RUNA: At Musikfest in Bethlehem.
It’s a grand week for music, but Saturday night poses some seriously difficult decision-making. What to do, what to do? You’ve got Moya Brennan with Cormac de Barra at Sellersville, RUNA at Musikfest in Bethlehem, and Tempest, that crazy Celtic-Norwegian rock band from California, at John & Peter’s in New Hope.
One thing you can do is catch Tempest on Monday instead—they’re performing at the Hatfield Music Feast at School Road Park in Hatfield. As for Moya Brennan and RUNA—you’re choosing between the two de Barra brothers (Fionan plays with RUNA). Family feud anyone?
And as they say on late-night infomercials, but wait, there’s more! The Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire happens this weekend too at Mount Hope Estate Winery in Manheim, PA. Go back to medieval times, when things were so much better than they are today (oh, except for the wars, the poverty, and the plague, but who remembers those things?).
On Sunday, the GAA action starts at noon at Cardinal Dougherty High School field in Philadelphia, with championship games between St. Patrick’s and the Young Irelands, and the Kevin Barrys and the Naomh Peregrine, and Eire Og and St. Patrick’s. The Youth Football teams–the Delco Gaels, Delco Harps and Philadelphia Shamrocks–will be playing starting at 1:30 PM.
Irish dancer alert: A new play debuts at the New York City Fringe Festival. “The Bad Arm: Confessions of a Dodgy Irish Dancer,” is an account of the daughter of an Irish dance teacher who is English in Ireland and Irish in England and her flirtations with sex, booze and rock. Um, this one is not for the wee ones.
If you’re in Wildwood, Jamison is performing on Sunday at Shenanigans and there’s a fundraiser at Keenan’s Irish Pub to raise money for a foundation established in the name of Joanie Logan, a Delaware County three-year-old who drowned in a Memorial Day accident this year.
Closer to home on Sunday, catch Blackthorn at Rose Tree Park in Media on Sunday night, and look for David Browne-Murray, a graduate of St. Malachy’s College in Belfast (they’ve marched in the Philly St. Patrick’s Day parade), at Maggie O’Neill’s in Drexel Hill. Browne-Murray is trying to raise money to get out to Montana to play in an international guitar competition.
On Monday, the kids are headed to Club Cultur at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Havertown to learn how to be Irish this week. Donegal’s Tina McDaid is running the summer camp for kids 5-14 who will be learning the Irish language, plus picking up on the history and geography (and saints and games, of course) of the land of their ancestors.
On Tuesday, head down to the lovely estate of Glen Foerd on the Delaware in Northeast Philadelphia to hear the musical and comedy stylings of Timlin and Kane (two of our very best favorite peeps), along with the Cummins School of Dance, the John Shields dancers, and piper Del Campbell. Frank Hollingsworth will be your host.
The Inis Nua Theatre Company continues to find fun ways to raise money. On Wednesday, all cash tips from happy hour at Chris’ Jazz Café on Sansom Street in Philadelphia will go to help send the company’s production of “Dublin by Lamplight” to the New York Irish Theater Festival in September. There are free appetizers, drink specials, guest bartenders (St. Patrick’s Day Parade Director Michael Bradley, 2009 Philly Rose of Tralee Jocelyn McGillian and 2010 Rose, Mairead Conley, and Siobhan Lyons of the Irish Immigration Center—do not, repeat, do not ask her for an Irish Car Bomb or you will be mightily sorry), music (guitarist Jim Fogarty) and the Tullamore Dew cocktail ladies with free samples.
On Thursday night, the Young Dubliners along with the John Byrne Band will be appearing at World Café Live. On Friday night, the Irish Anti-Defamation Federation will be meeting at the Irish Center.
Also this week: Look for the opening of the new movie, “The Guard,” starring the always brilliant Brendan Gleeson as a salty garda in Connemara who teams up with an FBI agent (the always wonderful Don Cheadle) to investigate an international drug smuggling ring. It’s at the Ritz5 in Philadelphia.
As always, the details of all of the above are on our calendar.
