Monthly Archives:

December 2008

People

2008 Wren Party

Patrick Glennan, 8, concentrates intently on his fiddle playing.

Patrick Glennan, 8, concentrates intently on his fiddle playing.

Some of you probably already know how the Irish traditionally celebrated the feast of St. Stephen—December 26. Roving groups of boys would chase and kill a wren, said to be symbolic of the old year, and parade its tiny feathery corpse through the streets on a stick. They’d stop at houses along the way and beg for “a penny to bury the wren.” (A bit of food and drink, too? Sure, they wouldn’t turn that down, either.)

This was thought to be great fun. No one asked the wren.

Well, thankfully, this bloodthirsty little tradition today is observed only symbolically—as with the annual Wren Party sponsored by the local branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, an Irish music and cultural organization, The event was held at the Glenside Knights of Columbus Hall, with much music, dance, food and fellowship.

December 28, 2008 by
Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

The Wren Boys are on the prowl Friday night, December 26. According to an ancient Irish tradition, the day after Christmas a group of rowdies kill a wren and hang it on a holly bush. They have a good reason. The wren, legend says, betrayed the hiding place of one of the first martyrs, St. Stephen.

Of course, in Ireland these days, there’s no bird killing. Instead, those same rowdies dress in costume and go from door to door, beating drums and playing whistles, and begging for “a penny for the wren.’ So if you woke this morning to hear male voices singing, “The wren, the wren, the king of all birds, On St. Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze, Although he is little, his family is great, I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat,” it wasn’t a horrible Christmas hangover.

Okay, so it’s not going to happen here. But there is a Wren Party Friday night, December 26, at the Knights of Columbus in Glenside, where you’ll be able to sing and dance still 11 PM to live Irish music.

Also on Friday night, the popular U2 tribute band, 2U, will be appearing at the Sellersville Theatre.

Save some time on Sunday, December 28, for a special Christmas treat from Fergus Carey, owner of Fergie’s Pub on Sansom Street in Philadelphia. Actors Michael Toner and Jack Barrett will be performing two “Christmassy plays” by Delaware playwright William Rolleri upstairs at the Center City pub. There are only 50 seats so call asap.

There’s no shortage of places to be on New Year’s Eve. There’s a 32-County Ball at the Irish Center with dinner and dancing to usher out 2008 (and may we say, good riddance!). The Celtic-klezmer band Scythian will be rocking out at the Stotesbury Mansion on Walnut Street, and Timlin and Kane and the King Brothers will be ringing in the new at The Shanachie Irish Pub. If you head down to McGillins, a great old Irish pub in Center City, you’ll be making your own music. You can karaoke out the old and boogie in with the new year.

Some terrific stuff coming up in the earliest part of 2009, including Eileen Ivers in Media, Irish singers Susan McKeown and Mary McPartlan in concert at the Irish Center, and the Scottish group Malinky in Wilmington. Check out our calendar for all the details (and read an interview with McKeown and McPartlan, two of the most amazing voices on Ireland’s folk scene, next week on irishphiladelphia.com).

December 24, 2008 by
Arts, News

With a Little Help from His Friends

At the end of the Jimmy Stewart classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the beleaguered George Bailey, whose friends and neighbors are tossing money into a basket to replace the $8,000 missing from his savings and loan, finds a book in the pile from the angel, Clarence, who helped him when he thought life would be better for everyone if he’d never been born. In the front of the book, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” Clarence wrote, “No man is a failure who has friends.”

And playwright William Rolleri knows that even better than George Bailey. The former New York Daily News reporter who now lives in Delaware had little hope of producing his newest play, “The Brothers Flanagan.” It’s a recession; he’s a mostly unknown quantity, as is his play about two Grays Ferry Irish pub owners whose business is being decimated by a serial killer. And, he points out ruefully, “No one wants to produce a 75-year-old playwright.”

Except maybe his friends, who have already anteed up half the cost of the production. And to raise the rest, well, in the spirit of Mickey Rooney’s Andy Hardy movie character from the 1930s, they’re putting on a show in the bar.

On December 28, two of Philadelphia’s finest actors, Michael Toner and Jack Barrett, will be performing two of Rolleri’s short one-man plays upstairs at Fergie’s Pub at 1214 Sansom Street. For $30 a ticket, you not only get two plays, but some Irish music and a Guinness Stout glass (which you can fill downstairs at the bar).

