Forget the silly brunch you always take Mom to. There’s a Celtic Street Fair in Phoenixville this weekend. Don’t you think she’d rather check out all the vendors while wearing her new shamrock deely bobbers?
All the craic starts Saturday at 10 AM and it’s free. There will be Irish step dancers, 25 vendors, and many clan and fraternal organizations. There’s also a great array of bands and performers—the Bogside Rogues, the Malones, Oliver McElhone, the Brian Boru bagpipe band and DC’s favorite Balkan-Celtic band, Scythian, with Drew and Angus from the band Brother, opening for them at the Colonial Theater, famous for its starring role in the ancient film, The Blob.
Trad musician alert: This year will feature a seisun stage for some serious jamming. Bring your fiddles, concertinas, bodhrans, and harps.
That same evening, Blackthorn and the AOH Notre Dame division will be raising money for the Upper Merion Police Department at the Radisson in King of Prussia. If you’d forgotten that these men and women lay their lives on the line every day for us, this past week in Philadelphia should be a powerful reminder.
And so you’re not wishing you had planned ahead:
Time to get those discount tickets for Irish Heritage Day at the Phillies—it’s $4 off (whether you’re Irish or not) if you use the promotion code, “IRISH”, when ordering tickets for the May 16 game. The Phils are up against the Toronto Blue Jays. There will be Irish food and, of course, Irish dancing. Bob Kelly of CBS-3 is the emcee for the evening game.
Next Saturday, May 17, the Camden County Emerald Society Pipes and Drums is holding its Irish festival at the Riverwinds Community Center in Thorofare, NJ. Along with vendors, see a pipe band exhibition (natch!), step dancers and a fire truck pull. Music will be provided by Blarney, Birnam Wood USA, and Broken Shillelaghs.
That night, plan on being at the Irish Center for a one-man show by the amazing Sean Tyrell, who will tell the story, in words and song, of lesser-known Irish hero John Boyle O’Reilly. “Cry of the Dreamer” traces Reilly’s journey from early childhood set against a backdrop of famine, revolution, Fenianism and penal servitude for life in Australia and his great escape from there to the US where he became a newspaper editor and poet. It’s a coup to have this show in our area. Tyrell plans to take it wherever Reilly went: Dublin, London, Fremantle, Liverpool, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.
On Sunday, head on over to Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philly to see the Philadelphia Shamrocks face off against a brand new hurling team from Allentown. The game starts at 4 PM. If you’ve never seen hurling this is the only place you’re going to in this area. If you like hockey, soccer, baseball, football, and Xtreme fighting, you’ll love hurling. Wear a hat and sunscreen.
Prepare for the coming of the great King of the Pipers, Paddy Keenan, who will be playing at upstairs at the World Café Live in Philadelphia on May 21. On May 22, Keenan will be giving both piping and whistling workshops at the Irish Center.
“The Irish and How They Got That Way,” a musical by Frank McCourt, is still playing at the Walnut Street Theater and will be there till the end of June.
Of course, everything you need to know is on our calendar, considered on a par with the Library of Alexandria in the depth and breadth of the information it contains. Hope we don’t end up like that one. (Okay, for you non-history nerds, it was once the largest library in the world, but books being flammable and all, it went up in flames several times before finally being destroyed at the behest of a fourth century Christian leader.)
