Our Galway friends will be dining and dancing, not marching this Saturday.
Here’s something you don’t often hear us say: It’s a relatively quiet week in Irish Philadelphia. But there’s still craic going on.
This is the weekend that you can dine and dance with the Galway Society—yes, all of them–at their annual dinner-dance at the Philadelphia Irish Center. The Vince Gallagher Band and Friends will provide the music for this Saturday night gala.
This is also a good week to see the Inis Nua Theatre Company’s production of “Dublin by Lamplight” at Broad Street Ministries in Philadelphia. We saw it last weekend and smiled the whole time, even during the “tragedy” parts. It runs through May 14.
And Spike TV’s new reality series, “Bar Rescue,” is coming to town in the early part of the week to Downey’s at 526 South Street in Philadelphia. Like Gordon Ramsey’s “Kitchen Nightmares,” this show will be chronicling struggling pubs’ last shot at avoiding last call. The producers want you to look your best because there will be TV cameras there and you may get your chance at stardom. Okay, probably not. But dress nicely anyhow. The crew will be there Monday at 7 PM, Tuesday at 8:30 PM, and Thursday at 8:30 PM.
Let John McDevitt help you find your ancestors—the ones who left a trail, that is—at the monthly genealogical meeting at the Irish Immigration Center in Upper Darby (be there at 11 AM and stay for lunch) on Thursday, May 12.
On Thursday night, head to the Irish Center for a meeting of the newly formed Irish Anti-Defamation Federation to help strategize a way that we never have to encounter any more of those stupid “[Blank] Me I’m Irish” and “Drink Till You’re Green” t-shirt on St. Paddy’s Day or ever again. We’re tired of photoshopping that out of pictures. And no, I don’t want to see your leprechaun or your blarney stones. You’re making us cranky.
Starting on Friday, the AOH/LAOH Div. 51 will be out in force collecting food and personal items for veterans at the Port Richmond Village Thriftway at Aramingo and York in Philadelphia. They’ll be there all weekend on behalf of the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service and Education Center in Philadelphia.
On Saturday, May 14, the Phoenixville Celtic Street Fair celebrates its fifth with music, food and vendors—and no admission fee—on Bridge Street between Main and Gay Streets in this most Irish of towns. It runs from 10 AM to 5:30 PM.
That gives you plenty of time to get to the Gwynedd Friends Coffee House in Gwynedd to catch the Jameson Sisters—Terry Kane and Ellen Tepper, two of the most talented and funniest people we know.
Also, local AOH groups are supporting a New York fundraiser for Gerry McGeough, an author, teacher, and president of the Tyrone County Board of the AOH, who is in Maghaberry Prison in Lisburn, Northern Ireland as the result of a 1981 incident in which McGeough and a British Ulster Defense Regiment soldier were wounded.
Be sure to go to the Inspirational Irish Women Awards website to order your tickets to this totally feel-good event. Tables are going fast. The wonderful Gabriel Donohue and Marian Makins, along with Dennis Gormley and Kathy De Angelo, will be performing at the afternoon cocktail reception at the Irish Center on Sunday, May 22. You can also read about some of the women–including a Philadelphia police officer who spends her vacation time volunteering in El Salvador, a local kids’ radio host who has won a prestigious Peabody award, and a nurse who won an award for courage.
Check out our calendar for all the pertinent details, and few not so pertinent ones that we throw in there just for kicks.
