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Denise Foley

Food & Drink

Your Post-Parade Menu Right Here

Irish Potato Martini. Mmmmmmm.

Looking for something a little different to serve after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade? Our friends at McGillin’s Olde Ale House at 1310 Drury Lane, Philadelphia are always looking for something unusual to fortify marchers and parade-goers who retire post-parade to this pub, the oldest Irish pub in Philly, just a couple of blocks off the city’s parade route.

This year, they’re going local, using lamb sausages available at the Reading Terminal Market for a delicious pairing with traditional colcannon, a potato and cabbage dish.

Fortunately for you, they shared their recipe with us, along with another for red cabbage, so you can make your own after Sunday’s parade.

They also passed us the recipe for an irresistible drink they call “Irish Potato Martini.” Now, we love the Irish potatoes made by the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Div. 87. In fact, for a couple of years, we helped make them. Once the ladies get a sip of this, they may want to alter that recipe just a wee bit.

McGillin’s Lamb Sausage and Colcannon

10 pieces Martin’s Lamb Sausages (available at Reading Terminal Market)
4 onions, finely sliced
½ stick butter
2 cups Irish beer
½ tsp each salt, pepper, sugar
1 tsp olive oil

Simmer sausage in Irish beer. Melt butter in pan. Add onions then salt, pepper, sugar and cook approximately 30 minutes. When sausage is cooked through, take out of beer but put into sizzle pan with olive oil. Pour beer juice into onions and let it simmer for 15 additional minutes.

For Colcannon

1 small cabbage, chopped into ¼” slices
1 leek, chopped into quarter inch slices (green & white)
½ tsp each salt, pepper, sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
¼ stick butter, cut into small pieces
4 cups (approximate) mashed potatoes (instant, frozen or homemade using 10 small red skin potatoes)
3 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Preheat oven 400 degrees. Mix cabbage and leeks and seasonings and toss. Add olive oil. Put into a single layer in shallow pan with sides. Sprinkle butter on top. Bake uncovered approximately 30 minutes (longer if you prefer softer). Mix in mashed potatoes to complete the colcannon. Note: Can use mashed potatoes, without cabbage and leek mixture, if preferred. Sprinkle with parsley.

For asparagus

15 spears asparagus
2 Tbsp salt
4 cups water

Bring salt water to boil. Add asparagus. Boil approximately 8 minutes. Remove and put into cold water bath. Save water. Then to re-heat, put back in water. Drain to serve.

For mint sauce

1 head fresh mint, chopped
½ cup sugar
1/2 tsp vinegar (any type)

Put mint into small bowl. Boil ½ cup water and add sugar. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until it gets syrupy. Pour over chopped mint and let it steep for 5-10 minutes (like tea). Add vinegar.

To finish

Put colcannon on plate. Top with Sausage and onions. Arrange asparagus next to it. Drizzle with sauce (or on side).

Red Cabbage

2 strips of bacon, diced
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
10 – 12 cups red cabbage, shredded
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
4 or 5 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 tsp sugar
¼ cup cider vinegar

Fry bacon until crisp. Add onion and cabbage, stir well.
Add remaining ingredients and stir.
Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 – 1 ½ hours until cabbage is tender.

Irish Potato Martini

1 ¼ ounce sweetened coconut milk
1 ¼ ounce whipped cream vodka
1 ¼ ounce Malibu Rum
1 tsp coconut tossed in cinnamon sugar

Shake and strain into a martini glass rimmed with cinnamon sugar, sprinkle with coconut and cinnamon.

March 6, 2012 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish In Philly This Week

This is what you see along the St. Patrick's Day parade route--no matter where you are.

Although St. Patrick’s Day is almost two weeks away, we’re partying like it’s March 17 this week. All week.

Expected rain is postponing the Burlington County St. Patrick’s Day parade until the end of the month (boo!). But somehow, we think that this weekend’s planned pub crawl will be going on as scheduled. The Erin Express heads out at noon on Saturday to and from a variety of Philadelphia bars and Irish pubs. We’re happy you won’t be driving, but we do hope you won’t be drinking till you puke because, eww.

