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October 2015

News

The Gathering Lived Up to Its Name

There was a cozy fire crackling in the fireplace, music coming from everywhere, dancing, a pipe band, step dancers, and Irish comfort food involving several different kinds of much-talked-about potatoes from the Irish Center kitchen and the Irish Coffee Shop in Upper Darby.

No wonder no one wanted to leave the Irish Center on Sunday for the third Annual “The Gathering.” Billed as a fundraiser, it was far more. “It was a good day, a happy one,” said organizer Frank Hollingsworth, who is on the board of the Commodore Barry Club, aka The Irish Center. “We’ve wanted to bring back the people who haven’t been to the Irish Center and those who haven’t been there. I spoke to and gave mini-tours to three families who had never been there. They came for the Irish breakfast and just stayed.”

October 9, 2015 by Denise Foley

Music, News, People

St. Malachy’s Annual Concert Honors Its Fallen Hero and Longtime Supporters

By Kathy McGee Burns

Musician Mick Moloney will be returning to St. Malachy’s Church in Philadelphia for his annual concert on Sunday, November 1. The event raises money for the operating costs of St. Malachy’s School, a mission school and “beacon of hope” in North Philadelphia that serves mainly low-income children.

But this year, something is different. Sr. Cecile Reiley, SSJ, will not be there, physically, to guide us. She passed away on April 24, 2015. She and Mick worked on this event for 28 years and, as Mick said, “Sister Cecile was one of the loveliest people I have ever known. A living Saint, really. The most gentle of souls but with a calm inner strength that was extraordinary.”

Sister Cecile, a native of Pottsville, joined the Sisters of St. Joseph as a young woman in 1957. She double majored in music and art at Chestnut Hill College and later got an MS in pastoral counseling. She was a teacher and an immigration counselor in the Diocese of Allentown and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. She was a member of the Catholic Peace Fellowship which has met at St. Malachy’s—her ministry up until her death—for more than 30 years.

October 9, 2015 by Denise Foley

How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Kevin McGillian, the heart and soul and accordion player of most ceili bands in the Philadelphia region, will be honored with a lifetime achievement award on Saturday night by the Delaware Valley Division of the Comhaltas (Coal-tus) Ceoltoiri Eireann, an international organization that promotes Irish music and culture.

McGillian, a native of Legfordrum, County Tyrone, who has lived in the Philadelphia area for about six decades, was previously inducted in the Mid-Atlantic CCE Hall of Fame. A shy, soft-spoken man, McGillian moved to Philadelphia at the age of 26 where he met and married Mary Boyce. The two raised six children, all of whom play instruments.

October 9, 2015 by Denise Foley

News, People

Mary Frances Fogg To Be Inducted into Irish Hall of Fame

By Kathy McGee Burns

When I think of Mary Frances Fogg, whom I dearly love and respect, I think of the phrase “indomitable spirit.” If you look up this term you would see that it is defined as “a spirit that cannot be subdued or overcome; unconquerable, impossible to defeat”. Some synonyms would be virtuous, upright, decent, and honorable.

Now, she would be kicking and screaming at me for saying this but I’m not the only who does. Her son, Jason, said, “She has the strength of 10 lions, is forthright in her ideologies and will fight for the cause she believes in.”

Mary Fogg or Frassee (as she’s known) is being honored at the 15th Annual Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame award dinner. She is the daughter of Helen McCann (Port Richmond) and William Fogg (Kensington).Helen, who attended Moore College of Art was a musician (violin and piano) and an artist. Her Dad played AAA professional baseball (Phillies, Red Sox).

October 9, 2015 by Denise Foley

How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly this Week

The Philadelphia Irish Center wants you … to visit!

It’s time for the annual Irish Center Gathering on Sunday. If you have difficulty knowing how to be Irish—frankly that’s hard to believe, given these handy weekly instructions—consider the Gathering a one-day total immersion class. Not the school kind of class, with Sister Frances Joseph slapping you on the hand with a ruler and calling you a brazen article—this is the fun kind.

By “fun”we mean lots of music, including an appearance by incredible local songstress Leanne McGrory, Irish dance, tunes from the Philadelphia Emerald Pipe Band, a live broadcast of Vince Gallagher’s Sunday Irish radio show, plenty of activities for the kiddies, vendors, food and drink, and more.

October 2, 2015 by Jeff Meade

Music, News, Videos

The Galway Girl Comes to Philly

Sharon Shannon is talking on the phone from her home in Galway and she is surrounded by cats. “I have 11 of them,” she says, “and one is a kitten who’s very playful making the rest of them play.”

She also has eight dogs, all of which live in the house. “You can imagine there is a lot of cleaning,” she says.

But she’s waiting for the arrival of her animal minder who will be staying with her menagerie while Shannon, a legendary accordion player, heads off on her US tour that will bring her to the Tin Angel in Philadelphia on Wednesday, October 7. Opening for her is the John Byrne Band, which is fronted by a Dublin-born singer-songwriter who now calls Philadelphia home.

October 1, 2015 by Denise Foley

Music, News, People, Photos

Meet Philly’s New Music Dynasty

Philadelphia’s Irish community is known for its musical family dynasties.

There are the Boyces—brothers Michael and John are the linchpins of the Celtic rock group Blackthorn, while sister Karen, formerly with the group, Causeway, still sings solo at many Irish events. The McGillians—they’re Boyce cousins—include accordion player John and guitarist Jimmy. Sister Mary will burn up a keyboard now and again. There’s John, Judy, and Eugenia Brennan, a perfect trio of guitar and fiddle, keyboard, and voice. And siblings Dylan and Haley Richardson, a guitarist and fiddler respectively, have already produced their first CD and they’re not even out of their teens.

Now, these musical siblings have to make room for the McGroarys. Donegal brothers Seamus and Raymond are well known in the area. Both singers and guitarists, they’ve played most of the Irish musical pubs in the city and suburbs though, Raymond says, “Seamus play a lot more bars than I do. I mostly play events and people’s parties.”

October 1, 2015 by Denise Foley

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