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Denise Foley

How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

The Campbell’s Highland Dancers and the Washington Pipe Band at last year’s Midwinter Scottish and Irish Fest.

The really smart people have booked rooms for the weekend in the Valley Forge area because it’s that time again—the Philadelphia Mid-winter Scottish and Irish Festival.

It’s all about the music. Festival favorites Albannach, Barleyjuice, Brother, Hadrian’s Wall, and Seven Nations will be joining groups like Donegal’s own Screaming Orphans, a very hip sister act, and Searson, an equally hip sister act from Canada, both of which have a huge fan base in the Mid-Atlantic region. There’s dancing. We’re hoping for a dance-off between the Fitzpatrick Irish Dancers and the Campbell Highland Dancers. Bring it! And you can dance too—there’s plenty of dance music for rockers, ceili dancers, and step dancers. You can even sign up for a few lessons!

You can learn to speak Irish or Scottish Gaelic, taste some aged whiskey, buy some CDs, a kilt, a new sporran, a crazy t-shirt, or some stunning jewelry, and taste some Scottish ice cream, fish and chips, or meat pies. Seriously, this is the most fun you can have with your clothes on, and most people do keep their clothes on so you can bring the kiddies.

We’ll be there all weekend, hawking Ceili Drive: The Music of Irish Philadelphia, our newly minted CD featuring some of the region’s top Irish musicians which was crowd-funded, as they say on public radio, by listeners just like you. Any money we make from the sales of the CD, which we hope will become a piece of Irish Philadelphia history, will go to making a second featuring some of the musicians we didn’t capture the first time around. So, stop by and see us, and buy a CD (they’re only $15 and will also be available online).

There’s an incredible bounty for Irish music lovers this week. At the Irish Center on Sunday, and at the Coatesville Cultural Center on Sunday, you can hear Laura Byrne, Rose Flanagan (sister of noted fiddler Brian Conway), and Eamon O’Leary on flute, fiddle, and guitar. The three will be offering workshops at the Irish Center before their show, which starts at 8 PM.

The John Byrne Band will be appearing at the Winter Doldrums Folk Fest (we do love that name!) at World Café Live, along with many other local folkies.

On Sunday, Galway’s own Don Stiffe, fresh from “The All Ireland Talent Show,” will be making his second appearance at The Irish Center in Philadelphia. Go early for the traditional Irish meal prepared by Tullamore Crew at 5 PM.

The first parade of the region is always Burlington County, and they have the first fundraiser too—at the High Street Grill in Mt. Holly, NJ, on Wednesday, 7-10 PM, with Irish music provided by Slainte.

Philadelphia’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be holding its first fundraiser (of two) on February 24 at The Heroes Ballroom, FOP Lodge 5, in Philadelphia—appropriate since this year’s grand marshal is retired Philadelphia Police Officer Harry Marnie, who has been active for many years with the FOP and the Emerald Society, an organization of police and fire personnel of Irish descent.

Then, on Friday, February, 22, the fundraiser you’ve all been waiting for—the Delco Gael’s “Dancing Like a Star,” which pits 8 amateur couples against one another in a dance-off that last year drew more than 700 people to the Springfield Country Club. The event, which is fun personified, raises money to support the Gaels, who are helping keep Gaelic athletics in Philadelphia alive through youth teams.

There are loads of events on our calendar—more and more every day as we approach St. Patrick’s month. Keep checking back!

February 15, 2013 by
Music

Return of the Voice You Can’t Forget

Singer-songwriter Don Stiffe

In 2010, we wrote about a then up-and-coming singer-songwriter from Galway. His, we wrote in a headline, is “a new voice you won’t forget.”

Since that time, Don Stiffe has become an arrived singer-songwriter from Galway and hundreds of thousands of people have not been able to forget his gift-from-God voice, thanks to his 2011 appearance on RTE’s “The All Ireland Talent Show,” one of Ireland’s most watched TV shows a la “America’s Got Talent,” on which he was a finalist.

