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July 2010

Music

Don Stiffe in Concert

Don Stiffe in concert at the Philadelphia Irish Center.

He’d already sold dozens at the Catskills Irish Arts Week in East Durham, NY last week. Arts Week organizer, Paul Keating, writing about the “magical” week when the best and brightest of Irish trad come together, noted that “Galwegian singer Don Stiffe made a big impact right away with his booming voice that sent listeners scurrying to the CD booth to take away more of his music.”

Stiffe has that effect on his audiences. Nancy Pidliski of Warminster said she came to the Irish Center after many years’ absence to hear Stiffe, whose CD she’s been listening to since her sister met Stiffe in Ireland a year ago. “Even my 17-year-old nephew listens to it all the time,” she said. She bought one for herself to take on her trip back to Canada, where she has a summer home.

If you missed Don Stiffe’s concert, you can view the many videos—bad lighting makes them a little more like audio—and our photos of the concert, which also featured fellow Galwegian Gabriel Donohue as Stiffe’s one-man band accompanist.

Videos by Lori Lander Murphy:

July 23, 2010 by Denise Foley

Sports

Gaels Still Riding High After Their Tournament Play in Derry

The Delco Gaels at the Giant's Causeway. (Photo by Mike Boyce)

When most people tour Ireland, they visit the crumbling castles. They sniff wildflowers in the Burren. They tap their feet to fiddle music in Doolin. They ignore all the warning signs and stand looking out over the edge of the Cliffs of Moher. They eat brown bread and butter in the morning, and drink Guinness in the evening.

And make no mistake, that’s a pretty good trip.

But becoming a part of the community, and throwing yourself heart and soul into one of Ireland’s most prized pastimes? Priceless!

That’s what the Irish football-playing boys of the Delaware County Gaels did a few weeks ago when they headed to County Derry for the Féile Peile na nÓg, a national festival of Gaelic athletics for young people.

Did they come home champs? Nah. Did they come happy? You bet, says Tom Higgins, of the Gaels organization.

“We did well. We won our group,” he says. “We were in with the host team from Derry and another team from Derry, and a team from Gloucestershire, England. We got to the semi level of our division, and we lost by a point to Kildare, in overtime. Kildare eventually got killed in the finals, and the same thing would have happened to us, anyway. We did as well as we had hoped to do.”

When the Gaels first arrived, over the July 4th weekend, they played a warmup game against the host team, St. Gall’s. “They hosted us and had a great night for us,” he says. “Then we went on to Letterkenny in Donegal for a four-team tournament. We won two out of three of those games, and then it was on to the tournament.” The team and families stayed in Letterkenny for most of their visit.

The last two nights they stayed in Ballymaguigan in Derry’s far southeast “They’re the smallest club in Ulster, maybe the smallest club in all Ireland. So an event like this might never hapopened again for them,” says Higgins. “They hosted us well and treated us great.”

Traveling to the Feile in Derry was a huge thrill for the boys, Higgins says. More than half of the kids aren’t Irish. “I’d say they were blown away by the hospitality,” he says.

Playing in Derry was also gratifying because there are so many ties between Philadelphia and the North. “A ton of people came out to see us,” Higgins says. “It was a reunion of sorts.”

For a time, Higgins says, it must have seemed to the locals like Ireland was overrun by Philadelphians. He and a group of about 30 from Philly were visiting a pub called The Cottage in Letterkenny, and a lot of them were wearing Philadelphia GAA jerseys. Higgins said he overheard a tourist comment on the jerseys and ask the bartender: Is there a Philadelphia in Ireland? Higgins says he went over and introduced himself. Turns out the tourist was from Levittown.

A little while later, another tourist came ambling in, looking for a place to hear Irish music. Higgins recognized the new visitor as Tom Johnson, someone he knew from Lafayette Hill.

“The bartender comes over to me and asks: How many people from Philadelphia are in this town?”

Ah … never enough.

July 22, 2010 by Jeff Meade

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

The Mairead Farrells Ladies Gaelic Athletic Club: Help send them to the nationals! They earned it.

