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May 2010

People

Sold-Out Crowd Helps Honor 11 Inspirational Irish Women

Rosemarie Timoney, one of the 11 Inspirational Irish Women of the Delaware Valley. (Click on the photo to view a photo essay.)

More than 300 people watched on Sunday, May 23, as 11 Irish American women from the Delaware Valley were honored at the Philadelphia Irish Center, with the inaugural Inspirational Irish Women Awards.

The event was launched to recognize the important role women play in every aspect of Irish-American life and to single out those whose grace, courage, generosity, and intelligence particularly embody the Irish spirit. Among the honorees were Princess Grace of Monaco (the former Grace Kelly of East Falls); Sister Mary Scullion, co-founder of Project Home and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People; and Rosemarie Timoney, an Irish immigrant who founded the Timoney School of Irish Dance to help keep Irish culture alive in the Delaware Valley. J.B. Kelly, nephew of the late Princess Grace, was on hand to accept her award on behalf of her children.

CBS3 news anchor Susan Barnett was the emcee for the cocktail reception which also honored her colleague, meteorologist Kathy Orr. Artist Pat Gallagher, himself the son of immigrants who grew up on the Main Line, painted abstract impressionist portraits of the women which will hang at the Irish Center for several months before they go to Ireland for a special exhibit at the Oscar Wilde House, American College Dublin. Vincent Gallagher, president of the Commodore Barry Club (the Irish Center), welcomed the audience to the event.

Proceeds from the event will support the Irish Center and Project H.O.M.E., the nonprofit agency that has been credited with reducing homelessness in Philadelphia.

The 2010 honorees are:

Sister Mary Scullion, co-founder of Project H.O.M.E.
Sister Kathleen Marie Keenan, senior vice president of Mission and Sponsorship of Mercy Health System, the largest Catholic health care system in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Rosemarie Timoney, founder of Timoney School of Irish Dance, longtime promoter of Irish culture in the Delaware Valley.
Kathy McGee Burns, Realtor, president of the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, vice president of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance Committee.
Kathy Orr, Eight-time Emmy Award-winning CBS3 meteorologist, anchor of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day coverage, and supporter of several local charities.
Emily Riley, executive vice president of the Connelly Foundation.
Denise Sullivan Morrison, senior vice president and president, North America Soup, Sauces and Beverages Division of Campbell Soup Company.
Siobhan Reardon, first woman president and director of The Free Library of Philadelphia.
Liz Kerr, RN, longtime member of Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Div. 25, member of the Heart Transplant Team at Temple University and director of the Patrick Kerr Skateboard Scholarship.
Rosabelle Gifford, winner of the Rose of Tralee Centre’s first Mary O’Connor Spirit Award in 2009 for her lifetime of courage in the face of adversity and personal advocate for abused women.
Princess Grace of Monaco, Academy Award-winning film star, mother, and founder of The Princess Grace Foundation which serves the needy in Monaco and supports the arts in the U.S.

Music for the gala was provided by Shannon Lambert-Ryan and RUNA, and Michael and John Boyce and Karen Boyce McCollum. The Timoney Dancers performed in surprise tribute to Rosemarie Timoney. Food was prepared and coordinated by Geraldine Quigg and Sarah Walsh, with assistance from Geraldine Trainor, Carmel Boyce, and Maureen Brett Saxon. Flowers by Susan Yeager and Sarah Meade.

The Inspirational Irish Women Awards committee included Sarah Conaghan, Karen Conaghan Race, Denise Foley, Marianne MacDonald, Kiera McDonagh, Jocelyn McGillian, Jeff Meade, and Emily Weideman.

Major sponsors included Connelly Foundation, The Philadelphia/Midatlantic Rose of Tralee Centres, Mercy Health System, the Wall-Burns family, and irishphiladelphia.com.

May 27, 2010 by Denise Foley

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

Blackthorn with Eileen Ivers: They have fun and they're carriers too. See them at Canstatter's this weekend.

Whether you’re heading to the shore or just planning a cookout in the backyard or heading over to Canstatter’s in the northeast to spend Memorial Day with Blackthorn, take some time out this weekend to remember the men and women who gave their lives to make and keep us free. That’s what it’s all about.

