All Posts By

Denise Foley

Sports

How To Hurl

The Shamrocks hurler holds the sliotar in one hand and the hurley in the other during last year's championship game.

Once you get past the jokes (“Hurling? Sure, I can do that! One night of drinking and I’m there”), hurling is an ancient game that encompasses many aspects of soccer, hockey, lacrosse, a little baseball, cricket, and, as one wag put it, “assault with a deadly weapon.”

The deadly weapon in this case is the hurley, the axe-shaped stick the players carry and use to hurl a small ball called a sliotar (prounounced slitter) between their opponents’ goal post—either over the crossbar for one point, or under it into a net guarded by a goalkeeper for three points.

You can catch the ball with your hand but you can’t carry it for more than four steps before you either have to strike it in the air or on the ground with your hurly. You can kick or hand-pass it to another of your teammates. If you want to carry the ball for more than three steps, you need to bounce or balance it on the end of your stick. You can use shouldering, as long as it’s side to side (no charging or tackling allowed). Usually the players don’t wear protective padding though many wear a helmet (sometimes with a faceguard). And the pace? Fast. It almost makes ice hockey look a game of golf.

Check out more photos of the 2007 championship (won by the Philadelphia Shamrocks).

May 16, 2008 by Denise Foley

Sports

Sunday Hurling Match Pits a Brand New Team Against Philly’s Shamrocks

Neophyte hurler Christopher Farrell: Be afraid. Be very afraid. Photo by Michele Horon

Fair warning to the Philadelphia Shamrocks hurlers: The Allentown team you’re facing on Sunday, May 18, at Cardinal Dougherty High School may be brand new, but they’re dangerous.

Take just one player for example. That would be Christopher Farrell, at 45, playing a game that, until recently, he’d never heard of. “My first two practices with this team, oh man, I knocked a guy’s shoulder out of its socket and the second practice I hit a guy square in the face with the ball.” Actually, what he did, he told me later in hurling language, was “hit a sliothar (ball) straight into his nose — it was a bloody mess.”

And the guy he hit is the only Irish-born member of the new Pennsylvania Hurling Club’s team, the Allentown Hibernians, Joe Farrell (no relation), and the only one who’d ever played the game before but who wasn’t wearing a face guard at the time. He’ll never do that again.

“My main thing is bicycling,” says Christopher Farrell, by way of an apology. In fact, Farrell is seriously into racing, which he does regularly at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, with its banked tracks and, quite often, Olympic level athletes. A “recovering fat guy,” Farrell lost 45 pounds while cycling, making him a poster child for his employer, Rodale, Inc., publisher of health and fitness magazines such as Men’s Health and Bicycling.

Oddly enough, Farrell got interested in hurling because of Irish stepdancing. His two youngest daughters are involved on a competitive level with the O’Grady-Quinlan Academy of Irish Dance in Lehigh County. Another “dance dad,” Jeff Purtell, a PGA golf professional for a decade, had gotten interested in hurling and figured that he might find some like-minded guys among those who spend weekends driving long distances to watch their daughters jig in $600 dresses. “I ran into Jeff at an event a couple of months ago, around St. Paddy’s Day, and he asked me if I’d like to try it out. They really need guys and I really need the exercise so I said okay.”

Farrell is the “old guy” on a team that also includes high school and college players, as well as 44-year-old Dublin-born Joe Farrell of Whitehall Township, their one experienced player. He admits he’s never even seen a hurling game “except for some low res” films on YouTube. “It looks fast,” he says. Farrell and his wife have five kids and he’s completing his master’s degree “so I really don’t want to get injured.”

Given his performances at practices, it seems like it’s the Shamrocks who need to be worried about that.

Come out and support hurling and see all the action on Sunday, May 18, at Cardinal Dougherty High School Field, starting at 4 PM.

May 16, 2008 by Denise Foley

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Jam-packed is the word for this week. Lots of Celtic craic and, of course, much of it at the same time.

