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July 2011

News, People

Annabella McAleer Manley, 1925-2011

Annabella Manley

The Philadelphia Irish community lost a beloved friend and one of its brightest spirits this week when Annabella McAleer Manley passed away at age 86 on July 26th. Her presence will be especially missed at The Irish Immigration Center, where she was a cherished regular at The Center’s weekly lunches.

Born in Donaghmore, County Tyrone in 1925, Annabella was just 23 years old when she came to the United States. She embraced her adopted country, but carried with her always a love of her Irish culture and homeland.

In December of 2009, I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing Annabella for a video project at the The Immigration Center. Her own words tell the story of her journey from a happy childhood spent on a farm in Northern Ireland to a new life in America.

“We had what we called a small home, it wasn’t a large farm. It was beautiful country. We had nothing really extravagant; I guess we were poor, but not church mouse poor. It was just the four of us, my brother Johnny, my mom and dad and myself.

“I always felt that I would come to America eventually. But I didn’t know this when I used to listen to my grandmother’s records. She had one called ‘I’m Off to Philadelphia in the Morning’ and I would play that one over and over. So in the back of my mind I had an idea I was coming here one day.”

Annabella’s first stop was Derry City.

“I was working there. There were a lot of girls from Free Ireland. I was from The North, and they were from The Free State. So we became very good friends. This girlfriend of mine was born in America and she said she was going back. She was going to take her sister and her brothers, and told me that if I decided to come to America like I said, she’d sponsor me.

“I left Ireland for England when I was 18, and I stayed for 5 years. My girlfriend Florence brought all her sisters and brothers out to America, and then when I was living in London, I got a letter saying she was ready to sponsor me.”

That was how it was done in those days. Annabella followed her friend to the U.S., and lived with her family while she started her new life. The lovely young Irish woman got jobs modeling and then found her way to Philadelphia. She loved to tell stories about the evenings spent dancing at The Irish Center in Mt. Airy and at 69th Street in Upper Darby.

“We’re just going to miss her so much. She was such a smiley, happy person,” Siobhan Lyons, the Director of The Irish Immigration Center said. “She was always laughing and joking, so full of joy. And I will miss her great stories. She was so inspiring. She came over to America when she was young, and witnessed so many of the changes in the country. I am going to miss her terribly.”

Annabella’s funeral will be held on Saturday, July 30th at 11a.m. at St. Bernadette Church, Turner Avenue, Drexel Hill. Further details can be found in The Delaware County Daily Times.

July 29, 2011 by Lori Lander Murphy

Music

Young Local Trad Phenom Conal O’Kane is On His Way

Conal O'Kane, third in from the right.

Conal O’Kane. We knew him when.

We first met the Philadelphia-born fiddler/banjo player/guitarist back in May 2006, when he played fiddle with two bands, both of them comprised of young local phenoms, in a traditional music concert at Palmyra Cove Nature Park. Like proud parents, we still have the pictures.

(We also have a photo of him playing at the 2006 Penn’s Landing Irish Festival with a fun little pick-up band called Pat the Budgie.)

Philadelphia has long been an incubator for young Irish musical talents. Conal O’Kane is one of our local kids who has, predictably perhaps, gone on to bigger things as a young adult. Now 23 and a recent graduate of the prestigious traditional music and dance program at the University of Limerick, O’Kane is getting set to make his mark in the traditional Irish music world.

O’Kane is the guitarist for the jazzy little Irish band Goitse (pronounced “gwi-cha”), which will perform in a Green Willow-sponsored concert in Wilmington on Sunday. All the members of Goitse are present or former University of Limerick students. He’s the only American.

Even though his roots are in South Philly, O’Kane from a young age has had deep musical roots in Ireland. O’Kane’s father Patrick is from Buncrana in Donegal, and the family returned there for visits every summer. During one of those visits, when O’Kane was 13 or 14, his dad introduced him to a legendary Donegal fiddler Dinny McLaughlin. McLaughlin taught or inspired many present-day stars, including Liz Doherty, Ciaran Tourish and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh.

