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January 2014

People

Remembering Ed Gallagher

Ed Gallagher

If you were with Ed Gallagher, you were in for a good time. His sense of humor was legendary. He made everyone feel like they were included in the fun.

A retired federal law officer, the longtime pillar of the Philadelphia Irish community, member of Ancient Order of Hibernians Joseph E. Montgomery Division 65 in Upper Darby, and member of the executive committee of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association passed away January 2.

The Irish community will go on, and certainly the parade will go on, but Ed’s passing leaves a hole in peoples’ lives. We spoke to a few of Ed’s acquaintances from the parade committee, who shared their remembrances.

Walter Garvin, Jr.

Executive Committee

I knew him very well for the past say 15 years. And, omigod, yes, he was hysterical. He lit up a room—he was the life of the party. He was a guy who held nothing back. He would tell you what he was thinking, and make you enjoy it. He was a very people-loving person. He invariably included people that he never met before and treated them like they were very old friends.

He was a gentle man who loved people, and he loved his family. He saw the fun in everything. He was just a pleasure to be around and to be part of his life.

We recently had a meeting of the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association. It was happy because we knew Ed, and sad because we weren’t going to be seeing him again.

At his viewing, I was with some of his cohorts, and everybody talked about what a good guy he was, and how much fun he was. He spread it around. He didn’t keep it to himself.

Michael Bradley

Parade Director and Past President

I’ve known him since 1990. The very first time I flew to Ireland, he was on the same trip I was on. He and his friend Jack McNamee. It was like a party in the plane. Everyone was singing.

Twenty years later, I got involved in the parade, and I ended up on the board with them. I hadn’t seen them (Gallagher and McNamee) them in 20 years, but they remembered the tip and they brought it to my attention. I didn’t remember.

He was a good guy. The only motion he would ever make was the motion to adjourn to the social hour.

I think he gave the air about himself that he really didn’t care about the board meeting—let’s go to the bar and get a drink. But he was really more complicated than that. He was getting out, and he was going to enjoy himself, but deep down to the core, he was one of the greatest guys I’ve ever met.

He really was devoted to his wife daughters and grandchildren. He was always talking about them. He was a real character. He’ll be missed, I guarantee you that. We’ll miss his humor desperately.

Kathy McGee Burns

Board Member, Recording Secretary and Past President

He was a very dapper gentleman. He wore a derby hat all the time, and he wore tweed jackets. He would always have a pocket handkerchief. He loved that feeling about himself, that style.

He always made the motion to adjourn. At the last meeting, we just suspended making the motion because it had been Ed’s for so long.

He and his wife Emily, who is the loveliest woman, attended every event the parade had. They always celebrated every event.

You could describe him as a hail fellow well met. James Joyce used that phrase in “Ulysses.” It means you behavior is hearty and congenial. I’d say that about Eddie Gallagher.

January 17, 2014 by Jeff Meade

Music

Sunday Afternoon at St. Declan’s Well

Hall of Famers Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo

If you want to hear live Irish music in the Philadelphia area, you have plenty of options. You can go to concerts, of course. They’re usually pretty polished.

But if you prefer a bit more spontaneity in your music—even if, and maybe especially if it’s just a little bit rough around the edges—then what you’re looking for is a real traditional Irish music session. And there are plenty of those, too.

One of the newest is at St. Declan’s Well, a beautiful pub just on the fringes of the Penn Campus, 3131 Walnut Street. If you know World Cafe Live, St. Declan’s is just a couple of blocks away. We visited one recent Sunday (the session is from 4 to 7 p.m.) to see what the St. Declan’s session is like.

And what it’s like is very good, but a bit looser than some of the more established sessions in the area. Indeed, many of the musicians who crowded into a corner of the well-appointed dining room were all-too-familiar faces, like Fintan Malone, Allyn Miner, and soon-to-be Mid-Atlantic Region Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann Hall of Famers Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo. There were also a couple of the kids who play in the Next Generation young peoples’ Irish group, which Dennis and Kathy lead, together with Chris Brennan Hagy. The food’s great, the beer’s great, and the music is maybe even a little better. Catch it if you can.

January 17, 2014 by Jeff Meade

How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

They’re heeeere!

Expect a wild weekend in Philly: The Celtic supporters are here!

Fans of the Celtic Football Club of Glasgow are descending on the city for a series of events, many of them at The Plough and the Stars on Chestnut Street, home of the 2nd Street Plough Bhoys Celtic Supporters Club. They’ll be watching a game—Celtic Vs. Motherwell—and holding a sing-song in front of the Plough’s fireplace afterwards. A couple of Tyrone guys—Patsy Ward and Raymond Coleman—will be performing, as well as members of the Irish Thunder Pipe Band. Check the calendar for a list of events.

On Saturday, get your tux out and head to the Sheraton Downtown for The Hair O’ The Dog black-tie party which this year benefits The Claddagh Fund, founded by Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys. The Fund supports underfunded nonprofits in Boston and Philadelphia.

