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May 2012

Sports

Tuesday Night Lights

Matthew Quigley

Matthew Quigley belts one.

It’s 7:30, and daylight is already giving way to twilight over the athletic field at Northeast High School. Out on the freshly mown grass, about a dozen sweat-soaked young guys are running, jumping, and batting a ball. They’re trying to get as much practice time in as they can, before it gets so dark that they run the risk of beaning somebody.

Unlike the kids on the adjoining diamond, these mostly 20-something athletes aren’t playing baseball. They’re tthrowing themselves, body and soul, into a sport that is said to have originated over 3,000 years ago–the mad, bruising, distinctly Irish game known as hurling. The team goes by the name of Na Tóraidhe (na TOR-ig), meaning “pursuer” in the old Irish language. The word originated with a band of Irish guerrillas who battled (who else?) the British in the Irish Confederate War in the mid-1600s. The modern-day Philadelphia “pursuers” are sponsored by The Bards.

Over on the sidelines, assistant coach Kieran Donahue, one of only two Irish players on the team alternately shouts words of encouragement or mild exasperation.

“Great strike, Mike, use your hand now!”

“Hold on there a minute!!! Does everybody know where they’re supposed to be???”

“Beautiful, man! Lovely!”

“You gotta concentrate!!! This ain’t that complicated, and we’re (bleep) it up!!!”

Most of the players come to the game with a history of participation in American sports like baseball, football and hockey, says Donahue, and in spite of the occasional correction from the sidelines, he says they’re fast learners. They’ve already competed a bit, and will continue to play teams from other cities, like Washington or Baltimore, throughout the summer.

Some of the faces on the field seem familiar. We’ve seen them before—as members of Philly’s Shamrocks hurling team. Last year, the Shamrocks didn’t have enough manpower to compete much,  so the purpose of last season was to rebuild. Somewhere along the line, the name changed.

“The Shamrocks didn’t field a team last year in the North American Championships,” says Donahue. “They did continue on with training, and they also played some travel games. They used last year to recruit as many guys as they could to keep hurling alive in the city. Most are completely new to the game, and we’re in the process of teaching them. We got a lot of new blood, and so we said, ‘Why don’t we re-brand ourselves?'”

With so few native Irish available to keep hurling going in the Delaware Valley, American recruits are indispensible. Says Donahue: “It’s the only way hurling will survive.”

You can help keep hurling alive in Philadelphia. For details, visit the club’s website.

And if you want to see how the game is played, check out our video (above) or watch our big photo essay.

May 25, 2012 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Statue of Commodore Barry behind Independence Hall

A little story about Ceili Rain, the Celtic-flavored band playing Friday night at the Tin Angel in Philly. I heard them many years ago by accident. After dinner at The Plough with my cousins, we were walking along 2nd Street when we heard this irresistible music coming from the upstairs venue. We weren’t planning to hear music that night, but Ceili Rain changed our minds. If you’ve never heard them—they’re Tin Angel regulars—and like Celtic fusion played by top notch musicians, now’s your chance.

This weekend is also the annual commemoration of Commodore John Barry, father of the American Navy. The Wexford-born Barry lived in Philadelphia when he wasn’t sailing the high seas, fighting the British. He’s buried in the historic graveyard of St. Mary’s Church on Fourth Street, and it’s there on Sunday that a Mass and wreath-laying will be held.

Afterwards, head to the Irish Center where they’re holding a fundraiser so that a memorial to Barry can be completed at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Since Barry was an Revolutionary War hero, it’s about time the Navy recognized him. The national Ancient Order of Hibernians is just one of the Irish organizations behind the memorial.

If you’re down the shore, and I know some of you will be, catch Jamison performing at Casey’s in North Wildwood on Saturday night.

If it’s Memorial Day weekend, and it is, Blackthorn must be having its annual bash on Monday at Cannstatters in northeast Philly. And whaddya know, they are! That’s about 12 hours of fun and frolic that should be on your bucket list.

This coming Thursday, two of my favorite performers in all the world will be sharing a stage. Dublin’s legendary Finbar Furey will be at the World Café Live in Philadelphia, with the John Byrne Band (of Dublin and Philadelphia), opening for him.

Unfortunately, a few of my other favorite performers in all the world will be sharing a stage at the same time in Wilmington, DE, also at World Café Live–at the Queen. The Teetotallers are fiddler Martin Hayes, guitarist John Doyle, and the wild-and-crazy multi-instrumentalist Kevin Crawford of Lunasa. What to do, what to do?

