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Jeff Meade

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

Free Blackthorn tunes this week.

Going to the beach this weekend? Think you can evade your duties as a respectable, card-carrying Irishperson?

Guess again, bucko.

If you’re headed down the Shore, you can get your Irish on big-time at Ireland and Old Lace in Historic Smithville, a few miles north of A.C., from 11 to 2 on Saturday. That distinctive little shop (615 East Moss Mill Road in Galloway) will host the kickin’ Celtic rock band Barleyjuice. You can also buy food and beer. Rumor has it, you can buy cheese and onion Taytos crisps.

Hmmmm … food, beer and Irish rock. All of life’s essentials, and all at the Jersey Shore over July 4th weekend, to boot. Does life get any better than this? Oh, yeah, it does … it’s free! Dip your pale Irish body in a vat of SPF 70, and get there.

Sunday, July 4th, brings us another Sunday of Irish tunes and community with the Vincent Gallagher Hour at 11 a.m., followed at high noon by “Come West Along the Road” with Marianne MacDonald, all on WTMR-800 AM. If you can’t pick it up on the radio, hear it clear as a bell on the Web.

You can keep the Independence Day Hibernian buzz going. Head out to Molly Maguire’s in Phoenixville for the Irish music session with Kane and Beatty, starting at 3.

Later in the week, Thursday to be specific, you have a tough, tough choice:

a.) Take yourself out to the ball game. The Camden Riversharks are celebrating Irish Heritage Night Thursday at the beautiful Campbell’s Field, 401 North Delaware Ave., in Camden. the Riversharks are playing the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. (So, wait … is it an Irish festival or a seafood festival?) Game time is 7:05. Special deal for our Irish Philly fans: Tickets are only 5 bucks when you use the group code “irish” to buy your tickets. Contact Mark in the Riversharks front office at 856-583-0031 or mschieber@riversharks.com.

b.) Pack up your lawn chairs and a picnic dinner for a special free concert by the boys of Blackthorn, at Prospect Park, starting at 7 p.m.

Baseball … Blackthorn. Blackthorn … baseball. Decisions, decisions …

You Delco Irish have a big, fun-filled day in the sun lined up. Next Saturday from 1 to 4, the Irish Club of Delaware County hosts its 2nd annual Irish Picnic at Knights of Columbus De La Salle Pool, 18 Baltimore Pike, in Springfield. Round Tower provides the music (they were great at the Penn’s Landing Irish Festival), the Celtic Flame Dancers will take to their toes, and you can spend the afternoon swimming, playing games, perusing the vendor stalls, and chowing down on picnic chow. Beer and other bevvies, too, of course.

See you next time!

July 2, 2010 by Jeff Meade

News

Up On The Roof

Ambassador Michael Collins joined in the celebration. So did Billy Penn. (Click on the photo to view a slideshow.)

In the late afternoon Thursday, severe storms swept through the Delaware Valley, threatening to put a damper on the planned launch party for Irish Network-Philly. IN-Philly is a brand-new organization designed to foster greater cultural, social and economic partnerships among its members and beyond.

The party was supposed to be held high atop The Phoenix at 16th and The Benjamin Franklin Parkway. But lightning and heavy rain kept the outcome in doubt until almost the very last minute.

The skies cleared around 5 p.m., and by 6, a large group of happy new IN-Philly members—business people, lawyers, judges, painters, theatre people, journalists, musicians, dancers and more—took the elevators to the roof for a night of connections (much business card exchanging), welcome cool drinks, superb Tir na nOg nibblies and fun. At the very top of the guest list: Irish Ambassador Michael Collins. (He almost didn’t make it: The storm held up his train from Washington.)

The idea was hatched around St. Patrick’s Day.

“Three months later, here we all are up on top of The Phoenix,” said Laurence Banville, a Center City attorney from County Wexford and president of the IN-Philly board. “We are rolling.”