Also on Saturday:
The annual Grand Marshal’s Ball for the Conshy Parade. Meet and greet Jim Flood at the Jeffersonville Golf Club Banquet Hall.

One of our favorite musicians, Seamus Kelleher, will be performing at 3 PM at Paddy Whacks in Philadelphia.

It’s Celtic Kilt night at the Northampton Valley Country Club in Richboro. Wear yours.

Also in Bucks County, check out singer-guitarist Mary Courtney of the trad band Morning Star at the Silver Lake Nature Center in Bristol.

In Jersey, the Gloucester County AOH is holding its St. Patrick’s Day Party—everyone is welcome.

On Sunday:
A very special event is planned for the afternoon at Glen Foerd on the Delaware on Grant Avenue in Philadelphia. The musical duo of Timlin and Kane will perform and you can enjoy a Ploughman’s Lunch and Irish coffee at this mansion, the last surviving riverfront estate in the city. The program will honor the many Irish men and women who worked on the riverfront estates in Torresdale. You must reserve a spot.

The film, “Settling Down,” about a group of Irish travelers, will be screened at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Read our interview with Joseph Lennon, director of the Villanova Irish Studies Program, who will be speaking after the viewing.

The biggest and arguably best of all the Philly St. Patrick’s Day Parade fundraisers is scheduled for 3 PM at the Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Delaware County. In the past years, more than 700 people have showed up for this one.

And even though they were killed in their first two games, the Irish Network-Philly soccer players will be back at Star Finders to take on The Ugly Moose team in 7-A-Side.

Enter the Haggis, the amazing Canadian Celtic rockers, are on the bill at World Café Live Sunday evening.

On Wednesday:
Super trad group Altan will be performing at Sellersville Theatre at 8 PM.

On Thursday:
In the morning, there’s the annual wreath-laying at the Irish Patriots memorial at Philadelphia City Hall by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, a group that dates back to Revolutionary War times and counts our first president among its members. Afterwards, Mayor Michael Nutter will officially proclaim March “Irish month” in the city.

In the evening, the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance committee will honor Grand Marshal John Dougherty and the Ring of Honor at a dinner at the Doubletree Hotel on Broad Street.

Also this evening, Ireland’s National Concert Hall will presents its first ever lifetime achievement award to Paddy Moloney and the Chieftains at a gala event at the Union League, hosted by the American Ireland Fund. The Emerald Society Pipe band will be playing!

On Friday:

Hold on to your hats, folks. This is one full day. Here’s how it starts:

The remains of the 57 bodies of Irish immigrants recovered from the Duffy’s Cut archeological site will be laid to rest Friday afternoon—more than 150 years after they died—at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd. Interestingly, recent research suggests that the Duffy of Duffy’s Cut may be buried in the cemetery at St. Anne’s Parish in Philadelphia. Pastor Father Ed Brady told us that records are being combed to pinpoint the gravesite.

A real treat: Raymond Coleman is joined by his brother, Mickey, at the Plough and the Stars in Philadelphia. Each of the Coleman brothers is amazing alone. Together, wow.

Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys will be on hand at The Showboat Casino in Philadelphia to “meet and greet” to raise money the The Claddagh Fund, his charity which is now dedicated to funding nonprofits in Philadelphia.

Black 47, whose front man Larry Kirwan is not only a musician but a playwright and author, will be at World Café Live.

And Paddy Moloney and the Chieftains, fresh from their lifetime achievement award, will be performing at the Kimmel Center.

If you’re anywhere near Carlisle, Pa, catch Dervish with opening act, Philly’s own John Byrne Band. Byrne is also opening for The Saw Doctors when they come to the TLA in Philly on March 13. And he’s got a deal for you. Order Saw Doctors tickets through him and you get $10 off. Doesn’t get much better. Email him at j-kbyrne@msn.com.

Jamison will also be performing at Kildare’s in Manayunk.

Next week: Get your shamrock deely bobbers out, folks! There are three pub crawls (in Philly and Delco) and three, count them, three parades, including Philadelphia, Bucks County, and Conshohocken. And even more stuff which we’ll tell you about next week. Or, if you can’t wait, check out our calendar. It’s so big, we may need a second website.

