Wear the deely bobbers, but leave the umbrella at home this weekend.
There’s always a big build-up to the region’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities, and this is put up or shut up week. St. Paddy’s Day is next Thursday, March 17, and many of the big parades are this weekend, including Bucks County, Springfield (Delco), York, and Conshohocken this Saturday, and Philadelphia—the oldest and biggest—on Sunday.
Since there’s so much going on, here’s a blow-by-blow listing of what we know is going on this week. We’re updating the calendar DAILY, so check back frequently so you don’t miss a thing. Here’s what’s happening:
Saturday
Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic organization, will be holding a conference on “justice and renewal in the Church” at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, starting at 9:30 AM. Guest speaker will be Sister Maureen Turlish, a longtime sexual abuse survivor advocate.
The Bucks County St. Patrick’s Day Parade gets its start at 10:30 AM at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Fairless Hills. After party is at Fraternal Order of Eagles in Fairless Hills.
Looking for a pub crawl? You have many choices. The Running of the Micks starts at Finnegan’s Wake at Third and Spring Garden Streets in Philadelphia. The Erin Express, the oldest of the crawls, goes all over Center City starting at noon. And The St. Patrick’s Green Mile Pub Crawl which also covers Center City kicks off at noon. There are buses available at each bar, usually every 20 minutes, to make sure you don’t do something stupid, like drink and drive. When we could, we included the pub names and addresses in our calendar entries.
Springfield’s always delightful parade (which was washed out last year by rain) starts at noon as well. York’s parade starts at 1 PM and Conshohocken’s steps off at 2 PM. Conshy’s after party, featuring Oliver McElhone and the Belfast Connection, is at 5 PM at AOH Notre Dame Div. 1 Hall.
Chester County’s AOH Wolfetone Div. 1 is starting its St. Paddy’s Day party at the Elks Club in West Chester at lunch time—it’s their 35th!
Take the wee ones to Sesame Place in Langhorne and join Ernie, Bert, Elmo, and very likely Kermit for some Irish celebrations on Saturday too.
The McDade Irish Dancers and Seamus McGroary will be featured at Irish Night at the Italian Club in Ardmore. No, they will not be serving meatballs and cabbage. We’ll leave you to ponder that.
Crossing Vineyards (owned by the Carroll Family) is holding its annual Irish weekend with The Boys from County Bucks.
Celtic Pride is playing at the Temperance House in Newtown and The Broken Shillelaghs will be at Dublin Square Pub in Bordentown, NJ.
You can still catch “Brendan,” a play by Ronan Noone at McCoole’s Arts and Events Place in Quakertown and “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” at Plays and Players, a Theatre Exile production.
Sunday
Do we have to tell you again? The country’s second oldest and one of its biggest St. Paddy’s Day Parades starts off at 11 AM in Philly and doesn’t finish marching down the Parkway until 3 PM. There’s a Mass at 8:45 AM at St. Patrick’s and many after parties, including at the FOP on Spring Garden Street and at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, starting at 3 PM.
Searson, the all-girl group from Canada, is playing at Molly Maguire’s Pub at 4 PM in Phoenixville.
And in Vineland, NJ, a variety of performers, including 8-year-old fiddle phenom Haley Richardson and her brothers, will be playing at Cumberland County College.
Monday
The Brehon Society is holding its St. Patrick’s Day Party at McGillins Olde Ale House in Center City Philly on Monday night. Special discount for law students (to be a Brehon you need to be a lawyer).
Tuesday
Head down to AOH 61 at 4131 Rhawn Street in Philadelphia to discuss strategies for dealing with defamatory merchandise–like t-shirts that imply all the Irish do is drink and fight–with other like-minded folk. A group picketed outside a Spencer’s Gifts last weekend and this week Philadelphia Councilwoman Joan Krajewski has also taken a stand against the merchandise. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss how to address the matter with businesses and vendors.
Wednesday
The Ryan Kilcoyne School of Dance will be at Bounce U of Langhorne, where kids pay to get in but parents don’t. Clever!
The Villanova University Irish Dance Team is performing at the Connelly Center at the university in Villanove at 7 PM.
Celtic Crossroads is on the bill at Sellersville Theatre. This stage show features not only Irish music but also bluegrass, gypsy, and jazz.
St. Patrick’s Day!!!
Judge Jimmy Lynn’s annual breakfast fundraiser is once again at The Plough and the Stars on Chestnut Street in Philly, starting at 7:30 AM. A wreath laying ceremony will be held later at the Irish Memorial which is just around the corner.
The Commodore Barry AOH Div. 1 is holding its open house at their HQ in National Park, NJ.
The Bogside Rogues will be performing at Tir Na Nog at 16th and Arch.
Belfast Connection in playing at Dublin Square Pub in Cherry Hill.
Blackthorn will be on stage in “County Blackthorn,” AKA the Springfield Country Club in Springfield.
Laurel Hill Cemetery, where the living have a great sense of humor, is having a party that involves spirits of every kind. Called “In Heaven There is No Beer, That’s Why We Drink it Here,” the program will give you a tour of Irish graves and supply you with beer and other spirits.
You can also spend St. Patrick’s Day with The Broken Shillelaghs at McMichael’s Pub in Gloucester City, NJ.
The John Byrne Band will be at Slainte at 30th and Market in Philadelphia in the afternoon till close, but before that they’ll be appearing with Preston and Steve of WMMR at the annual bash at Finnigan’s Wake on Spring Garden Street (where, we admit, we once had a beer at 8 AM and liked it). That gig runs from 7:30-9:30 AM. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.
Solas is playing at the World Café Live on St. Paddy’s Day, also a Philly tradition.
If you’re down there, check in on Burning Bridget Cleary, which is releasing a new CD that night!
Another regional tradition—Bill Monaghan and Celtic Pride at Sellersville Theatre, also St. Paddy’s eve.
You knew it had to be playing somewhere: Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance is at the War Memorial in Trenton.
And St. Agnes Church is hold it’s Irish Music Night in Blackwood, NJ with tenor Mark Forrest. It’s a fundraiser for special needs kids.
Friday
Oh, it’s not over yet!
The National Park Boat Club in National Park, NJ, is holding a St. Paddy’s Party starting at 6 PM. You don’t need to be a member nor have a boat.
DeDanaan, one of the greats, is performing at the Baby Grand at the Gran Opera House in Wilmington. You can also catch them next week in Sellersville.
At the Waterfront Theatre in Camden, you can see the play “Go Irish: The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller.”
Looking ahead to next week, you’d think every day was St. Paddy’s Day. (Allentown is having its parade, for example.) The only place that’s really true is here on www.irishphiladelphia.com. But we’ll be back again next week to give you fair warning of many more events, including a USA-Ireland rugby game in Philly, visits from groups such as Altan, Dervish, and Seamus Begley and Oisin MacDiarmada of Teada, the High Kings, Gaelic Storm, as well as the latest play in the Philadelphia Irish Theatre Festival series, “The Pride of Parnall Street,” by Sebastian Barry, at the Ambler Act II Playhouse.
Check the calendar. Daily!