“Fergie [bar owner Fergus Carey] is one hell of a supportive guy,” says Rolleri. “He loves the theater himself, and he loves ‘The Brothers Flanagan.’ If we get the money together to do a full production in fall, we’re going to do it in Fergie’s because the whole thing takes place in a bar.”

Rolleri chose the two short plays because they both got a great reaction from audiences when they were previously performed (by Toner and Barrett). One, called “Sugar Ferguson’s Rotten Apples,” is a largely autobiographical account of an episode from Rolleri’s last visit to his grandparents in Canada, though the playwright, who is half Irish (County Wexford), transports the story to Dublin. It focuses on a near tragedy, involving kids, a forbidden apple tree, a shotgun, the police, and the parish priest. “Ring in the Old” takes place in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen where a bar patron sees an opportunity to bring back, at least for a moment, a little of the now yuppiefied area’s violent past. . .for auld lang syne. Expect some midnight dark humor.

The generosity of his friends has inspired Rolleri to pay it forward. “It occurred to me that there are a lot of younger playwrights in Philly and some of them are very good, but they have trouble getting produced because their work is original and their names not known; their names are not going to sell tickets,” he says. “I have a few friends who wanted me to go ahead and get my play produced, and I decided that if I go ahead, I’m not going ahead alone. Whatever we get at the box office will go to produce another play—not me, but another playwright.”

You can help Rolleri and the unknown playwrights his success will also lift by attending “Apres Noel, Christmassy Plays,” on Sunday, December 28, at 7 PM. For tickets (there are only 50 seats, so act fast), contact Fergie’s at 215-928-8118 or Steve Hatzai at 215-769-0552, or? swhatz@msn.com.

December 24, 2008 by
People

Marching To a Different Drummer

Kevin Hughes, lower right, with fellow seminarians.

Kevin Hughes, lower right, with fellow seminarians.

There was a time when it seemed like every Irish family sent a boy into the seminary. It was a point of pride within families and within the Irish-American community, which once sent more of its sons into the Catholic priesthood than any other nationality.

That was then. Now, people perhaps are more mystified than proud when a young man they know wants to take that momentous step. Why would anyone commit to such a life?

I’m thinking now of Kevin Hughes, my friend. I first came to know Kevin when he joined the Philadelphia Emerald Society Pipe Band. I was a drummer. Kevin was a student at LaSalle and a piper with lungs of steel and fingers that moved in a blur. No one could keep up with him.

When you belong to a competition pipe band, you get to know people pretty well. Competitions usually are not close, so you have to share long rides out to Long Island, Southern Maryland and the like, and back again. (It’s an even longer ride home if you’ve lost.)

That’s how I got to know Kevin. I can still remember him sacking out in the passenger seat of my car on our way back from a competition venue, maybe the Long Island Scottish Games at Old Westbury Gardens. He snored.

It’s been clear for years that Kevin was bound for the priesthood—the Jesuits in particular, thanks to four years of exposure at St. Joe’s Prep. A lot of us probably have a fixed idea of what a young man with his sights set on the priesthood is supposed to be like. You might picture the holy card poster boy, eyes permanently fixed on the heavens. You might not picture the husky dude with lungs of steel, sitting on the Irish Center bar stool next to you, trading wise cracks after band practice.

That’s our Kevin—bright, hugely talented, and, in my estimation, a pretty good match for an order known for intellectual rigor and spiritual integrity.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder, was a knight before he became a priest. Today, I’d like to think he might have been a piper.

We tracked Kevin down by e-mail at the Novitiate of St. Andrew Hall in Syracuse, N.Y. Here’s what he had to say.

Q. How old are you? What was your degree at LaSalle?

A. I am 23 years old and my degree from La Salle University is in biology, Bachelors of Arts. I am the third youngest man in the novitiate.

Q. I want to go back to a question I asked you before: Why? Why the priesthood? Why the Jesuits?

A. Why does anyone fall in love? You just know, it’s like being called to something. That is how I feel, like I am being called by God to something larger than myself. I feel like the Jesuit charism is compatible with my own desires to serve the people of God, specifically to see God in all things and to be a man for others.

Q. I’ll also note that no one asks incredulous-sounding questions when someone says they’re going to med school or law school. I wonder what goes through your head when someone asks that question, as if you’ve just announced that you’re planning to be the first astronaut to walk on the surface of Mercury or you’re hoping to open a chain of cat-waxing facilities.

A. I certainly realize that a lot fewer people, especially young people, are desiring to enter religious life, so I don’t mind at all when people ask me what I am thinking. In fact, I welcome the questions because it gives me a chance to tell people that someone can be happy with a life devoted to the love and service of God and His people.

