Stonehill Student & World Ranked Fiddle Player

By: Christopher Confrey

She picked up her first fiddle at the age of five and by 11 she became the under 12 world champion fiddle player.
Maeve Flanagan, now an 18 year – old sophomore at Stonehill College, has been surrounded by music her entire life. “My mom and dad play the fiddle, they met through music,” Flanagan, a Pearl River, New York native said.
“The fiddle has always been there for me. Whenever my life gets stressful or I am feeling down, I know I can always turn to music,” Flanagan said. “I have met my best friends and have had the greatest experiences through music.”
“A fiddle and a violin are the same instrument,” Flanagan said. She explained that fiddle is a slang word for violin and refers to a more interpretative type of music as opposed to classical music.
“I hated playing at first. I put the fiddle up to my neck and I thought it was choking me,” she said.
With practice, though, Flanagan became more comfortable. “My mom would tape record tunes for me to learn and I would practice in my room for an hour a day,” she said.
By the time summer came, Flanagan, then six, became tired of the demands fiddling took on her time. “I learned to beat the system,” she said. “I would record myself playing the tunes I needed to practice and put them on repeat by the door to my room. My mom heard the tape and thought I was practicing away!”
“My mother caught on and I told her I wanted to quit and would rather go swimming with my friends,” Flanagan said.
For the rest of the summer, Flanagan kept her violin in its case. “I did not push her that first summer,” Rose, Flanagan’s mother said. “She was young and I understood she wanted to play with her friends.”
Like her daughter, Rose Conway-Flanagan came from a family of music. “My father played, but he never taught me or my brother,” she said. “My mother had heard some other children play and then decided she wanted us to play too.”
By the end of that summer, Flanagan decided she would give fiddling a second change. “The summer had ended and I was giving all of her friends’ lessons, so she wanted to come back,” Flanagan’s mother said.
At the age of 8, Flanagan began taking group lessons with her uncle, Brian Conway. The lessons were once a week for 45 minutes. “He was a tough teacher,” Flanagan said. “One girl started crying at the beginning of every class is anticipation of the upcoming lesson.”
Each week, Flanagan’s uncle taught the group a new tune. “He would teach us bit by bit, and then we would have to repeat it over and over until we memorized it,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan began fiddling competitions at the age of nine.
Her first competition was at Manhattan College. Flanagan placed third in the under twelve competition. “I played a waltz, and I played it wrong,” she said with a smile.
The next year, Flanagan, then ten, played first at the Manhattan College competition which meant she advanced to the Fleadh Cheoil na Eireann or Music Competition of Ireland.
“I went with my dad and my best friend Deirdre who also played the fiddle,” Flanagan said.
The competition in Ireland was like nothing Flanagan had ever seen in the United Sates.
“There were competitors from Ireland, Australia, Scotland and Saudi Arabia,” Flanagan said.
She did not place at the competition, but was not disappointed. “I didn’t really care, I was just having fun in Ireland with Deirdre,” she said.
The next year, Flanagan began taking her fiddling more seriously. “I practiced a lot more, and this time I knew what to expect” she said.
That year, Flanagan, 11, once again qualified for the Music Competition of Ireland. “I was not nervous because I had nothing to lose,” she said.
“I played two tunes, a real called Bonnie Kate and a jig called Keys to The Convent,” Flanagan said.
“After I played I heard an old Irish man say, ‘if that wee Yankee girl doesn’t win there is something wrong here,’” Flanagan said.
“I played my heart out and placed first,” Flanagan said. “I clearly remember winning. I had beaten an Irish boy who was favored to win. They called me by name and gave me a trophy with Eileen Ivers’, the most famous Irish musician’s, name on it. Then I played an encore,” Flanagan said.
“After a year I had to give the trophy back. My mother arranged for me to take professional pictures with my violin and my trophy which was so embarrassing,” she said.
Following her win, making her the top ranked under 12 fiddler in the world, playing the fiddle changed for Flanagan. “Before I won, no one knew who I was, there was no pressure, after though, it became so much harder,” she said.
At the age of 18, before returning to Stonehill College for her sophomore year, Flanagan competed in the senior competition in Ireland, the winner of which would be named the best fiddler in the world. Though extremely nervous, Flanagan placed third.
Today, Flanagan plays at venues all across the Northeast. “I have played at weddings, Irish Dancing competitions, Ellis Island, and in bars, a lot of bars,” Flanagan said.
Now a sophomore, Flanagan plays for her peers at Stonehill’s Concert Coffeehouse.
Her fellow students admire her talent. “I think it’s refreshing to see such a young person be so dedicated and not ashamed of it,” Megan Cross, Flanagan’s friend and roommate said.
Others recognize her rare gifts. “It’s a very unique talent that you don’t see too often and it’s great to be exposed to it,” fellow student Nicole Brisbois said. “She does a great office theme song,” friend Kevin Gill said.
Flanagan says her ultimate goal would be to win seniors at the Music Competition of Ireland. “I’ll never stop playing the fiddle,” Flanagan said. “I am going to make my kids play the fiddle because my mom made me and now I’m obsessed with it.”
“I don’t know where my life is going to take me but I know music is going to be a huge part of my life,” Flanagan said.