Fresh off the Joannie Madden (Cherish the Ladies) “Folk’n’Irish” Cruise, with a new CD in hand (“Life’s Journey”), and a tour with the Kilfenora Ceili Band on the resume, Stiffe is heading to Philadelphia for a return engagement at the Irish Center on Sunday, Feb. 17. The show is produced by Marianne MacDonald, host of the “Come West Along the Road” radio show on WTMR 800AM every Sunday at noon.

MacDonald forged a relationship with Stiffe after, one day, deciding to blow the dust off a CD someone had given her to hear this new guy’s version of a song she loves, “Shanagolden.” She had the same reaction most people do when they hear Don Stiffe sing. “Wow,” she said.

“So I did what you usually do these days when you want to reach someone—I found him on Facebook!” she says, laughing. They chatted and she lured him to his first Philly gig, introducing him to fellow Galway native and musician, Gabriel Donohue, who served as his one-man-band accompanist.

Stiffe entered “The All-Ireland Talent Show” on the urging of his wife Elaine and three children. He didn’t win, but as it goes in many of these star-making series, even the runners up reap the rewards.

“You get the publicity out of it and it’s fantastic,” Stiffe told me a couple of weeks ago from Miami, where he was about to board the Joanie Madden cruise ship. “People take a bit more notice of you. In fact, when I was coming through Shannon, on of the immigration officers said to me, ‘Are you that person who was on that talent show one time?’ God almighty,” Stiffe says, laughing, “when an immigration officers pulls you up and starts talking about the bloody thing. . .I thought people would be thinking I was on some murder list or something! And she just would not let me go. She knew about the three kids, the family. . . .”

The real reward isn’t recognition though, says Stiffe. “It’s the work. Getting the work is a great thing. I didn’t think things would happen so fast. I got a nice bit of work at home, in different parts of the country.” He toured with Cherish the Ladies last year (they made a stop at Philadelphia’s Annenberg Theater to soldout crowds) and is with them again right now in Texas. And he hooked up with the Kilfenora Ceili Band, the oldest and possibly most famous ceili band in Ireland, which regularly sells out the Irish National Concert Hall in Dublin.
“Touring with the Kilfenora Ceili Band was fantastic. We played all the big auditoriums in Ireland and people did recognize who I was. To get to a wider audience, to get steady work, that’s the name of the game. I’m not too concerned about the fame,” he says, laughing again. “It’s the work.”

But getting noticed is what’s bringing the work and Stiffe’s talent is drawing attention in many ways. In 2010, his version of Richard Thompson’s “Dimming of the Day” from his debut album, “Start of a Dream,” earned him the “Vocal Cut of the Year” award from the Live Ireland awards. This year, one of his songs, “Somebody Special,” performed by his friend and fellow Galway native Matt Keane, was named Live Ireland’s pick for “Song of the Year.”

But, perhaps more important, this touching (and to Stiffe, very personal) love song has become the song of the year—and possibly, for years to come—of young Irish couples. “A lot of people are singing it at weddings,” says Stiffe. “That must mean something, hmm?”

Listen to Matt Keane’s version and you’ll understand why.

Even better, come to the Irish Center on Sunday night at 7 PM and ask Don to sing it himself. Guaranteed, you’ll never forget it.

February 15, 2013 by
History, News, People

Irish History’s the Star of Local Book Signing

Signing books: Marita Krivda Poxon and PA Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffrey.

 

Sister Polly McShain’s father, John, became a part of American history thanks to the business he inherited from his father, John McShane, an Irish immigrant from Og Hill, County Derry.

John McShain became known as “the man who built Washington.” He was, she told a crowd last Sunday at the Irish Center in Philadelphia, “the low bidder” on various projects in the nation’s capital: The Pentagon, the Jefferson Memorial, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Library of Congress annex, Washington National Airport and, in 190-51, the reconstruction of the White House. Just a few of the nation’s most iconic buildings. Later, McShain purchased Killarney House in Killarney, Ireland, where he spent a great deal of time. In 1979, he turned over the house and property to the Irish government and it has since been merged into Killarney National Park, a popular tourist attraction on Ireland’s west coat.