Another thing I tell people, when they ask about why I have to take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, is that I don’t have to take them, I don’t have to be a member of a religious order, no one is forcing me: I could go to med or grad school, but I am choosing to take these vows and to live a life in a religious order to study for the priesthood.

Q. Tell us a bit about your everyday life. How has the reality of the novitiate compared to your expectations?

A. Well, getting up at 5:30 a.m. has taken some getting used to, as well as going to bed around 9:30 p.m.

My day begins with an hour of private prayer, followed by communal Morning Prayer, and then some classes about church and Jesuit history, then about the Gospel. We have Mass every day and communal dinner and night prayer.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I work at an Apostolate volunteer job from 8:30 to 2:30. I work in Cathedral Emergency Services, a local Syracuse food pantry. IT IS GREAT, I love it. The other novices there are really good guys and they are easy to get along with.

Q. What’s the career path beyond the novitiate? How long before you’re ordained? Tell me again what you hope to do as a Jesuit?

A. The career path beyond the novitiate is still unknown. God willing, after taking vows we are sent to first studies. This can be one of four places: Toronto, St. Louis, Chicago or Manhattan. We really don’t know where we will be sent until right before we go; they like to keep us in suspense.

Again, God willing, I will be ordained after the 11-year program—two years novitiate, three years first studies, three years Regency, three years theology studies.

As a Jesuit I don’t really want to limit myself to any “career” within the Society, but at some point I would certainly like to do some teaching.

Q. Do you think you’ll get the chance to play pipes any time soon? Or is your schedule and your training just that demanding?

A. I do still have a chance to play the pipes, however not nearly as much time as I had before joining. My playing is limited to practicing and occasionally playing the pipes for the guys.

I had the opportunity to go to McQuaid Jesuit High School in Rochester, N.Y., and played my pipes there, while the superior of the Jesuit community did some Irish step dancing. He’s very good, he used to teach Irish Step.

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

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

It’s official now: There’s a way to be Irish just about every day of the week in the region. We know, since we put together the calendar. Between sessions and special events, there’s something going on just about all the time, even leading up to Christmas and beyond.

On Sunday, for example, McCarthy’s Tea Room in Bethlehem is holding a Winter Solstice Tea. (Will there be Druids?) Let’s see if you’re up for it after you’ve gone on Friday night to the Winter Extravaganza Show with Andy Cooney at the Irish Center (dinner, dancing, and the wonderful and really cute Andy Cooney, plus a comic, dancers and others), seen Scythian in Sellersville, The Broken Shillelaghs in Gloucester City, or enjoyed an evening with Seamus Kennedy at Bethlehem’s Ice House.

There’s a session every night leading up to Christmas—at Kildare’s Fado, Shanachie, and a Piece of Ireland pubs. The Auld Dubliner Pub in Gloucester City, NJ, will be holding its Christmas party on Sunday, December 21, starting at 4 PM featuring local favorites, The Malones and Their Cousin, and a special visit from Father Christmas, who we understand is in the area all week. It’s a family-oriented place, so you can bring the kids. And your dancing shoes.

The slow session at the Irish Center has been cancelled for the day after Christmas. But not so the appearance of 2U, the World’s Second Best U2 Show, scheduled for the Sellersville Theatre at 8:30 that night.

On December 28, two of Philadelphia’s finest actors, Michael Toner and Jack Barrett, will be performing two monologues with a Celtic flavor at Fergie’s Pub on Sansom Street in the city. It’s a fundraiser to help local playwright, William Rolleri, produce his latest work, “The Brothers Flanagan,” about two Grays Ferry pub owners whose business is being sharply curtailed by a local serial killer. We smell “dark comedy!” We recently interviewed Bill Rolleri and you can read all about him and his work next week on www.irishphiladelphia.com.

And you don’t have to worry about being Irish on New Year’s Eve. Scythian, those crazy Celtic-Gypsy-Klezmer musicians from DC, are holding a “Mad, Mad, Masquerade” at the Stotesbury Mansion in Philadelphia, and there’s a 32-County Ball at the Irish Center, with music, food, dancing, and a parade of flags that’s in no danger of being canceled because of city budget cuts.

Don’t forget to eat, drink, and shop Irish. Check out our calendar for more details on these and other Irish events in the area. And have a wonderful Christmas!

Check this spot next week for a look ahead at the big (and small) events of the new year.

