March 14: Irish Talk, League of Women Voters Meet, Maccabi Basketball Tryouts

Hey Long Beachers, get the sand out of your eyes and out of your shoes (that is, if you walked on the beach over the weekend) and start the new week by finding out what you need to know for Monday:

1. With St. Patrick’s Day celebrated this Thursday, Elizabeth Rowe will talk about Ireland's influence in America through their folklore, history, literature and song starting at 2 p.m. at the Long Beach Library. Row is a member of the National Storytelling Network.

2. Are you looking to learn more about how our system of government operates? Get a schooling in the civic side of things by joining the League of Women Voters of Long Beach at their monthly meeting starting at 6:30 p.m. at the library.

3. There will be a girls’ basketball tryout for the 2011 Maccabi Games starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Friedberg Jewish Community Center in Oceanside. Participants must be 13- to 16-years-old and of Jewish heritage.

4. In case you missed it over the weekend, Patch posted a new column called Long Beach Then & Now, a feature that will display snapshots of structures in the city from yesteryear alongside photos of them today, accompanied tidbits of historical information about each building. Doug Sheer, a member of the Long Beach Island Landmarks Association, writes this column, and Patch will highlight him in an article on his vintage postcards collection later today.

5. Also coming up on Patch: A Long Beach man was arrested on the Meadowbrook Parkway and charged with driving his car without an ignition interlock, a device that measures a driver’s blood-alcohol level.