Burning Bridget Cleary has been everywhere in the last few weeks, and they’re back (sort of) in the area, playing at the Shawnee on the Delaware Celtic Festival in the Poconos on Saturday and at Mayfair in Allentown on Memorial Day.

The Sunday Irish Radio Shows fundraiser is in full swing—tune in to 800-AM (you can hear it live on the Web too) between 11 and 1 on Sunday as the Philadelphia Donegal Association takes your pledges over the phone. There are lots of great prizes you can win just by making a donation to keep Irish music on the radio in the Delaware Valley.

The previously mentioned Blackthorn event at Canstatters—it’s where I first hear this rocking Celtic group—goes on rain or shine thanks to a tent. If you’ve been to a Blackthorn concert, you know it’s fun. If you’ve never been to Blackthorn concert, what’s wrong with you?

We’re going to look ahead to next weekend because there’s plenty going on you need to know about. June 6 is the big day—the Irish-American Festival at Penns Landing, with Blackthorn, Paddy’s Well, The Hooligans, and Round Tower, 11 dancing groups, and plenty of vendors and food, all on the waterfront in Philadelphia. The festivities start at noon. A Mass will be celebrated at the Irish Memorial at the waterfront right before the gates open.

It’s also the big day for AOH Notre Dame Division 1 which holds its big Irish festival at St. Michael’s Picnic Grounds in Mont Clare.

And you can enjoy both those events and still be in time to have your picture taken with one of the Budweiser Clydesdales at McGillin’s Olde Ale House in Philadelphia. The oldest Irish pub in the city is turning 150 and they’re having a big blast between 5 and 8 PM with all kinds of beer and Irish comfort food—all for $45. But tickets are going fast, so check out our calendar for the details.

And check out the calendar for information on Satharn na nGael, a Gaelic Saturday immersion weekend for those who are interested in the Irish language. If you register by May 29, you get a discount. This all-Irish-all-the-time day is being held at the Irish Center on June 12.

May 27, 2010 by Denise Foley

Sports

Last Summer of Kicks and Sticks at Cardinal Dougherty

Irish football is clearly a full-contact sport. (Photo by Gwyneth MacArthur)

Irish football is clearly a full-contact sport. Click on the photo to see the full slideshow. (Photo by Gwyneth MacArthur)

It’s the last season of Philly Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) football and hurling at Cardinal Dougherty High School, now that the venerable Olney institution is closing its doors.

(It was once the largest Catholic High School in the world, with more than 6,000 students, but has fallen victim to falling enrollments. The Archdiocese is shutting it down in June.)

Next summer, the hurling and Irish football are set to move to a new facility at Sanatoga and Longview Roads in the Upper Montco town of Limerick.

It’s a bittersweet moment for those who have played, coached or cheered along the sidelines at Dougherty over the last nine or 10 years. “They were pretty good facilities,” says Tom Higgins, a longtime Philly-area GAA player and coach, although he adds that Dougherty was somehow never as attractive to fans as the previous field at Leeds Junior High in Germantown were. “We had great crowds there,” he says. “That was just a super setup. The second we went to Dougherty, the crowd dropped off.”

The GAA has broken ground at the site in Limerick and is in the process of trying to raise $250,000—to be matched by the GAA in Ireland. “I believe it’s going to be ready for next year,” Higgins says.

For now, though, all of the adult games and a few of the youth games will play out the 2010 season on the field at Dougherty. “We had a talk with the priest there, and we knew our lease was good,” Higgins says—though the arrangements will be a little less convenient. “After the end of June, we won’t be able to use the dressing rooms. Through July and August, we won’t be able to use any dressing or shower facilities there.”

And so the season will end. But … there’s still a lot of hurling and football to be played. Games are scheduled every Sunday in June and July, and three Sundays in August.

If you’ve never taken in the fast-paced, full-contact sports of your forebears, you simply must head out to Dougherty. (You might rub shoulders with the Korean athletes who occasionally stop by to watch hurling or Irish football after their soccer game is over on an adjoining field. They clearly know a great sport when they see it.)