“All Irish should be proud of that story,” said Marita Krivda Poxon, the author of “Irish Philadelphia,” a new book about the rich history of Philadelphia’s Celtic sons and daughters, who stepped up to the microphone after Sister Polly. “It’s the story of America.”

Poxon—there are Finnegans in her line—was the guest of honor at this gathering at the Irish Center. Along with Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffrey, a Belfast native who wrote the forward to her book, and Irish Edition photographer Tom Keenan, who supplied many of the photos, she was signing books for the hundreds of people who stood patiently in line to meet her. With their autographed books in hand, they filtered into the Fireside Room for a dance demonstration by the Cummins School dancers and live music from Luke Jardel of the Hooligans and singer Rosaleen McGill and other local performers.

Peter Ryan, deputy Irish consul, traveled from New York for the event. “I feel very much at home here,” he told the crowd, clutching his autographed copy of the book. “You’re really blessed in Philadelphia to have the community you have.” Perusing the book, he said, he was surprised that so many Irish leaders and notables had visited the city, including Charles Stewart Parnell, an Irish Protestant landlord and member of parliament who championed the cause of Irish home rule; Countess Markiewicz, Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail politician and revolutionary, and Maud Gonne, an English-born Irish revolutionary and beloved of William Butler Yeats.

“Irish Philadelphia,” from Arcadia Publishing, is available in book stores, Irish shops and on amazon.com

 

February 8, 2013 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

That’s the lovely Angus from the popular group, Brother, in Valley Forge on Friday.

It’s the quiet before the storm. Just a few new things going on this week, but all Irish is going to break loose very soon (we know, because we’ve just updated our calendar and we’re not finished yet!) in preparation for OUR month.

If the snow doesn’t stop you, catch the Broken Shillellaghs at Lazy Lanigan’s Publick House on Saturday night (oh, it will all be plowed to the side by then) in Sewell, NJ.

AOH Div. 1 in Bridgeport is holding a ceili on Sunday at 2 PM (calling all dancers!).

On Tuesday, learn about the Irish Census of 1901 and 1911 with John McDevitt at the regular meeting of the Irish American Genealogy Society at the Irish Immigration Center in Upper Darby (starts at 11 AM).

Then, Friday marks the beginning of the incredible festivities at the Philadelphia Mid-Winter Scottish and Irish Music Festival in Valley Forge. The opening concert features the Paul Moore Band, Angus and Digeridrew from Brother, Albannach (the remarkable percussion band from Scotland) and Barleyjuice, homegrown Celtic rockers.

Also on the bill for this weekend extravaganza: the MacLeod Fiddlers from Canada, The John Whelan Band, Seven Nations, Brother, Hadrian’s Wall, the Screaming Orphans, the Rovers, Searson, Killen Clark Cantrip, Jamey Kelly, Olive McElhone, The Washington Memorial Pipers, the Campbell Highland and Fitzpatrick Irish Dancers, and Paddy Kelly and friends. You can sign up for a whiskey tasting, learn a few words in Scottish or Irish Gaelic, pick up a few steps of ceili or Scottish step dancing, or do a little fencing. It’s total Celtic immersion.

Check our calendar regularly for any late-breaking events and find out more about what’s going on this week.

February 8, 2013 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

John Byrne and his band will be appearing with Lily Anel this weekend in Newtown Square

If you or your peeps came from Philly, you’re going to want to get yourself a copy of “Irish Philadelphia,” a new book by local author Marita Krivda Poxon which chronicles in words and pictures the history of the Irish in the city since before the Revolutionary War. You can meet Poxon and Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffrey, who wrote the forward to the book, on Saturday afternoon at the Irish Center in Philadelphia.

Saturday is also very musical: Slainte is at Paddy Whacks Pub on Roosevelt Boulevard in the afternoon and at Maggie’s on Delaware Avenue at night. Busy day for this offshoot of Jamison Celtic Rock.

You can also hear the John Byrne Band with local singer-songwriter Lily Anel at Burlap and Bean Coffee in Newtown Square on Saturday night.

Start your day off right, though, by catching some 6 Nations Rugby. Watch Ireland Vs. Wales and English Vs. Scotland on the big screens at The Plough and the Stars in Philadelphia on Saturday starting at 8:30 AM.

