Monthly Archives:
September 2012
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Mmm, butterfly potatoes, a delicious staple of Irish Fall Weekend in N. Wildwood. Get some this weekend.
It’s Irish Fall Weekend in N. Wildwood. You know what that means. Music, food, parades, vendors, and fun by the sea.
On Friday night, catch Belfast Connection, Celtic Connection, the Bogside Rogues, Sean Fleming Band, and Secret Service in the Tent at the Point at Moore’s. On the free live entertainment stage, you’ll hear Brimingham 6, Celtic Pride, Ballina, Moira Maestro McKinney, First Highland Watch, all of whom will be playing the following day as well.
On Saturday, you can hear the Highland Rovers Band, Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones, and Celtic Connection at the music tent. That’s after you’ve participated in the 5K run and 1 Mile Walk or taken your free Irish dance lessons at the Anglesea Volunteer Fire House at 2nd and Olde New Jersey Avenues. Don’t forget the Brian Riley Pipe Exhibition at 10 AM with six of the best pipe bands on the east coast. And on the free stage, the Broken Shillelaghs close out the evening.
On Sunday, there’s a parade that starts at 12:30 PM at 24th and Surf Avenues. That follows a Catholic Mass at St. Anne’s Church, 2900 Atlantic Avenue in Wildwood at 10:30 AM.
But that’s not all. This is a big weekend for Irish musicians in New Jersey, as it always is. On Friday night, No Irish Need Apply is performing at Owen’s Pub in North Wildwood, followed by the Birmingham 6. You can hear Clancy’s Pistol at the Anglesea Pub along with the Willie Lynch Band, the Paul Moore Band at Westy’s Pub Deck, Irish Slamm Band at Flip Flopz and the Broken Shillelaghs at Tucker’s in nearby Wildwood.
On Saturday, Slainte (an offshoot of Jamison) is at Keenan’s Irish Pub in North Wildwood, while the Broken Shillelaghs will be at Tucker’s in Wildwood. Don’t miss the Hooligans (with the wild and crazy Luke Jardel) at Westy’s Pub Deck, the Barley Boys at Westy’s Downstairs, the Shantys at the Anglesea Pub tent, the Irish Slamm Band still at Flip Flopz, Seamus Kelleher at Owen’s Pub, the First Highland Watch at the Shamrock Pub, the Malarkey Trio at Westy’s Downstairs, the Paul Moore Band encoring at Westy’s Pub Deck, and Galway Guild at the Anglesea pub tent. We know we’re missing some, but hey, that’s a lot of Irish bands to account for.
On Sunday, the music plays on with some of the same bands. A few changes: the Essex Pipes and Drums will be playing at Owen’s at 3-4 and Barley Juice will be at Flip Flopz from 7 to 11.
Blackthorn will be performing in Sea Isle City this weekend at various times at La Costa, along with West of Galway and Cletus McBride.
And Jamison has six gigs over the weekend, sometimes one right after the other. See them at Casey’s on Third in N. Wildwood on Friday, at Keenans from 4-8 PM, then Casey’s from 9:30 till who knows when on Saturday. They’re back at Caseys on Sunday at noon. They’ve just released a new CD and you’ll get it first if you hook up with them at the shore.
You might think that with all that going on in Jersey, things would be quiet elsewhere, but no! The “Irish Superbowl”—the Sam Maguire Cup match between Donegal and Mayo Gaelic footballers—is on in Croke Park in Dublin. There’s a big pep rally at the Irish Center on Friday night in the ballroom with live music, food, and drink specials (though, alas, we haven’t heard that the Donegal and Mayo societies are sending cheerleaders). Then you can watch the game on TV over a home-cooked Irish breakfast at the center on Sunday at 10 AM for only $20 for the game and $10 for the breakfast.
The Irish Center is also hosting Donegal fiddlers Peter Campbell and Caoimhin Mac Aoidh on Friday night in the Fireside Room. The two will also be appearing on Sunday at the West Chester University Phillips Autograph Library in West Chester.
