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May 2008

News

Kilts, Ghillies and a Wee Hairy Coo

One of many wee Scotty-type dogs at the Games.

One of many wee Scotty-type dogs at the Games.

I went to the Colonial Highland Games near Elkton, Maryland, over the weekend to compete with my band in the pipe band competition.

We’ll dispense with the unhappy news first. My band, Philadelphia Emerald, placed 6th out of eight.

There was good news for one local band, though. Cameron Washington Memorial United came in second. And if this matters to you, an Irish band associated with an AOH division in East Islip, N.Y.—Roisin Dubh—came in first.

Congrats to Cameron Washington United.

Of course, this is an Irish Web site, and the Fair Hill Games are decidedly Scottish and a bit south of our normal coverage area. But Celtic is Celtic and, besides, lots of Irish pipe bands do compete (and, just as obviously, win).

If you have never attended Highland games, the experience is well worth it—for general, all-round Celtic cultural literacy, sure, but also because you’ll have a good time.

For me, of course, it is always about the food. And, yes, you can get bridies and meat pies and fish and chips—the lines for that heart-stopping stuff were lengthy at Fair Hill. But I also ran into a fella from a shop called the Highland Creamery in Oxford, Md. (on the Eastern Shore) who was dishing up Guinness and brown bread ice cream. I arrived at his stand too late in the day to snag some of that fabulous stuff. (I had some in Galway a few years back, and it’s pretty tasty.) But I was not too late for the raspberry and shortbread ice cream. That alone was worth the price of admission.

Highland games are also huge fun for kids. Most are thoroughly charmed by the border collies in the sheep dog trials. There’s Highland dancing as well which, while very different from Irish dance—no curly wigs, for one—is fascinating to watch. And if you’re into watching big dudes heaving telephone poles, there’s plenty of that to watch as well. (And a “wee hairy coo”—or “cow,” if you’re not Scottish—to pet as well.)

There are a bunch more Highland games throughout the summer, most no more than a couple of hours’ drive away. Here’s a list:
http://www.euspba.org/events.aspx

We captured some of the spirit of Fair Hill in the accompanying photo essay.

May 20, 2008 by
Sports

How To Hurl

The Shamrocks hurler holds the sliotar in one hand and the hurley in the other during last year's championship game.

The Shamrocks hurler holds the sliotar in one hand and the hurley in the other during last year's championship game.

Once you get past the jokes (“Hurling? Sure, I can do that! One night of drinking and I’m there”), hurling is an ancient game that encompasses many aspects of soccer, hockey, lacrosse, a little baseball, cricket, and, as one wag put it, “assault with a deadly weapon.”

The deadly weapon in this case is the hurley, the axe-shaped stick the players carry and use to hurl a small ball called a sliotar (prounounced slitter) between their opponents’ goal post—either over the crossbar for one point, or under it into a net guarded by a goalkeeper for three points.

You can catch the ball with your hand but you can’t carry it for more than four steps before you either have to strike it in the air or on the ground with your hurly. You can kick or hand-pass it to another of your teammates. If you want to carry the ball for more than three steps, you need to bounce or balance it on the end of your stick. You can use shouldering, as long as it’s side to side (no charging or tackling allowed). Usually the players don’t wear protective padding though many wear a helmet (sometimes with a faceguard). And the pace? Fast. It almost makes ice hockey look a game of golf.

Check out more photos of the 2007 championship (won by the Philadelphia Shamrocks).

May 16, 2008 by
Sports

Sunday Hurling Match Pits a Brand New Team Against Philly’s Shamrocks

Neophyte hurler Christopher Farrell: Be afraid. Be very afraid. Photo by Michele Horon

Neophyte hurler Christopher Farrell: Be afraid. Be very afraid. Photo by Michele Horon

Fair warning to the Philadelphia Shamrocks hurlers: The Allentown team you’re facing on Sunday, May 18, at Cardinal Dougherty High School may be brand new, but they’re dangerous.