If it’s not washed out, tonight (Friday, May 16) is Irish night at the Phillies. Along with the Toronto Blue Jays, you can see the Bogside Rogues, singers Vince Gallagher and Timmy Kelly, a host of Irish dancers—but no green hats on the Phils. We hear from a reliable source that since the team lost while wearing green hats, they’re not wearing them again. At least, not during the season.

There’s a $4 discount if you use the word “Irish” when ordering tickets. If you haven’t been to Citizen’s Bank Park, it’s great fun, even if you couldn’t care less about baseball.

Saturday at noon, the Camden County Emerald Society Pipe and Drums is holding its Irish Festival at the RiverWinds Community Center in Thorofare, NJ. There will be a pipe band competition, of course, but also a fire truck pull, so it sounds like a great day for kids. The adults aren’t left out either—there’s also a beer garden, craft vendors, and great live music presented by Blarney, Birnham Wood USA, and the Broken Shillelaghs.

That night, plan on being at the Irish Center for a one-man show by the amazing Sean Tyrell, who will tell the story, in words and song, of lesser-known Irish hero John Boyle O’Reilly. “Cry of the Dreamer” traces Reilly’s journey from early childhood set against a backdrop of famine, revolution, Fenianism and penal servitude for life in Australia and his great escape from there to the US where he became a newspaper editor and poet. It’s a coup to have this show in our area. Tyrell plans to take it wherever Reilly went: Dublin, London, Fremantle, Liverpool, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

On Sunday, head over to Park Polanka in Bensalem for the annual Bucks County Irish Center Irish Festival. Then make time to watch the Allentown Hibernians in their first match ever against the Philadelphia Shamrocks at Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philadelphia. The game is hurling and starts at 4 PM. Read our story.

At the Irish Center at 5 PM Sunday, Michelle Mack will be crowned the new Mary from Dungloe. An Irish dancer and assistant director of residence life at Holy Family University, Michelle will travel to Dungloe, County Donegal, Ireland, in August to compete in the international contest.

If you’re in or near Gloucester City, NJ, a lovely candlelight Celtic service is planned at the First Presbyterian Church of Gloucester City, with Celtic hymns, harp music, and healing prayers.

On Monday night, all you set dancers should head over to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Glenside where the fabulous Matt Cunningham band from County Galway will be providing the get-up-and-dance music.

On Tuesday, May 20, The Swell Season (Oscar winners for best movie theme, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglov from the movie, “Once”) will be performing at the Tower Theater to a sold-out house. Opening for them is Fergus O’Farrell and Interference, a little known but profoundly influential group from Ireland making its first appearance in the US.

The great King of the Pipers, Paddy Keenan, will be playing at upstairs at the World Café Live in Philadelphia on Wednesday, May 21. On May 22, Keenan will be giving both piping and whistling workshops at the Irish Center.

Also on Wednesday, soccer fans can head on over to Fado Pub in Philly to catch some live action between Manchester United and Chelsea. Well, live on TV. It’s the 2008 Championship Final. Word of warning: Everyone needs to behave themselves.

“The Irish and How They Got That Way,” a musical by Frank McCourt, is still playing at the Walnut Street Theater and will be there till the end of June.

You’ll find all the details and even some maps on our calendar, which really wishes it had called early for tickets to see The Swell Season. Oh well, it might be getting in to the sound check.

May 16, 2008 by Denise Foley

Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week and Beyond

Forget the silly brunch you always take Mom to. There’s a Celtic Street Fair in Phoenixville this weekend. Don’t you think she’d rather check out all the vendors while wearing her new shamrock deely bobbers?

All the craic starts Saturday at 10 AM and it’s free. There will be Irish step dancers, 25 vendors, and many clan and fraternal organizations. There’s also a great array of bands and performers—the Bogside Rogues, the Malones, Oliver McElhone, the Brian Boru bagpipe band and DC’s favorite Balkan-Celtic band, Scythian, with Drew and Angus from the band Brother, opening for them at the Colonial Theater, famous for its starring role in the ancient film, The Blob.

