Mark Stoller and his wife, Andra, moved to Falcon with their family in 2007. Both are U.S. Air Force veterans and enjoy life with their daughters, extended family and adopted rescue dogs in Latigo. Mark is fortunate to have his wife and daughters as his muse for topics, people to meet and places to investigate.
Identity
By Mark Stoller
This past weekend, we attended the Spanish Peaks Celtic Festival in La Veta. It is a quaint little town about 16 miles west of Walsenburg.
Normally, when we attend Celtic festivals, also known as Highland Games, they consist of strongman competitions, bagpipe band competitions and merchandise and food vendors.
What sets the Spanish Peaks Celtic Festival apart from all the others is that the entire town is committed to ensuring that everyone who visits can explore and get to know the Celtic heritage.
During the three-day festival, you can attend music workshops to learn how to play tin whistle, fiddle, guitar, bodhran, small pipes and uilleann pipes. There are presentations on Scottish and Irish history, heritage, dance and incredibly talented and famous Celtic bands play concerts each night.
I attended three classes/presentations while I was there. The first was an introduction to Irish dancing. I am nowhere near Riverdance qualified; however, I can now hold my own with a jig or a reel. Another presentation was on Irish storytelling, where I learned how to add a little blarney to make any spoken story a good Irish style story.
The third presentation I attended focused on the music and poetry of Ireland. For centuries, the lyrics and words of poems and songs have focused on the quest for national identity and freedom from external oppression.
The island was originally settled by peaceful hunter-gatherer tribes before the Celts arrived in 500 B.C., bringing with them a warrior culture, elaborate artwork and origins of the Gaelic language. As time progressed, they had polytheistic belief systems with the Druids and Christians (enter ol’ St. Patty).
Everything was going swimmingly until the Vikings began their raids in 795 A.D. and maintained a stronghold presence in Ireland through the ninth century. The next century was relatively free of invasions and external influence until the Normans and English moved in to put Ireland under their rule. In the years 1798, 1803, 1848 and 1867, there were violent rebellions for freedom — all of which were crushed.
The Great Rising of 1916 for greater Irish independence lasted through the 1930s. Northern Ireland and the city of Belfast are what most of us are familiar with in the struggle for independence, aka “The Troubles.”
The Troubles were fueled by identity and allegiance.
On one side were the Unionists and Loyalists who were mostly Protestant and in favor of keeping Northern Ireland under British rule.
On the other side were the Nationalists and Republicans who were mostly Catholic; they sought a free Ireland without British rule or presence. The Irish Republican Army fought against British occupying forces from 1969 until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Simmering in the background since the 1100s was the stress and distrust between Catholics and Protestants, which has been its own long-lasting civil war among the Irish through modern day.
So, my friends, mark your calendar now for the weekend of Sept. 17-20, 2026, for next year’s Spanish Peaks Celtic Festival.
Anyone can wear a kilt and eat festival food in the name of their clan. If you want to enrich your understanding of your heritage, learn to play music from incredibly talented artists and feel like you are in your own hometown thanks to the hospitality of the La Veta residents. I’ll look forward to seeing you there next year.