Take just one player for example. That would be Christopher Farrell, at 45, playing a game that, until recently, he’d never heard of. “My first two practices with this team, oh man, I knocked a guy’s shoulder out of its socket and the second practice I hit a guy square in the face with the ball.” Actually, what he did, he told me later in hurling language, was “hit a sliothar (ball) straight into his nose — it was a bloody mess.”

And the guy he hit is the only Irish-born member of the new Pennsylvania Hurling Club’s team, the Allentown Hibernians, Joe Farrell (no relation), and the only one who’d ever played the game before but who wasn’t wearing a face guard at the time. He’ll never do that again.

“My main thing is bicycling,” says Christopher Farrell, by way of an apology. In fact, Farrell is seriously into racing, which he does regularly at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, with its banked tracks and, quite often, Olympic level athletes. A “recovering fat guy,” Farrell lost 45 pounds while cycling, making him a poster child for his employer, Rodale, Inc., publisher of health and fitness magazines such as Men’s Health and Bicycling.

Oddly enough, Farrell got interested in hurling because of Irish stepdancing. His two youngest daughters are involved on a competitive level with the O’Grady-Quinlan Academy of Irish Dance in Lehigh County. Another “dance dad,” Jeff Purtell, a PGA golf professional for a decade, had gotten interested in hurling and figured that he might find some like-minded guys among those who spend weekends driving long distances to watch their daughters jig in $600 dresses. “I ran into Jeff at an event a couple of months ago, around St. Paddy’s Day, and he asked me if I’d like to try it out. They really need guys and I really need the exercise so I said okay.”

Farrell is the “old guy” on a team that also includes high school and college players, as well as 44-year-old Dublin-born Joe Farrell of Whitehall Township, their one experienced player. He admits he’s never even seen a hurling game “except for some low res” films on YouTube. “It looks fast,” he says. Farrell and his wife have five kids and he’s completing his master’s degree “so I really don’t want to get injured.”

Given his performances at practices, it seems like it’s the Shamrocks who need to be worried about that.

Come out and support hurling and see all the action on Sunday, May 18, at Cardinal Dougherty High School Field, starting at 4 PM.

May 16, 2008 by
Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Jam-packed is the word for this week. Lots of Celtic craic and, of course, much of it at the same time.

If it’s not washed out, tonight (Friday, May 16) is Irish night at the Phillies. Along with the Toronto Blue Jays, you can see the Bogside Rogues, singers Vince Gallagher and Timmy Kelly, a host of Irish dancers—but no green hats on the Phils. We hear from a reliable source that since the team lost while wearing green hats, they’re not wearing them again. At least, not during the season.

There’s a $4 discount if you use the word “Irish” when ordering tickets. If you haven’t been to Citizen’s Bank Park, it’s great fun, even if you couldn’t care less about baseball.

Saturday at noon, the Camden County Emerald Society Pipe and Drums is holding its Irish Festival at the RiverWinds Community Center in Thorofare, NJ. There will be a pipe band competition, of course, but also a fire truck pull, so it sounds like a great day for kids. The adults aren’t left out either—there’s also a beer garden, craft vendors, and great live music presented by Blarney, Birnham Wood USA, and the 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 over to Park Polanka in Bensalem for the annual Bucks County Irish Center Irish Festival. Then make time to watch the Allentown Hibernians in their first match ever against the Philadelphia Shamrocks at Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philadelphia. The game is hurling and starts at 4 PM. Read our story.

At the Irish Center at 5 PM Sunday, Michelle Mack will be crowned the new Mary from Dungloe. An Irish dancer and assistant director of residence life at Holy Family University, Michelle will travel to Dungloe, County Donegal, Ireland, in August to compete in the international contest.

If you’re in or near Gloucester City, NJ, a lovely candlelight Celtic service is planned at the First Presbyterian Church of Gloucester City, with Celtic hymns, harp music, and healing prayers.

