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Jeff Meade

Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly this Week

You might run into these guys from Irish Thunder in Wildwood.

You might run into these guys from Irish Thunder in Wildwood.

Lace up your running shoes, kiddies. You are going to be oh, so very busy this coming week.

Honestly, we’re not this crazy busy with Irish and Celtic stuff in March.

First, this weekend. There are three festivals. Let me start by saying that Irish people could not possibly have planned any of this weekend’s events, or they would all be on the same day, and you’d have to figure out which one to go to, and which two to blow off. Fortunately, such good planning hardly ever happens.

All you have to know is, they’re all in Jersey:

Dublin Square Pub over in Bordentown is hosting its Halfway to St. Paddy’s Day event Friday night, starting at 8 and continuing until whenever. Live Irish tunes with the Broken Shillelaghs, and lots of fun.

The Gloucester City 2010 Shamrock Festival kicks off on Saturday, starting at 12 noon, in Proprietor’s Park & Marina on the waterfront at 225 South King Street, in Gloucester City, one of our favorite towns. The Broken Shillelaghs will be there, too, with Jamison, Beautiful Day and the Misty Dew’rs. Vendors galore, and plenty of activities for the kiddies.

On Sunday, starting at noon and going until 5, Mount Holly launches its Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day Music Festival at the High Street Grill. Music by Paul Kennedy, Celtic Connection and the debut of O’Farrelly’s Whiskey. Bonus: Find out who the 2011 Mount Holly St. Patrick’s Day Parade grand marshal is going to be.

After the weekend festivals are over, shoot back over to Pennsy—Norristown, to be specific— for the Ciara Kelly Higgins for CP 5th Annual Fundraiser at Plymouth Country Club (Belvoir and Plymouth Roads) on Monday. It’s an all-day event, including breakfast, golf, music by Paddy’s Well, dinner and the comedy of Joe Conklin. There’s also a silent and live auction. All to raise money for 7-year-old Ciara Higgins, who has cerebral palsy, and other kids with CP, to make sure they get the therapy they need. Learn more here. 

Knock off for a couple of days after that. You’re really going to need your rest because …

Irish Weekend down in North Wildwood—one of the biggest such events on the East Coast—gets under way with live amateur boxing Thursday night at 7 in the Music Tent at New Jersey and Spruce Avenues. The main celebration kicks in on Friday from 8 in the morning until 7 at night with music and vendors, and no small amount of food and drink.

It continues on Saturday, with the Brian Riley Pipe Band Exhibition at 8th and Central at 10 a.m., and more entertainment and vendors all day, and a ceili at Anglesea Firehouse from 7 to 11 p.m.; and a big, splashy parade on Sunday. Lots of your favorite bands will be booked down the shore that weekend.

But wait! The annual Celtic Classic, Highland Games and Festival—another event that also easily fits the “one of the biggest” description—kicks off Friday, runs throughout Saturday and wraps up on Sunday. We’d tell you what’s happening hour-by-hour, but there’s just so much going on, we would fall down from exhaustion before we got midway through Saturday.

Suffice to say that many of the top Celtic bands will be performing, including some of our particular favorites: Bua, the shy and retiring (not!) Timlin & Kane, Burning Bridget Cleary, Enter the Haggis, and the Jameson Sisters. Plus, the great John Doyle and Karan Casey team up for concerts Thursday and Friday night. Their CD “Exiles Return,” was one of the best Irish traditional recordings of the year. They’re just terrific together. This is an absolute “don’t miss.”

(UPDATE Sept. 18, 2010: Karan Casey will not be appearing, due to a family emergency. Taking her place is the marvelous Susan McKeown.)

The Classic also features enough pipe bands to cause ringing of the ears for weeks, Highland games (think beefy tattooed dudes in kilts tossing telephone poles … the dudes, not the kilts), sheepdog trials, haggis … it’s a jam-packed weekend.