Get information on these events and others—and keep checking back for late breaking news—on our calendar.

January 31, 2013 by
News, People

St. Patrick’s Day Parade Ring of Honor Chosen

WMMR’s Preston and Steve collect tons of food for the hungry at their annual Campout for Hunger program.

When the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Ring of Honor marches down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Sunday, March 10, you’ll see a custodian who came to the attention of Parade Association President Bob Gessler when he was running a drive to collect coats for the needy in Delaware County.

You’ll see the co-founder and special projects coordinator of an organization that has been credited with helping thousands of people break the cycle of homelessness and poverty in the Philadelphia area.

You may recognize a couple of local DJs who hold a “Campout for Hunger” every year that raises hundreds of tons of food for the needy. That’s right—hundreds of tons. Every year.

And by their side will be the volunteer coordinator for St. John’s Hospice at 12th and Race Streets that was founded in the 1960s by the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd to minister to the homeless.

And the executive director of the Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA), a nonprofit that delivers nutritious meals to people and families living with life-threatening illnesses.

And the owner of a food company that not only supplies food for holiday baskets for the poor, but has his workers help load them, alongside volunteers from the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and always throws in a few extras. Okay, a lot of extras.

And a board member of an Ancient Order of Hibernians project that collects and prepares thousands of meals for shut-ins every year.

Are you picking up a theme?

Gessler hopes you do. This year’s parade theme is “The Philadelphia Irish Memorial: A Decade of Remembrance.” It honors the tenth anniversary of the memorial, a 12-foot high and 30-foot long bronze sculpture by Glenna Goodacre, at Front and Chestnut Streets that is dedicated to the memory of the more than 1 million people who died in Ireland between 1845 and 1850. Those who don’t know their history call it “The Great Famine.” Those who do call it “The Great Hunger:” An Gorta Mor.There was no famine; the Irish starved to death while food grown on their soil was exported to Great Britain.

Gessler was part of group that raised $2 million to build the memorial and in the middle of it all, he had an attack of guilt. “I kept thinking, how can we, as an organization justify spending all the money on a memorial about the famine and not do something for people who are hungry today,” he told us back in 2008. With the help of his brothers and sisters in AOH/LAOH Div. 87, Gessler founded the Hibernian Hunger Project, which is now an official national AOH program that provides food for the needy.

As the new president of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association, Gessler gets to pick a parade “Ring of Honor.” And this year, he stuck with his favorite theme—doing good. The honorees:

Dan Harrell, former custodian at the Palestra at Penn, who went from coat drives to bringing students from St. Malachy’s College in Belfast, a Catholic grammar school for boys dating back to 1833, to the US every year to play basketball—and music. St. Malachy’s Orchestra has marched in the parade for several years.

Sister Mary Scullion, co-founder with Joan McConnon, of Project H.O.M.E., the provides housing, employment, education, and health care to chronically homeless and low-income people to break the cycle of homelessness.

Will O’Brien, special projects coordinator or Project H.O.M.E. who also coordinates The Alternative Seminary, a grassroots program of biblical and theological study.

Sue Daugherty, executive director of MANNA.

Gerry Huot, volunteer coordinator of St. John’s Hospice.

Jim Tanghe, president of Shamrock Food Distributors.

Ed Dougherty, a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians National Board Chairing for the Hibernian Hunger Project who serves the same role with the Pennsylvania State Boards and Philadelphia County Board.

Preston and Steve (Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison), popular morning DJs at WMMR and founders of Campout for Hunger.

And Timmy Kelly, a young singer, now 18, who has been performing at Phillies games, Eagles games, the Irish Festival in Wildwood, and opening the ceremonies at the parade since he was only 10 years old. Born prematurely, he has cerebral palsy and is blind, but his powerful voice has made him an Irish community favorite (he also sang for presidents and opened for the Jonas Brothers in Philadelphia). “I wanted him to know that the Irish community appreciates him—a lot,” says Gessler.