“Dinny is a great fiddle teacher from my dad’s home town,” O’Kane said in a recent interview. “He taught me half of a jig, the ‘A’ part of Whelan’s Fancy, and he told me that if I couldn’t play it well the next time I came to Ireland, he would strangle me. I don’t think I ever got the ‘B’ part off of him. I had to figure that out on my own.”

Long before his introduction to McLaughlin, O’Kane was on intimate terms with Irish music; his dad loved it. Recordings by groups like Altan, the Bothy Band and Dé Danann played in heavy rotation around the house, O’Kane explained, and he had always enjoyed listening to it. “It was a growing interest,” O’Kane said, “but the thing with Dinny definitely kick-started it.”

When he returned to Philadelphia, O’Kane looked for a fiddle teacher. At a Sunday session sponsored by the Next Generation, a group of young Irish music students led by local talents Dennis Gormley, Kathy DeAngelo and Chris Brennan-Hagy, O’Kane met one of the area’s top fiddle players and a four-time All-Ireland medalist, Brendan Callahan. O’Kane became a student.

Callahan proved to be a major influence right from the start, O’Kane recalls. “I got really lucky there. He’s just an awesome player, and I went to him for a few years.”

Thanks to Callahan, the next time O’Kane returned to Buncrana, he’d learned well enough that Dinny McLaughlin took him under his wing. That summer, and each summer thereafter, O’Kane completely immersed himself in the local music.

“I improved enough for Dinny not to strangle me. That was the main point,” O’Kane quipped. “I mean, when you know you’re going to be playing for Dinny, you want to be solid. I started playing in Irish music sessions with him around Buncrana. I really enjoyed the session scene. That’s what Irish music was about for me—it was playing with other people in sessions.”

O’Kane continued to play fiddle and improve. Along the way, he picked up and also loved banjo, which Callahan had recommended to him as a way to learn to play triplets on fiddle.

And when he was about 16, he added guitar to his arsenal, inspired by the likes of Irish guitar great Arty McGlynn.

O’Kane’s next big move was the University of Limerick, although there was a brief musical detour along the way.

“I took a year off after high school, sort of bumming around Galway playing music, trying to figure out what to do. And then a friend of mine from Philadelphia told me about the program at the University of Limerick. I went down and auditioned for it, and got accepted. I just auditioned on the fiddle. I figured the fiddle would be my main instrument, with banjo as the second, and then just sort of plunk away on guitar on my own.”

About midway through his stay at the university, O’Kane was invited to join the then brand spanking new band Goitse (it means “come here”) after he competed in a local battle of the trad bands sponsored by the university. Goitse won the competition, and O’Kane’s band lost … but the members of Goitse plainly saw something they liked. He’s been playing with the band ever since.

For now, O’Kane is committed to pursuing a career in Irish music. You won’t see him play often, though, because he’s living in Limerick. Philly is where he’s from, but Ireland is where his heart is.

“I go back to Philly maybe once or twice a year. But basically, yeah, I’m still living in Limerick. It’s my home now and all of my friends are there … and there is always good music around. I’m here for the long haul.”

If you want to become re-acquainted with this gifted young man, you can see him in concert with Goitse at Timothy’s on the Riverfront, 930 Justison St., in Wilmington on Sunday,starting at 7 p.m.

July 29, 2011 by Jeff Meade

How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Keegan Loesel will be competing in Ireland on the tin whistle.

This weekend 1,300 cyclists will be launching themselves from one Irish Pub to another. No, not a major pub crawl. It’s the annual Tour de Shore sponsored by the Irish Pub in Philly and in Atlantic City that raises money for local charities that support children via its nonprofit Irish Pub Children’s Foundation.