With all the festival fun going on, you run the risk of missing two very good concerts: the Celtic Fiddle Festival Saturday at 8 p.m. at Sellersville Theatre, and Eileen Ivers—a one-woman fiddle festival in her own right—the same night and time at Zellerbach Theater on the Penn Campus. If you can see your way clear, either one is likely to be a rock-solid hit.

I don’t know about you, but after all that running around, I might sleep until March.

September 14, 2010 by
Music

A Night of Songs and Memories

Everyone had Frank Malley on their mind. Standing alongside the photo is his daughter Courtney.

Everyone had Frank Malley on their mind. Standing alongside the photo is his daughter Courtney.

“This is like having a big night in your own living room,” said singer and publican Gerry Timlin as he looked out on the crowd gathered in the Philadelphia Irish Center for Singers’ Night at the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival.

It was hard not to think of the Fireside Room as Frank Malley’s living room. Frank was, for many years, the driving force behind the Ceili Group Festival. He died of cancer last July. Singers’ night was dedicated to him. In fact, a large colorful portrait of a smiling Frank Malley was propped on an easel just to the right of the stage.

Standing alongside the portrait, Frank’s daughter Courtney said she was sure her father would have approved of this year’s Singers’ Night. “He would have been thrilled,” she said. “My dad was a singer, and there were so many other singers he enjoyed. He loved all of these singers.” Courtney, a well-known singer herself, confessed to also being partial to Singers’ Night. “For me, this is my favorite night of the festival,” she said.

It was evidently a favorite of many other Irish music fans. Most of the chairs in the Fireside Room—and at the nearby bar, of course—were filled. Surely no one could have been disappointed by the showing of singers, starting with Gerry Timlin himself, who also threw in a funny little story about what would have to be the ultimate handyman, Dixon from Dungallen. (Ask him to recite it. It’s a hoot.) And he shared memories of some of the greats who have gone before, including the late musician and radio host Tommy Moffit, who died in May.

There were several superb singing performances from the likes of Marian Makins, Rosaleen McGill and Karen, John and Michael Boyce. If you came hoping for the old standards, you couldn’t have been disappointed by Karen Boyce’s tender rendering of “Skibbereen” or all the Boyces’ superb harmonies on “Peggy Gordon.” Marian Makins sang a lovely version of “Green Grows the Laurel,” and everyone loved Rosie’s take on “The Emigrant’s Farewell.”

Couldn’t be there? We have photos and videos!

Here are the videos:

September 10, 2010 by
News

2nd Annual Brittingham’s Irish Festival

Little Daniel wants to get in on the act.

Little Daniel wants to get in on the act.

It would have been hard to find a better day for this popular little event at Brittingham’s in Lafayette Hill.

Bright and sunny, but not too hot, and breezy. Bands and dancers all afternoon, Hot dogs and burgers hot off the grill … and cold beer to wash it all down. It’s always hard to see summer ending … but if it has to end, this is the way to do it.

The main attraction was the music: Paddy’s Well, Jamison, Oliver McElhone, all taking turns on the stage, with the Coyle Dancers performing in between sets. It was bright and warm enough for pale-skinned Celts to do a slow burn, but the promoters made sure there was a big tent, and plenty of room underneath.

Several vendors also seemed to attract their fair share of attention throughout the afternoon—as did Yo-Yo Man (“Tim,” for short), who had no shortage of kids buying his toy.

We have photos and lots of videos.

Check out the videos:

September 9, 2010 by
Sports

A Labor Day of Love for the Region’s GAA Teams

The Young Irelands (in red) and the Kevin Barrys (in yellow) are piped onto Cardinal Dougherty Field for Sunday's championship. Photo by Eileen McElroy.

The Young Irelands (in red) and the Kevin Barrys (in yellow) are piped onto Cardinal Dougherty Field for Sunday's championship. Photo by Eileen McElroy.

While the rest of us are having burgers and corn on the cob and not going in the ocean (thanks, Earl) this Labor Day weekend, many of the region’s Gaelic Athletic Association players are in Chicago at Gaelic Park for the 2010 North American County Board championship playoffs.