On Monday night, all you set dancers should head over to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Glenside where the fabulous Matt Cunningham band from County Galway will be providing the get-up-and-dance music.

On Tuesday, May 20, The Swell Season (Oscar winners for best movie theme, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglov from the movie, “Once”) will be performing at the Tower Theater to a sold-out house. Opening for them is Fergus O’Farrell and Interference, a little known but profoundly influential group from Ireland making its first appearance in the US.

The great King of the Pipers, Paddy Keenan, will be playing at upstairs at the World Café Live in Philadelphia on Wednesday, May 21. On May 22, Keenan will be giving both piping and whistling workshops at the Irish Center.

Also on Wednesday, soccer fans can head on over to Fado Pub in Philly to catch some live action between Manchester United and Chelsea. Well, live on TV. It’s the 2008 Championship Final. Word of warning: Everyone needs to behave themselves.

“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.

You’ll find all the details and even some maps on our calendar, which really wishes it had called early for tickets to see The Swell Season. Oh well, it might be getting in to the sound check.

May 16, 2008 by
News

Take Time to Help Our Vets

Ancient Order of Hibernians/Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 51 – Fishtown will be holding their 6th Armed Forces Weekend this Saturday (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and Sunday (Noon to 6 p.m.) at the Thriftway Supermarket at Aramingo & York.

The division will collect canned goods (vegetables, meat, fish, soup, gravies, etc.), non-perishable items (rice, pasta, cereals, etc.), personal grooming items (disposable razors, bar soap, shampoo, etc.), as well as cash donations.

It all goes to the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service & Education Center in Old City. The Center feeds an average of 75 – 100 homeless veterans on a daily basis, as well as providing them with other basic services.

Every little bit helps.

Here’s what the division’s Phil Bowdren has to say.

AOH/LAOH 51 has been running this event for five years. You’re going into your sixth year. Where’d the idea come from? Was it tied into the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict?

Actually, it was suggested to the Division by a member who has volunteered at the Center. It really wasn’t tied into the Iraq conflict, just the need that the Center had.

Does the division have some connection with the Center?

Like I said, the Center was suggested to us. It ties into our efforts with the Hibernian Hunger Project because what we collect helps to feed homeless veterans. Since we began our effort, I was asked to join the Center’s Board of Directors, also, the Center’s CEO, Ed Lowry, has since joined our Division.

Have you all had an opportunity to see firsthand how your event might be benefiting local vets?

A number of us have volunteered to help at the Center with their Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for the Homeless Vets. We’ve helped serve them a hot meal, and we’ve seen and heard how much they appreciate it. If it wasn’t for the Center most of these men and women would not get a hot meal or the opportunity to get a shower or put on clean clothes.

What do you need most?

As for what is needed most, I always tell people bulk food containers (#10 cans of vegetables, etc., and 1-, 25 or 50 lb. bags of rice, pasta, etc.), more bang for the buck with bulk packaging.

What should people bring?

People can bring any canned goods, non-perishable foods (rice, oatmeal, pasta, etc.) and there is always a need for personal grooming items (disposable razors, bars of bath soap, mouthwash, etc.). If anyone has contacts with companies that sell / distribute either sample size or travel size items, and they can get some cases of these items donated, it would be great.

What’s the most you’ve gotten in a single donation, and do you remember from whom? I mean, a particular school, organization, what have you?

A few come to mind… Becky & Joe Minarik from the neighborhood have always donated big bags of rice and #10 cans of vegetables; Judge Pat Dugan, who is an Iraq Veteran, donated an entire shopping cart full of food. And both AOH Divisions 22 and 25 have dropped off bags of food in the past.

Does it bother you that veterans should require charity? Put another way, we’ve expected these folks to risk their lives for us—so shouldn’t they be entitled to benefits of the sort that the Veterans Multi-Service Center provides?