Two big fundraisers this weekend, one for the Philly St. Patrick’s Day parade and the other for the Mairead Farrells Ladies Gaelic Athletic Club. (They’re going to the finals in Chicago!)

Raising money may be a year-long event for the parade, which has seen its costs rise over the last two years as the city backed away from providing services gratis as it has in the past. The event takes place on Sunay at Keenan’s Irish Pub in N. Wildwood, NJ (Far Northeast Philly or, as we like to think of it, Port Richmond by the Sea). For $30 you get beer, wine, music and fine—probably less than you pay when you’re in Wildwood for Irish Weekend.

Also on Sunday, it’s a beef-and-beer fundraiser at Cawley’s Irish Pub in Upper Darby to raise money for the women footballers who have been roughin’ up the competition on Sundays on the fields of Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philly. We expect they’ll do the same when they travel to the Midwest for the GAA nationals. You go, girls! Their coach, Angela Mohan, is a force to be reckoned with.

The Irish Pub’s annual Tour de Shore bike race to Atlantic City flicks up its kickstand at 7 AM Sunday at the pub in Philly and ends hours later at the Jersey Shore, this year raising bucks for the Philly FOP Survivors Fund, the Police Athletic League and the Daniel Faulkner Educational Grant Fund.

On Tuesday, listen to the amazing voice of Galway singer-songwriter Don Stiffe who is making his first Philadelphia appearance at the Irish Center, accompanied by fellow Gallwegian (is that what people from Galway are called?), Gabriel Donohue.

On Wednesday, Chestnut Hill’s Pastorius Park is the bucolic setting for a free concert by the Belfast group, McPeake.

Two members of the singing group, Sephira, who tour with sensations, Celtic Thunder will be conducting music workshops for kids on Wednesday at the Medford United Methodist Church in Medford, NJ.

On Wednesday at lunch time, Dublin-born singer-songwriter John Byrne will be serenading the regular Wednesday lunch group–and whoever else drops in—at the Irish Immigration Center at 7 Cedar Lane in Upper Darby. It’s a small place to call ahead to let them know you’re coming.

On Friday, a real treat: a house concert featuring musicians from various genres who will be creating a Celtic-Latin fusion: Cuban/Haitian-American drummer and bodhran maker Albert Alfonso; Philly Irish fiddler-guitarist John Brennan and singer-fiddler Deb Shebish who has performed with both the Irish Tenors and Ray Charles, will be playing for the Spring Hill House Concert series in Lansdale. Because it’s a house concert, it will be very intimate—and that means you need to make reservations.

Friday also kicks off the Clover Fire Company’s 23rd annual Irish Weekend in Pottsville, where, reportedly, the band Blackthorn got its start. Admission is free on Friday night and only $4 for adults the other two days. Kids under 18 are free all weekend. Talk about your cheap thrills.

As always, check the calendar for dates, times, and maps.

July 15, 2010 by Denise Foley

Music

A New Voice You Won’t Forget

Don Stiffe

A few months ago, a friend gave me a stack of Irish CDs she liked. “You have to listen to Don Stiffe,” she said as she handed them over. “You’ve never heard a voice like his.”

It was a busy time so I stuck the CDs in a cabinet and didn’t pull them out till a few weeks ago when I was taking a car trip. I unwrapped Don Stiffe’s solo CD, “Start of a Dream,” and popped it in the CD player. Stiffe, a singer-songwriter from County Galway, was barely through the first few bars of the first track– Richard Thompson’s “Waltzing for Dreamers”– when I realized I had goosebumps. And it wasn’t the air conditioning.

Virtually unknown in the US, Stiffe is an up and coming folk singer in Ireland where he’s worked with the likes of Frankie Gavin (who produced and played on his CD), Sharon Shannon, and Lunasa’s Kevin Crawford. He’s poised to join the Keane family (Dolores and Sean), Dessy O’Halloran, and Sean Tyrell as Galway’s gift to Irish music.

Stiffe will be sharing that gift with Philadelphia audiences for the first time on Tuesday, July 20, at the Irish Center, accompanied by Gabriel Donohue, another of Galway’s finest.

