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Denise Foley

How to be Irish in Philly This Week

The Philadelphia Irish Center

This time of year, if you want to be Irish in Philadelphia you often have to go to New Jersey. But that’s okay, because many Irish Philadelphians do.

Slainte—Frank Daly and C.J. Mills of Jamison—will be at Keenan’s in North Wildwood on Saturda at 5, then with Jamison at Casey’s, also in North Wildwood, at 9:30 that night. Quite a day. Hope their voices hold out because Jamison is heading over to Shenanigans in Sea Isle City on Sunday.

The Broken Shillelaghs will be at the Gloucester County AOH (you don’t have to be a member to attend) on Saturday too.

But the big story on action news. . .er, Irish Philadelphia, is the Fundraiser for the Irish Center on July 19 at Maloney’s Pub, 2626 County Line Road in Ardmore. If you’ve been reading along with us, you know that the Irish Center, which was founded in 1958 and is the hub of many of the activities in the Irish community, just got slammed with a huge tax bill, the result of a citywide reassessment that affected many other private clubs in Philadelphia. An appeal brought the 800 percent increase in the center’s taxes down to a 300 percent hike, but the Center still can’t afford it. To make matters worse, the range hood in the kitchen needs to be replaced (it’s at least $20,000). Without it, the kitchen won’t pass a Board of Health inspection and the Center will lose its main source of income—events and catering.

The Center has faced money shortfalls before, but this is the first time it’s faced an imminent shutdown. The Center is the home to all the county societies, the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Ceili Group (and its annual traditional music festival), the Next Generation (the group of youngsters who learn and perform traditional music together), weekly ceili dance classes conducted by John Shields, and the Cummins School of Irish Dance. It’s where the Donegal and Galway, and Mayo Balls are held, the Philadelphia Mary from Dungloe is chosen, the Derry Society holds its socials, famous Irish musicians play in the ballroom or the cozy Fireside Room, the seniors meet once a month for lunch and some music, and Gaelic football fans watch their favorite teams on pay-per-view while eating a full Irish breakfast on Sunday mornings.

Think of what it will mean if those groups no longer have a central place to meet and there is no one stage where Irish traditional music can be performed.

If you can’t come to the fundraiser (it starts at 6 PM), consider making an online donation on the Irish Center’s website, the fundraising website, or by sending a check to the Commodore Barry Club, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia, PA 19119.

July 11, 2014 by Denise Foley

News, People

Four New Irish Hall of Fame Inductees Selected

The owner of a famed Irish tap room where many local Irish musicians got their start, a Donegal native who headed the Philadelphia Ceili Group, the Donegal Association and is on the board of the newest Gaelic sports club, and twin brothers who took up the cause of 57 Irish immigrants who died 178 years ago while working on the Pennsylvania Railroad in Montgomery County, have been named to the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame board chose the four winners—Emmett Ruane, Jim McGill, and William and Frank Watson—on Tuesday night and established a new award named for Commodore John Barry, USN, the Wexford-born father of the American Navy. Barry and the other four will be honored at a dinner on November 9 at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia.

Emmett Ruane

Emmett Ruane is the former owner of Emmett’s Place, a tiny taproom in Northeast Philadelphia that, on the weekends, was “packed to the gills” with lovers of Irish music. It was like “the Northeast’s answer to cheers, where everybody knows your name,” said radio host Marianne MacDonald, who was one of the many dancers who frequented Emmett’s before it closed in 2008.

There were often so many dancers at the tiny pub, “we would dance out on the sidewalk,” wrote Ed Quigley in his nomination letter.

Every musician of a certain age played at Emmett’s Place at one time or another—as did many of the younger ones. “Emmett would always take a chance on a young Irish band– he booked everyone young and old,” said Bill Donohue, Jr. of The Shantys in his nomination letter. “Every Irish musician in Philadelphia cut their musical teeth at his taproom.”

“For those of us from Ireland, he gave us a home away from home,” said musician Patsy Ward, who also wrote a nominating letter for Ruane.

Cathy Moffit, whose father, Tommy, was a regular at Emmett’s, said that Ruane also had a behind-the-scenes life. “Emmett has been very generous to those in time of need and humble about his many hidden acts of kindness,” she wrote.

Jim McGill with daughter Rosaleen and wife, Mickey.