In its 21-year history, the Irish Pub Children’s Foundation has raised more than $1.2 million for nonprofits including The Variety Club of Philadelphia, the Hero Scholarship Fund, the FOP Survivors Fund and Project H.O.M.E. You can cheer the cyclists on from the Irish Pub on Walnut Street at around 7 AM and then meet up with them at the Irish Pub in Atlantic City later in the day.

If you prefer armchair sports, head over to the Irish Center in Mt. Airy on Saturday morning to watch GAA sports televised live from Ireland.

A group of musicians are coming together at Brittingham’s Irish Restaurant in Lafayette Hill on Sunday morning to play and raise money for Alex Weir and Keegan Loesel, two youngsters who will be traveling to Ireland in August to compete in the All-Ireland music competitions (on fiddle and whistle respectively). Laine Walker-Hughes, fiddler with Belfast Connection, has organized this brunch ceili, as well as a raffle.

Also on Sunday, another fundraiser for three New Jersey kids also heading to Cavan town to compete, this one at Christ Episcopal Church in Somers Point. They’re three-time Mid-Atlantic under-12 Irish fiddle champion Haley Richardson, her brother Dylan who took second in the under-15 accompaniment competition, and Emily Safko who placed second in under-12 harp, first in harp slow air, and first with her partner (Alex Weir) in duets.

Jamison—winner (best Irish band) of the Strangford Lough Brewery “battle of the bands” last year–will perform at Keenan’s Irish Pub in N. Wildwood on Saturday night (with CJ and John doing an acoustic session at Tucker’s in Wildwood later on. Then they’re back on stage again on Sunday at Shenanigan’s in Sea Isle City. Busy weekend.

Speaking of busy, also on Sunday: Goitse, a five-piece band who trace their roots to the University of Limerick, will perform at Timothy’s on the Riverfront in Wilmington, DE.

Musikfest, Bethlehem’s eclectic version of Woodstock (not really), kicks off on Friday, August 5, and a number of notable Irish/Celtic acts are scheduled to perform, including RUNA, Barleyjuice, Scythian, Gaelic Storm, the Jameson Sisters, and Amarach, a Lehigh Valley group that calls its style “smokin’ Irish.”

And all you Irish dancers, dance moms and dance dads: The documentary, “Jig,” which looks at the 40th annual Irish dance championships in Glasgow, Scotland, opens Friday at the Bala Theater in Bala Cynwyd. One critic described it as “Spellbound meets Lord of the Dance.” Actually, it’s about all the work and dedication kids and their families put into competition dancing–something you know all about.

Coming up: RUNA performing with the Canadian Celtic fusion group, the Town Pants, at Sellersville Theatre, and Moya Brennan of Clannad with Cormac de Barra. Okay, what do those two groups have in common? Why, it’s the de Barra brothers. Fionan de Barra plays with RUNA (with his wife, Shannon Lambert-Ryan) and once played with Moya Brennan with his brother, Cormac. Cormac is a championship harper, Fionan plays guitar and several other instruments. Family reunion?

July 28, 2011 by Denise Foley

Dance, Music

Make Plans Now for the 2011 Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival

Matt Ward will sing out at this year's singers' session.

The annual Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival is just a little over a month away, but the excitement is already building.

The festival runs from Thursday, September 8, through Saturday, September 10, at the Philadelphia Irish Center in Mount Airy. Planning continues now at something of a feverish pace for a jam-packed program of Irish music, dance and culture.

One of the highlights of this year’s festival is the Saturday night concert by three members of a superb Irish ensemble, The Pride of New York—Brian Conway, Brendan Dolan, and Billy McComiskey.

“(It’s) a great band out of New York City that usually includes Joannie Madden,” says the Ceili Group’s Anne McNiff. “Joannie will be out of the country in September and unable to join her bandmates for the festival concert. We were just thrilled to have “the boys” and know that everyone can look forward to a great show.”

The hot local band Runa, featuring singer Shannon Lambert-Ryan, is also on the bill, as are dancers from the Coyle School.