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

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

There’s only one break in the holiday action this week: The irrepressible Malachy McCourt—actor, barkeep, politician, author—who will be signing his books (like “Danny Boy” and “The History of Ireland”) at Donegal Square in downtown Bethlehem on Saturday, December 13. Oh wait–a signed McCourt book will make a nice Christmas gift for some Irishophile on your list. So, we’re wrong. No break.

Continue the holiday cheer on Saturday at the Willows Mansion in Villanova where Philadelphia’s Rose of Tralee, Colleen Tully, will be hosting a family-friendly holiday party featuring music, vendors, crafts, and Santa himself. And there’s some good-deed doing involved. Bring a nonperishable food item for the Delco Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry and receive 5 free raffle tickets.

The fabulous local group Burning Bridget Cleary will be holding a CD Release Party and Holiday Show at the Steel City Coffee House in Phoenixville on Saturday night. Their new release is called “Everything is Alright,” and, given everything going on in the economy, we’re hoping they’re being prescient.

History buff alert: On Sunday, go back in time with Robert Mouland at the Durand-Heddon House in Maplewood, NJ. Mouland will be portraying Michael Keane, an Irish harper?who came to America in 1754 with the Royal Governor of North Carolina. He will perform on the cláirseach na h’Eireann (wirestrung Irish harp), baroque violin (c.1760), baroque flute (c.1795), English guittar (c.1770) and union pipes.

Also for history buffs (who like stories and music together), at the Sellersville Theater, favorites Coyote Run will present “A Kilted Christmas.” Expect trad, rock, bagpipes, even a didgeridoo, and lots of fun.

A reminder to you session fanatics: We’ve added a new session at the Auld Dubliner Irish Pub in Gloucester City, NJ, where you can also see some of your local favorites including Kane and Beatty (December 13) and an Irish Christmas Party with the Malones and their Cousin (December 21).

By December 19 you should be finished your Christmas shopping, right? So plan on celebrating the holiday with your friends at the Irish Center, where the amazing Andy Cooney Band from New York is headlining a 50th Anniversary holiday extravaganza featuring comedian George Casey and others. Dinner is available (and can we just say, Mickey Kavanaugh knows his way around a kitchen) and, of course, there’s dancing.

That same night, that crazy Celtic-Klezmer band Scythian is holding its holiday show at the Sellersville Theare, and singer Seamus Kennedy is throwing his party at the Icehouse in Bethlehem. So many choices, so little time!

Are you planning a holiday party, looking for the perfect gift, need a break? Check out your local Irish pub, restaurant, and gift shop. Times are tough and they can use the business. Let’s keep the Irish community alive and vibrant!

December 12, 2008 by
Music

A Little Bit of Holiday Cheer

Sean nos dancer Brian Cunningham has flying feet.

Sean nos dancer Brian Cunningham has flying feet.

A couple of weeks ago, ticket sales were as sluggish as the Stock Market for Teada’s “Irish Christmas in America” show, a Philadelphia Ceili Group production scheduled for December 9 at Philadelphia’s Irish Center. But by that evening, there was a rally, and hundreds of people filled the vast ballroom for a little taste of Celtic Christmas–a full house to hear traditional Irish tunes and learn a little about Celtic traditions.

Karan Casey, a founding member of the group, Solas, was the featured soloist, and she wowed the crowd with everything from Irish carols to her paean to Barack Obama, the Nina Simone tune, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free.” “Barack Obama,” she explained, “was like an early Christmas gift to the world.”

Also on the bill: uillean piper Tommy Martin, harper Grainne Hambley, and the remarkable, 23-year-old sean nos (old style) dancer, Brian Cunningham. And, of course, Teada itself: founder and the show’s producer, Oisin Mac Diarmada, an All-Ireland fiddler from Sligo; Damien Stenson, also a Sligo native, who plays flute; guitarist Sean McIElwain, and Dublin’s own Tristan Rosenstock, who plays bodhran and was the night’s narrator and stand-up comic.

If you couldn’t be there and would love to hear some of the performance, Marianne MacDonald will be playing some cuts from the “Irish Christmas in America” CD on her radio show on Sunday, December 14, at noon. Tune in to WTMR-800 AM, right after the Vince Gallagher Irish Radio Show. You can hear it on the web at www.wtmrradio.com.

December 12, 2008 by
News, People

Two Philadelphia Emissaries and an Ambassador

As the school year progresses, we frequently hear of children trekking to Washington, our nation’s capital, for all the historic and memorial sites. But those trips seldom, if ever, include a visit to the Irish Embassy. It is probably not well known that the Embassy of Ireland in Washington, D.C., is open to the public Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m. Calling in advance is highly recommended.

