It’s another of those weekends: So much to do, so little time. Here are your choices. . .
On Saturday:
Hear some great Irish bands at a benefit for the families of slain Philadelphia police officers Patrick McDonald and Isabel Nazario at the Bridesburg VFW. The event starts with a mass at 11 AM.
Watch screenings of the latest film from Irish-American filmmaker Shawn Swords which will be running continuously from 5 PM at Rembrandt’s Restaurant in Philadelphia. Swords, who previously produced a documentary on local Celtic rockers Blackthorn, had turned his focus on the American Bandstand era in Philadelphia and the payola scandals in “Wages of Spin.”
Enjoy McDermott’s Handy (Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo) at the Celtic Café concert series at the Medford Friends Meeting House in New Jersey, starting at 7:30 PM.
Help the LAOH Trinity Div. 4 raise money for AOH charities at Sacred Heart Parish Hall in Clifton Heights, Delaware County. The Old News Band provides the soundtrack, starting at 8 PM.
Tap your feet and clap your hands to Tony DeMarco, noted New York fiddler in the exuberant Sligo style, at the World Café Live in Philadelphia at 8 PM.
But don’t stop there. On Sunday:
Put on your dancing shoes for a ceili at the Polk Township Fire Hall in Kresgeville, PA, starting at 2 PM.
Help raise money for the Inis Nua Theatre Company at a special performance of “Trad,” a play written by Mark Doherty at Fergie’s Pub on Sansom Street in center city. Inis Nua is the only theater company in the city to produce the best of plays by Celtic playwrights. Everything starts at 6 PM.
And it’s not over yet.
On Monday, Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill will be hosting the players from St. Malachy’s College in Northern Ireland in a basketball game (the last one in 2006 ended in double overtime, so prepare for excitement). Donations will be sent to a scholarship fun at Archbishop Ryan High School in the name of slain Police Officer Patrick McDonald. The Dennis Kelly AOH Div. 1 in Havertown is sponsoring the event, which starts at 7 PM.
On Wednesday, brush up your Gaelic at an Irish language meet-up at 7:30 PM at The Irish Times in Queen Village.
Also on Wednesday, the Roselle Center for the Arts in Newark, DE, begins a run of “The Hostage” by Brendan Behan, which concludes on November 8.
And don’t forget: On Thursday, John Carty and Donal Clancy will be playing at the Moorestown Community House in Moorestown, NJ. If you miss them there, they’ll be playing at one of our favorite venues, The Coatesville Cultural Society in Coatesville, on October 26. Carty is one of Ireland’s finest Irish traditional musicians. Clancy (of the famous Clancy family) is touring with the group, Danu.