Tattoos & Young Women

By: Christopher Confrey

Daddy’s little girl isn’t what she used to be.
Recent studies show tattoos are not a passing craze. More and more people are getting inked up every year and a record number of those people are young women.
“I got my first tattoo because I wanted one, not because something significant happened in my life,” a bartender and waitress from New City, Cheryl Ann Rodriguez said. “I think people can become hooked on tattoos, after getting my first I immediately began thinking about what I would get next.”
The National Geographic News reported in April 2000 that 15 percent of Americans or approximately 40 million people were tattooed. Of the 40 million, 36 percent were between the ages of 18 and 25 and 55 percent were women a fall 2006 survey by the Pew Research Center revealed.
“I got my first tattoo when I was 17,” Rodriguez said. “My friends and I went together, I used a fake id and got a nautical star on my tramp stamp,” Rodriguez, now 23 said.
By “tramp stamp” Rodriguez is referring to her lower back region, a popular location for tattoos among young women.
The next year, Rodriguez, then 18 had gotten another star tattoo, this time, on her stomach.
Rodriguez says she looks past the pain. “It’s not the type of pain that makes you jump away, the buzzing sound makes it so much worse,” she said.
In addition to her two star tattoos Rodriguez has what she describes as a scary angel on her left shoulder, a heart that points into an arrow on her left wrist, horseshoe prints on the top of her right foot, a tribal design in between her shoulders and a full sleeve of flowers on her right arm. A person achieves a sleeve when their entire upper arm, including the shoulder is covered in tattoos.
There are many young women who are open to the idea of getting a tattoo but have not actually done it yet.
“I definitely want to get a tattoo,” 19 year – old Stonehill College sophomore Anna Gills said. “I like the way they look, I think they are cool. I haven’t gotten a tattoo yet because I don’t know what I would get, nothing extremely significant has happened in my life yet. I am also scared of needles, they make me feel queasy.”
Gills, like many others, feel tattoos are a form of expression. “Tattoos say a lot about a person like their clothing or hairstyle, tattoos are just more permanent,” Gillis said.
“I would be open to getting multiple tattoos,” Gillis also said.
While millions of young women have gotten tattoos and millions more are planning on it, there are those who say they will never make a trip to the tattoo parlor.
“I don’t think I could ever care about anything enough to have it permanently on by body,” 20 year – old college sophomore Stephanie Mealey said.
There are many other factors young women must take into consideration other then where and what tattoo to get.
“I want to be a lawyer and I feel like I wouldn’t be taken seriously if I had a tattoo,” Mealey said.
Rodriguez, the bartender, understands that she has been stereotyped because of her tattoos. “I 100 percent know I am judged for my tattoos,” Rodriguez said. “I have no problem with people having their own ideas and opinions, I am not stupid, I work at two restaurants, and at one I have to wear long sleeves because the owner doesn’t think my tattoos are appropriate.”
“Some guy told me I was going to hell because the bible says you shouldn’t mark your body,” she said.
Rodriguez says she is ridiculed for her tattoos but usually takes it in stride.
“People always comment on my tattoos and I don’t take it personally I usually just answer their questions and they leave me alone. One day though a women came into a pizza place I work at and looked and me and said, ‘if you were my daughter I would kill you’ and I took her comment really personally and responded ‘if I were your daughter I would kill myself,’” Rodriguez said.
Many women also get tattoos in places that can easily be covered up. “I would get a tattoo on a place on my body that I could cover up for professional reasons, I wouldn’t want it to hinder my chances of getting a job,” Gillis said.
The stigma attached with tattoos also plagues many young, inked women. A 2003 Harris Poll found that 57 percent of people perceived tattoos as rebellious.
“I am not some biker chick running around in leather. There is nothing odd about me,” Rodriguez said. “I know I will be labeled as that mom when I have kids but I have accepted the fact that I am going to be a mom that has a lot of tattoos.”
Fear of what family or friends might think has also prevented many young women from getting a tattoo. “My father would kill me if I ever got a tattoo” Mealey said.
Rodriguez admits her parents were upset when they learned she had gotten a tattoo. “I hid it for a while but the more tattoos I got; the harder it became to hide. My mother was really upset at first, she didn’t yell, she wouldn’t talk to me for a few days. Now though, she accepts me for whom I am,” she said.
Permanence is something many young women must take into consideration before applying the ink.
“I would never want to get a tattoo because its forever and I don’t know how I might feel about something in 50 years,” Mealey said.
Despite the forever aspect tattoos give, the American Society of Dermatological Surgery, reported in 2005, that of all the people they treat with laser and light therapy, only 6% are getting a tattoo removed.
Rodriguez says she does not regret getting any of the numerous tattoos she has. “I might put them in a different place or change the design a little, but I would never take any away. Each tattoo means a lot to me,” she said.