Pat O'Connor and Eoghan O'Sullivan will be at the Irish Center and Coatesville over the weekend.
Bring on the dancing girls. . .and boys. About 6,000 of them are in Philly this coming week for the 39th annual World Irish Dance Championships being held at the Kimmel and the Downtown Marriott. It’s the first time this international competition has been held on US soil and it’s quite a feather in the city’s cap, especially in the current economic climate. Mayor Michael Nutter will be part of the opening ceremonies on Sunday at 5 PM at the Kimmel, on Broad Street. If you love Irish dancing, this is the place to be this week. And “Riverdance” is playing through Sunday just next door at the Academy, so step lively.
Speaking of economics, this is also the time to remember those less fortunate. The Hibernian Hunger Project is holding a “cook-in” on Saturday at Aid For Friends in Northeast Philadelphia, preparing meals for shut-ins to carry the agency through the summer. Although it’s an AOH charity, you don’t have to be a member to help out. Note to high schoolers: This is one way to satisfy a community service requirement, and many teens do volunteer.
Also on Saturday, our friends at AOH Notre Dame Div. 1 in Swedeburg are sponsoring Police Appreciation Day to benefit the Philadelphia Police Survivors Fund, which aids families of slain officers. Entertainment is being donated by Paddy’s Well, Tom McHugh and Company, Dan Rooney and Olive McElhone and there will be music all day.
On Saturday evening, Pat O’Connor and Eoghan O’Sullivan will marry the music from County Clare to the tunes of County Cork at the Commodore Barry Club (that’s the Irish Center when it’s at home). O’Connor—he’s the Clare man—is a fiddle player from that lonesome Clare tradition and O’Sullivan performs on flute and accordian, though not at the same time. This is a concert for trad purists and those who’d like to be. This kind of concert never disappoints. If you miss it on Saturday night, the duo will be appearing at the Coatesville Cultural Society on Sunday night.
Start your Sunday morning with a traditional Irish breakfast at Smoke Eaters Pub in Philadelphia, cooked for you by AOH 22, which is raising money for its charities.
Sunday at 2 PM you can attend the annual family ceili and set dance benefit for the Sister Peg Hynes Memorial Scholarship Fund at the Stardust Ballroom in Bellmawr, NJ. Sister Peg was a longtime teacher and community activist in Camden. She was killed in a car accident in 2002 when the vehicle in which she was riding was struck by another being driven by a man who admitted he was high on cocaine.
At 5 PM Sunday, join Blackthorn for the First Annual Liberty USO “Rock the Troops” Benefit at PJ Whelihan’s Pub in Cherry Hill, NJ, a fundraiser supporting the work of the USO.
Next Friday, a very unusual Irish group comes to town. Guggenheim Grotto (you can tell they’re Irish from the name—wha?) blends classical instruments such as the viola, glockenspiel, the Wurlitzer and Hammond organs with modern guitars, basses and pianos to create a unique sound one critic called “spine tingling.” Sounds intriguing. And where else are you going to be able to hear some good glockenspiel tunes? This concert is at the World Café Live.
