Run, Santa, run!
Celtic Christmas is moving into full swing in the Philly area this week. Here’s the rundown—more details are on our calendar:
The Running of the Santas—yes, a bunch of Santas, running—kicks off Saturday at Finnigan’s Wake at Second and Spring Garden Street in Philly, ending with some free and $3 beers at the pub and Jamison Celtic Rock performing at the Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing. Heated tent, anyone? On Sunday, Finnigan’s is holding its annual Irish Winterfest with the Bogside Rogues, Celtic Connection, and the Broken Shillelaghs, with music all day long, Irish vendors and Irish food. If there’s a hotel near Finnigan’s, you may want to stay the weekend.
The Delco Gaels will be revealing all—all the contestants of the “Dance Like the Stars” competition in February, that is—at their Christmas party and Night at the Races fundraiser at Maggie O’Neill’s Pub in Drexel Hill on Saturday night, starting at 5 PM.
If you’re just interested in taking a break from shopping and baking, head over to the Shanachie on Saturday night. Timlin and Kane are there, and they promise to play “Miss Fogarty’s Christmas Cake.” We love that one.
Sunday is a little like having so many presents you can’t see your Christmas tree. First, Oisin MacDiarmada and Teada are bringing their fabulous “Irish Christmas in America” to The Grand in Wilmington, DE. It’s been in Philly the last few years, and if you’ve missed it, it’s worth a trip south. MacDiarmada will be giving free fiddle workshops earlier in the day at West Chester University.
Head back to the Shanachie for an afternoon of top-notch musicians and some good deed-doing. Musicians Donie Carroll, Gabriel Donohue, Marian Makins, and the aforementioned Timlin and Kane will be playing and singing. Marianne MacDonald, host of “Come West Along the Road,” an Irish music show on WTMR 800-AM, and the queen of raffles, organized the day to introduce the fundraising CD, “Irish Musicians for the Mercy Centre Fundraiser.” It supports The Mercy Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, which does outreach to orphans, street kids, and children and adults with HIV/AIDS. In the world of Irish musical talent, these are A-listers: Mick Moloney, Black 47, Donie Carroll, Deirdre and Mattie Connolly, Gabriel Donohue and Marian Makins, Cathie Maguire, Jimmy Crowley, Athena Tergis, Mairtin de Cogain, Brian Conway and Brendan Dolan, and others, many of whom have performed many times in Philadelphia (and some who have moved here!).
The Donegal and Mayo Associations are holding their joint Christmas Mass and party at the Irish Center on Sunday afternoon. There will be activities for the kids and we hear that Santa may pay a visit. (You can park in the SEPTA lot on Sunday, Nick! Plenty of vegetation for the reindeer too.)
St. Malachi’s of Doe Run is also holding its annual Christmas party and concert on Sunday afternoon. They’re in Chester County.
Blackthorn will be playing at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia on Thursday, December 15. They’re also the featured band at a special invite-only event being thrown by Tullamore Dew at The Chestnut Club on Chestnut Street in Philly on December 13. We’re invited, and apparently you can be too if you go to http://www.thrillist.com/IrishTruePHL . (And we thought we were special.)
Next Friday, meet the official chaplain of “The Colbert Report,” corporate bigwig-turned-Jesuit, Father James Martin, who will be signing his new book, “Between Heaven and Mirth: Faith Leads to Joy,” at St. Philip Neri Church in Lafayette Hill. He’s a local boy—a grad of Plymouth Whitemarsh High School and Penn’s Wharton School of Business.
Even though it’s a jam-packed week, there’s still time for you to go to your local Irish shop and pick up a few things. Regular readers know we’re big proponents of shopping Irish (we even have our own guide to Irish shops in the area). When you’re shopped out for the day, head to your local Irish pub for a relaxing brew. They can use the business—and you know you want to!
Speaking of Irish gifts, you can help support Ireland (our middle name is “austerity”) and make your relatives happy by getting them a Certificate of Irish Heritage. You have to apply, and to earn your certificate, you have to know the name of at least one ancestor born in Ireland and the people in your line of descent from that ancestor. You need to supply one document referring to your ancestor that indicates their Irish nationality. That might be a census document, or a birth, marriage, or death record. It takes about 3 weeks to process the application and send the certificate, which is 11 x 14 inches and ready to be framed, though you can also buy them framed for a little more money ($15 unframed, $22.50 framed). Go to the Irish Heritage Certificate website to find out more about it.
(This certificate does not give you Irish citizenship. To get that, you must have a parent or grandparent from Ireland. If you’re interested in becoming a citizen and getting an Irish passport (you’ll breeze through customs), contact the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia.)
