Battlefield Band, live on stage.
This weekend, three stalwarts of the Irish community will be inducted in the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame: musician and businessman Vince Gallagher, president of the Commodore Barry Society (the Irish Center); former city representative Kathleen Sullivan, vice president of the Irish Memorial Board; and Msgr. Joseph McLoone, past of St. Katherine Drexel parish in Chester and chaplain of the Donegal Association and the Irish Hall of Fame.
The three will be honored at a dinner on Sunday night, November 14, and there will be special musical guests (but we’re sworn to secrecy so we can’t say who). For more information (well, except for the musical stuff), contact president, Kathy McGee Burns, at mcgeeburns@aol.com. And read her very personal profiles of the three inductees, below.
But before that happens, consider making a little excursion down to the Coatesville Cultural Center in Coatesville to catch two great Irish traditional musicians—accordian player John Whelan of Wexford and singer Tommy O’Sullivan of Kerry. They’re on stage on Friday, starting at 8 PM.
If it’s a little Scottish music you’re after on Friday, head to Sellersville Theatre to hear the boys from Glasgow, Battlefield, do their trad-modern mix.
Saturday’s a big night for a couple of AOH divisions. AOH/LAOH Div. 87 is having its 113th Hibernian Ball at Romano Caterers in Philadelphia. The AOH Color Guard will be holding a beef-and-beer night with music by the popular Bogside Rogues at the Swedesburg Volunteer Fire Company in Bridgeport, just down the road from AOH Div. 1.
You can meet the artistic director of Ireland’s acclaimed Abbey Theatre at 3:30 PM on Wednesday at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Walnut Street in Philadelphia. Fiach Macconghail will be talking about the history of the Abbey and where it’s going in the 21st century, presenting classical and contemporary Irish and European work. You have a second chance to meet Macconghail that evening at the Philopatrian Literary Institute at 1923 Walnut Street for an Irish Network-Philly evening of Irish culture that will include local artists and author Thomas J. Lyons (“You Can’t Get To Heaven on the Frankford El”).
In Bethlehem on Thursday, you can see a rarely performed short story by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, “The Lost Ones,” which tells the story of an entire world enclosed in a tiny cylinder and the people who inhabit it, at the Touchstone Theatre on Fourth Street. The play was performed at the Capitol Fringe Festival.
And in Philly on Thursday: the second annual Inis Nua Theatre Company “Craic Down” (craic is the Irish word for fun). Actors from this theatre company—the only one dedicated to bringing contemporary Irish, British, Scottish and Welsh plays to Philadelphia—will be playing rock stars (and some rockers will be playing, well, rockers) at this benefit.
You may want to just stay overnight at the World Cafe because the John Byrne Band with Citizens Band Radio will be performing the great upstairs room on Friday night. Call for reservations and get a bite to eat before these two rip-roaring bands get you up and dancing.
Get your phone orders in early for a Philadelphia Ceili Group house concert featuring Northern Irish singer Gabriel McArdle who was one of the musicians chosen to represent Ulster at the Smithsonian Folklife celebration of Northern Ireland several years ago. Because house concerts are held in someone’s home, seating is limited. This one is in Chestnut Hill. And give Paddy O’Neill (our own Northern Irish musician) a call at 610-393-3914 if you think you would be interested in a Friday workshop. McArdle is also a talented concertina and accordian player.
Also coming up: The Philadelphia Gaelic Athletic Association’s All-Star Banquet on Sunday, November 21, at the Irish Center. Lots of folks to honor this year, including two national ladies football club champions.
Take a number to see the calendar for all the details.