IN-Philly is not intended to be a hard-core business network, but rather “a stoft type of network that leads to better things,” said Banville. He added that the network plans to reach out to the many existing Irish organizations to help bolster their efforts.

We have photos from the night. Click on the photo at upper right to view the slideshow.

June 25, 2010 by Jeff Meade

People

Today Tralee, Tomorrow the World

Karen Conaghan Race is at far left and her sister, Sarah Conaghan at far right, with Roses in between.

As you watch Saturday night’s Mid-Atlantic Rose of Tralee Final at the Philadelphia Irish Center—you are going, aren’t you?—know this: you’re catching a glimpse of the future of this long-running County Kerry Festival.

Since 1959, the festival has been selecting a young woman on a yearly basis to serve as its Rose of Tralee, with the candidates coming from around the world.

Anthony O’Gara, managing director of the festival, says the United States is about to gain many, many new Rose of Tralee Centres–groups of people responsible for running their own local and regional festivals.

“Our ambition is to build 250 centres in America in nine regions,” says O’Gara. “Sarah Conaghan and her sister Karen Conaghan Race have spearheaded the movement here in the United States. This [instead of running just one local festival], they’ll be running a regional festival pulling in six centres.”

This expansion is all part of the international festival’s mission to bring a bit of the Irish culture to the rest of the world. In 2004, the international festival had just 28 centres; today there are 80, only half of them in Ireland.

O’Gara acknowledges that there are many Rose of Tralee Centers in the States already–but they’re scattered. “There are pockets of Irish in cities and regions all over the united States,” he notes. “If you just have one centre for every state, you’re only reaching a tiny portion of the Irish and irish-Americans living in that state,” he says.

If the international committee has anything to say about it, the vast increase in local centres ought to capture a far bigger audience.

If you want to see how that ambitious plan is progressing, check out the Mid-Atlantic final at the Irish Center Saturday night.

[googleMap name=”Philadelphia Irish Center” width=”600″ height=”600″ directions_from=”true”]6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia, PA 19118[/googleMap]

June 25, 2010 by Jeff Meade

News, People

Philly’s “Good Guy” Set to Become Harrisburg’s 10th Bishop

Bishop Joseph McFadden, chaplain emeritus of the Philadelphia St. Patrick's Day Parade, joined St. Thomas More alums in singing the school song.

An “average Joe” is about to helm the Harrisburg Diocese.

Of course, Philadelphia Auxiliary Bishop Joseph P. McFadden is really far from ordinary. In naming him this week to become the 10th bishop of Harrisburg, Pope Benedict XVI surely must have recognized Bishop McFadden’s solid record of accomplishment.

McFadden has been a priest for 29 years, but he was someone special right from the word go. After a brief stint as assistant pastor of Irish St. Laurence Parish in Highland Park, Delaware County, he become administrative secretary to then Cardinal Krol in 1982. Less than 10 years later, he was appointed honorary prelate to Pope John Paul II—as a monsignor.

He later served as president of Cardinal O’Hara High School, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Downington and, in June 2004, auxiliary bishop under Cardinal Justin Rigali.

Not bad for a guy who grew up in St. Rose of Lima parish in West Philly, graduate of St. Thomas More, and high school basketball coach.

McFadden, contacted Friday just before he left to catch a flight to Rome, was characteristically humble when asked about his sure and steady rise. “For most priests the goal is to answer the call of God and to be of service to Jesus and the preaching of his gospel as a parish priest,” he said. “I don’t think a young man focuses on becoming a bishop. I didn’t. As bishop, a priest is still called to preach the gospel, but it means that you have responsibility of a larger flock, a larger group of people. when God gives you responsibility, you expect to have to answer to that responsiblilty. It’s one thing for an individual to open himself to the grace of God. It’s quite another thing to be responsible for shepherding other people in response to the same call.”