Trad musician alert: This year will feature a seisun stage for some serious jamming. Bring your fiddles, concertinas, bodhrans, and harps.

That same evening, Blackthorn and the AOH Notre Dame division will be raising money for the Upper Merion Police Department at the Radisson in King of Prussia. If you’d forgotten that these men and women lay their lives on the line every day for us, this past week in Philadelphia should be a powerful reminder.

And so you’re not wishing you had planned ahead:

Time to get those discount tickets for Irish Heritage Day at the Phillies—it’s $4 off (whether you’re Irish or not) if you use the promotion code, “IRISH”, when ordering tickets for the May 16 game. The Phils are up against the Toronto Blue Jays. There will be Irish food and, of course, Irish dancing. Bob Kelly of CBS-3 is the emcee for the evening game.

Next Saturday, May 17, the Camden County Emerald Society Pipes and Drums is holding its Irish festival at the Riverwinds Community Center in Thorofare, NJ. Along with vendors, see a pipe band exhibition (natch!), step dancers and a fire truck pull. Music will be provided by Blarney, Birnam Wood USA, and Broken Shillelaghs.

On Sunday, head on over to Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philly to see the Philadelphia Shamrocks face off against a brand new hurling team from Allentown. The game starts at 4 PM. If you’ve never seen hurling this is the only place you’re going to in this area. If you like hockey, soccer, baseball, football, and Xtreme fighting, you’ll love hurling. Wear a hat and sunscreen.

Prepare for the coming of the great King of the Pipers, Paddy Keenan, who will be playing at upstairs at the World Café Live in Philadelphia on May 21. On May 22, Keenan will be giving both piping and whistling workshops at the Irish Center.

“The Irish and How They Got That Way,” a musical by Frank McCourt, is still playing at the Walnut Street Theater and will be there till the end of June.

Of course, everything you need to know is on our calendar, considered on a par with the Library of Alexandria in the depth and breadth of the information it contains. Hope we don’t end up like that one. (Okay, for you non-history nerds, it was once the largest library in the world, but books being flammable and all, it went up in flames several times before finally being destroyed at the behest of a fourth century Christian leader.)

May 9, 2008 by Denise Foley

News

Does Delaware County Need Its Own Irish Center?

To Denis Hickie it all makes sense. There are more Irish in Delaware County (where they’re 25% of the population) than in Philadelphia (13.6%, the second largest ethnic group in the city behind African-Americans). The drive to the Philadelphia Irish Center from his home in Upper Darby takes 45 minutes.

Then there are the steps. No doubt about that—the steps to the Irish Center are steep and daunting. The Center, also known as the Commodore Barry Club, sits atop a hill in the Mt. Airy section of the city, and those stairs can be punishing to old knees. “Some of the older people can’t make it up,” says Hickie. Even the ones who still love to set dance can’t make the drive, then the climb, he says.

So he wants Delco to have its own Irish center “with rooms for meetings, dancing, music, and the rest. I’ve talking to a lot of people in Delco who say they’d like to have an Irish center in their backyard.” On Sunday, May 11, at 2:30 PM, he’s holding a meeting at J.D. McGillicuddy’s on West Chester Pike in Upper Darby to see if there are enough like-minded people to establish an Irish Center of Delaware County. The meeting will not only be his way to judge interest, but he hopes people will bring ideas for what they’d like to see in a center—and even where in Delco they’d like it to be located.

Hickie doesn’t believe that a separate organization in Delco will compete with Philadelphia’s Irish Center, which turned 50 this year. “This will be catering to the people who don’t go to Philadelphia anyway,” he says.

