Get ready for some Gaelic football on the brand new Limerick Field October 4.
For as long as we’ve been cranking out this website (I think we’re heading into our ninth St. Patrick’s Day season in 2015) the Philadelphia Gaelic Athletic Association has been planning, fundraising, and creating its new field in Limerick. And now, it’s opening for the first time for play.
On Saturday, October 4, Irish Vice Consul Anne McGllicuddy and head of the US GAA board Gareth Fitzsimons will be on hand as teams take to the brand new field, starting at 11 AM with a St. Joe’s Vs. Alumni game followed by McCartan Cup play, hurling, an over-40 game (hopefully there will be a defibrillator standing by) and a game pitting American-born players vs. the Irish born. The McDade Cara Irish Dancers will be there, and there will be food and festivities all day at the field, which is located at 485 Longview Avenue, Limerick.
If you’ve never seen Gaelic football or hurling, you’re in for a treat. Warning: You might get hooked. We are!
It’s quite a busy day in Irish Philadelphia land. At 2 PM on Saturday the Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 87 is holding a forum on the question of Irish freedom, an issue that has taken center stage again as the result of the Scottish independence vote last month. Guest speakers from the 1916 Societies of Ireland, an Irish separatist movement, will be on hand.
On Saturday night, top trad performers Jackie Daly (accordion) and Matt Cranitch (fiddle) will be on stage at the Irish Center for a Philadelphia Ceil Group concert. There are also workshops in the afternoon.
On Sunday, head to the high seas—oh, okay, just the Delaware River—for Irish music on the A.J. Meerwald, a 120-foot oyster schooner, a tall ship of New Jersey. The mini-cruise, featuring Friends of Eric, will sail the river from Penns Landing.
On Monday, get teed off at the Jack McNamee Masters of the Green Golf Tournament at Paxson Hollow Country Club in Broomall—a fundraiser for the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
On Wednesday, Anne Cadwallader, author of “Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland,” an Irish bestseller, will be speaking and signing books at AOH Div. 39 in Philadelphia. Drawing on police files, Cadwallader documents collusion between the Ulster Defense Regiment, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and illegal loyalist paramilitaries on both sides of the Irish border. The book names more than 20 police and soliders involved in murders and coverups and includes interviews with the relatives of the 120 victims who were killed on both sides of the border.
On Thursday, Plays and Players will present “An Evening with Lady G”—no, not Gaga, but Lady Augusta Gregory, the Irish playwright—at its theater on Delancey Street. The play runs through October 25.
On Friday, the John Byrne Band teams up with old friends, Citizens Band Radio, at Havana’s in New Hope. The JBB will also be playing at the Tin Angel on October 11 and at the Fall Foliage Fest in Jim Thorpe on October 12.
Look for more details on these and other events on our calendar.