Oh, but that’s not all. If you can’t go to the shore for the weekend, how about the river? Maggie’s Waterfront Café is holding its own Irish Fall Weekend on Saturday featuring drink specials and The John Byrne Band.
Byrne has started a new regular Sunday session at Maloney’s of Ardmore which will be having two sessions every week. The second, on Tuesday, is the heretofore itinerant session from the Shanachie Restaurant in Ambler, which closed several months ago, led by Fintan Malone. The Shanachie session moved down the street to Finn McCool’s, but when the pub closed after a rear wall collapsed, the session musicians wound up playing in private homes. Now they have a pub to call their own.
How about a blast from the past? The Tannahill Weavers will weave their Scottish musical magic at the Sellersville Theatre on Sunday night. Members get in for half price.
On Tuesday, William Desmond, Irish philosopher and professor at the Higher Institute of Philosophy at the Katholicke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and at Villanova, will be leading a discussion at Villanova’s Driscoll Auditorium on the complexities connected with the philosophical thinking development in the Irish tradition. We Irish love to philosophize.
Then on Wednesday, Irish brothers and musicians Cillian (“Lunasa”) and Niall Vallely will perform at a house concert in Voorhees, NJ. They’re back the following Sunday for a concert at the Coatesville Cultural Center.
Fresh from her triumphant appearance at the Democratic National Convention, one of the “nuns on the bus,” Sister Simone Campbell, will be speaking at Chestnut Hill College on Thursday. Not only is she a religious leader, she’s an attorney and poet who lobbies on issues of peace building, health care, comprehensive immigration reform, and economic justice.
Also on Thursday, the Irish group, BUA, will be performing at a house concert in Ambler. In 2009, they won the Irish Music Awards’ “Top Traditional Group” prize.
Next weekend: Bethlehem’s Celtic Classic, definitely worth a trip north; the Philo Ball at the Doubletree by Hilton, which is raising money for St. Malachy’s School in North Philadelphia; and plenty more. Check our calendar for all the details.
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Donegal Coach Jim McGuinness played in the Philly GAA in 1999. Photo Evan Logan
By Liam Porter
Across County Donegal, Ireland, there is only one topic of conversation this week – and that’s football.
Gaelic football that is. Donegal have qualified for their first all-Ireland final in twenty years and the county has gone crazy.
Houses, shops, even sheep have been painted in the county colours of green and gold and the one question everybody wants an answer to – where can they get their hands on a ticket for the game?
The all-Ireland final, is to Gaelic football what the Superbowl is to American football.
It is arguably though, a much bigger deal.
Over 82,000 people will pack into Dublin’s Croke Park on September 23rd to watch Donegal play Mayo – many thousands more will watch on television.
And they’ll be there to watch – not multi-million dollar earning sports stars – but amateurs; teachers, bank officials, engineers – all giving their all in an effort to win Gaelic football’s biggest prize.
It’s a tough prize to win too. The country’s most successful football team, Kerry, was the last team to win back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.
Fancied again for success in 2012, Kerry fell to Donegal at the quarter-final stage in August. Last year’s winners, Dublin, were put to the sword against Mayo who have waited even longer than Donegal to taste all-Ireland success.
Their last win came way back in 1951 and rumors abound that having driven past a funeral during their celebrations, they were cursed by a priest who said they’d never win another until every member of that squad was dead.
They’ve been in five finals since then, most recently in 2006 and have lost them all.
It’s perhaps not such a surprise then that the build up in Mayo is a much lower key affair than the hype and hysteria that has been going on in Donegal.
Mayo manager James Horan has kept his squad in the county doing what they would normally do in the build up to a match.
And he’s confident that their approach will be the right one to topple a Donegal side who have ruffled the feathers of big teams like Kerry and Cork on their way to the final.
The man responsible for the Donegal transformation – Jim McGuinness – was a member of the Donegal panel in 1992 when the county won their only All-Ireland, and as a coach he has really earned his corn.