Jim McGill was born in Ardara, County Donegal, and emigrated to the US in 1958 at the age of 17. He served as president—sometimes more than once—of the Donegal Association and the Philadelphia Ceili Group (where he has been a member for 50 years and was the youngest president ever). According to his youngest daughter, Rosaleen, he “has made the Irish Center his home away from home.” He is a shareholder in the club.

“People from all aspects of Irish heritage and culture know him as a friendly, humorous and friendly smile that will answer any Irish related question or can direct you to the person who can,” she wrote in her nominating letter. “My dad has influenced me greatly. . .He has shown me how unique and diverse Irish culture is, and instilled the drive to share its beauty with the world,” wrote Rosaleen, who, like her father, is a singer and sits on the board of the Philadelphia Ceili Group.

McGill, who played Gaelic football himself (and was one of the players in the movie, “The Molly Maguires,” starring Sean Connery which was filmed in Pennsylvania) is vice chairman of the Glenside Gaelic Club, the newest youth league in the Philadelphia area.

Bill and Frank Watson

William Watson, a history professor at Immaculata University, and his twin brother, the Rev. Frank Watson, are being honored for their dogged pursuit of the truth in the death of 57 Irish immigrant railroad workers in 1832 whose mass grave the Watsons and their volunteer archeologists—mainly Immaculata students– discovered in 2002. While sorting through their grandfather’s papers, Frank Watson discovered documents from the Pennsylvania Railroad detailing the deaths and burial of the 56 men and one woman during a cholera epidemic.

The subsequent dig uncovered artifacts such as a Derry pipe stem and bowl engraved with a harp flag and, in 2009, the first body was recovered, believed to be that of 19-year-old John Ruddy of Inishowen, County Donegal. The Watsons raised money to bury Ruddy’s remains in Donegal, in a plot donated by Irish Center President Vincent Gallagher. Six other bodies recovered from the grave—some exhibiting evidence of violence—were buried in a plot donated by West Laurel Hill Cemetery.

The Watsons are now working toward recovering the other 50 bodies which are buried near the tracks at the Duffy’s Cut area of Malvern. Money raised at a recent fundraiser will go toward the exhumation and the completion of DNA testing.

July 10, 2014 by Denise Foley

Music, News, People

RUNA Debuts Its New CD–and a Surprise

Karen and Jim: She said yes!

RUNA, winner of the top Irish group in the Irish Music Awards last year, debuted its brand new CD, “Current Affairs,” on Friday, June 20, at the Sellersville Theatre. Gene Shay, the grand old man of Philly folk, introduced the group along with opening act, singer-songwriter Michael Braunfeld.

And one audience member used the occasion—with the collusion of the group—to propose. Karen said yes to Jim!

We were there and caught it all on camera!

Check them out here.

June 27, 2014 by Denise Foley

How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

Look for this guy (Jamesie of Albannach) and more Celtic acts at the Ren Faire this weekend.

Dig out your flowing dresses and your buckskin vests—it’s Celtic Fling weekend at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire in Manheim (near Lancaster). The three-day event features top Celtic acts such as Gaelic Storm, Albannach, Barleyjuice, the Screaming Orphans, Rathkeltair, and Scythian, with both Irish and Scottish dancers, freckle, kilt, and haggis-eating contests, and highland games.

On Saturday, flute player John Blake will be performing at the Coatesville Cultural Society. Blake, who grew up in London, has been influenced by his Connaught roots and now lives in Dublin. A former member of the group Teada, he has performed with other top traditional musicians including Angela Carberry, John Carty, and the Kane sisters.

On Sunday, it’s Celtic Day in Bristol Borough, down along the scenic Delaware River. On tap: the Philadelphia Police and Fire Pipes and Drums, No Irish Need Apply, and the Hooligans.

Also on Sunday, The Plough and the Stars in Philadelphia is hosting a fundraiser for the six local Irish musicians who are heading to Sligo in August to compete in the All-Ireland championships. They include two of last year’s winners, fiddler Haley Richardson and harpist Emily Safko, both of New Jersey. Several of the kids play regularly at The Plough session.

Sunday is a very busy day for the Irish. There’s also a fundraiser at Maggie O’Neill’s in Drexel Hill for the 2015 Mary from Dungloe event which is held at the Donegal Ball in November. You can meet the current Philadelphia Mary, Kelly Devine, before she leaves for Ireland to compete and a few other former Marys, including International Mary from Dungloe of 2013, Meghan Davis.