The 2013 Ring of Honor will receive their sashes at a dinner on March 7 at the Doubletree Hotel on Broad Street in Philadelphia, following a ceremony in the late afternoon at City Hall with Mayor Nutter. Also being honored: 2013 Grand Marshal, Harry Marnie, a retired police officer who is president of the Emerald Society, an organization of police and fire personnel of Irish descent.

January 31, 2013 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Meet the author of a new book on the Irish in Philadelphia.

One of the most poignant annual events in Philadelphia’s Irish community is the Bloody Sunday Mass, which honors the 26 civil rights protesters, many in their teens, who were killed by British soldiers during a peaceful march through Derry’s Bogside neighborhood on January 30, 1972. The dead will be remembered on Sunday, January 27, at the Irish Center in Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy section. It’s sponsored by the Sons and Daughters of Derry, the County Derry association in Philadelphia.

There’s music aplenty around the region this week. Singer Oliver McElhone will be performing at Maloney’s Pub in Ardmore on Saturday night, while Blackthorn is rocking Ryan—that’s Archbishop Ryan High School, an annual fundraiser—in Philadelphia on Saturday night.

You can catch Jamison at Curran’s in the Tacony section of the city on Saturday night too.

Mark your calendars for Sunday, February 2. Writer Marita Krivdon Poxon, along with Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery and longtime Irish Edition photographer Tom Keenan will be at the Irish Center to launch Poxon’s new book, Irish Philadelphia, an historical look at the role the Irish played in the city. McCaffrey wrote the intro to the book and Keenan helped with the photography.

For more information on these events, please check our calendar.

January 25, 2013 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Poet Robert Burns, who celebrates a birthday on January 25.


We’re already hearing from folks about their St. Patrick’s Day. . .er, month. . .gigs, so if you have something planned, get it on our calendar.

Get in a little practice this week. Timlin and Kane are at Brittingham’s on Friday night, January 18 (that’s where I first saw them about a million years ago) and Irish singer Mary Courtney is performing for the Princeton Folk Music Society on Friday night as well.

“The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” the award-winning Martin McDonagh play that opened to rave reviews in Philly at the Lantern Theatre Company at St. Stephen’s Church continues this week.

On Saturday afternoon, spend a nice four hours of bliss, nursing a beer and listening to Blackthorn at Tom & Jerry’s Sports Pub in Folsom, and catch the Shanty’s at Reed’s Tavern on Frankford Avenue in Philadelphia on Saturday night.

On Sunday, AOH 87 is holding its annual fund-raising beef-and-beer at Finnigan’s Wake in Philadelphia. The very active Port Richmond group has the Paul Moore Band to provide the music and for $30, you get a buffet meal, with draft beer, wine and soda, plus reduced prices for other drinks.

Dinner plans on Sunday? If not, the Tullamore Crew is whipping up an Irish feast at the Irish Center.

And all you wandering dancers who miss Emmett’s Place—Emmett is going to be at the Rising Sun VFW Post in Philadelphia on Sunday with the Hooligan’s Luke Jardel providing the music.

On Monday, catch John Byrne at the Lickety-Split Singer Songwriter series in Philadelphia.

Since we welcome all Celts to our pages, head over to the 8th annual South Jersey Burns Supper to honor Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns on Friday. The party is being held in Mt. Laurel, NJ, sponsored by the Burlington County St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee. And yes, there will be haggis, but that’s no reason to stay away. There will be other food too.

Also next Friday, a group of young trad performers will be featured in a Philadelphia Ceili Group House Concert in Havertown. They include three-time all Ireland fiddle champion Dylan Foley, multiple medal-winner accordionist Dan Gurney, and acoustic guitarist and bouzouki player Sean Earnest whom we’ve known since he was a teenager and who is now an in-demand Celtic traditional accompanist. Since it’s a house concert, space is limited so you must RSVP. And that’s the only way you’ll find out the address. That’s the way it works.

Next Saturday, Blackthorn is rocking Ryan (Archbishop Ryan High School in Philadelphia) for the fifth year in a row to raise money for the school’s scholarship fund. This is usually a sellout, so check our calendar for ticket information (for this and other events of the week).

January 18, 2013 by