Yet as a player, McGuinness had pretty much done it all. A fringe member of the 1992 squad he has won Ulster and All-Ireland medals and at College’s level he won three prestigious Sigerson Cups.
He represented Ireland in the 1998 Compromise Rules series against Australia and in 1999 he travelled to Philadelphia to play for a Philadelphia Donegal team that included fellow Donegal player Brian McLaughlin and Tyrone player Ciaran Gourley.
Playing with his home-town club Naomh Conaill from Glenties in 2005 he won the Donegal Senior Championship after which McGuinness had his eyes on coaching.
“I’ve always liked working with people who want to achieve, who want to better themselves,” he said last week as he prepared his team for the biggest game of their lives.
Under his guidance the Donegal players who have themselves won two Ulster titles, have become hugely respected for their fitness, discipline and dedication.
That is in no small measure down to the level of preparation and the attention to detail the coach and his backroom staff have brought to the set up.
As the county went wild with flags and bunting and songs for Donegal, McGuinness had his players whisked away from all the madness to training camps in Kildare and Meath.
There the Donegal team could work without distraction on tactics and preparations for their battle with Mayo.
Meanwhile back in their home county and indeed everywhere there are Donegal folk gathered including Philadelphia, the talk continued about football, football, football and the search for tickets…
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Constance the Butterfly
From singers’ night last Thursday to Saturday’s smashing finale, a concert by the legendary Dé Danann, the 2012 Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival was far and away one of the most popular and best attended ever.
Probably the best sign of success was the Saturday Dé Danann show, with opener, the uillean piper Paddy Keenan accompanied by Dé Danann bouzouki player Alec Finn. The Irish Center ballroom was as packed as it’s ever been, with a lot of late-arriving concert-goers going chairless. They didn’t seem to mind. Dé Danann, with the luminescent singer Eleanor Shanley belting out tunes, was incredibly sharp for a band that was formed at about the time the Pleistocene era was ending. OK, maybe not that long ago, but there sure was a lot of gray hair up onstage.
Earlier in the day, festival-goers had their choice of things to do, from face-painting with the kids to dancing lessons to musical workshops with the likes of Dé Danann iconic bodhran player Johnny “Ringo” McDonagh.
Sean Tyrrell’s one-man show, “Who Killed James Joyce,” was likewise well attended on Friday night.
We were there for most of it, and we have the pictures to prove it.
Check them out:
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Emily Safko
Amy and Greg Safko knew early on that their daughter Emily had vision problems. When Emily was 2, doctors told the Medford, N.J., couple that their daughter was highly nearsighted.
“We knew something was off,” says Amy Safko. “She would pull everything right to her face.”
Then, three years ago, Emily’s vision declined dramatically. She was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder call Stickler Syndrome, which damages the eyes, along with the ears, and connective tissue throughout the body.
Emily’s vision problems came to a head late last year when she started noticing spots and flashes in her field of vision—floaters—and she suddenly couldn’t read the blackboard in school. What followed were multiple surgeries and, finally, the finding that Emily, now 10 years old, is legally blind.
All of which makes Emily’s fourth place finish in the under-12 Celtic harp competition at the Fleadh Cheoil last month—the annual “world series” of Irish music—that much more remarkable. Some might say it was miraculous.
“She’s remarkably better than we ever could have expected,” Amy says. “We are just so happy.”
Optimism apparently runs in the family. When she learned of her condition, Emily recalls, “I thought it was cool because not many other kids have it. It wasn’t getting me down.”
Stickler Syndrome also appears to run in the family. Testing showed that Amy Safko herself had Stickler, but had never been symptomatic. She had been born with a cleft palate, which is associated with Stickler Syndrome. Additionally, her joints had always been hyperflexible, which can also be a sign.
The family’s upbeat attitude was sorely tested in the months leading up to the Fleadh Cheoil (flah KEE-ole), held in August in County Cavan.
Following her surgeries, doctors told the Safkos that Emily had a long road ahead of her. “Her right eye has no lens,” says Amy. “The left eye is the better of the two. She still has a cataract they didn’t want to touch.”