Save the date: June 1, next Friday, is kick off for the annual three-day AOH Montgomery County Irish Festival held at St. Michael’s Picnic Grove in Mont Clare, PA. (It’s not as far away as you think—it’s near Phoenixville.) On the bill are Jamisn, the Bogside Rogues, McHugh and McGillian, Fisher & Maher and Belfast Connection. The Celtic Flame and Coyle School dancers will also be there, along with the Irish Thunder Pipes and Drums. Worried about the cost? Don’t be. It’s $5 to get in. Can beat that with a shillelagh.

And don’t forget: Sunday June 3 is the annual Irish Festival on Penns Landing. This year it features Blackthorn, the Hooligans, and Jamison, plus plenty of Irish dancers, food, and vendors, on the sparkling Delaware.

As always, check the calendar for details, times, listings and maps.

May 24, 2012 by
News, People

A Fundraiser That’s a Hole in One

Joan Waychunas sets up the sign for the Team Fiona 10th Tee Fundraiser.

Last year, Philadelphia’s trophy-winning Gaelic footballers, the Mairead Farrells, brought home their second national championship in a row. But the tournament, held in San Francisco, left them in the hole.

So this year, with the Gaelic championships in Philadelphia’s Pennypack Park over the Labor Day weekend, their annual fundraising golf tournament, held on Sunday, May 20, allowed them to play a little catch-up on last year’s bills since travel expenses will be minimal this year.

It also allowed them to do a good turn for a fellow footballer.

The tenth tee at the bucolic Edgmont Country Club in Delaware County was dedicated to Team Fiona—the name chosen by the group of friends and former teammates of Fiona Kealy who are determined to raise money to help the County Down native and mother of a toddler pay for her cancer treatment.

Team Fiona, which numbers 14 so far, will be competing in the Team Livestrong Challenge Philly race on August 17-19. There’s a 5K and an 10K walk/run, along with a bike ride up to 100 miles.

“Fiona and I were teammates on the old Emerald Eagles,” said Mairead Farrell’s coach, Angela Mohan. “That was back when we won four national championships in a row. When she was diagnosed with cancer last year, we knew we had to do something.”

Several dozen golfers came out for the yearly event. At the 10th tee, they were asked to bet on whether they’d be able to put their ball into a ring set up on the faraway green. All the losses were going to Team Fiona. And some of the wins too.

Team Fiona has also scheduled a fundraiser on June 22 at Paddy Rooney’s Pub, 449 West Chester Pike, in Havertown, featuring jewelry from Newbridge Silver, an Irish company with strong ties to the Philadelphia area.

The participants in the Saturday morning “Boot Camp” run by Mohan, who is a fitness trainer, are all contributing to Team Fiona too. Last year, “Angel’s Army,” as they called themselves, used money donated via the Boot Camp to buy toys and books for children at Nemours/Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware. “This year the money from the camp goes to Fiona,” said Mohan.

It’s only fitting, says Joan Waychunas, like Mohan, a native of Tyrone and a former footballer, who ran the 10th tee fundraiser. “If it was anybody else, Fiona would be doing the same thing,” she said.

View our photos from Sunday’s golf tournament.

May 24, 2012 by
Music

With a Banjo On His Knee

Finbar Furey

Finbar Furey, performing a couple of years back at the Shanachie Pub in Ambler.

If you want a review of Finbar Furey’s brilliant new banjo-centric recording, “Colours,” you might start with a very enthusiastic Finbar Furey.

“Its the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’m flying again,” says Furey, who is also renowned as one of the foremost practitioners or uilleann pipes in the world. “I haven’t played Appalachian banjo since my mother died. I found out I was playing the wrong instrument all me life. I have notes in me head that the pipes don’t play, but the banjo has it. It’s like second nature to me.”

Of course, it’s hardly as if Furey has never played banjo before, but this time around it just feels different to him, and it takes him back to the days when he learned the instrument from his mother Nora.

“I learned to play the banjo and sing from my mother. My mother played the melodeon and the concertina, and she could sing with it, but the banjo was her instrument. She taught me that music was like a wheel—there’s no end to it, and no beginning.”

