How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

Tony Kenny brings his show from Dublin to Upper Darby this weekend.

Tony Kenny brings his show from Dublin to Upper Darby this weekend.

The craic never stops in Irish Philadelphia. Sometimes it slows down, but not this week.

Popular Irish singer (and veteran of Jury’s Cabaret in Dublin for more than 20 years) Tony Kenny brings his “Irish Celebration” to the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center on Saturday. With Kenny are Richie Hayes, a singer and comedian who was runner up on Ireland’s The Voice; singer Bernadette Ruddy; the Dublin City Dancers, and the Trinity Dublin Band. Doesn’t get much more authentic than that.

Also on Saturday, Linda Harris Sittig will appear at the Doylestown Bookshop in Doylestown where she’ll speak about and sign her book, “Cut from Strong Cloth,” about one of the Irish mills in Philadelphia’s Kensington section and the woman who brought it fame.

Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones, fresh from their White House appearance on St. Patrick’s Day, will be on stage at The Plough and the Stars on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia.

The interactive play, Lafferty’s Wake, continues at Society Hill Playhouse this week.

Ladies, if you play or would like to learn to play Gaelic football, there are Ladies Gaelic Football open play days on two Sundays, March 22 and March 29, at Edgely Field in Fairmount Park (off Belmont Avenue) sponsored by the Notre Dame Ladies Gaelic Football Club, currently the only ladies team in Philadelphia. They run from noon to 2 PM.

Also on Sunday, the Passion for Peace Award will be given to Irish mental health nurse Patricia Campbell at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill. Tyrone native Campbell has worked as a community psychiatric nurse in Belfast. She has seen firsthand the trauma of war, first in her own country, then in Palestine. She is president of the Independent Workers Union. Dublin-born and now Philadelphia-based fiddler Paraic Keane will perform at the event, which starts at 2 PM.

Keane also anchors the sessions at Sligo Pub in Media, where, he reports, his uncle, famed button box player James Keane, will make an appearance on Monday night.

If you’re anywhere near Sewell, NJ, Tuesday, they’re having an Irish-themed “tea at 10” at the McGuinness Funeral Home (don’t let the location scare you) with a guest speaker who will talk about Irish lore.

This week you have two opportunities to hear a remarkable trad duo, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, in the area. The duo, who with Iarla O’ Lionaired, Caoimhin O’ Raghallaigh, and Thomas Bartlett “Doveman” form the new group, The Gloaming, just won the Irish Meteor Choice Music Prize for their self-titled recording which comes with a 10,000 euro cash award. Hayes and Cahill will be at the Sellersville theatre on Tuesday night, then at the World Café Live at the Queen in Wilmington on Wednesday.

The Irish conversation group at Villanova resumes chatting on Thursday.

Find out more by checking our calendar.

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