Throughout his rise to the top, Joseph McFadden apparently has not forgotten his humble roots, said Michael Bradley, director of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade, who has known him for a long time—including McFadden’s more recent service as parade chaplain and chaplain emeritus.

“He (McFadden) was president of Cardinal O’Hara when I was athletic director at Broomall,” said Bradley. “We knew of each each other for a long time. He went to Tommy Moore, and my dad went there. But we became close in the ’90s.”

Over the years, Bradley could see how much McFadden loved the Philly parade. The future bishop would march every year with the group from O’Hara. In 2007, when chaplain Father Kevin Trautner died, Bradley named him chaplain. That first year, McFadden spent some time providing commentary in the CBS3 booth. “They raved about him,” said Bradley.

What has appealed most to Bradley about this well-connected prelate, who in his time has tackled some nettlesome issues—including the closing of Cardinal Dougherty and Northeast Catholic high schools—is how down-to-earth he is. “I’ve always felt that he is a regular guy who became a bishop,” said Bradley. “He has an ability, when you’re talking to him, to make you feel like he’s your best friend.”

Bradley, for one, is not happy to see this best friend go. While acknowledging that McFadden’s promotion to preside over the Harrisburg Diocese is a great honor, Bradley wishes the Vatican had looked inside the Harrisburg Diocese to “hire from within. He asked, “Why can’t they get their own good guy?”

Philly’s “good guy” understands that his local friends might miss him. At the same time, he hopes he’ll be able to maintain at least some of his ties to the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade while forging new ties with the Irish-Americans of Harrisburg. “I would like to hope I can,” he said. “I love the Philly parade.

My parents, as you know, were born in Ireland. I’m proud of my Irish heritage. the parade has been such a great experience the last several years. It really has become a wonderful event in Philadelphia.”

June 24, 2010 by Jeff Meade

People

Hot Afternoon, Icy Lemonade, and a Good Cause

Hey ... you get the idea, right? Click on the photo to see more.

Last Saturday afternoon, temperatures soared into the high 80s throughout the Delaware Valley, but it felt even hotter out on West Chester Pike in Upper Darby.

But the heat evidently didn’t bother many of the volunteers who turned out to help the Philadelphia Rose of Tralee Centre support pediatric cancer research with a spectacular (and very yellow) Alex’s Lemonade Stand at the Irish Immigration and Pastoral Center at West Chester Pike and Cedar Lane. Even Sarah Conaghan, managing director of the Mid-Atlantic Rose of Tralee Centre, was a study in bright lemony yellow, right down to her necklace—which looked like a string of miniature lemons.

The volunteers included many of the Delaware Valley’s best and brightest young Irish-American women—including 2009 Rose Jocelyn McGillian, the Donegal Association’s 2010 Mary from Dungloe Kiera McDonagh, 2009 Mary from Dungloe Emily Weideman, 2008 Miss Mayo and 2010 Mid-Atlantic Rose finalist Colleen Mullarkey , and Jessica Greene, also a Mid-Atlantic Rose finalist.

(And if I’ve left anyone out, one or more of these women will let us know.)

Also among the volunteers: a wildly enthusiastic collection of Rosebuds, the younger girls who serve as a kind of honor guard. While the rest of us, wilting, sought refuge in the immigration center’s air conditioning, they hung around outside and drew posters, poured cups of lemonade, blew bubbles, made multicolor pipe-cleaner crowns (my favorite: the one that spelled out “H E L P.”), applied little lemon tattoos to their faces, and ran up and down the block below the immigration center yelling at the very top of their lungs for passing drivers to pull over right that very moment (“I KNOW YOU SEEEEEEEEEEE MEEEEEEE!!!!!!”) and buy a big cup of lemonade for cancer research.

Not so surprisingly, this high-pressure salesmanship often worked. They are Rosebuds—hear them roar.

Between the lemonade stand and online donations, the Rose of Tralee raked in close to $700—not a bad little haul.