Emily’s eyes are both filled with silicone, a temporary step to help promote healing, her mother explains. “The silicone was put in there as part of the retinal detachment repair. It usually comes out in three months, but she still has it in both eyes. If they work on the cataract, the oil can get in other parts of the eye. No one wants to touch that eye.”
Overall, Emily lost a month of practice time leading up to competition season, and when she was finally able to start playing again, nothing about it came easily.
“I had to re-learn harp, sort of,” says Emily. “At first, I lost some parts, but my teacher always talks about ‘muscle memory.’ My fingers remembered.
“It was really tricky with the strings. When I started to play the harp again in January, the strings were all weird. Some of the strings are see-through, and I couldn’t see them at all.”
Those difficulties held Emily back for just a week. “It doesn’t take long for me to remember things. Once I learn a tune, all I have to do is put my fingers in the starting position, and then I just go from there.”
Before her most recent Fleadh, Emily had competed in Ireland twice. This is the first year she finished so high up in the rankings. She almost finished in the top three in slow airs. She tied for third, but finished fourth after a callback.
One reason for Emily’s strong finish is her deeply competitive nature, Amy Safko says. But support from the Irish music community provided another big boost.
“One of the biggest things that was so amazing to us was just how supportive the Irish music community was to us,” says Amy Safko. “We got cards from harpists every day from around the world, people we didn’t even know. Some of them sent gifts, and we didn’t even know them. It was amazing to us.”
As for where she goes from here, Emily Safko has no doubt about it. She wants to go back to Ireland next August to try again.
“It’s a lot of fun going there. I’m looking forward to next year.”
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There's a golf tourney this week to benefit Ciara Kelly Higgins, who doesn't let a little thing like cerebral palsy get her down.
If you’re new to this area, you may not realize this: September is waaaay more Irish than March. And this September is more Irish than usual.
We started out with the national Gaelic Athletic Games in Philly this year, moved to the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival of Irish Music and Dance last week—along with the Mercer Irish Fest in New Jersey—and this week we have the Gloucester City Shamrock Fest in Gloucester City, NJ, the Commodore Barry Day on the New Jersey side of the Commodore Barry Bridge, and the opening day of the AOH Irish Fall Weekend in N. Wildwood, NJ.
Yes, it’s halfway to St. Patrick’s Day, and around here we need to do a lot to keep our spirits up through the fall and winter.
Blackthorn is performing at Xfinity Live for a Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day event on Friday at 9 PM—totally free, along with parking. Nice!
They’ll also be on the main stage at the Haverford Music Festival in Havertown (someone needs to explain that one to me) on Saturday, an all-day fest with all kinds of music.
On Friday night, catch Timlin and Kane at Brittingham’s in Lafayette Hill and the Shantys at the Glenside Pub.
Monday, it’s golf for charity day. In Plymouth Meeting, you can tee off at the Ciara Kelly Higgins Benefit for Cerebral Palsy, which is followed by a dinner, raffles and auctions, The Paul Moore Band, and comic Joe Conklin at the Plymouth Country Club. It benefits 9-year-old Ciara, who is adorable. She was born prematurely and suffers from a form of cerebral palsy, though if you know this feisty little girl, “suffers” may be too strong a word. But her therapy is expensive and her family needs the help.
In Cherry Hill, NJ, on Monday, The Claddagh Fund holds its first annual celebrity golf tourney at the Woodcrest Country Club. The foundation, helmed by the Dropkick Murphy’s lead singer Ken Casey, raises money for underfunded charities serving children, veterans, and recovering substance abusers in the Philadelphia area.
On Wednesday, bring a batch of business cards to the Fairmount Boathouse on Boathouse Row in Philadelphia for the “welcome back” networking reception sponsored by the Irish American Business Chamber and Network. The Chamber promotes business between the US and Ireland as well as business connections between its members.
Those of you who missed the great folk singer Sean Tyrell at the Irish Center last week can catch his one-man musical show, “Who Killed James Joyce?” at the Falvey Library at Villanova University on Thursday. I saw him last week and it was a funny, informative, and moving show that sent me to Google to find some of the Irish poetry Sean set to music.