Two Philadelphia natives, Brian Grady and Paddy O’Brien, recently visited Washington to see the Arlington National Cemetery and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., where Brian placed wreaths in Arlington at the grave of his uncle and at the memorial walls for slain Philadelphia Police Officers Daniel Faulkner, Gary Skerski, Daniel Boyle and Chuck Cassidy.

On the following day, the two set out to visit the various World, Vietnam and Korean War memorials and happened to be riding in a taxi when they passed the Irish Embassy at about 9 a.m. They asked the taxi driver to pull over so they could snap a few photos and found that the embassy was open. After sending the taxi on its way, the two went inside.

After explaining that they had traveled from Philadelphia to pay respects at the various memorials, they inquired if it was possible to take a tour. They were escorted to a waiting area where they were later greeted by Martina Monaghan, the executive officer of the embassy. Ms. Monaghan indicated that the embassy does not typically give tours unless scheduled. While chatting with the very pleasant Longford native, it was mentioned that there may be something scheduled in the afternoon and that if the Philadelphia lads left a contact number that someone would ring if an opportunity became available.

Brian Grady with Ambassador Michael Collins
To their complete surprise, about a half hour later, Ms. Monaghan phoned Brian and asked if they could return around 3 p.m. The Philly guys visited other historic sites, and upon their return in the late afternoon, they were once again overwhelmed by the hospitality and pleasantries of true Irish personalities.

Paddy O’Brien with the ambassador.
As they toured the magnificent building, they passed by an office, and were coaxed to enter and they were introduced to himself, Michael Collins, Irish ambassador to the United States. The introduction would have been enough, but the defining moment was when the ambassador asked them to have a seat. The ambassador inquired what they were doing in Washington and Brian had about a 20-minute chat describing his mission to lay wreaths at the memorials.

The ambassador was extremely cordial and discussed his experiences with the Northern Ireland Peace Accord, the disarmament of weapons, the Good Friday Agreement and other issues such as the undocumented Irish in America, the devolution of policing and justice powers, and the challenges surrounding visas.

The ambassador showed the lads a picture of himself and Dr. Ian Paisley, which the ambassador indicated he was very proud of, of them shaking hands after helping broker the renewed peace in Northern Ireland through diplomatic means. The ambassador also showed them a silhouette of Ireland cut from a single piece of metal that Paddy O’Brien correctly identified as a piece of armor plating from one of the towers dismantled in Northern Ireland. As the ambassador commented that Paddy O’Brien knew his Irish history, he presented the lads with copies of the program from Bertie Ahern’s address to the joint session of Congress.

After Paddy O’Brien commented that he had voted for Bertie Ahern when he lived in Ireland, and that Bertie Ahern was one of only a few foreign heads of state to address both the U.S. Congress and the British Parliament; the ambassador turned once again to his personal desk and said, “I am sorry that I only have one copy of this left, but I would like you to have it.” And the ambassador handed a copy of the program from when Bertie Ahern addressed the British Parliament to Paddy O’Brien. The ambassador then cordially autographed both programs. The lads snapped a few photos, shook the ambassador’s hand and went on their way, not immediately realizing that they had just met for over an hour with one of the most historic and influential peacemakers of the 21st century.

Paddy O’Brien stated later “I learned more in a half hour from the ambassador about the challenges the Irish and Irish Americans are facing today than I have learned in the last 10 years from U.S. media and local Irish groups, I am committed to helping more than ever before.”

Brian Grady said of the ambassador, “He was such a great person to speak with, and he had such a demeanor of comfort, intellect and focus about him, that you would certainly be impressed through your life that you had indeed met a great man.”

In speaking to the Irish Philadelphia staff, Paddy O’Brien said, “in respect of the ambassador’s great efforts on behalf on the Irish people and Irish Americans, I am honored to donate the two autographed programs of Bertie Ahern’s historic speeches to a local heritage historical collection which is yet to be selected. There are several Philadelphia area based historical societies, and we are evaluating and discussing with them the appropriate manner to display and preserve these two pieces of history.”

Brian Grady is a Philadelphia attorney, heavily involved with the law enforcement and Irish communities. Paddy O’Brien is an information technology project manager who is a member of several charitable groups such as the Knights of Columbus, American Legion and various Irish and Celtic Heritage organizations.

– Submitted by Paddy O’Brien

December 6, 2008 by