Ciara Higgins and her dad, Tom, at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
After a packed house for Singers Night on Thursday, the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s 39th Festival for Irish Music and Dance continues on Friday night with a Rambling House event (read: bring your party piece) at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, in Philadelphia, hosted by top Irish musicians Gabriel Donohue and Cherish the Ladies’ Joannie Madden.
And on Saturday, loads of free (if you’re a member–and you can be) workshops on everything from digging up your ancestors (no shovels required) to the Kensington Nativist Riots (which happened back when being Irish in America was a bad thing) as well as really free kiddie activities. The evening concert features an all-star band headed by noted New York-based Sligo fiddler Tony De Marco, as well as Martin O’Connell, Sean Earnest, Donie Carroll and Siobhan Butler), along with Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary.
Also this weekend, the 7th annual Gloucester City Shamrock Festival takes place along the Delaware in this New Jersey town just across from Philadelphia. There’s also an Irish music sail—a real sailboat, real Irish music—on Saturday leaving from Penns Landing near the Olympia.
On Saturday, The Farmhouse Tavern in Doylestown is having its “halfway to St. Patrick’s day” party featuring live music at 8 PM with Jack O’Leary and The Broken Shillelaghs are playing at the Dubh Linn Square Pub in Bordentown, NJ.
The Old Timers Dinner and Dance is slated for Sunday at the Irish Center. We hear from organizers that you don’t have to be that old to attend. Vince Gallagher is providing the music and he’s only a few years older than me and I’m not old.
On Monday, another annual event: the Ciara Kelly Higgins for CP benefit to raise money for this adorable 10-year-old, daughter of Tom and Dee Higgins, who was born with a former of cerebral palsy (but doesn’t let that or anything else stop her—you should see her Irish step-dance!). There’s a golf outing during the day at Plymouth Country Club in Plymouth Meeting and a dinner at the club at 6, featuring music by The Paul Moore Band, comedy by Joe Conklin, and more than 200 live auction and raffle prizes. The money from the event helps defray the cost of Ciara’s treatment.
On Wednesday, another benefit at a golf course: The Claddagh Fund and The Hartnell Down Foundation are sponsoring a fundraiser at the Scotland Run Golf Club in Williamstown NJ to raise money for both charities. Hartnell Down was founded by the Flyers’ Scott Hartnell to help support nonprofits, similar to the mission of The Claddagh Fund, founded by The Dropkick Murphy’s front man, Ken Casey. Both celebs will be there along with some other celebrity golfers.
On Thursday, “Riverdance” star and step-dance prodigy Colin Dunne will present his one-man, multi-media show on the evolution of Irish step-dancing. Read our interview with Dunne, who will be performing nightly through Saturday at The Painted Bride in Philadelphia.
And it’s what you’ve all been waiting for: Thursday is also the first day of the AOH Irish Fall Festival in North Wildwood! It starts every year with a boxing match at the Irish Music Tent at The Point at Moore’s Inlet, which, for three days, is the scene of much music and merry-making. There are miles of vendors, a pipe and drum exhibition, a run, free Irish dance lessons, and more Irish people and wannabes than you thought possible to squeeze into one town outside Ireland. All the pubs and clubs in N. Wildwood and Wildwood have booked Irish acts too. Check our calendar for more information.