There is one other notable influence, as well. Furey plays a five-string Framus banjo given him by Derroll Adams. Adams taught him a classic Appalachian style of play—thumb and forefinger. Furey blends his mother’s upbeat “breakdown” style with Adams’s “frailing” style, tosses in a bit of bluegrass … and that’s his sound. “It’s a whole new beautiful mixture,” he explains. “Its Irish music and pure soul.”

You’ll hear Furey’s distinctive banjo playing all through “Colours,” from the opening track, “After Sunday Mass,” to “The Ballad for George Best.” It also pops up in two classic folk numbers, “Blowing in the Wind” and “Waltzing Matilda.”

It’s not all banjo plucking of course. There are two delicious duets, the touching “Walking With My Love,” with Mary Black, and a bittersweet ballad “Rivers of Steel,” in which he pairs up with English X Factor winner Shayne Ward.

And fear not … Furey dusts off the pipes for the final tune, “Up By Christchurch And Down By St Patrick’s And Home,” inspired by the legendary piper Johnny Doran. Doran was crippled when a factory wall fell on him near Christchurch in Dublin.

“Doran was probably the greatest exponent of uilleann pipes ever. I went down to Clare a few weeks ago, and they still talk about him like he’s still alive.”

The tune never would have been written written, were it not for the timely intervention of Furey’s son Martin (of the High Kings).

“I was in my son’s house, and I turned the tape deck on and just played. I just played it as I wrote it, thinking of Johnny. I wanted to create a Mass for Johnny. Martin taped it as I played it, or I would have lost it.”

“Colours” reflects Furey’s lifelong interest in many kinds of music, an interest about which he feels not one bit proprietary, a point of view advanced by his father Ted.

“He used to say, ‘You wrote the music, but you don’t own it. I gave my music to you, and you moved the music forward. It just becomes part of the wheel.’

“You never put that heritage in a box and claim that it belongs to you on stage.”

You’ll get a chance to hear the tunes from “Colours” when Furey appears Thursday, May 31, at World Cafe Live. Also on the bill is Philly’s very own John Byrne.

For tickets:
http://tickets.worldcafelive.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=4448

May 18, 2012 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Timlin & Kane

Play time: Inis Nua Theatre Company’s latest production, “The Walworth Farce,” is getting some great reviews and you have until Sunday May 27 to see it at the “Off Broad Street Theatre” at the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia. You can also catch Brian Friel’s classic immigration story, “Philadelphia Here I Come,” at the Walnut Street Theatre

The Newtown Celtic Fest is this weekend. Catch some of our faves, including RUNA, Timlin & Kane, the Birmingham Six, and the Fitzpatrick Irish Dancers on Saturday. There’s food and drink and vendors too, otherwise they couldn’t officially call it a “fest.” No, we just made that up.

Timlin & Kane are all over the globe this weekend. They’re at the Sands Casino in Bethlehem on Friday night (performing, not gambling) and they’re off to the Scranton Irish Festival on Saturday night (that’s a lot of festing for one day, guys).

Speaking of dueling festivals—how about two more? We knew you’d love that. In Bensalem on Saturday , they’re hold the 22nd annual Summer Irish Festival at Park Polanka, featuring Tom McHugh and Company and Irish dancers. And Jamison Celtic Rock is performing at the Molly Maguire Street Festival in Lansdale, next to Molly Maguire’s Pub and Restaurant at Main and Wood Streets, also on Saturday. Top prizes to anyone who gets to all four festivals (unless you’re Timlin & Kane).

Make sure you tune into WTMR-800 AM on Sunday at noon. Marianne MacDonald, host of “Come West Along the Road,” is having an on-air pledge drive with lots of great prizes, including tickets to some upcoming musical events.

On Sunday, Celtic Thunder performers Ryan Kelly and Neil Byrne make a return engagement to The Plough and the Stars in Philadelphia for an evening of trad, folk, and original songs billed as “Acoustic by Candlelight.” Show up at The Plough on Thursday to hear BibleCode Sundays, a London Irish rock band making its first ever appearance in Philadelphia.

On Sunday: a serious turn. The Irish American Anti-Defamation Federation will join a variety of groups marching on Martin Luther King Drive in Philadelphia in the “March Against Hate.” The march is scheduled to start at 2 PM. You can walk with them (go to the website, walkagainsthate.org to register) or stand on the sidelines cheer them on. The IADF monitors and takes action on anything anti-Irish, but particularly products that promote negative stereotypes.