May 9, 2008 by Denise Foley

Sports

The Fierce Little Team That Could—And Did

Four Provinces honoree David Doyle flanked by his two best girls, girlfriend Ann Rogers and mom Joan, who flew from Ireland to see her son receive his awards.

It could be a movie plot. A little team of Irishmen from Philadelphia, on its way to New York to compete in a Gaelic football championship, is involved in an accident that leaves their bus wrecked. Fortunately no one is injured, but they also have no way to get to Gaelic Park, where they’re facing the senior finals. But the team is carried off to the game in the dozens of cars of their diehard fans who have been following them on the highway.

And, of course, they go on to win the game. Colm Meaney will surely play the role of the team coach who, in real life, is Seamus Sweeney of Upper Darby (and before that, Cresslough, County Donegal, Ireland). It was his team, the Donegal Gaelic Football Club, also known as Four Provinces, that survived the frightening bus crash to dump Leitrim of New York 2-13 to 2-9 for the trophy (after trouncing Cavan 1-13 to 1-10). They went home with a police escort across the George Washington Bridge.

And on Saturday night, at the Donegal GFC Annual Banquet, they reveled in their win. They also finally received their medals during a ceremony held in the Barry Room of the Irish Center in Mt. Airy which also honored dozens of others who had played a pivotal role in resurrecting this fierce and proud club in 1988.

Among the honorees were Charlie and Peggy Murray who were not only founding members of the team, but for years opened their home to players from Ireland. “They are everything that epitomizes the Donegal GFC,” said Club Chairman Tommy Higgins as he presented the Murrays with their award.

Team members singled out for both their efforts during the finals and over the season were club high scorer for two years running, Liam O’Donnell, of Derry. O’Donnell was also one of the four New York all-stars who received a trophy. The others were Mike Higgins, David Doyle, and Liam Moore. Team Captain Liam McGroarty presented Coach Sweeney with a framed collage of the team’s 2007 exploits, and bid an emotional goodbye to his teammates; McGroarty and his wife, Claire, are returning to Ireland.

May 2, 2008 by Denise Foley

People

Miltown Malbay’s Unofficial Mayor Tom Malone Dies at 92

The late Tom Malone flanked by his daugher Marian and his son, Fintan.

By all accounts, if you knew Tom Malone you were probably a sportsman. Or a piper. Or a trad musician. Or a lover of a good pint. Or a dog-racing aficiando. Or a Republican, in the Irish sense.

When he died on April 1 at the age of 92 in the town of Miltown Malbay in County Clare, Ireland, the local paper stressed his influence on local sports—it was he who set up the local GAA club in 1936, brought hurling and ladies football to the county, and launched a cycling race a la the Tour de France. But his son, Fintan Malone, now of Cheltenham, prefers to think of him as “a man of many hats.”

That’s an understatement.

“Firstly, he sold insurance starting out on a bike,” recalls Fintan, a musician who performs locally as part of the duo Blarney and at many sessions. His father also operated a bar in the Malone home on the main street. “But it was run mostly by my mother. He could never pull a proper pint, God love him. He ran horse races for a time. Next he bought a farm and we being townies, I found it hard to adjust.” It wasn’t so easy adjusting to Tom Malone’s next venture either. Terrier racing. “It’s like greyhound racing,” explains Fintan. “My job was to hook the artificial hare and take it back to the gate for the next race.”

When Tom Malone bought the Fair Green, he booked traveling circuses to come to town. “We never paid an admission into a single show.,” says Fintan. “We also traveled the countryside with amusements such as bingo, shooting gallery, and slot machines.”

Along with introducing hurling and ladies football to Miltown, Tom Malone was also the first to sell bottled milk and cooking gas cylinders. There were so many firsts,” says Fintan, “that I can’t remember them all.”