Click on the photo above to see the whole photo essay.

June 17, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Music

Review: “The Ravishing Genius of Bones” by Brian Finnegan

Brian Finnegan’s new solo CD is not so much a departure from his other gig—as the whistle and flute front man for the modern trad ensemble Flook—as a huge, breathtaking elaboration on many of the unique and daring themes he has explored with that band over the years.

On “The Ravishing Genius of Bones”—an obscure reference to an accompanying poem about an old accordion player—Finnegan is joined by two of his Flook bandmates, bodhránist John Joe Kelly and Ed Boyd on guitars. You might be tempted to look upon this recording as just a variation on a theme—a kind of “Flook Not Flook.” That would be a mistake.

“The Ravishing Genius of Bones” is Finnegan’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” a musical epic with a cast of thousands. Well, maybe not thousands—but well over 20 world-class musicians representing a variety of genres. In addition to Kelly and Boyd, members of Finnegan’s other band KAN (Aidan O’Rourke on fiddle and guitarist Ian Stephenson) form part of the large, rotating cast of players, along with co-producer Leon Hunt on banjo and dobro (he’s a former student of Bela Fleck), alternative bluegrass band Crooked Still and the St. Petersburg Strings.

Virtuoso mandolin player Rex Preston, part of The Scoville Units with Boyd and Hunt, sits in for a couple of numbers, and banjo player Damien O’Kane (he played on Flook’s “Haven,” and John Joe Kelly accompanied him on his solo album “Spring Hill”) drops in as well.

With so much cross-pollination going on (heck, even steel drums make an appearance), “Bones” was bound to defy easy categorization. Is it Celtic? Jazz? Bluegrass? Indie? Pop? Symphonic? Answer: Yes. It’s all that and more, which is probably just how Finnegan likes it.

There are just nine tracks on the album. Most of the compositions are Finnegan’s own—including my favorite, an evocative air called “Last of the Starrs,” with Finnegan on flute and accompanied by the St. Petersburg Strings. It floats along with gravity-defying lightness and beauty.

The second set features Hunt shifting back and forth on banjo and dobro, accompanying Finnegan on tunes that probably will remind you of some Flook numbers. I’ll tell you the titles—“Lunchtime Boredom,” “Bok-Espok,” “Rusty Gully” and “Superfly”—but I’m not sure they’ll mean anything to you. (They didn’t mean anything to me.) But … no matter. The set starts out slow, syncopated and jazzy—a kind of easy shuffling rhythm. It all ends up scary fast, even more scarily syncopated and jazzy. (Is that helpful?) Anyway, all this bluegrass-tinged Celto-jazz is some of the cleverest work on the album.

Boyd and Kelly charge into the “Back to Belfast” set (with Lucy Wright twanging away on mouth harp), Finnegan jumps in on whistle, and before you know it, we’re all motoring along at, oh, say, 85 mph. Call it a reel set, but most dancers would be dead of heart attacks by the end.

There are other barn-burners on the recording, including “Castlerock,” a Damien O’Kane tune in the sixth set, the appropriately titled “Joy.” It too features some rapid-fire percussion by John Joe Kelly, with Leon Hunt on banjo.

What most stands out about this album is Finnegan’s attention to every detail. “Bones” is not a collection of sets and tunes that merely go together–it’s a complete and unified vision, a kind of giant wall mural of musical ideas and themes.

One last thought. I rarely take note of CD artwork—it always seems to be four or five guys standing in a field with mountains in the background. Inevitably, the guys are holding their fiddles and button accordions, as if a concert is about to begin in the middle of Killarney National Park. “Bones” boasts perhaps the loveliest artwork I’ve seen on an album cover in a long time. It’s all misty twilight blues, an enchanting firefly-lit dreamscape with koi swimming in the grass and fantastical birds sprouting translucent insect wings. Credit Germano Ovani, an Italian illustrator of children’s literature who lives in Edinburgh, for this enchanting vision.