On Tuesday: There will be a vigil from 4:30-6 PM at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in support of Catholic nuns and sisters, who were recently criticized by the Vatican for not speaking up against abortion and homosexuality because they were too focused on taking care of the poor. We could say something really snarky here, but we’ll just leave it at an enthusiastic, “You go, Sisters! We love you!” The event is sponsored by the Nun Justice Project.

Set your calendars for next weekend for the annual commemoration of Commodore John Barry, who is so much more than a bridge and an Irish Center. The Wexford-born Barry lived in Philadelphia when he wasn’t busy starting the new American Navy during the Revolutionary War. (John Paul Jones often gets the credit, but he was just along for the ride.)

After a Mass at Old St. Mary’s Church on South 4th Street in Philadelphia, where Barry is buried in the churchyard, there will be a graveside ceremony followed by a fundraiser and meal at The Commodore Barry Club in Mt. Airy—AKA The Irish Center—to help raise capital for the erection of a memorial to Barry at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis.

May 18, 2012 by
News, People

Taking Their Next Step

St. Patrick's Day Parade Director Michael Bradley with two of the Rainbow Irish Dancers, Colleen, left, and Noreen, right.

The ladies were insistent. Michael Bradley, director of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, had to get up and learn an Irish step dance with them.

“You don’t want to see that,” joked Bradley, though he followed them half willingly to the dance floor, where, in the confusion, he managed to sneak away before the music started.

“That one,” he said, nodding toward one of the women, “told me when I came in that she was the best dancer.”

“That one” was Colleen O, one of the Rainbow Irish Step Dancers and a resident, like the rest of the troupe, of Divine Providence Village in Springfield, Delaware County, an Archdiocesan cottage-style residence for women with developmental disabilities.

Bradley, along with John Dougherty Sr. and Brian Stevenson, business agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Union Local 98, were at Divine Providence Village on Monday night on a very special errand. For their first appearance in the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade in March, the Rainbow Irish Step Dancers won the newly created Mary Theresa Dougherty Award, which will be given each year to an organization “dedicated to serving the needs of God’s people in the community.”

The award is named for the mother of John Dougherty Jr., business manager of Local 98 and this year’s parade grand marshal. The senior Dougherty presented the troupe with their plaque.

Kathleen Madigan, a former nutritionist at Divine Providence, is the troupe’s dance instructor. “The day of the parade was amazing,” she said. “The families were following us along the parade route, but so were people we didn’t know. When I asked some of them why they were following is they said “we just wanted to be with you and cheer you on.’ They were clapping for us all along.”

Madigan never set out to form a dance troupe at Divine Providence. The women were the standouts in a class Madigan gave every other Saturday. When she saw their determination, talent, and joy as they danced “Shoe the Donkey” and “Bridge of Athlone,” she decided to turn a social activity into something more serious.

The young women have mastered several dances and are learning several more. “They know their steps,” says Madigan. “Sometimes their heads and their feet don’t always work together, but they remember the steps. I can hear them repeating the steps out loud.”

A few of the women appear to have been born for show biz. Two are avid line dancers who go out a couple of times a week. Another is a performer with the State Street Miracles in Media, a troupe that highlights the artistry of adults with developmental disabilities.

And then there’s Colleen. Born with Down syndrome, Colleen (“I’m Irish, you know”) has the comic timing of a professional stand-up. When Bradley announced to the women that they would be attending Irish Heritage Night at the Phillies on June 19 and dancing on the field, the women broke into applause and hugged each other. “I’m going to teach the Phillies to dance,” announced Colleen, who waited for the laughs before she smiled too.

Bradley was visibly moved by the event. “It means a lot to me. I had a brother who had Down syndrome,” he said. That’s one of the reasons why, for more than 20 years, Bradley has been the basketball coach at the nearby Cardinal Krol Center at Don Guanella Village, working with the developmentally disabled young men who live there. “This is the kind of thing that makes everything I do all year worthwhile.”

View our photo essay. 

May 18, 2012 by
Arts

Definitely Not the Whole Truth

A scene from "The Walworth Farce."

A scene from "The Walworth Farce."

Tom Reing, artistic director of the Inis Nua Theatre Company, recalls the moment when the curtain came down on one of the earliest performances of Enda Walsh’s dark comedy, “The Walworth Farce.” He looked at his four actors and thought to himself, “it looked like they had just run a marathon.”

“The Walworth Farce” is a study in complexity. It is a play within a play in which an Irish father and his two sons, who left Cork for a dismal life in a London council flat, daily re-enact the stories behind that flight … stories that are not all true. This bizarre performance is interrupted by the arrival of a supermarket employee toting a bag of groceries one of the sons left behind at checkout.