Boxing fans: The traditional first event of the N.Wildwood Fall Irish Festival is a boxing match, and it’s no different this year. At the Irish Music Tent at Spruce and Olde New Jersey you can catch the action between the Harrowgate Boxing Club of Philadelphia and the Holy Family Boxing Club of Belfast, Northern Ireland on Thursday, September 20.
The music, frivolity, parades, food, vendors and the like start on Friday, September 21, one of the busiest days of the week, Irish-wise.
At the Irish Center, you can take your pick: the 2012 All-Ireland Football Championship rally which will feature drinks, light refreshments, and music to cheer on your favorite team. It’s Donegal Vs. Mayo this year and there are plenty of people in the region who trace their roots back to those two counties, so count on some heated cheering. Then you also have Peter Campbell and Daoimnhin Mac Aoidh—performing as the Fiddle Cases—making those fiddles sing, hopefully in another room, far, far away from the pep rally. They’re also scheduled to appear at West Chester University on Sunday night. Since they’re both Donegal fiddlers, I guess we know who they’ll be rooting for.
Head back to the Irish Center at 10 AM on Sunday to actually watch the game. Wear your helmets.
You can also see Blackthorn again at La Costa in Sea Isle City both Friday and Saturday. I know I’ve said it before, but I liked it better when Blackthorn was in Wildwood during the Irish Weekend. It really sweetened the musical lineup and spread that mayhem over a wider area.
Jamison is in N. Wildwood, playing at Casey’s on Third on Friday night, and at Keenan’s Irish Pub on Saturday, and then back to Casey’s on Sunday. You can catch The Broken Shillelaghs at Tucker’s Pub in Wildwood on Friday night.
Next weekend also starts a new session at Maloney’s Pub of Ardmore, with John Byrne of the The John Bryne Band launching a 6:30 Sunday trad and ballad session.
Coming up: The Bethlehem Celtic Classic and the McDade School of Irish Dance 50th anniversary celebration. But more on those later. Check out our calendar for other upcoming events, including many more events at Villanova, and the Vallely brothers, Cillian and Niall, coming to the Coatesville Irish Music Series on September 30.
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Haley Richardson
For a fleeting moment, 10-year-old Haley Richardson knew what it was like to finish first in the under-12 fiddle competition at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. The Fleadh is something like the world series of Irish music, held just a couple of weeks ago in County Cavan.
After blazing through traditional tunes, “The Old Gray Goose” and “Trim the Velvet,” Haley found herself tied for first with a young man from County Laois, with the unquestionably Irish name of Senan Ó Móráin. Both were called back to play another tune. The judges asked Haley to play “Dowd’s Reel.” Ó Móráin edged her out.
But still—an American kid in a field of more than 20 players, most of them Irish, coming in second at 10 years old. It’s certainly no longer unheard of for a Yank to place at the Fleadh, but it’s a thrill nonetheless.
Haley is one of two local kids, both members of the all-kids Next Generation traditional music group, who fared exceptionally well in Cavan. Harper Emily Safko tied for third, and then was called back. She finished in fourth place.
Back at home in South Jersey, Haley seems pleased with the result, but otherwise unfazed. She’s been playing since she was 3, and competing for the past several years. Including this year, she has competed in the Fleadh Cheoil four times. In March, she shared the Kimmel Center stage with the Chieftains. As anyone who has heard her play can attest—and in any traditional Irish music session, she more than holds her own with experienced adult players—this gifted blonde-haired sprite of a fiddler is already an old hand.
“I just felt like I did the best I could do, and really couldn’t do any better,” she says. “I didn’t think I would win; I never thought I would place. All the other kids were from Ireland, so I never thought I would win, coming from the United States.”
“I was just really happy that I placed. I thought that someday I might place, but I didn’t think it would be this time.”
