April 2015

That’s camogie.

It’s a sporting weekend in Irish Philadelphia. On Saturday, there’s a beef-and-beer fundraiser at Daly’s Pub in Philadelphia for the Shamrocks Youth Camogie Team. Camogie is the feminine side of the Irish sport of hurling and there hasn’t been a camogie team in Philly in recent memory. You can see some of our photos from the camogie finals at the National GAA Championship games in Philadelphia a few years ago at the bottom of this page.

On Sunday, the Glenside Gaelic Club is opening its 2015 season at the Bishop McDevitt High School grounds.

For you music lovers in Jersey, the John Byrne Band is giving a free concert at the Burlington County Library Ampitheater in Westhampton Township on Sunday afternoon, starting at 2.

This coming Thursday, the Irish and the British make up. Well, sort of. The Irish American Business Chamber and Network is holding a networking event with the British American Business Council at the Trestle Inn in Philadelphia. There will be a panel discussion about corporate social responsibility.

Also on Thursday, the group Carbon Leaf, a fusion of Americana, bluegrass and Celtic flavors, is performing at the Sellersville Theatre.

On Friday—the first Friday of May—join the Paul Moore Band at their usual spot, Brittingham’s in Lafayette Hill.

And mark your calendars: Saturday, May 2, is the Philadelphia Fleadh, a day of music, ceili dancing, kids’ events, a dance feis, vendors, this year in a new location, the Cherokee Festival Grounds, 1 Declaration Drive, in Bensalem. You’ll hear music from the Mahones, The John Byrne Band, Jamison, the Birmingham Six, the Broken Shillelaghs, Galway Guild, Seamus Kennedy and more. Bring your lawn chairs and blankets and enjoy the day.

On Sunday, May 3, join another group of local trad and Celtic rock musicians, including John Byrne, the Derry Brigade, Galway Guild, Paraic Keane and more, at Marty Magee’s Pub in Prospect Park to help raise money for the Sunday Irish radio shows: Vincent Gallagher’s Irish Hour and Come West Along the Road hosted by Marianne MacDonald. This is your chance to enjoy another day of Irish music and see the magnificent Irish mural painted on the side of Marty Magee’s.

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Leo and Anto will be at the Tin Angel with the John Byrne Band this weekend.

Saw Doctors fans, you probably already know that Leo and Anto (Leo Moran of the Saw Doctors and Anthony Thistlethwaite from the Waterboys) will be at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia all weekend, with the John Byrne Band opening for them. I say that because Saw Doctors fans always know when their boys are in town. Now the rest of you do too.

Also on Saturday, the Monaghan brothers, Bill and Jim, of Celtic Pride, will be remembering their late brother, Michael, who died in 1998 while serving in the US Navy, at a fundraiser to raise money for the Michael S. Monaghan Memorial Scholarship. The event will be held at Archbishop Wood High School Sophia A. Friedman Auditorium, starting at 7 PM. The scholarship is given to an incoming ninth grader at Wood from Nativity of Our Lord or St. Vincent de Paul parishes.

On Sunday, there’s a ceili at the Irish Center in Wilmington, and you can get your dancing fix at J.D. McGillcuddy’s in Upper Darby where the Theresa Flanagan Band is playing.

Also on Sunday, musicians from Cape Breton and Newfoundland will be showing off the Canadian side of Celtic music at Calvary Center in Philadelphia, another Crossroads concert bringing the best of international music to Philadelphia.

On Wednesday, relive the best moments of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade at the Second Street Irish Society Hall on Third Street in Philadelphia. The Bogside Rogues and the Second Street Irish Society Step Dancers will perform as winners of the various prizes awarded to groups in the parade get their just due.

The play, Penelope, by Enda Walsh, and produced by the Inis Nua Theatre Company, continues this week at the Prince Theater in Philadelphia. Also on stage this coming Friday, The Muse and Mr. Yeats, a “play for voices,” which introduces each of the women with whom the famed Irish poet William Butler Yeats was involved. You can see the play by Eamon Grennon at the Vasey Black Box Theater at Villanova University.