Clearly, Brian Finnegan left not one detail to chance—not even the cover. These “Bones” are fully and exquisitely fleshed out.

June 10, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Dance

Day of the Dancers

Little Coyle dancers get a bit of coaching.

If you love Irish dance, most of the major Delaware Valley-area dance schools take to their tappy little toes at the annual Penn’s Landing Irish Festival. The 2010 festival was no exception.

Irish dance schools such as McDade, Timoney, Rince Ri, Cara, Coyle,
McHugh, Cummins, Celtic Flame, Gibson, Campbell, 2nd Street, Emerald
Isle, and Christina Ryan-Kilcoyne performed in the music tent and at the
main stage.

Some of the schools chose to wear the full regalia, flouncy wigs and all; others chose to dress for the weather … which was, of course, really hot.

Festival-goers just plain loved it all, either way.

Here are a few quick peeks at their performances.

[cincopa 10628724]

June 6, 2010 by Jeff Meade

Arts

In Jersey, They’re Getting Ready to Re-Joyce

If James Joyce had envisioned a western-themed sequel to his classic novel “Ulysses,” it might have been called: “Leopold Bloom Rides Again. And Again, and Again, and Again.”

“Ulysses” is recalled by Joyce fans around the world (with Dublin as the observance’s epicenter) every June 16. It’s a tradition dating back many, many years.) The event is named after protagonist Leopold Bloom.

June 16 is the day in 1904 in which all of the events of “Ulysses” take place. Anyone and everyone who loves the Irish writer gets in on the act: Pubs do it. Museums do it. Probably educated (very educated) fleas do it.

In Philadelphia, the day has long been celebrated with a street fair sponsored by the famous Rosenbach Museum and Library on Delancey Place. (It’s set for Wednesday, June 16, between noon and 7.) There’s also a program called “Bloomsday 101” at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street, on Monday, June 14, from 6 to 8 p.m.

The Irish folks across the river are no strangers to Bloomsday. The immortal publican Billy Briggs hosted a Bloomsday reading for years at his landmark Tir na nÓg in Hamilton Township, near Trenton.

This year, the Dublin Square Pub in Bordentown is picking up on the tradition on Sunday, June 13, starting at 7 p.m. (following the weekly Irish music session) and lasting until 8:30 (or whenever).

Bill O’Neal, the musician who anchors the Sunday session (during the week, he teaches English at Trenton High School), says the idea was hatched by flutist and ER surgeon Dr. Nancy Ferguson, who also has a musical history at Tir na nÓg.

“Nancy’s done this before,” O’Neal said. “They did it at Billy Briggs’ place, but it’s been maybe eight years.” O’Neal says Ferguson suggested the idea to Dublin Square principal owner Michael McGeough back around St. Patrick’s Day. “Michael was raised in Dublin, so he thought it was a great idea,” O’Neal says.

Taking part in the reading will be Ferguson and her group An Fleadh Liteartha, which celebrates the Irish arts. Also scheduled to read will be Jack McCarthy III, a Princeton lawyer and author of “Joyce’s Dublin,” and Joyce scholar Lee Harrod. (Story-teller Tom Slattery might also make an appearance.)

It was Harrod, O’Neal says, who helped inspire his own love of Joyce. “Dr. Harrod was a teacher at the College of New Jersey,” he says. “I took a course on Joyce with him many years ago. After that, he invited me back to the class every year to sing songs from that period.”

O’Neal will perform songs at the Dublin Square event, too.

No one is completely sure how pub denizens will take to the reading, but, O’Neal says, “I think they’ll enjoy it. Most of them will probably wonder at first, what is going on here? But I know when they did it at Tir na nÓg, it went very well.”

Ready to get your Joyce on? Head to the pub on June 13. It’s at 167 Route 130. (609) 298-7100.

June 3, 2010 by Jeff Meade

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