Young, Gifted & Green a history of the company

Young, Gifted & Green History

The multi award winning 'Young, Gifted & Green' was formed in 1995 by Tony Hennigan. His own Irish roots stem from Attymass in County Mayo where his parents were born. He now owns a cottage in the same village that his dad was born with his brother Lawrence. The idea behind YGG was to try and promote Irish Culture in Manchester and to create a platform to showcase contemporary and traditional Irish Comedy, Dance, Music and Song.

“I came from a family of seven and my parents always had Irish music playing in the house. But because of the troubles the celebration of our Irish culture was a very private affair for most of the time.”

“It was a bit of a gamble when we decided to do something which would celebrate our culture openly and in places and venues which were not normally associated with staging such events. But the general public accepted us with open arms, all our events have been sell out shows and we have managed to help raise just over £150,000 for different charities during the last fifteen years. More importantly though has been the development of the young people who have been involved in our events and the fact that our Irish culture is now celebrated openly. We hope it will become a lasting legacy and encourage more people to get involved in their rich cultural heritage. I have had a tremendous amount of support from the Irish community in helping us fund the shows and in always turning up to support us whenever we stage an event. I must thank my wife Maggie, my brother Lawrence and all my family who have always been on hand to advise and support me in all of our projects.”

This years show at the Gorton Monastery was sponsored and supported by the Manchester Irish Festival website, ALL FM's Full Irish Radio Show, The Keegan Kennedy School of Irish Dancing, YGG Press & Publicity, Levenshulme Pub Company, Chris O'Connor Promotions, Bethell, WPRUK LTD, Chartrange, St Kent's Irish Club, Eamonn Kennedy Funeral Services, Total Plant Hire, Magic Balloons and Sedexo catering. Th concert featured close to one hundred Irish musicians, singers and dancers from St Bede's College plus a number of special guests. The compere was Joe Casserley from ALL FM's award winning Full Irish Radio show.

This years special guests included the Keegan Kennedy School of Irish Dancing, Irish Harpist Kate Brett and her sister Rebecca Fox who is a traditional Irish singer. Plus Shake the Barley and Sean & Donal Scally and Mairead Nolan Smith. The sell out generated close to £15,000 for the Gorton Monastery and South Manchester Lourdes Pilgrimage.

The troupe have been very fortunate over the years to attract special guests to get involved with the shows these have included the award winning traditional Irish musicians Dezi Donnelly, Mike McGoldrick, Emma Sweeney and Becky Taylor plus the BBC's Philharmonic orchestra's 'White Water' folk group. Former members of the troupe pop back when they can and Lord of the Dance star James Keegan is a regular guest when his touring commitments allow him. This year he flew in from a tour of Europe to lead the final rehearsal before flying off again on a tour of Ireland.

YGG’s first major event was to stage a two day Irish Festival in aid of Francis House Children’s hospice in a specially erected Marquee in Castlefield, it attracted over 2,000 people. The two day event was compered by Irish radio presenter Alan Keegan and amongst the stars performing at the festival were dancers James Keegan, Ciara Kennedy and Louise Keegan. James was later to become a three times world champion, establish himself as one of the founding members of YGG’s first dance troupe and spend the last six years as a principal dancer with Lord of the Dance. Ciara and Louise later formed the Keegan Kennedy School of Irish dancing and Louise became the choreographer for all of YGG’s subsequent shows. The award winning Tara Ceili band featuring Michelle O’Leary was just one of a host of acts performing over the weekend. Michelle is now a Irish Cultural officer and a stalwart f the CCE in Manchester.

In 1996 it got involved with the staging of Manchester’s very first Irish Festival and staged another two day showcase, this time in Albert Square in a specially erected outdoor stage in front of Manchester Town Hall. Michael Ciarans from BBC GMR’s ‘Come into the Parlour’ was the compere and the Lalley School of Dancing featuring James and Louise Keegan provided the Irish dancing.

In 1997 Tony who is Head of Technology at St Bede’s College and the official press officer for the College, managed to persuade a few of his colleagues and students to form a troupe of Irish Music, Song and Dance. The troupe was to be called ‘Young, Gifted & Green’. Those that got involved in forming the group were John Gibson a Latin teacher at St Bede’s College who is now Head of Classics at the College, Louise Keegan who was then a student at the College, Denise Jones a Prep School teacher and in charge of the choir and Prep School music teacher Lesley Cavanagh. They decided that they would stage a series of road shows to promote the Manchester Irish Festival and to help raise money for Francis House children’s hospice.

The troupe staged their first show in Manchester Arndale in 1998 and over three weekends leading up the Irish festival attracted over 15,000 to the shows. In the same year they were also invited to launch the festival at Manchester Town Hall for the right honorable Mo Mowlam (RIP) the then secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Later on in the same year they were asked to perform at the ‘Irish Abroad charitable Trust’ dinner with James Galway and Phil Coulter for a VIP audience that included Sir Alex Ferguson and the then chairman of Manchester United – Martin Edwards.