There are 78 teams representing 22 cities—including Philadelphia and Allentown—in Chicago today (Friday, September 3) for the games, which is the biggest GAA playoff event ever in the US.

The teams from the region participating include:

  • The Philadelphia Shamrocks, Junior B Hurling
  • The Kevin Barrys, Men’s Senior Football
  • Young Irelands, Men’s Intermediate Football
  • St. Patricks, Men’s Junior A Football
  • Young Irelands, Men’s Junior B FootballSt. Patrick’s Men’s Junior C Football
  • Allentown Hibernians, Junior C Hurling
  • Mairead Farrells, Ladies Sr. Football
  • Notre Dame, Ladies Intermediate Football

Philadelphia’s teams will also participate in All-American teams in several rounds of football (including against the Chicago Fire Department team!).

Check out the action from last Sunday when the Kevin Barrys won the city championship over the Young Irelands in these photos by Eileen McElroy, who is both a talented photographer and a player (she’s with Notre Dame ladies’ football club).

September 3, 2010 by
Music

Solas in Concert at Longwood Gardens

Seamus Egan last played in the Open Air Theatre at Longwood Gardens about 20 years ago when he accompanied Mick Moloney and Eugene O’Donnell. Let’s hope it won’t be another 20 years before he plays there again.

Egan and his Solas bandmates closed out the summer with a memorable performance in one of the Delaware Valley’s prettiest places. At Longwood, the theatre itself is part of the show. Lush, tall arborvitae flank the stage. Flagstone walls and and lacy wrought iron gates form the backdrop. The place holds 1,500, but it seems more intimate than that. No roof … just cool breezes, dark skies, chirping crickets, bright stars and, on this night, a creamy gibbous moon.

All that atmosphere, and a big, splashy fountain show worthy of Esther Williams at the finale … fans will be talking about this one for a long time.

Egan on flute, joined by Eamon McElholm on guitar, took the stage first and set the tone with a sublime version of the slow air “An Buachaill Caol Dubh (The Dark Slender Boy).” The mellow mood didn’t last long, though. A slimmed-down Mick McAuley on button accordion (I heard someone near me ask “Who is that guy?”) and fiddler Winifred Horan joined Egan and McElholm, and launched into the band’s trademark “Wiggly Jigs” set. They moved on from there to a smoking set of reels. Joining them onstage for the reels was another skinny guy, Lord of the Dance star Jonathan Srour, who popped out of the hedges at stage right and had the audience clapping right from the start. He made two more appearances later on in the night.

Another surprise—a different singer, Niamh-Varian de Barra from Cork, practically just off the plane and making her first appearance with the band. Regular lead singer Mairead Phelan was off that night.

de Barra seemed a bit tentative on her first tune, “The Gallant Hussar.” By the time she made her second appearance, singing “The Ditching Boy,” she seemed to have shed any first-night jitters she might have had. She sang “Seven Curses” with the same confidence and energy.

McAuley and McElholm sang harmony in support of de Barra’s efforts, but it was hard to hear them. Sound quality was a bit out of whack throughout the night. de Barra sounded just fine; McAuley and McElholm were underamplified. Horan’s fiddle came through loud and clear; Egan’s guitar at times was barely audible. On balance, though, everything else about the concert was just so blissful—Horan’s tender rendering of “My Dream of You,” McAuley’s performance of the John Martyn tune, “Spencer the Rover,” and “Vital Metal Medicine,” Egan’s knuckle-busting banjo piece—it’s impossible to get tied up in knots over such a minor point.

It’s easy to forget tiny imperfections, too, when your favorite Irish band appears to be caught up in the middle a massive MGM water ballet. A bit campy? You bet. But the band seemed to be enjoying it, and who were the rest of us not to join in the fun?

[amazon_link id=”B0031Y4AJE” target=”_blank” ]Purchase “The Turning Tide”[/amazon_link]

August 30, 2010 by
Sports

Perfect Pitch: Irish Night at the Phillies Part 2

Bob Hurst at the mike.

