They’re Coming Home

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.

“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.”