To hear Reing tell it, it’s easy to understand why this play exacts such a toll on the actors. Bill Van Horn plays Dinny, the father; the sons are played by Harry Smith as Blake and Jake Blouch as Sean. Hayley is played by Leslie Nevon Holden.

“‘Farce’ is very quick. If it’s slow, the comedy doesn’t work. And you have these eruptions in the play within the play. There’s very high emotion, and very high-tension themes. The actors are running around and moving from room to room to do different scenes. One of the actors (Harry Smith) has to play all three women, and he has conversations with himself.”

Even the set is complex, he says.

“It takes a lot of work to make their flat look decrepit. These guys don’t clean… it’s three men. The set has a working sink and a working refrigerator. It has a tape recorder that they use on stage. There is a wireless signal in it, and it’s connected to the computer that is connected to our light board and sound.”

There are plenty of props, too, courtesy of Reing and a March trip to Dublin. While there, he packed a bag with Tesco (a supermarket chain) bags, spreadable cheddar, Mr. Sheen (a floor and furniture polish), and Pink Wafer biscuits.

Reing regards “Walworth” as a natural for Inis Nua, which presents contemporary works from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. The company previously presented Walsh’s harrowing “Bedbound.”

“Enda Walsh is really hot right now,” says Reing. This play seemed like another great example of his work. It happened serendipitously. He (Walsh) was just nominated for a Tony for his stage adaptation of ‘Once.’”

Reing finds the theme of “Walworth” fascinating. We all tell ourselves stories about our lives, but those stories don’t necessarily reflect the whole picture. “You embellish,” he says. “You tell the story so it’s favorable to yourself.”

So maybe it isn’t the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The complete, unvarnished truth about ourselves might just be too hard to live with. One line from the play sums it up best for Reing:

“‘It’s my truth, and that’s all that matters; it’s what you do to keep going on.”

The play runs through May 27 at First Baptist Church, 1636 Sansom St., in Philadelphia.

Tickets here:
http://inisnuatheatre.ticketleap.com/walworth-farce/#view=calendar

May 11, 2012 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

We're taking over Phoenixville!

Fun Mother’s Day weekend alert!

They’ll be dancing in the streets in Phoenixville. The annual Phoenixville Celtic Street Festival is on Saturday and features a great lineup of music, including Barleyjuice, Oliver McElhone, Charlie Zahm and Tad Marks, and the Brigade, as well as the Pride of Erin and New York Celtic dancers.

The street will be lined with vendors and there are plenty of Irish (and otherwise) restaurants in this fully revived town that steel built. Attendance is free.

In another part of the world—Drexel Hill—Blackthorn is on stage for four hours to raise money for Upper Darby Police Foundation. They’ll be playing under the big top—a tent at Casey’s Restaurant and Saloon on Lansdowne Avenue.

There are also three—count them—three Irish plays running in Philly: “A Behanding in Spokane” by Martin McDonagh at the Christ Church Neighborhood House; Enda Walsh’s “The Walworth Farce” at the First Baptist Church; and “Philadelphia Here I Come” at the Walnut Street Theatre. They’re all running for the next few weeks.

Broadway stars Kimilee Bryant and Ciaran Sheehan will be at William Tennent High School Auditorium on Saturday night singing songs from their Broadway roles in “Phantom of the Opera” and “Les Miserables.”

And the beautiful and talented Jamison Celtic Rock will be rocking it at Curran’s in the Northeast.

Surely there’s something there your Mammy would enjoy.

On Sunday, get her up on the dance floor at JD McGillicuddy’s in Upper Darby. The Theresa Flanagan Band will provide the music.

On Tuesday, Paul Byrom of Celtic Thunder is doing a solo at the Sellersville Theatre.

It’s as quiet as you want it to be till next weekend (though on Thursday there are meetings of the Irish American Genealogy group at the Immigration Center and the Irish American Anti-Defamation League at the Irish Center and there’s always a session somewhere).

Next weekend, Newtown joins the festival crowd with the Newtown Celtic Fest at the Newtown Theatre, featuring Timlin and Kane, RUNA, and the Birmingham Six, as well as the Fitzpatrick Dancers and men in kilts. The Beer Garden opens at 2 PM. Mmmmmmm.

May 11, 2012 by