In fact, the games have already gotten off to a head start. We dispatched our intrepid photographer Gwyneth MacArthur to Cardinal Dougherty last Sunday to take in a cluster of games. She took more than 50 action-packed shots. Want to see what you’re missing? Click on the photo at upper right.

[googleMap width=”600″ height=”600″]6301 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19120[/googleMap]

May 26, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Music

A Weekend of Great Irish Tunes

John Brennan and John McGillian

When it comes to hearing great Irish music, some weeks it is a very good thing indeed to be in Philadelphia. Last weekend was one of those times.

On Friday, May 21, the Philadelphia Ceili Group brought together some of the best musicians around for the Festival Benefit Concert at the Irish Center.

Paddy O’Neill played slow airs! And sang! John Brennan performed some gorgeous tunes that he’s composed. Caitlin Finley played Sligo fiddle tunes. John McGillian and his accordion were brilliant. Tim Hill got to pipe. Judy Brennan accompanied on the keyboard. And Paraic Keane closed the evening with unforgettable fiddling.

And there’s a little town called Coatesville, about an hour’s drive from Philadelphia—perhaps an hour and a half, should you make a wrong turn or two—where Frank Dalton lures some of the biggest names to play for the Coatesville Traditional Irish Music Series, at the Coatesville Cultural Society. Last Sunday, Kevin Burke and Cal Scott filled Frank’s cozy concert hall with the kind of music that makes your heart smile and your feet dance.

His initial goal was to sell 50 tickets to be able to offer the concert; he far surpassed that number. What’s that? You weren’t able to make it to either of those events, but now you really wish you had? It is a lucky day, indeed then, for the Irish, because irishphiladelphia.com has some videos for you!

Here they are (and there are a lot):

May 26, 2010 by Lori Lander Murphy

People

Get Ready to Be Inspired

Two honorees, Kathy Orr and Kathy McGee Burns.

They say it’s a man’s world.

They obviously do not know what they are talking about. Smart, strong, brave, loving, gifted, creative, compassionate women are at the heart of most of society’s institutions. And they’ve long been a driving force within the Irish community.

We know this, and we are inspired by their example. And on Sunday 11 of those wonderful, inspiring Irish women will be honored.

The Society of Commodore John Barry and the Irish Immigration Center of Greater Philadelphia commissioned artist Patrick Gallagher to create a series of portraits of inspirational Irish and Irish-American Women from the Delaware Valley. Their portraits will be unveiled at a reception at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia.

The Inspirational Irish Women reception begins at 4 p.m. and lasts until 7.

The portraits will remain on public exhibit in the Commodore Barry Room for several months.

CBS3 Anchor Susan Barnett will emcee the event. Part of the proceeds from this event will go directly to the general operating costs of the Commodore Barry Club (The Irish Center).

We’d like to share the stories of those inspiring women with you. Here they are:

May 24, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Music, People

They’re Coming Home

Shannon Lambert-Ryan with RUNA.

For Shannon Lambert-Ryan, each scuff on the dance floor at Philadelphia’s Irish Center represents a happy memory. A few of them might be hers.

“I took step dancing classes there for years,” says the young singer-actress with the group, Runa. “My mom, Julie Lambert, started to go to the ceilis over there when she was 16 and 17, and when I was born we went to the festivals and music events. I took a hiatus for a while then wound up going back to the ballroom for the swing dancing. It’s one of those places where, when you’re there once or twice a week, feels like your second home.”

Karen Boyce McCollum thought it was her second home. The youngest of the six children of Carmel and Barney Boyce of County Donegal, longtime members of the Irish Center Board, Karen is a former singer with the group Causeway. “One of my first memories is of going up there with my mom and dad to the Donegal meetings. They were on a Sunday and we would go to church then head up there. While they were in their meeting, we had the full run of the place, and we’d usually meet up with some of the other kids and get into some fun and a little bit of trouble.”

So it seemed fitting that Shannon and her group and Karen and brothers Michael and John (of Blackthorn) will provide the music at Sunday’s Inspirational Irish Women Awards. The event honors 11 Delaware Valley Irish and Irish-American women who embody the Irish spirit and is a fundraiser for the Center, which, like many organizations, has experienced some recent financial difficulties.