There are still a few seats available for the Kevin Crawford and Cillian Vallely house concert in Center City Philadelphia on Wednesday, July 2. That’s three-fifths of Lunasa (one of my favorite groups, in case that means anything to you) and not only will the music be fabulous, so will the craic (Kevin Crawford is a hoot). To reserve, email barnstarconcerts@gmail.com. It’s a house concert, so seating is limited.

Enjoy the Fourth!

June 27, 2014 by Denise Foley

Dance

Summer Camp for Irish Dancers

Noreen Donohue McAleer offers a few pointers on toe pointing.

When there were no jigs and reels playing, the Irish Center’s cavernous ballroom echoed with little girl giggles. Last week, the Cummins School dancers were having their summer camp—a lot of dancing, which also served last-minute cramming for the five Cummins dancers heading to the national championships in Montreal next week, and, for the littlest ones, crafts involving glue and glitter and tie-dyed socks. Oh, and ice cream sundaes, the only thing that brought dead silence to the room.

The Cummins School has been teaching kids to step dance in this ballroom for the last 12 years; a second class, mainly for the youngest, is held at the VFW post in Glenside.

“We’ve been so lucky,” says Frances Cummins Donohue, who runs the school with her daughter, Noreen Donohue McAleer. Donohue started dancing herself when she was an 11-year-old in Dublin and scored a second in the All-Irelands. “Dancing was my life and I loved it and when I came over here, I instilled that in my girls, Kerri and Noreen,” she says.

The Cummins students learn more than beats, cuts, lifts and sevens. “Because we’re in the Irish Center, we’re also exposing kids to the Irish culture,” says Donohue. “The bagpipers [The Emerald Society Pipe Band] are here on Wednesdays and they love that. Then John Shields is in here with his ceili dancers and they enjoy that too. This space is amazing. We’d miss it terrible, we really would.”

Donohue is talking about the current financial crisis facing the Irish Center, a combination of an increased tax burden brought on by Philadelphia’s citywide reassessment last year and kitchen upgrades required by the city’s board of health—expenses estimated to total $100,000 or more over the next two years.

Cummins dancers will be participating in a fundraiser on July 19 at Maloney’s Pub of Ardmore in an effort to save their home.

But this week, it was all fun and games—except for the extra dance instruction from Donohue, McAleer, and teachers Brittany Kelly and Theresa McElhill. We stopped by on Thursday and took some photos of the fun.

You can see them here.

June 27, 2014 by Denise Foley

Music

Blackthorn In the Park

John Boyce gets all rock ‘n roll.

It was a beautiful night for a free Blackthorn concert on Thursday at Park Square in Prospect Park, part of the community’s free summer concert series.

If you missed it, you can catch Blackthorn again on Saturday at Tom n Jerry’s Sports Pub, 1006 McDade Boulevard in Milmont Park start at 4 PM or on Sunday, June 29, at the City of Wildwood, NJ’s Fox Park at Ocean and Burke Avenues in Wildwood.

They’ll be down the shore in July and back in Delco in August.

Or, you can pop in a CD and check out Brian Mengini’s excellent photographs of this week’s concert, below, and pretend you were there.

[flickr_set id=”72157645315791573″]

June 20, 2014 by Denise Foley

Music, News, People

Duffy’s Cut Fundraiser a Huge Success

The Duffy’s Cut Fundraiser on Sunday in Lansdowne not only hit its goal of $15,000 to pay for fees related to retrieving the last 50 bodies of Irish immigrants who died while working on the railroad in 1832, it exceeded it—by at least double that.

“We’ll be able to do the work and finish up the DNA testing,” said the Rev. Frank Watson who, with his brother, Bill, a history professor at Immaculata University in Malvern first brought to light the hidden graves of the 57 immigrants who died during a cholera epidemic.

Frank and Bill Watson

Their work revealed that at least some of those 57 had likely been murdered, probably by a vigilante group worried that they would spread the disease through the wider community. Seven bodies have already been recovered; six were interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery and the seventh, tentatively identified (via a dental anomaly) as John Ruddy, was buried in a donated plot in Ardara, County Donegal, last year. Ruddy came as a teenager from Inishowen Peninsula in Donegal to work on the railroad.

