “Although there was a lot of bloodshed and war during that time, there was also a lot of poetry, art and invention.”

For Irish Americans searching to learn about the history of their family names, vendors set up computer databases that explained the development of many Western European clans. Customers could purchase the information and also receive a picture of the clan’s coat of arms.

“It’s not genealogy, it’s historical,” said Laurin Davis, whose company History of Names is based in Hawaii. “It’s self-expression and the adoption of identity.”