“Dolores Keane was a big influence on me growing up,” he told me a few weeks ago on the phone from Ireland. “I don’t live far from the Keanes—maybe 15 miles. I also loved Luke Kelly [one of Ireland’s greatest folk artists] though I would never try his approach to the music.”

Yet, like Keane and Kelly, Stiffe’s voice has that same complex mix of smooth and rough, like an Aran sweater. Like them, no matter what he’s singing—there are a couple of Richard Thompson tracks on his CD, four of his own songs, and even his take on Nat King Cole’s classic “Mona Lisa”—it becomes an irresistible siren song, rich with emotion, stirring, soul-satisfying.

Unlike many Irish singers, Stiffe does not come from a family of musicians. “Oh, my Mum and Dad will sing a song if they’re out at function, but I’m not from a musical family,” he says. “My Dad bought me a guitar when 7-8 years old. I had two lessons. I kept thinking, how am I going to get around all the stringy things on the guitar? After a few years came together. But I was always singing. I played in a local brass band in Galway City and I was always listening to an abundance of music.”

I asked Stiffe about the songs he chose for “Start of a Dream.”

“Most of them are diaspora songs—songs about longing for home,” I said.

“I lived in the States in the 90s,” he told me. “I was in Boston for two years and in St. Louis for a few months. I worked for a few different companies, doing landscaping, doing contruction as we all do.” He laughed. “But while I was there I was playing the circuit around the Boston area and in St. Louis.” While in St. Louis, he played with legendary accordian player Joe Burke who dubbed him “The Bard of Bohermore,” acknowledging the poetry of Stiffe’s lyrics.

Take, for example, “Grosse Isle,” which tells the story of the Irish immigrants, fleeing Ireland’s An gorta mor—the Great Hunger–who landed on this little island (Grosse-Ile) 30 miles east of Quebec City that was designated a quarantine station to prevent the spread of cholera. Today, a tall Celtic cross greets visitors to the island where an estimated 6,000 Irish are buried.

“In their thousands they died on the island of sorrow
Not from the under, but the feverish course
They left pillage behind them, in the land they loved dearest
But to land is Gross Isle, to die in the dirt.”

“I had been reading about the people who left Ireland in the coffin ships, only to land in Gross Isle and die there,” he explained. “I was really moved by it. . . I could go months without writing a song because it can’t be fictitious. It has to be the truth of the story.”

It’s my favorite track on the CD—that and Stiffe’s take on Richard Thompson’s poignant, “Dimming of the Day.” I first heard the song on a Bonnie Raitt album and loved it. Stiffe’s version is just as good. He’s joined on the track by singer Fionnuaula Deacy.

“That one got an award from Irish Music Magazine,” he acknowledges. “It’s a tricky slope doing a cover song. People listen to it and they want it to sound like the version they heard.”

Even if it’s your favorite song, Stiffe—who promised to sing it on Tuesday—you won’t be disappointed. And even if it’s 98 degrees and steamy, don’t forget your sweater. For the goosebumps.

July 15, 2010 by Denise Foley

Columns

Aon Sceal?

Ireland Taoiseach Brian Cowan with Mid-Atlantic Rose of Tralee Mairead Conley, left, and Siobhan Lyons, executive director of the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia.

Siobhan Lyons, executive director of the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia, was named one of the Irish Voice’s 2010 Women of Influence. She received her award on July 12 at the Irish Consulate in New York. Ireland’s Taoiseach, Brian Cowan, attended the event.

Lyons was also recipient of the Irish Echo’s 40 Under 40 Award this year. Sarah Conaghan, who founded the Rose of Tralee Center in Philadelphia in 2002, was also honored at the Echo’s annual event. In the past few years, Philadelphia has been represented on this prestigious annual list by Karen Boyce McCollum, associate director of corporate communications at Cephalon and well known Irish singer formerly with the band Causeway, and Theresa Flanagan Murtagh, an attorney and former president of the Donegal Association who has her own band (The Theresa Flanagan Band).

Irish Consul Leaving

Irish Consul General Niall Burgess will be leaving his post in August to take a top position at the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs Anglo Irish Division where he’ll play a role in the Irish peace process and in relations between Dublin and London. Burgess took a circuitous route to the foreign service—he trained as an archeologist. He and his wife, Marie, have two school-aged children.