The long weekend opens with singers’ night, dedicated to the late longtime festival chairman Frank Malley. “The first singers night was held at the Mermaid Inn as a ‘prefest’ event and was such a success that he (Malley) brought it in as a regular part of the lineup,” says McNiff.

The great Irish singer Matt Ward, one of Malley’s favorites, is in this year’s lineup. Local singers include the well-known singing publican Gerry Timlin, together with longtime favorite Vince Gallagher and the talented Terry Kane, who sings in both English and Irish.

On the following night, a terrific band from Baltimore, Dan Isaacson’s Simple System, is featured in fireside concert.

For those who want to hone their Irish music performance skills, Saturday offers a wide array of workshops, taught by some of the best in the business:

Brian Conway (fiddle)
Billy McComiskey (accordion)
Dan Isaacson (pipes and whistle)
Danny Noveck (guitar)
Matthew Olwell (bodhran)
Terry Kane (Irish singing)

Other workshops include:

Brendan Dolan – Irish Music: Gems from the Moloney Collection
Tracing Your Irish Roots, the Ins and Outs of Genealogy with Lori Lander Murphy
The true story of Duffy’s Cut, presented by Frank Watson
A workshop on Sean Nos (old style) dancing with Kelly Smit for dancers at all levels
An Irish Language workshop with Leo Mohan
Knitting and spinning demonstrations
An informational talk on Commodore Barry by Frank Hollingsorth and Billy Brennan
“How to be Irish in Philadelphia” with Jeff Meade and Denise Foley
Tin Whistle for Beginners with Dennis Gormley
St. Brigid’s Cross making
Irish Folk Tales for Children with Basha Gardner.

Also for the kids: face-painting and balloon animals.

Vendors also will be on hand with food, gifts, and more.

All of that, plus you never know when Irish music will spontaneously break out.

Tickets for the festival are on sale now. Visit the Philadelphia Ceili Group Web site for details.

July 28, 2011 by Jeff Meade

Sports

Hurling in High Heat

A Shamrock hurtles downfield.

What was the final score?

Blame the hundred-plus-degree heat out on the field at Northeast High School, but the end of Saturday’s game, no one seemed to know. Or care.

After the final whistle, the exhausted players of the Philadelphia Shamrocks and the Worcester (Mass.) Hurling Club dragged themselves off to a little corner near the pitch to sit in what little shade there was to be had. They stripped off their sweat-streaked jerseys, dropped to the ground and started to put away many icy bottles of water and Gatorade.

Everybody knew the away team had won handily, but no one knew by what score.

Frank O’Mara, captain of the rebuilding Shamrocks, suggested his own final tally. “Just say it was a draw,” he quipped. “These boys are from Massachusetts. They’re never gonna read it, anyway.”

When we weren’t sitting under a tree and drinking our own water and Gatorade, we headed out to the sidelines for some pictures.

Here they are.

July 24, 2011 by Jeff Meade

How to Be Irish in Philly, Music, News, People

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Enter the Haggis

Next year, we’re taking most of the summer off and spending it down the shore because clearly, that’s the only way to be Irish in Philly. Even some of our favorite local groups, like Blackthorn and Jamison, are performing mainly in Jersey this summer. Working on their Celtic tans, no doubt.

Blackthorn will be closer to home in August (August 14, at 7:30 PM) , giving a concert at Rose Tree Park in Media. But at the end of the month (August 27) they’ll be playing for the beach crowd at the Windrift Hotel in Avalon (we love Avalon).

Jamison has gigs at Shenanigans in Sea Isle this Sunday and Keenan’s Irish Pub in North Wildwood on July 30, plus an acoustic session at Tucker’s in Wildwood later in the evening.

And you can catch the Broken Shillelaghs (all or part of them) at McMichael’s, near the sunny shores of the Delaware River in Gloucester City, NJ, just over the bridge from Philly on Monday night.

