Kansas City festival to celebrate Irish heritage & honor murder victim's legacy
As the Kansas City Irish Fest enters its 22nd year this weekend, the three-day event at Crown Center Square has plenty to celebrate — as well as one tragedy to remember.
It was just before last year’s festival that local restauranteur and chef Shaun Brady, a 44-year-old native of Ireland who played a major role in the Irish Fest, was murdered outside his Brookside restaurant.
A 15-year-old boy was charged with fatally shooting Brady while trying to steal his car outside Brady & Fox restaurant at 63rd Street and Rockhill Road. A judge ruled in May that the boy will remain in the juvenile system while facing a second-degree murder charge.
A book about Brady will be available for first time during the festival. Pat O’Neill spearheaded the production of “The Shaun & Séamus Brady Cookbook: Irish Comfort Food,” which has assembled stories and remembrances from friends and family, including his son Séamus, as well as many of Shaun Brady’s favorite recipes.
“It was really an incredible community effort, how many people contributed,” O’Neill said.
He and Brady had discussed publishing a cookbook several times.
“Then, after he was killed and after we all recovered a bit from that horrible shock, a bunch of us said let’s do that book now and have it ready for Irish Fest,” O’Neill said.
“We did this book in part, it’s for the family really, but at the same time we wanted people to know who Shaun was. He was so much more than a working chef whose life was taken by a 15-year-old who was trying to steal his car.”
The book will sell for $30 at one of the festival’s dozens of vendor tents, with the proceeds going to Brady’s widow and two children.
Brady established the Irish Fest’s popular Sunday breakfast, which was canceled in 2024 after his murder. This year, the breakfast not only has been revived, it has been renamed the Brady Brunch. It will begin at 11 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 31, the festival’s final day, costing $49.75 for adults and $24 for children.
Kansas City Irish Fest
What: The Irish Fest, which formed from the merger of the Brookside and Westport Irish fests, annually draws about 75,000 people. It features live entertainment on nine stages, food, shops, whiskey tastings, art in the park, children’s activities, Irish cinema and a culture stage and café.
Where: Crown Center Square, 2425 Grand Blvd.
When: 5-11 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, and Sunday, Aug. 31.
Admission: If you buy tickets ahead of time, Single-day admission is $28.50 for Friday and $33.75 for Saturday or Sunday (through Aug. 28, then $33 and $38, respectively). Children 3-12 are $9.80; weekend pass, $79.75; special packages, $64.75-$154.75. Friday tickets are valid for Friday only; other single-day tickets are valid Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
Live entertainment: Musical highlights will be Gaelic Storm at 9 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday, The High Kings at 9 p.m. Saturday and Kansas City’s own The Elders at 9 p.m. Sunday. Among the dozens of other acts, which will include dancers, puppets and kids’ entertainers, are local favorites Flannigan’s Right Hook, Carswell & Hope and Eddie Delahunt.
Notes:
- Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland’s ambassador to the United States, will visit the festival Friday, marking the first time an Irish ambassador has attended.
- The Irish Fest will present its first Excellence in Film Award to “That They May Face the Rising Sun” at 3 p.m. Saturday in Crown Center’s Ruby Room Theater. The movie will be shown immediately afterward. The comedy “Rosie & Frank” will play at 3 p.m. Sunday in the same theater. Admission is free to both movies with a festival admission ticket.
- Parking at the Crown Center garages will be free Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
- Road closures, through 10 a.m. Monday, will include Grand Boulevard from 25th Street to 22nd Street and Pershing Road from McGee Street to Grand. Also, one westbound lane of Pershing will be closed from Grand to Main.
More information: kcirishfest.com
