By Maureen Doll

"It intrigued me," says Dineen Grow, and thus began what was to be a lifelong romance with the Irish language, arts and generally all things Celtic. 

As an undergraduate studying history and political science at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Grow found herself drawn in by the imagery of the Irish language and a certain thrill "just knowing that I was speaking something that my great-grandparents would have spoken." Over 25 years later, the thrill is still there. A university employee by day, Grow’s spare time is devoted in part to coordinating Madison’s Celtic Cultural Center (CCC). She currently is the user services supervisor at the university’s Memorial Library.

She is, in fact, the founder, president and main point of contact for the small but spirited group. For over 10 years, the CCC has been bringing festivals, films, lectures and classes to the capital city, inspiring and discovering love of Gaelic mores. Grow describes the Celtic culture in Madison as somewhat "hidden," stating that "you wouldn’t necessarily say, ‘oh, yah, Madison’s got a very strong Irish heritage, unless you start doing something…and all of a sudden, you find all these people who have an interest in it." 

And it is growing. Grow recalls Madison’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade drew a rather unenthused bunch of a few dozen on what was a "cold, icky night." This year, hundreds flocked to the Capitol Square.

Grow’s roots are Irish, Scottish and Welsh, though she notes with a laugh, "If you ask Aunt Jean, it’s a 100% Irish." Tucked in her small office in Memorial Library near the campus center, Grow recalls being the oldest of nine children in a family where singing, dancing and storytelling were common at family gatherings. At that time, she didn’t identify these as Irish, but later study revealed these as traditions rooted in her ancestry. 

Listening to traditional music such as Bothy Band and Clannad in the 1980s gave Grow her first taste of the Irish language and the realization "that there was such a thing called the Irish language and I got very curious about it." 

She began learning Irish from a native speaker introduced to her through a friend. When her teacher moved back to Galway, it was three years before Grow met a man from Achill Island through whom she continued her education. She began attending workshops in Milwaukee and Minnesota and recalls people "started finding out that I knew a few words of Irish, so all of a sudden they started showing up at my office and saying ‘can you teach me what you know?’" 

Thus began the Irish classes Grow teaches to this day, drawing linguists, musicians, literature students and what she calls "heritage learners" wanting to know the language of their ancestors. For the first time this year, Grow will also be teaching a three-credit course and continuing education class through the UW-Madison. 

In 1985 Grow made her first visit to Ireland. She recalls that though unable to read the temperature, decipher the prices or even make a phone call, "my overwhelming feeling was I had come home." She had traveled many places before but never before had a feeling quite like this, "and we hadn’t even done anything yet." That trip was followed by four more; Grow favors the West coast and very far North, where she visits the Gaeltacht regions, spends times with friends and likes to "soak up the local culture." 

The CCC began following a tour Grow made of Chicago’s Irish Heritage Center. She was impressed. She thought, "Why can’t we do this in Madison?" Gathering people she knew, the first meeting of the CCC was held in 1993. Today, six members are on the board, a network of volunteers available for odd jobs and some 500 email addresses can be reached at any given time. Annual events include an Irish language immersion weekend, St. Pat’s Eve Festival and Samhain Festival complete with bonfire, music and storytelling. The group also shares a Web site (www.celticmadison.org) with the Celtic Music Association of Madison. 

While Grow skims over her own accomplishments, she is quick to credit those she works with and "a lot of good people doing good things" in Madison. She is a member of numerous organizations ranging from the National Council on the Less Commonly Taught Languages to Madison Friends of International Students. An employee of Memorial Library since 1979, Grow has taken the initiative to throw an annual St. Patrick’s Day bash for the staff for over 20 years. She says, "I kind of give the nod to my American green Irish side," and adds "I try not to do too much of that kitschy stuff, but it’s fun." 

All of this is enough to keep a woman busy, but Grow finds time to enjoy the culture she works so passionately to promote. "Does Smithwick’s count as a food?" she asks mischievously when asked to name her favorite Irish fare. She bakes brown bread from scratch and favors Brocach Irish pub on the Capitol Square. She likes to céilí dance, though claiming to be "horrible," and says step dancing makes her dizzy. 

The CCC Web site bemoans "the Celtic Cultural Center of Madison, Wisconsin is not really a center – yet!" "We don’t have a physical place," says Grow. "We are just a group of people that put these things on." In the interim, the board meetings are usually held in a pub. Grow hopes ultimately to have a tangible spot that can be identified as the city’s Celtic Center. 

That hasn’t happened yet, but if the past is any indication of the future and Dineen Grow has put her mind to it, there can be little doubt the Celtic Cultural Center of Madison will one day have a home. 
 
 

Maureen Doll can be reached at mkdoll@wisc.edu