Also in town, the Bogside Rogues: They’ll be rocking and rolling at Daly’s Pub in the Northeast on Saturday night.

Enter the Haggis will also be in the area on Sunday, performing at the Sellersville Theatre in Sellersville with the John Byrne Band. If you’ve never been to Sellersville, now’s the right time. Not only are they two fabulous bands, you barely have to be out in the heat to make a cool evening of it. Right next to the Sellersville Theatre is Washington House, a great restaurant with a turn-of-the-century bar that will take you back in time except that everything’s air-conditioned. You’ll only be hot for a few seconds.

At Quakertown’s Memorial Park, RUNA with Shannon Lambert-Ryan will be playing till after the sun goes down on Sunday.

Mark your calendars for July 31 when Belfast Connection hosts a benefit brunch for Alex Weir and Keegan Loesel, two young musicians who qualified for the annual All-Ireland music competitions in Cavan Town in August, at Brittingham’s Irish Pub in Lafayette Hills. Your $20 will buy you a delicious meal, some great music, and help defray the costs of the trip for the boys and their families.

On the same day in Somers Point, NJ, there’s a benefit ceili for three other local youngsters going to the Fleadh, including fiddle phenom Haley Richardson, her brother, Dylan, and harper Emily Safko.

July 22, 2011 by Denise Foley

Food & Drink, News, People

Bar Rescue?

Brian Duffy in Downey's kitchen.

Back in May, Spike TV’s newest series, “Bar Rescue,” came to Philadelphia to take on Downey’s Pub and Restaurant at Front and South. They sent in a restaurant turnaround artist, an experienced Irish chef, and a bar guy. They should have sent in FEMA.

When the show airs on Sunday night, July 24, at 10 PM, you’ll see why.

“This was absolutely the worst and dirtiest restaurant I’ve ever set foot in,” says Brian Duffy, the chef who has helmed the kitchens of the Shanachie Irish Pub and Restaurant in Ambler, the Kildare’s Irish Pub chain, and once, many years ago, Downey’s.

“There was trash in the hallways. Dead lobsters everywhere. The walk-in fridge was more like an air conditioner. The products in there were rancid. It was 52 degrees and it’s supposed to be under 40. It’s like throwing a festival for bacteria,” says Duffy, the culinary expert who served as menu doctor for two previous struggling bars in the series.

Few are struggling as much as Downey’s, once a Philly Irish institution during the decade’s long reign of the late Jack Downey. Two days before St. Patrick’s Day this year, Philadelphia health inspectors shut down the place for 51 health code violations. It opened two days later, but will be re-inspected in September.

Owner/chef Domenico Centofanti is already in financial trouble. The bar could face sheriff’s sale because Centofanti owes the city more than $100,000 in back taxes. Beset by lawsuits—including from unpaid employees—Centofanti filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last September.

What Gordon Ramsey is to “Kitchen Nightmares,” Jon Taffer is to “Bar Rescue.” One of the country’s top restaurant and bar consultants, Taffer, the brains behind Pulsations and Rainforest Café, specializes in giving last-chance establishments one more chance. Spike calls him “the man to call when your bar is on the rocks.” And like Ramsey, his style is in-your-face.

“He’s tough to take, but he knows what he’s doing,” says Duffy. “Jon’s a very scientific man. He even designs menu based on studies of where the eye goes and what your thoughts are when you’re reading it.”

The third man on the Downey’s team was Keith Raimondi, whiskey maven from Iron Chef Jose Garces’ Village Whiskey on South 20th Street. (The show also hired a retired health inspector to give the place a once-over.)

Three guys, five days. That’s all the time they got to raise the bar on Downey’s, which shut down for the makeover. “There was no bar manager, no general manager, no chef, just the three of us,” says Duffy. Plus the crew that came in to clean the kitchen.

