Get set for a Blackthorn Christmas.
Not invited to any Christmas parties? I’m sure you’ll be welcome at the Derry Society Christmas party at the Irish Center on Friday night at 7 PM. They know how to throw a great bash.
You can party with Coyote Run at the Sellersville Theatre on Friday night too. They’re presenting their annual “A Kilted Christmas.” And “Dublin Carol” is still on at the Amaryllis Theatre in Philadelphia.
Just want to kick back and relax? Or jig? The Broken Shillelaghs are at Dublin Square Pub in Bordentown on Friday night too. Brew, burger, Irish music. . .it’s all good.
Saturday is jam-packed:
The O’Grady Quinlan dance school is holding two Christmas celebrations, featuring performances by their championship dancers and comic performer Seamus Kennedy at the Allentown Symphony Hall in Allentown.
Robert Mouland will again be portraying Irish harper Michael Keane, who came to America in 1754, presenting songs of the season on ancient instruments including the wirestrung harp, clavicord, baroque violin and others at the Old Dutch Parsonage in Somerville, NJ.
Fiddler Patrick Mangan and guitarist-singer Ryan McGiver will be in town on Saturday too, thanks to the Philadelphia Ceili Group. Mangan, from Brooklyn, is a two-time All-Ireland champion who appeared in Riverdance on Broadway at the age of 16 and was a featured soloist from 2006 to the present. McGiver is a critically acclaimed guitarist and singer who has appeared on stage with many performers familiar to Philly’s Irish audiences, including singer Susan McKeown, Kevin Crawford of Lunasa, piper Ivan Goff, The Kane Sisters and Edel Fox. They’ll be performing both Irish and American tunes at this evening concert at the Irish Center.
And Blackthorn will be singing Christmas carols at the Blarney Stone in West Chester on Saturday night too–their annual Christmas show!
As we inch closer to Christmas, there’s a lovely evening of Christmas music planned at St. Vincent DePaul Church in Richboro featuring local musician Bill Monaghan and others. Admission is free, though donations are appreciated—they’ll go to Philabundance, which provides food for the needy, and Bridge to Uganda, a nonprofit that is building a high school in Uganda, Africa. Bring canned goods—specifically cans of string beans, sweet peas, corn, gravy, whole cranberries and cranberries for food baskets being assembled by a local charity.
If you’re doing your last minute shop in downtown Philadelphia on December 23, stop in to hear Bob Hurst and Tim Murphy of the Bogside Rogues performing at Con Murphy’s Irish Pub, right on Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It’s mighty pretty downtown right now.
That brings us right up to. . .Merry Christmas, from me, Jeff, and Lori. And I’m sure our friends, including the ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future, our paranormal reporter, SE Burns as well as our stable of volunteer photographers Gwyneth MacArthur, Brian Mengini, Eileen McElroy, and Lisa Marie Hunt join us in saying, “Nollaig Shona Daoibh!” and “Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Daoibh!” Though it’s quite likely, only a few of us will say it correctly.