If you’re in Upper Darby this weekend—and it’s not a bad idea—head to Cawley’s Tavern on West Chester Pike to help this popular Irish pub celebrate its 40th anniversary with specials and music through Sunday night. The food is good and you may see someone you know there (I always do).

Paddy Whacks Pub has live Irish music almost every weekend, and this Saturday you can catch the Shantys with fiddler Paraic Keane at the Roosevelt Boulvard sports bar.

Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic play—does he do anything else?—“The Pillowman” debuts at Luna Theater in Philadelphia on Saturday. It’s the story of an author of grisly short stories who becomes the suspect in a rash of child murders that bear an uncanny resemblance to those in his works. It runs through February 8. Check our calendar for a schedule of dates and times.

On Sunday, tune in at noon to 800AM, WTMR, to call in your pledge to Marianne MacDonald’s “Come West Along the Road” Irish radio show. Marianne works tirelessly (in her spare time) to produce the show and relies on pledges to keep it going. You can win tickets to hear Clannad, Solas, the John Byrne Band, and Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones, as well as CDs, DVDs, and gift cards to local Irish shops. Tune in online at www.wtmrradio.com and/or call in your pledge at 856-962-8178. Let’s keep Irish music on the air, and Marianne out of trouble.

On Wednesday, performer Billy McGovern will be doing an acoustic show at the AOH Div. 61 Clubhouse at Rhawn and Frankford in Philadelphia. Stop by for a pint even if you’re not a Hibernian.

A head’s up for the coming weeks:

A Mass to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday will take place at the Irish Center on Sunday, January 26.

The Inis Nua Theater Company is doing a staged reading of director Tom Reing’s “High Noon in Grays Ferry, Twilight on Falls Road,” about the lives of teens in Philadelphia and Belfast, on Monday, January 27, at the Off Broad Street Theater at First Baptist Church on Sansom Street in Philadelphia.

Ever seen sand dancing? You can, done by dancer Nic Gareiss, who will be performing with harpist Maeve Gilchrist, in a house concert in Philadelphia on Wednesday, January 29. Gareiss, a Michigan native, has perofmed with The Chieftains, Dervish, Beoga, Teada, Martin Hayes, Liz Carroll and more. Gilchrist, who is from Scotland, has shared the stage with everyone from Alasdair Fraser to Kathy Mattea. Here’s your chance to share a livingroom with two great performers. Since it’s a house concert—and there needs to be room for sand dancing—space is limited. To reserve your spot, email barnstarconcerts@gmail.com.

January 17, 2014 by Denise Foley

News, People

The Irish Guy Behind “Hair O’ The Dog’

DJ Dan Cronin with his wife, Maria.

Dan Cronin was a party thrower from way back. So way back his first parties were, well, illegal.

“Throwing parties is a natural thing for me,” says Cronin of Mount Laurel, NJ, who heads a technology consulting firm and is the mastermind behind the black-tie do known as “Hair O’ The Dog” that every year draws out Philly’s hippest for a New Year’s Eve-style frolic.

HOD, as it’s known, takes place tomorrow night (for the 20th year in a row) at the Philadelphia Sheraton Downtown. While the theme is Gatsby, the beneficiary of its largesse—it’s part fundraiser—is The Claddagh Fund, founded by Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphy’s which raises money for underfunded nonprofits in Boston and Philadelphia.

Cronin, who looks like the Irish version of TV chef Guy Fieri, grew up in the Bronx and North Jersey, the grandson of Irish immigrants from Cork and Donegal. He attended Dusquesne University in Pittsburgh, one of the top Catholic colleges in the US. “I was a DJ in college,” he says. “And I took my DJ money, converted the basement of the house where I was living into a bar, with a dance floor and lights, and I would pay police to make sure there was no trouble. . .I was running a speakeasy, basically. I didn’t have a license, no one was of age. . . .”

He laughs. In 1995, now a law-abiding citizen, Cronin called on his party-making skills again to “accelerate the growth” of his new Philly-based business (Chorus Communications, which he founded with childhood friend Robert Molinari) by inviting local telephone engineers and union guys who, he reasoned, would then feel kindly toward this little tech company and steer business their way. “We figured if we had parties we could get these guys tuxed up, get them a little drunk and befriend them,” says Cronin. “Well they loved it, and they helped us for quite a few years.”

Don’t get Cronin wrong. That first HOD wasn’t just a cynical ploy to get business. He had fun too—he was single then, and there were well-dressed, successful women–and he made friendships as well as deals. “To this day I still have relationships with some of the guys I met at those early parties,” he says.

That first year, 75 people paid $40 to get into the Circa Restaurant and Nightclub, now closed, at 15th and Walnut. Since then, the guest list has grown to 1,000 or more, all fun lovers who want to get dressed up and party without fighting the New Year’s Eve amateur crowd. “Actually, back in 1985 when we decided to dot his, people said, ‘Dude, you’re out of your mind. Not way is this going to be successful, Everybody blows their whole wad on New Year’s. They don’t want to go to another party and they don’t have the money,’” recalls Cronin. “But there’s always a way to get done what you want to get done financially, and everybody likes a good party.”