“The first thing I did was look at the menu and it was funny, because it still had some of my items from when I was the chef,” Duffy says. But it also had veal parm and other Italian dishes. “They had to go. It just didn’t make sense. So we added some Irish stuff, simple fun stuff that was more appropriate.”

Spike TV paid for new walk-ins, a stove (“When we started cleaning the stove the whole thing collapsed on itself,” says Duffy) and other equipment, as well as new menus and uniforms for the wait staff. “It was painted inside and the bar was reorganized,” says Duffy, who is now corporate executive chef for Seafood America in Warminster, a supplier of fresh and frozen seafood products to retail stores.

Duffy worked with the staff on establishing schedules for daily and weekly cleaning, creating prep lists and other organizational tools, and worked closely with Domenic Centofanti—that is to say, engaged in screaming matches with the chef-owner—to help get the kitchen back on track. “It’s really a shame, because Dom is an amazing chef,” says Duffy.

The show ends with the major re-launch, when even the health inspector Spike hired “couldn’t believe it” when he not only re-inspected the place but also ate there, says Duffy.

But this particular bar rescue may have been too little, too late. Not only is Centofanti facing some high legal hurdles, some of what was done appears to have been undone, Duffy says.

“I thought Dom and had kind of gotten through to each other, but we left on a Thursday and the old menu was back up on Friday morning,” he says.

Bar Rescue’s Downey’s episode airs Sunday, July 24, at 10 PM, on Spike TV. Check your local listings. And keep an eye out for some familiar Irish faces. Besides Duffy, local singer John Byrne made an appearance on the show.

July 22, 2011 by Denise Foley

People

Antoin Mac Gabhann and a House Concert Extraordinaire

Antoin Mac Gabhann at the PCG house concert

There is no musical experience in the world quite like a house concert. And last Friday’s Antoin Mac Gabhann performance, sponsored by the Philadelphia Ceili Group, was a special one even by house concert standards.

The 25 guests in attendance were too busy enjoying the tunes and stories shared with them by one of Ireland’s best traditional fiddle players to pay any heed to the rain and thunder outside. In the cozy living room, laughter and conversation flowed easily between performer and audience.

Mac Gabhann, whose last name translates from Irish to English as “Son of the Smith,” holds, among other honors, that of being a two time winner of the All-Ireland Senior Fiddle title. In addition to teaching weekly fiddle lessons in his County Meath home for over 30 years, and participating in sessions all over the world, the Cavan born Mac Gabhann has also published two volumes of Vincent Broderick tunes, titled “The Turoe Stone Collection.”

In between playing some Broderick reels and jigs, Mac Gabhann explained how the books came about:

“I had been playing these for years before I knew that they were Broderick tunes. I didn’t know anything that Broderick had composed. And, in fact, I discovered that these were his tunes when I was playing with him, having a little session one night. I played one of the tunes and I said ‘I got these tunes down in Fermanagh.’ And he said, ‘But they’re my tunes!’ And, in fact, I played the three jigs [“The Haunted House,” “The Whistler at the Wake” and “The Old Flame”], and he had forgotten all about ‘The Old Flame.’

“When I played it, he remembered it. So I said to him, ‘Well, do you have more tunes?’ And he said he had, a good few.” Mac Gabhann asked if Broderick would put them on tape and send them to him, which Broderick was happy to do. “He was concerned that the tunes would be lost. And people were playing some of them and didn’t know they were his. So, every now and again, I’d get a tape, and then I’d get another tape, and a few more.

“We published a book of them, it was about 1994 or 1995 I’d say. And then when that was done, he’d begin to give me another tape, and another tape. It took me longer to get to listen to the tapes the second time around, but we did publish, a few years before he died, a second book of his tunes.”

We managed to capture Mac Gabhann playing some Broderick reels and jigs on video, as well as a few other tunes, so take a listen to a snippet of what was indeed a rare and magical night of music: Antoin Mac Gabhann Playing Tunes in Philly

July 15, 2011 by Lori Lander Murphy

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