Kathy DeAngelo was Haley’s teacher for two years. She, together with husband Dennis Gormley and fiddler pal Chris Brennan Hagy, run the Next Generation Irish traditional music group, all kids. Haley has been a member for years. Though Irish players frequently win, she sees signs that the playing field might be becoming a bit more level.
“Everybody says it’s rare that Americans win. That may have been the case 10 or 15 years ago, but it’s not rare anymore. The level of playing here has gotten so much better here the last 10 or 15 years.”
DeAngelo says she, Dennis and Chris encourage Next Gen kids go to the Fleadh, but not just for the competition. “We think of it more like putting a bug in the kids’ ears. We’ve always been a proponent of going over there, not just for the Fleadh but for the Scoil Éigse. (Classes and workshops.) Sometimes you can get the feeling over here like you’re the big fish in a little pond. Over there, the level of play is so high hopefully it’s an inspiration.”
Of course, the non-stop music that occurs around the Fleadh town is also a draw.
“You can go into any building at any time of day, and there will be somebody playing,” says Haley, “which I think is really cool.”
Haley’s mom Donna is thrilled, of course.
“I was surprised that she placed, but I thought it was about time. She has gone for a number of years, and played really well,” she says. “I trust that she’ll do her best. She seems to take it all in stride, whether she wins or loses. I prepare her the best I can, but she goes out and does her thing, and we’ll see what happens.”
More Fleadh coverage next week, with a profile of harper Emily Safko.
Jubilant Notre Dames footballers hoist their beloved captain, Maureen Ennis, over their shoulders.
For Maureen Ennis, captain of Philly’s Notre Dames Gaelic football club, the team’s first ladies senior football championship will likely be her last.
One minute, she was thrusting the silver cup above her head to wildly enthusiastic cheers by her teammates; the next minute, she was holding in her arms the reason for her retirement, at least for now, from the sport she loves. It was her son, Shea. (She loves him more.)
“This is my first year with a child,” she said. “This is probably my last game, but it’s brilliant to win.”
Win, the Notre Dames most decidedly did, taking the final game against Connacht (Boston) with a score of 3-15 to 0-06. (Here’s how to understand Irish football scoring.) There was no moment at which Connacht even came close. Ennis wasn’t surprised by how well the Dames played.
“We knew we were going to be strong,” she said. “As soon as we started training, we just knew.”
The Dames’ North American championship continues a tradition of national ladies football titles by Philly teams. The Mairead Farrells held the honor last year and the year before.
Two other Philly teams made it all look too easy.
The Eire Ogs Junior C team triumphed over the team from San Francisco, 3-16 to 1-6. It was a long time coming for the Eire Ogs, too.
“We’ve been trying to win (the championship) for 10 years, so we didn’t know what to expect,” said Conor Trainor, captain of the eire Ogs. “You come out, not knowing who you’re playing.” Giving due credit to the team from San Fran, Trainor acknowledged, “We both played against tough teams to get here.”
And while we’re on the subject of lopsided victories, let’s all raise a glass for the Young Irelands, who took the men’s intermediate football trophy gainst the Michael Cusacks club from San Francisco, 5-16 to 0-7.
Edged out on Sunday in their final game against New Hampshire were the Hibernians of Allentown: New Hampshire 1-11 to the Hibos’ 0-16. They didn’t win, but they sure didn’t make it easy.
We have so many photos from the championships, both on and off the field, that we’ve just lost count of them all.
Check them all out here.
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Whoo--hoo! I'm having a good time!
There were three–count them–three lovely Irish pageant winners at the fourth annual Brittingham’s Irish Fest in Lafayette Hill on Sunday, September 2. There were also hundreds of happy folks who braved a spritzing of rain to attend the parking lot-sized festival that kicks off festival month in the region.
There was music–Jamison, the Paul Moore Band, and No Irish Need Apply (which features 2012 International Mary from Dungloe, Meghan Davis)–as well as vendors and some kick-butt barbecue. And dancing? There’s always dancing at this event, by those who know what they’re doing and those who don’t. It’s always a happy time.
If you don’t believe us or that adorable baby to the right, check out our pictures.