On Saturday, the new Shamrocks Youth Camogie Team – camogie is the female version of hurling—will hold a beef-and-beer fundraiser at Daly’s Pub on Comly Street in Philadelphia.

As always, check the calendar for more information.

Ceremonies remembering the 1916 Easter Rising are this weekend in Yeadon.

It’s definitely a crazy busy week if you’re trying to set a record for being Irish. Here’s what’s going on:

On Sunday, the annual Easter Rising Ceremony, takes place at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, commemorating the war for Irish independence that started with the proclamation of 1916—the equivalent of the US Declaration of Independence some 140 years before. There will be ceremonies at the graves of Clan na Gael heroes “Dynamite” Luke Dillon and Joseph McGarrity, the latter of which was one of the financiers of the rebellion. See photos below of last year’s ceremony.

On Saturday, get in touch with your Irish ancestors with a little help from genealogists at the Irish Genealogy Seminar at the Irish Immigration Center in Upper Darby. It starts at 10 AM.

At 6 PM on Saturday evening, Scythian will be performing at a fundraiser for the Little Sisters of the Poor at Villanova University.

At 8 PM, Blackthorn will be doing the same for the charities of the Black Jack Kehoe Division of the AOH at the Regal Banquet Hall in Prospect Park.

The AOH Dennis Kelly Division of Havertown is hosting a Back to the 80s Dance Party on Saturday night with live music from the tribute band, Weird Science, at the St Denis (Cardinal Foley) Gym on Eagle Road in Havertown. Proceeds from the event, which costs $40 and includes gourmet food from McShea’s of Narberth, beer and wine, goes to the AOH Charity Fund which supports programs such as Wounded Warriors, Make-a-Wish, and the home heating oil program. To get tickets or for more information, go to www.aohdenniskelly.com or email division president Tim Kelly at tim_kelly17@comcast.net.

If you’re in Wilmington, catch Burning Bridget Cleary at the World Café Live at the Queen.

Lafferty’s Wake, the interactive play set in a pub, continues its run at Soceity Hilly Playhouse.

This week also marked the opening of “Penelope,” a play by contemporary Irish playwright Enda Walsh, produced by the Inis Nua Theatre Company on stage at the Prince Theater.

On Sunday, the Sunday Irish Radio Shows on WTMR 800 AM are holding their Spring fundraiser and taking pledges on-air starting at 11 AM. You can call in at 856-962-8000 and listen in on the web at www.wtmrradio.com.

There’s a painting fundraiser for the Divine Providence Village Rainbow Irish Dancers on Sunday at Dish and Dabble in Havertown. I hear through the grapevine that this almost sold-out event has had a few more spots open up. Give a call and reserve a space.

On Sunday evening, two great Irish singers, Len Graham and Brian O’ hAirt, will be performing together in concert at the Irish Center in Philadelphia. This is a Philadelphia Ceili Group event.

On Tuesday, folks up north can pick up a few Irish phrases at the Irish Gaelic for Beginners class at Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The Irish conversation group—not for beginners—continues at Villanova University this Thursday.

Also on Thursday, feel like a little Irish bingo? I do. I’m going to try to make the Irish Network-Philly’s Irish bingo night at Maggie O’Neill’s in Drexel Hill. I don’t know what makes it Irish—perhaps the folks playing—but IN-Philly is also a great way to mix and mingle with a lot of class people. The bingo is just the icing on that cake.

We’ve been hearing great things about the two new sessions at the Sligo Pubs—Monday night in Media and Thursday night in Glen Mills. We’re going to be checking them out.

Let us know if we forgot anything. All the details for these events and more are on our calendar. If your event isn’t on our calendar. . .well, what are you waiting for? Put it there! Just click on “events calendar” at the top of the home page, click on “submit your event,” and just do what we tell you to do. It won’t appear right away. The calendar sends us an email letting us know you submitted your event and we have to give it the okay to tell everyone else. It’s always been that way.

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