A Baby Boy for Barnett

St. Patrick’s Day Parade TV anchor Susan Barnett of CBS3 gave birth on July 13 to a baby boy, Steele Thomas Persichetti, 6 pounds, 5 ounces, 20 inches long. Steele joins big brother Blaise, 3 ½. Barnett, a native of Levittown, PA, is married to Greg Persichetti, a dermatologist and surgeon.

Ed Reavy to Be Honored in Cavan

Celebrated Irish musician and composer Ed Reavy will be honored at a tribute concert on August 21 at the Cavan Crystal Hotel in Cavan Town, where the 2010 Fleadh Cheoil is being held. The late Reavy, who was born in Cavan, is widely considered one of the most important composers of Irish music. He made a living, however, as a plumber in Philadelphia. His son, Ed Reavy Jr., will read a tribute to his father at the event, the largest Irish music competition in the world.

Enda Goes Live Online

Last week singer-songwriter and Philly transplant Enda Keegan debuted his new online TV show featuring–you guessed it–Enda Keegan, singing and playing. You can watch it every Tuesday at 9 PM at www.endakeegan.com/live.htm and post your requests on Facebook. Last week, his tune, “Say Goodbye” was #14 on the Reverb charts.

Local Author Shortlisted for Frank O’Connor Prize

“If I Love You I Would Tell You This,” a book of short stories by Philadelphia-area writer Robin Black, was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor Prize, established in memory of the noted Irish short story writer. Black’s book, which is also an Oprah selection, is one of five American works on the six-book list. The final winner, who will receive a prize of 35,000 Euro, will be revealed in September at the end of the Frank O’Connor short story festival in Cork.

Go See the Flyers, Help People with MS

Team Ratty Shoes—that’s a reference to a Blackthorn song—is raising money for research into multiple sclerosis. They’ve scored some $30 tickets to see the Flyers face off against the New York Islanders on September 29. Out of that $30, $15 goes to Team Ratty Shoes—a ragtag bunch of Blackthorn fans who do the MS Walk every year. As a bonus, each ticket earns you a chance to watch pregame warm-ups from the best seats in the house—the Flyers’ penalty box! You can also meet Flyers alum! “Bernie (Parent) is awesome,” says Lisa Hunt of Team Ratty Shoes. “He gives the best hugs.” For tickets call Lisa at 267-626-6916 or email lsimoni11@msn.com.

Do you have some news to share? Send it to us at denise.foley@comcast.net.

July 13, 2010 by Denise Foley

Music

Help Three Talented Kids Get to Ireland

Haley Richardson isn't shy about performing.

Saturday probably won’t be much of a beach day. The weather man predicts thunderstorms.

Looking for a way to salvage the first half of your all-too-short weekend? Head on over to the MacSwiney Club in Jenkintown, slip into your dancing shoes and create a little thunder of your own.

The Irish music and culture group Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (just say COAL-tus for short, and you’ll be close enough) is going to pound out Irish tunes from 7 to 11 at its Summer Social Evening, and you can dance till your feet cry “uncle.” Best of all, your ten bucks will also help support three of CCE’s youngest and most talented members as they prepare to compete in the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil (music festival) in County Cavan in August.

CCE’s Cass Tinney, who is helping to organize the night of music, dance, food and fun, says two of the kids—fiddlers Haley Richardson and Alexander Weir—will be in North Carolina at a kind of fiddle camp as a tune-up for the Fleadh, so they won’t be able to attend. Haley won for solo fiddle and Alexander, for slow airs, in the 6- to 12-year-old group at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Fleadh in Pearl River, N.Y. However, harper Emily Safko—who won solo harp in the 6-12 group—will be there to pluck out some tunes.

“We usually have our social in the spring,” says Tinney. “But every date we picked out, something else came up. So we decided to do it in the summer, and then we thought: Why not do it for the kids?”

Why not, indeed. John Shields will be spinning the tunes (do we say “spin” anymore?) and presiding over the dancing. If John Shields can’t get you off your tush, no one can. CCE will also be providing snacks, but is asking folks to bring some of their own. You can also sidle up to the bar, or teetotal along with coffee and tea.