In 1999 the troupe were invited to perform at the press launch of the festival and again held another three week road show for the festival in Manchester Arndale, raising funds for Francis House. Later on in the year they staged their first two hour charity concert in the lead up to the millennium called ‘Cead Mile Failte’ in October for Manchester COM.ART festival at the Palace nightclub.

In 2000 the troupe staged their own charity show at Manchester Town Hall as part of the two week annual festival. This year was something of a turning point for the troupe as they got asked to appear at the prestigious 2,000 Bridgewater Hall as part of the BBC Blue Peter Proms and then got invited down to London to appear at the 6,000 capacity Royal Albert Hall. They also appeared on numerous TV shows which included the BBC’s Blue Peter programme and a Songs of Praise special called ‘Dance Praise’. Other TV shows included Granada TV’s award winning six part series called ‘The Irish Connection.’

In 2001 they staged their own show at the Bridgewater for the festival that was compered by BBC’s Eamonn O’Neal and Alan Keegan, it raised a staggering £18,000 profit for Francis House children’s hospice. Shortly after the success of the show the troupe launched their own CD and video with the Grimshaw brothers ‘Todd’ & ‘Jason’ from Coronation Street. During the same year it was awarded the Millennium Youth award by the Mayo Association in Manchester. This unique award was given to the troupe who have a considerable number of students with Mayo connections, as well as its director who parents come from Attymas.

In 2002 the troupe were asked to put on a concert to launch the Irish festival at Manchester Town Hall. Then in 2003, 2004 and 2005 they returned to the Palace nightclub to stage a special concert in association BBC GMR’s Irish show ‘The Parlour’ which was compered by Alan Keegan.

In 2006 and 2007 the troupe finally decided to stage a show at the College, then in 2008 the went to the award winning Lowry Theatre and Joe Casserley from the Full Irish Radio show on ALL FM kindly agreed to compere it, later on in the year it was the very first recipient of the inaugural Pride of Erin Award, given to it by the Royal Variety Club of great Britain at the Palace Hotel. Finally in 2009 which was exactly ten years since staging their first major concert the troupe created their own piece of history by becoming the first ever Irish dance troupe to perform a show at the newly restored Gorton Monastery. The Monastery was saved from destruction just over ten years ago and after a £6.5 million restoration has been opened up as a conference and arts centre. It was designed by Pugin and is listed as one of the world’s top one hundred historical sites along with the Taj Mahal of India.

TV credits include:

BBC Blue Peter
BBC Songs of Praise - 'Dance Praise'

Granada TV - The Irish Connection – six part series

Sky TV

Fox TV
Granada TV - 'Lets Dance' series
BBC Look Northwest Tonight
Granada Tonight

Channel M TV

Live Radio broadcasts

BBC Radio 4 – BBC Blue Peter Proms direct from Royal Albert Hall

ALL FM’s Full Irish Radio

BBC GMR’s ‘Come into the Parlour’

BBC Radio Manchester ‘Irish Citizen’

Shows:

Live Performances

2009 : Saturday 7 March: Gorton Monastery

2008 : Saturday 8 March: Lowry Theatre, Friday 13 June Pride of Erin Awards at the Palace Hotel

2007: Friday 9th March @ St Bede's College

2006: Sun 19 March 2006 @ St Bede’s College

2005 Mon 14 March BBC GMR's 'The Parlour' 20th Anniversary Charity Concert @ Palace Nightclub

2004 Monday 8th March @ Palace Nightclub

2003 Monday 10th March @ Palace Nightclub

2002 March Launch event @ Manchester Town Hall

2001 Friday 9 March Launch Manchester Irish Festival for the President of Ireland @ Manchester Town Hall, Monday 12 March @ Bridgewater Hall, October ‘BBC Children in Need show’ @ Palace Nightlclub Levenshulme

2000 12th March 2000 Manchester Irish Festival show @ Manchester Town Hall, 29th May 2000 Blue Peter Family Concert @ Bridgewater Hall with the BBC Philharmonic, 22nd July 2000 Royal Albert Hall London,

1999 27th Feb-6th March Manchester Arndale Centre, Press Launch 1999 Manchester Irish Festival, October Com.art.99 world premiere of 'Cead mile failte' @ Palace, Levenshulme

1998 27th Feb-6th March @ Manchester Arndale Centre, 6th March The launch for the 1998 Manchester Irish Festival in the great hall at Manchester Town Hall for the right honourable Dr Mo Mowlam Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. October 1998 Irish Abroad Charitable Trust Dinner accompanying James Galway and Phil Coulter.

1997: Troupe formed

1996 – Two day festival to launch Manchester’s first Irish festival in Albert Square

1995 – Young, Gifted & Green organises a two day festival in Castlefield Manchester for Castlefield Festival in aid of Francis House – compere Alan Keegan, features Ciara Kennedy, Louise Keegan and James Keegan, plus the award winning Tara Ceili Band with Michelle O’Leary