HOD has become a Philly institution and, in 1996, Cronin, influenced by motivational guru Anthony Robbins, added the “give back” aspect to his party—and to his life. “By then we had a pretty nice business and I heard my inner self knocking on the door saying, ‘You promised that if you became successful you’d give back,’’ Cronin recalls. “I became a Big Brother and sponsored a little kid and we added the charity aspect to HOD.”

Every year, HOD raises money for a different charity, from AIDS research and 9/11 survivors to, with a nod to Cronin’s Irish roots, Habitat for Humanity in Belfast and, this year, The Claddagh Fund, which recently expanded into the Delaware Valley where it financially supports organizations that serve children, veterans, and recovering substance abusers. “We probably give anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 to our charities every year,” says Cronin, who serves on the board of the Irish American Business Chamber and Network in Philadelphia.

An event firm now throws the party and Cronin isn’t the only DJ spinning records. The lineup this year includes popular Australian DJ Havana Brown whose “We Run the Night” with Pit Bull hit number one on the worldwide charts; DJ Bizz; the band The Business, a Philly fave; Bryan O’Boyle, late of Mr. Greengenes, another long-running favorite Philly band; and performer Jade Starling of Pretty Poison.

Despite running a successful business–and an equally successful event–he’s out there DJing on the side, often for Irish crowds. He did his thing at the Philadelphia Fleadh, a showcase for Irish and Irish-American music produced by American Paddy’s Productions, last June in Pennypack Park, and was the DJ at American Paddy’s “American Celtic Christmas” event this December in Bensalem.

“I’m very diverse and have an unparalleled range as a DJ,” says Cronin, who grew up in a family that played Irish music (and who does a more than passable Irish accent, thanks to his Cork cousins). “If someone wants to hear ‘The Town I Loved So Well,’ I know to ask if they want the Phil Coulter version or the Shane McGowan version.”

So don’t think of Cronin, now married and the father of three, as someone who relegates his fun to one night a year. “I have a reputation as a party guy and I’m still a party guy,” he laughs. And now he’s available for your party too.

January 17, 2014 by Denise Foley

Dance, Music

Tribute to the Wren

Little Timoney dancers entertained.

One of the critical parts of taking photographs for Irish Philadelphia is capturing the mood of the moment–when people are smiling, laughing, rapt, or sad. But at this year’s Comhaltas Wren Party, held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Glenside, there was so much laughing, smiling, and s good cheer that it was a cinch.

Here, see for yourself, in our photo essay.

January 10, 2014 by Denise Foley

How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly

Mary Patrick and Joe Roan competing in the 2013 Dancing Like a Star event.

This may be a first—there are no big events on our calendar this week. Given the vagaries of our weather, that’s probably a good thing. Of course, there are music sessions and ceili dancing from Philadelphia to Bethlehem as there are every week, but there are some big things coming up that you should know about.

First the Irish American Business Chamber and Network is holding its Ambassador Awards on February 20 at the Hyatt at The Bellevue on Broad Street in Philadelphia. SAP USA, a an international business software company with an office in Newtown Square, will receive The Ambassador Award from Anne Anderson, the Irish ambassador to the US at the luncheon event.

Also honored will be Denis P. O’Brien, senior executive vice president of Exelon Corporation and chief executive officer of Exelon Utilities, a provider of energy services who will receive the Taoiseach Award, and Ann Claffey Baiada, a founder and director of Bayada Nurses, a home health care company headquartered in Moorestown,NJ, will accept the Uachtaran Award.

For more information, contact the Chamber via its website.

The Delco Gael’s annual fundraiser, Dancing Like a Star, is scheduled for February 21 at the Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Delaware County. And it’s not too soon to order tickets. The event regularly sells out. Money from the event helps support the Gaels, a youth Gaelic sports club that’s the largest in the Philadelphia area, with more than 300 children playing footballs, hurling and camogie last year.

The dancing contestants this year: Siobhan Trainor and James Conboy; Anita Robbins and Joe McCormick; Laurie McGarrity and Bill McClafferty; Kathleen Seward and Tom Farrelly; MaryAnn Klein and Tom Ivory; Amy McKeever and Brian Gondek; Genevieve Smith and Paul Welsh; Charlotte Comasky and Caine Donaghy.

I shouldn’t play favorites, but this is my all-time favorite fundraiser of the year. The Gaels know how to put the “fun” in fundraiser and if you’re free that night, you’ll have a great time—guaranteed.

For more information or to buy tickets, go to the Gael’s website where you can also find out about the Delco Gaels Open House and Indoor Leage. The open house is on Tuesday, January 11, at Maple Zone Aston, 1451 Conchester Highway, Garnet Valley, and the indoor league follows over the next six weeks.

January 9, 2014 by Denise Foley

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