Tinney recognizes that a summer night can hold many other attractions. And lately, the weather has been challenging. But she hopes that people won’t pass up the opportunity to help out three nice kids.

“It can be a bad time of year,” she says. “It’s ungodly hot. People are on vacation. We’re just going to hold it and hope for the best.”

The MacSwiney Club is at Greenwood Avenue and Walnut Street in Jenkintown. Come and dance, Tinney says. Or sing, if you’ve a mind to. But by all means, come out and support the future of Irish music in the Delaware Valley.

July 8, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish In Philly This Week

The pipes are calling at Graeme Park in Horsham.

Picnic!

We love picnics, especially when there’s a pool nearby. And there will be at the second annual Irish Club of Delaware County event at the Knights of Columbus De La Salle Pool in Springfield. The terrific local group, Round Tower, will be providing the musical accompaniment along with a DJ and the Celtic Flame Irish Dancers (who have the coolest sparkly red outfits). No need to bring a pic-a-nic basket, Yogi: It’s catered and beer and other drinks are available. Costs $20 for grown-ups, $7 for kids.

Other than that it’s a relatively slow week for big events (though there’s something Irish to do every day of the week—don’t believe me? Check the calendar!). One new entry to our calendar is open mic night at Downey’s Irish Restaurant at Front and Second, home of the famous Downey’s Irish Whiskey Cake on Mondays. Kevin Ricci is the host this Monday—so bring your party piece all you singers, musicians, and songwriters (doesn’t have to be Irish either). There are cheap drink specials ($2 shots of Jagermeister, so you know they’re catering to a young crowd because, ewwww, I’d rather chug vanilla extract and Scope).

Also, just a plug for a local musician: John Byrne (The John Byrne Band) has been getting boffo reviews for his first CD, “After the Wake,” and getting airplay on WXPN (he’s doing World Café Live Friday night, July 9). We think that someday you’ll be paying loads to see him on stage, so grab your chance to see him for free on Monday nights at Slainte, the great pub on Market Street across from 30th Street Station.

Likewise, newly local musician Enda Keegan is burning up the Internet with sales of tracks from his new CD, The Bridge. He’s still playing mostly in New York, but some smart publican in our area ought to snag him while it’s still possible. Just a thought.

Next Saturday, at Graeme Park in Horsham, celebrate your Celtic heritage with the Martin Family, the Hooligans, the Bucks Caledonian Band and other musicians, dancers, and vendors at this historic, Colonial-era home.

And on Tuesday, July 19, plan on heading to the Irish Center to hear Galway singer-songwriter Don Stiffe in his first Philadelphia showing, performing with Gabriel Donohue. Stiffe has a distinctive, goose-bump-raising voice and an eclectic playlist that includes everything from traditional ballads to Richard Thompson, his own tunes, and even some surprises (if you liked Nat King Cole’s version of “Mona Lisa,” wait till you hear Don’s take on this Jay Livingston song!). We talked to him this week and we’ll have an interview up next time.

July 8, 2010 by Denise Foley

People

A Little Lunch With Her Friends

Immigration Center regular Kathleen Murtagh tries on Mairead Conley's new crown. (Click on the photo to view the slideshow.

The regular Wednesday Lunch at The Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia had a special purpose and special guests this past week. The Center’s Deputy Director of Community Programming, Mairead Conley, was celebrated for her recent selection as the Midatlantic Rose of Tralee.

Karen Boyce McCollum, herself the 2005 Philadelphia Rose of Tralee, was on hand to graciously oblige the crowd by singing the song that started it all. While Kathleen Murtagh, who was one of the encouraging voices that convinced Mairead to enter her name this year, got a chance to try on the tiara.

And in keeping with Center Director Siobhan Lyons’ motto that “all are welcome,” 2010 Rosebud Grace Murphy brought her Dachshund puppy Daisy to help toast Mairead.

“We really do welcome everyone,” Siobhan laughed. “We’re here to help anyone who can use our services.”

Check out our photos from the afternoon, at upper right.

July 8, 2010 by Lori Lander Murphy

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