“I had to do it,” says Shannon. “It’s important to keep it afloat. The Irish Center allows for quite a lot to happen. Just to coordinate it elsewhere would take quite a bit of effort.”

Along with ceilis, dance lessons, and concerts, the Center houses most of the county associations and hosts most of the annual county balls. “We went to all the Balls—Donegal, Mayo, Cavan,” recalls Karen, who eventually wore two crowns: Miss Mayo and the 2006 Rose of Tralee. “When I was little I remembering wishing I didn’t have a dress on so I could really spin around on the dance floor.” She laughs.

Later, she began taking fiddle lessons at the Center. Her family held her bridal shower there; her sister Colleen’s reception was held at the Center, as was her brother, Brian’s. She sang and danced in the ballroom and on the Fireside Room stage, most recently with her brothers at the Center’s Rambling House entertainment events, produced by Irish radio host Marianne MacDonald.

Karen Boyce McCollum and brothers Mike and John.

“As time went on I started to love it more,” says Karen. “I don’t think there’s a place that cozier than or more appealing on winter’s night than the Fireside Room with a fire going, having a beer. Some of the memories I have are of the people I met there—people who are gone now, like Tommy Moffit and Jim Kilgallen and a man who became like a grandfather to me, Tom Finnegan. He was a widower with no children and my parents met him through the Donegal Society. They would drive him here and there on weekends, and finally they said ‘Why don’t you stay here?’ So for 10 years, he stayed at our house Thursdays to Mondays. Every time I’m at the Irish Center I think of how Tom used to get up a dance. He had these moves he did.” She laughs. “One drink and he was kicking his feet up, cute as button.”

For Shannon, it was the dancers. “I think about Frank Malley, who just passed away about a year ago. He was somebody who my mom used to dance with at the ceili when she was much younger and they met later on. He became a friend of ours and his partner, Connie Koppe, is still a friend. He was always so gentle and warm. He would take you under his wing and my mom said he was one of the best dancers.”

She also remembers “waltzing with Eugene O’Donnell,” the legendary five-time All-Ireland step dancing champ and master fiddler from Derry who was a fixture at the Irish Center. “This is really where music became the love of my life forever,” she says.

For both singers, Sunday’s performances are a labor of love. “There are people who go to the Center and love it, and go back all the time. I think their spirits are there,” says Karen. “They say that the older a chair gets, the more comfortable is is. That’s the way I feel about the Irish Center. When the lights are low and there’s a good band playing, there’s nothing like it. It feels like home.”

May 20, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Music

Calling on the Local Talent

For regular attendees of trad sessions around Philly, the playing of Paddy O’Neill, John Brennan and John McGillian is a highly regarded and well-anticipated event… to have the three of them, along with Caitlin Finley and Paraic Keane, come together to support The Philadelphia Ceili Group’s 2010 festival, is a guarantee of an evening of music worth listening to.

“People who pay attention to the local music have heard all these people playing before, but you don’t get a chance to hear everyone individually in a session,” Tom O’ Malley, PCG board member and organizer of the event, explained. “And all these guys are as good as anyone out there playing today.”

The Festival Benefit Concert is this Saturday, May 22, beginning at 8 p.m. at The Irish Center. Workshops are being offered for Northern Tunes on Flute, Guitar Accompaniment, Button Accordion from 4 to 6PM. There are no tickets to purchase, but there is a requested donation of $15 for the concert, or a combined donation of $25 for entry to both the workshop and the concert.

All the musicians are offering their talents free for the benefit. The PCG festival has been going strong since Tipperary singer Robbie O’Connell and Limerick’s Mick Moloney began the tradition in 1975. This year, Liz Carroll and Daithi Sproule are set to play the 2010 festival, September 11-13th. The PCG is hoping to be able to bring Dezi Donnelly and Dermot Byrne to the festival as well, and the upcoming benefit concert could help achieve that goal.

The players are looking forward to the concert themselves… Paddy O’Neill, flute player from Derry City, is known for his jigs and reels, but this Saturday he will be performing tunes which are more especially associated with the music and musicians of the North of Ireland.