The Veterans Center is a private non-profit organization, which USED to get funding from the City, State and Feds for particular programs, but for one reason or another the funding dried up a great deal. We received a $600,000 grant from Senator Santorum a while ago, only to have the Labor Department cut funding to the Center by $500,000, so in actuality, we only received $100,000 from the Feds.

The Street Administration cut a lot of our funding that helped us get the homeless vets of the street during the day and into the Center. The Center was forced to sell one of its 12-passenger vans because of the cost of insurance.

Once I was told by an “enlightened” person that they didn’t believe that there was such a thing as homeless veterans. I offered to take her out and introduce her to some, the offer was declined.

I have sent a number of letters to President Bush complaining that instead of cutting veterans benefits, the government needs to not only increase them, but expand them to the families of returning Iraq veterans. These people need to know 1) what to expect of their returning vet, and 2) what to look out for as far as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is concerned. And YES, it bothers the hell out of me.

May 15, 2008 by
News

A Look Back at the 2008 Phoenixville Celtic Street Fair

Brian Boru drum major shows off his natty chapeau.

Brian Boru drum major shows off his natty chapeau.

Phoenixville went to the dogs this past Saturday.

It also went to the pipers and drummers, didgeridoo players, Irish dancers, merchants of meat pies and purveyors of claddagh rings, soft-sculpture Guinness hats and plastic Claymores.

The 2nd annual Celtic Street Fair brought ’em all out to this little town along the banks of the Schuylkill. And on a somewhat cool and cloudy day, this wonderfully old-fashioned town (a real town, not a bedroom berg with a superhighway running up the middle of it) with its quaint shops and the smell of fish and chips and the skirl of the pipes in the air could almost make you feel like you were somewhere else. Somewhere like, oh, Ennis or Ballynahinch or Westport or any old Irish market town you care to think of.

We’ve assembled a neat little pile of photos from the day.

May 15, 2008 by
Music

CD Review: Lunasa’s “The Story So Far”

The Lunasa retrospective “The Story So Far” showed up in the mail the other day, and I thought: Great … what can I say about a compilation? How do you review tunes that already have been released and reviewed years before?

The answer is: You mostly don’t.

I say “mostly” because, even though all the tunes have been previously released on Lunasa’s previous six CDs, there are, as it happens, two brand-new recordings to reflect the band’s current lineup.

“Morning Nightcap” and “Aibreann” have been dusted off and given not remarkably new treatments—but they are still lovely to hear again, anyway. all the same.

“Aibreann” actually sounded better, I think, the first time I heard it, on the band’s 1998 debut album. The new version, produced at Compass Records in Nashville, does sound much cleaner—you can really hear guitarist Paul Meehan’s lush chordwork, and that’s unquestionably a good thing—but the more recent effort lacks the energy of the original.

“Morning Nightcap,” on the other hand, definitely sounds fresher and crisper, and, if anything, tighter than the already pretty fantastic version recorded in 2002 on “The Merry Sisters of Fate” (Green Linnet). Again, it’s not remarkably different from the original, but it’s a fuller, more complete and more vibrant performance.

As for all the rest, if you are a Lunasa fan, you’ll be happy to note that most of your favorites are there—”Eanair,” “The Miller of Drohan,” “Casu,” “Punch,” “The Floating Crowbar” (I just love that title) and more. (There are 16 tracks in all.)

If, like me, you already have all of the previous recordings, is there any reason to have this new CD? I would say yes, if only to have the benefit of a much more polished sound. And if, also like me, you keep your CDs in the car, they are caked with french fry grease and Coke syrup. It’s about time for a new one, anyway.

I’d recommend “The Story So Far” for newbies. If you haven’t heard Lunasa—and weren’t they great at the 2007 Ceili Group Festival?—this is surely a terrific introduction.

And it’s not as if all the rest of their stuff is merely passable. It’s all pretty phenomenal. So let this new CD be your first, and you’ll see what all the rest of their fans are raving about.

May 12, 2008 by
Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week and Beyond

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.)

May 9, 2008 by