Yes, you can eat and dance to Blackthorn at the same time.
They’re not “The Wiggles,” but there’s something about the Celtic group, Blackthorn, that gets the toddler set out on the dance floor, as our photos from Sunday’s Blackthorn benefit for the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade will illustrate. (The little lady you see is one example.)
There’s also something about the group that gets 700 or so people to come to Springfield Country Club every year to help raise money for the nation’s second oldest parade. This year, that included Philly comic Joe Conklin, Rep. Patrick Meehan, CBS3 Anchor Susan Barnett (who left her own baby’s christening party to be there) and Ancient Order of Hibernians National President Seamus Boyle, who all took turns at the microphone to urge even more spending for the once-a-year Irish celebration. The genial crowd, who bid on auction items, paid for 50-50 tickets, and kept the spirits flowing, were happy to do so.
The parade goes on Sunday, March 13, rain or shine.
The Springfield event is the largest of the parade benefits that began two years ago when the city of Philadelphia found itself in a budget funk and withdrew funding for many of the basics–police, barricades, portable toilets, and cleanup–that it once absorbed. Other parade organizations from the Mummers to Puerto Rican Day marchers have had to hold more fundraisers to keep the city’s many ethnic parades stepping out every year. This year, several AOH groups as well as the Second Street Irish Society held benefits throughout the city.
If you couldn’t be there, here are some photos to make you wish you had been.