Bob Hurst at the mike.

A 9-3 thumping of the Giants? Always fun. A shamrock-bedecked Phanatic? Priceless.

Tuesday night marked the second Irish night of the season. (Hey, it was such a great idea the first time …)

Even if you couldn’t tell by all the green Phillies caps that it was a special night, there was no escaping the great sounds emanating from the vicinity of Harry the K’s, where the Bogside Rogues were banging out tunes and drawing crowds.

A little later on, several of the area’s Irish dance schools decended upon the field (well, technically, the warning track) to prance up a storm. And roung about the sixth inning, they came out again, this joined joined by the Phanatic himself, who tried valiantly to keep up with the kids.

  • Watch the Bogside Rogues.
  • Watch the McDade School dancers.
    • August 19, 2010 by
    People

    Got Time for a Pint? Donate Blood on Sunday!

    The man himself, Emmett Ruane.

    The man himself, Emmett Ruane.

    Remember Emmett’s Place fondly? For that matter, dontcha miss Emmett?

    Well, you can get together with one of our best-loved (retired) publicans and his family, and help a good cause at the same time.

    Emmett’s son Michael and favorite nephew Sean King are bringing the old gang together (and maybe drafting some new gang members) for a very ambitious American Red Cross blood drive on Sunday from 9 in the morning to 2:30 in the afternoon at the Perzel Center, 2990 St. Vincent St., in Mayfair. It’s the second annual drive, organized in honor of Raj S. Shah, the late husband of one of Michael’s first cousins, Joanne. Shah died of leukemia in 2007.

    Last year, the Emmett’s crowd collected 36 pints. It was part of a nationwide effort, including a drive organized by Shah’s wife in Satellite, Florida, and another put together by friends in Austin, Texas, that collected 76 units in total.

    Joanne Shah is also running her second annual drive on Sunday.

    Michael recalls how much Raj Shah came to depend on the generosity of blood donors. “He was just a great guy,” Michael says. “It was as if he was one of our own family. He had actually been diagnosed with leukemia 17 years before he passed away. He was treated, and his leukemia went into remission for quite a long time. The last year, it came back, and they just couldn’t get it under control again. He received transfusions almost on a daily basis for most of that year.”

    In all, 45 people donated at the Philly event last year. Based on early interest, Michael expects to top that this year.

    “Facebook has really helped this year,” he said. “We think we’re gonna have more than last year. I have a feeling it’s gonna be a much bigger response.”

    Of course, it’s a gathering of friends as well. There’ll be Irish music, and lots of treats, including homemade scones. (Much more than your basic Red Cross doughnuts, for sure.)

    So if you have time for a pint, Michael asks, why not drop on by?

    Scheduling a time slot is strongly encouraged so the Red Cross can have plenty of staff available to collect donations from everyone who wants to donate. Pick your time slot at the American Red Cross Web site using Sponsor Code 14357. Here’s the Web address:

    August 18, 2010 by
    Music

    Runa: Providing a Little Night Music

    Shannon Lambert Ryan, Fionan deBarra, and Cheryl Prasker of RUNA.

    Shannon Lambert Ryan, Fionan deBarra, and Cheryl Prasker of RUNA.

    The cicadas and the Chestnut Hill East commuter train provided a little extra percussion for RUNA, the contemporary Irish group that performed Wednesday night at Walk a Crooked Mile bookstore, housed in the old Devon Street train station in Mt. Airy.

    There was a sultry breeze, enough kids and dogs to make it homey but not distracting, and more than a few people sipped glasses of wine and ate a home-packed dinner from their lawn chairs while listening to this talented group, fronted by Philly native Shannon Lambert-Ryan. Canadian percussionist Cheryl Prashker, who now lives in Mt. Airy and Lambert-Ryan’s husband, guitarist Fionan deBarra round out the trio.

    August 13, 2010 by