“I think that sessions in the North tended to have a more varied repertoire than sessions I encountered in the rest of Ireland. You would get not only the usual jigs, reels and hornpipes, but also barndances, polkas, Germans, waltzes, marches and highlands. Expect to hear more of the latter than jigs and reels. Singers were a prominent feature of the northern sessions I attended, so I might even chance a song. There is, of course, the Orange fifing and drumming tradition in the North, and a fifing march or two might be appropriate,” O’Neill said.

John Brennan, on the fiddle and guitar, will be featuring his own original music, including several tunes that have been recorded by Liz Knowles and Bob McQuillen.

“John has some tunes, like ‘Owen G,’ that he dedicated to his nephew, that are just gorgeous,” O’Malley said. “Another great one is ‘The Couple That Married Themselves.’”

“John McGillian’s going to be playing some of his favorite stuff. His hornpipes, they’re gorgeous, he plays them so well. ‘The Sweeps’ and ‘Lad O’Byrne’s are two that he plays.”

In addition, Caitlin Finley will be playing fiddle tunes from Andy McGann. “Caitlin’s been under the tutelage of Brian Conway, the Sligo-style fiddler up in New York, and he learned directly from Andy McGann… she does them really beautifully.”

Fiddler Paraic Keane, son of The Chieftains Sean Keane, is going to include some of his father’s songs in the evening. “There’s a set of his dad’s reels, that Sean and Matt Molloy recorded, ‘Sword in Hand,’ ‘The Providence’ and ‘The Old Bush,’ and Paraic really kills that set… he really sounds like his old man.”

An open session will follow the concert.

More information on The PCG Festival Benefit Concert can be found on the group Web site: http://www.philadelphiaceiligroup.org/

May 20, 2010 by Lori Lander Murphy

Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

All the action is back at Cardinal Dougherty on Sunday!

This is one seriously Irish weekend. Here are your choices:

Take a bag of groceries to Washington Savings in Philadelphia and the Hibernian Hunger Project—which will put the food to good use feeding the needy—will allow you to shred one bag of your most important papers, the ones you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands.

The hot local group, Burning Bridget Cleary, are holding workshops for the Philadelphia Folksong Society in Philadelphia on Satuday. You can go and still make it in time to hear Irish tenor Daniel O’Donnell—a Donegal man—in concert at the Academy of Music.

At the Irish Center, the first of two major events: The Philadelphia Ceili Group Fundraiser on Saturday, which features some of the area’s sterling Irish traditional musicians and will raise money for the group’s annual Traditional Irish Music Festival in September.

On Sunday, 11 Delaware Valley Irish-born or Irish-American women will be honored with the first Inspirational Irish Women awards. The cocktail reception will launch an art exhibit by abstract impressionist Pat Gallagher, former of Ardmore an now living in Louisville, KY, whose work is owned by President Barack Obama, Irish Ambassador Michael Collins, and former 76ers coach Larry Brown. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Irish Center and Project H.O.M.E., a program to end homelessness founded by one of the award winners, Sister Mary Scullion.

Sunday also kicks of the biannual fundraiser for the Sunday Irish Radio Shows on WTMR 800-AM. Tune in at 11 for the Vince Gallagher Irish Radio Hour followed by “Come West Along the Road” with Marianne MacDonald and call in a pledge to keep Irish music on the air.

Busy day, Sunday. On Sunday morning, AOH Div. 39 will join in an international day of remembrance for An Gorta Mor, the Great Hunger, with a Mass and breakfast afterwards. The Philadelphia Shamrocks hurling team will meet the Washington, DC, Gaels on the field at Cardinal Dougherty High School on N. Second Street in Philadelphia (not far from Cheltenham). The Bucks County Irish Center Annual Festival is being held at Park Polanka in Bensalem, with music , dancing, and food. And to top off the day, the legendary Kevin Burke and Cal Scott will bring their virtuoso sound to the Coatesville Cultural Center.

Support your local Irish immigrant by attending the rally for immigration reform at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Representatives from the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia will be there. Last time they brought step dancers—the Irish really know how to demonstrate.

And get ready for a fabulous concert next weekend at the Irish Center. Part of the proceeds from the show, with topflight groups The Elders and Searson, will go to support the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

May 20, 2010 by Denise Foley

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