We got your Christmas.
This past week saw more than a few Irish holiday-oriented events, and we have souvenirs from three.
On Sunday, the Divine Providence Village Rainbow Irish Step Dancers joined the Tara Gael Dancers at the Irish Center for a memorable Christmas show. The Rainbow dancers are a group of developmentally disabled women taught by local Irish step dancer Kathy Madigan. They live at the archdiocesan home in Delaware County.
They never fail to inspire, and their most recent holiday performance was no exception.
You can see the full set here. This a sampling of what we saw.
Monday night saw “Joy—An Irish Christmas” with Keith and Kristyn Getty at the Kimmel Center, featuring our pals from Runa, Shannon Lambert-Ryan, her husband, Fionan de Barra, and fiddler Maggie Estes White, as well as Lambert-Ryan’s sister, Emma Lambert, who sang in the chorus. While we were there we ran into musician Gabriel Donohue and local Comhaltas director, Katherine Ball-Weir.
We couldn’t resist sneaking some video of Shannon Lambert-Ryan playing the accordion on “Joy to the World” (and she dances while she plays!). There is no end to this woman’s talents!
See our photos from the Kimmel here.
On Wednesday night, we went to an intimate house concert at the home of Bob and Sue Glennan in Mantua, N.J., featuring Rory Makem, and Mickey and Liam Spain. Along with the Christmas songs, some Christmas jokes. Mostly groaners.
We have video, and it features Terry Kane and Gabriel Donohue.