For more information about this phase of the Duffy’s Cut Project, click here.

A diverse group of individuals and organizations planned and sponsored the event at the Twentieth Century Club on Sunday afternoon. One sponsor was Kris Higgins, a former nun and a public school teacher, who donated $10,000 in the memory of her partner, Mary Pat Bradley, who died last year of ovarian cancer. When asked why, she responded simply, “Because I can. I’m no Lewis Katz [the late philanthropist] but I can do something.”

Other donors included The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Bringhurst Funeral Home and West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Wilbraham, Lawler & Buba, The Irish Memorial, Kathy McGee Burns, Peter Burns on behalf of his children, the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, Infrastructure Solutions Services, Chris Flanagan and Brian McGarrity of Mid-Ulster Construction, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 542, the Irish American Business Chamber and Network, the Philadelphia Ceili Group, the Ladies Ancient Order of Hiberians, Trinity Div. 4, Vince Gallagher of Loughros Point Landscaping and the Vince Gallagher Radio Hour, Marianne MacDonald’s “Come West Along the Road” radio show, Ann Baiada, AOH Notre Dame Div.1, Simple Clean, Curragh LLC Newbridge Silverware, Brian Mengini Photography, The Plough and the Stars, Maggie O’Neill’s Irish Pub and Restaurant, Con Murphy’s Irish Pub, Twentieth Century Club, Conrad Obrien, and Tir na Nog Bar & Grill.

Check out the photos below.

[flickr_set id=”72157645237654863″]

June 20, 2014 by Denise Foley

How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Joan Diver of The Screaming Orphans

York is less than a couple of hours drive from Philadelphia, and it’s worth it to make the trip this gorgeous weekend if only to see and hear The Screaming Orphans. Four sisters named Diver from Donegal play everything from trad tunes learned from their parents to Celtic pop and rock that they make their own with those tight sisterly harmonies. They’re also a hoot on stage and they’ll be lighting up said stage at the annual Penn-Mar Irish Festival on Saturday at the Markets at Shrewsbury in Glen Rock.

It’s the 14th annual festival but the first year for festival organizer Mary Yeaple to take the whole shebang over on her own (with an army of volunteers, of course). And The Screaming Orphans aren’t the only draw. Expect to hear accordionist and all-round good guy John Whelan, the wild and crazy Barleyjuice, and six award-winning representatives of the next generation of Irish trad including three of the local kids heading to Sligo this year to compete in the All-Irelands. Of course there will be Irish dancers, Irish food, and a chance to get a leg up on your Christmas shopping with dozens of vendors.

It only costs $10 to get in and kids under 12 are free.

In Philly on Saturday, catch Friends of Eric, a local band that plaus Irish and old time music, at a free concert at 4th and Bainbridge—all part of the Make Music Philly outside event this weekend.

The Shantys will be providing the Irish tunes at Paddywhacks on the Roosevelet Boulevard on Saturday afternoon.

“The Toughest Boy in Philadelphia,” a gender-bending play based on a true story, continues this week at the Luna Theatre, as does the Joyce-Shakespeare exhibit at the Rosenbach Museum.

On Sunday, the St. Patrick’s Gaelic Football Club is holding a fundraising beenf and beer at Nineteen 19 at 1254 W. Chester Pike in Havertown.

Break up your week with a little bit of Irish music. On Wednesday, listen to NJ singer Bill O’Neill at AOH Div. 61 Clubhouse at 4131 Rhawn Street in Philadelphia.

If you’re in Bethlehem, break up your week with a little Welsh music. Jodee James will be singing the music and telling the stories of Wales at the Bethlehem Public Library on Wednesday, a program sponsored by the Celtic Cultural Alliance.

Next Friday, Jamison will be playing at Curran’s in Tacony.

And get tickets now to hear traditional Irish flute player, guitarist and pianist John Blake at the Coatesville Traditional Irish Music Series in Coatesville on Saturday.

Sunday, June 29, is Celtic Day at picturesque Bristol Riverfront Park along the Delaware. The Philadelphia Police and Fire Pipes and Drums, No Irish Need Apply, and the Hooligans will be playing.

Check our calendar for all the details—and don’t forget to add your event!

June 20, 2014 by Denise Foley

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