wp-content/uploads/2012/12/bestpics-262×300.jpg” alt=”One of our absolute faves.” width=”262″ height=”300″ /> One of our absolute faves.
Where do we start?
How about parades? There’s no shortage of St. Patrick’s Day parades in the Philadelphia. The biggest and longest one by far is the Philadelphia parade, and it really brings together most of the major aspects of Philadelphia Irish life, from Ancient Order of Hibernians divisions to Gaelic Athletic Association teams to Irish dance schools. The Philly parade gave us one extra special reason to cheer: The Divine Providence Rainbow Irish Dancers, who won an award for their first performance in the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We’re so proud of them.
There were festivals, too, including the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival, the Penn’s landing Irish Festival, the Scottish-Irish Midwinter Festival, and many others. We were there for most of them.
We spent an awful lot of time at Irish music concerts. We clapped along to the clatter of hard-shoe dancing. We applauded the local pageant winners, including Norristown’s own Meghan Davis, who became the 2012 International Mary from Dungloe.
The North American Gaelic Athletic Association championships came to Philly this year, and we were there for most of. We celebrated the championships of three local teams: the Notre Dames, Young Irelands and Eire Ogs. We also spent a lot of time along the sidelines at Cardinal Dougherty High School football field during the summer, as the local teams battled it out among themselves in the games leading up to the North American championship.
One championship that wasn’t decided locally was the all-Ireland Gaelic football win of the team from Donegal. There was substantially more than a passing interest in the outcome of that championship, given the many local folks with roots in Donegal. One of the most thrilling moments in the entire Irish Philly year came the night the Donegal coach, along with two of his all-star players, visited the Philadelphia Irish Center, bringing the Sam Maguire Cup with them.
Truth be told, we shot several thousand photographs throughout the year, at more Irish events than we can count. It’s hard to remember them all. (And no, it’s not because we’re older than dirt.) It was a real job just to narrow things down to 295 photos.
Anyhow, we’ve put together quite the photo essay, some our best moments and best pics. Check them out, above.