Though not a musician himself, Tom Malone loved music. “My mother was very much into both dance and music which is where I got my interest from.,” says Fintan. “I believe my father, when the house dances ceased, could see bigger and better things ahead and started to book traveling bands on their way from the North down to Kerry. Our house doubled as a boarding house and these musicians would stay with us and he, of course, would have clinched some deal to have them play across at the hall as part of their payment. I got a chance to see the singing tinker, Maggie Barry, along with the great Michael Gorman, Bridie Gallagher, Joe Heaney, and the hypnotist Edwin Heath who had the local bank manager under hypnosis, frantically looking for leprechauns up and down the Main Street.”

A number of ceili bands were booked into Malone’s venue, including the famed Kilfenora and Tulla bands. “I believe it was when he first saw the Tulla Pipe Band that he decided it was time for Miltown to have their own pipe band. “says Fintan. So he founded one—the Clonbony Pipe Band. “The first pipes that were brought into Miltown went to Willie Clancy and Martin Talty,” says Fintan. “Willie played the war pipes before he played the uileann pipes. My father told many great stories about cycling around the countryside to raise money for this endeavour as money was tight then.”

Uilleann virtuoso Willie Clancy was houseguest for several years. Born in Miltown Malbay, Clancy was such an iconic figure in traditional music that a trad festival held every July in the town was named in his honor. And Tom Malone’s pub has traditionally been a hub for festival goers, just the way his home was an inn for itinerants. Clancy was by far not the only houseguest, says Fintan. Some were even more. . .interesting.

“There were Ruari O’Bradaigh and Daithi O’Connell who escaped from the Curragh Concentration Camp; Van Morrison; Andy Irvine; Joe Cahill, chief of staff of the IRA at the time; Joe Cooley; Robbie MacMahon; the Liverpool Ceili Band; Tommy Peoples; even an elephant from Fossett’s Circus (with a drunken handler) and other numerous people on the run.”

Tom Malone’s political leanings—he was a 32-county Republican—also made him a controversial figure, says Joe O’ Muircheartaigh, reporter for The Clare People newspaper, who wrote a lengthy profile of Malone after his death. “He was very Republican at a time when it wasn’t popular to be a Republican. And he never made any apologies for this fact.”

It wasn’t easy being the son of a man like Tom Malone, says Fintan. “He answered to no one and marched to his own drummer. But I’d like to think he has made me the man I am today. He was among many things, a wheeler dealer and as an early teenager when I caught a religious bug, I went through a period when I feared for his mortal soul. I remember vividly going up to the local church to pray for his soul. But in his latter years he had made up for this as every time I would call my sister to check on him I could hear him in the background reciting the rosary. He always tried to cover all of his bases.”

Marianne MacDonald contributed to this story.

May 1, 2008 by Denise Foley

News, People

Celebrate the New Mary

Michelle Mack, center, with Britney Lough, right, the 2006 Mary from Dungloe.

On Sunday, May 18, Michelle Mack will be crowned the 2008 Mary from Dungloe by the Philadelphia Donegal Society. She succeeds Meghan McGough, the 2007 Mary. The ceremony will take place at the Commodore Barry Club (The Irish Center), Carpenter and Emlen Streets, in Philadelphia. This event, which starts at 5 PM, is open to the public and dinner will be available for purchase.

Michelle has an undergraduate degree from Arcadia University in Sociology. She will be enrolled in the Masters of General Education Program at Holy Family University in the fall of 2008. Michelle is currently working at Holy Family University as Assistant Director of Residence Life.

Michelle will travel to Dungloe, Ireland in August to compete in an
international contest with other young women between the ages of 18 and 25 who are of Irish decent.

Michelle is an avid Irish dancer and enjoys Irish music and culture. She’s also a big fan of Blackthorn, and has been a member of the Donegal Association and active with the Mary from Dungloe competition for several years.

Anyone interested in participating in the 2009 Philadelphia Mary from Dungloe contest can get more information at www.philadonegal.com.

April 25, 2008 by Denise Foley

Older Posts

Newer Posts