March 2, 2012 by
News, People

Good Weather for Philly's St. Patrick's Day Parade?

They partied hearty Thursday night at the CBS3 studios in Philadelphia. St. Patrick’s Day Observance Committee President Kathy McGee Burns and Parade Director Michael Bradley presented the parade’s Grand Marshal, labor leader John Dougherty, and the Ring of Honor

who will march in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday, March 11.

The parade is broadcast on CBS3 and sister station, CW Philly, so the Channel 3 Eyewitness New team that also serves as its parade team joined invited party-goers at a buffet dinner with music (by most of the Celtic rock group, Blackthorn). On hand were anchors Susan Barnett and Chris May, meteorologist Kathy Orr along with 3’s newest weather reporter, Katie Bilo, traffic reporter Bob Kelly, consumer reporter Jim Donovan, and General Manager John Hightower.

We got our invites, attended the party, and captured at least some of the fun at this annual event that kicks off St. Patrick’s Month. Check out our photos.

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March 2, 2012 by
News, People

Irish Ambassador Presents Business Awards

Irish Ambassador Michael Collins presents the award to Daniel Hilferty, CEO of Independence Blue Cross.

After congratulating Irish American Business Network founder Bill McLaughlin and his staff for their ability to pronounce the Irish word Taoiseach—tee-shuck, the traditional name for Ireland’s prime minister—at the group’s annual awards ceremony on Thursday in Philadelphia, Irish Ambassador Michael Collins told a story of how impressed he was when a group of Asian students he visited also pronounced the word accurately. Or so he thought.

“Then I happened to glance at the desks where they were sitting and written on each one was the word “T Shirt,’” he said, to the appreciative laughter of the more than 300 local business people who attended the annual Ambassador Awards luncheon at the Hyatt at the Bellevue in Philadelphia. “I thought, ‘Whatever works.’”

Then, Collins told the crowd, many of whom work for or do business with companies with Irish ties, what’s now working for the Irish. In the last few years, he said, Ireland “was in the news in ways we never wanted.” With peace in Northern Ireland, a new set of “troubles” beset the island country. After an economic boom, Ireland went bust, or very nearly, as unemployment rose to double digits, banking scandals made headlines daily, and Ireland became the first country in the Eurozone to declare it was in recession. Its debt was downgraded to junk status.

But, said Collins, Ireland has since become “the poster boy in terms of the effects of measures taken to try to bring the economy in line.” Austerity measures—still being protested all around the country—have made it possible to close the budget deficit in two years, Collins said. “It has taken determination and reslience. And the Irish are nothing if not resilience. It’s embedded in th

e Irish DNA.”

Some positive news to come out of Ireland: Exports are now larger than 100 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The country’s largest export customer is the US, which gets 1/5th of everything Ireland exports. Pharma, computer software, financial services, and agribusiness continue to be strong. Eli Lilly and PayPal are moving operations to Ireland, and Collins said that the country is about to get a new “investor that is very impressive indeed,” though he didn’t share the name.

Ireland is also on its way to become “more competitive,” he said, and tax rates for corporations remain tantalizingly low—12.5 percent.

“I attended an economic summit with President Clinton and he said it was ‘nuts not to invest in Ireland’—his words,” Collins said.

The Ambassador’s Award, presented annually to recognize a company that has furthered the goals of the Irish American Business Chamber by developing business between Ireland and the United States, was give to Shire Plc, a specialty biopharmaceutical company with 5,000 employees in 28 countries, including the US. Shire employs more than 500 people in its Chesterbrook facilities. CEO Angus Russell accepted the award on behalf of the company, where he started in 1999 as chief financial officer.
Daniel J. Hilferty, CEO of Independence Blue Cross, received the Taoiseach Award, which honors people of Irish descent who show compassion and leadership. Hilferty spearheaded the Healthy Hoops Program which uses basketball to teach health care consumers how to manage their health. He was also behind the donation of 2,500 toys to the Toys for Tots campaign by Independence when the Marine-backed program appeared to be faltering.

Timothy Chambers, filmmaker, founder of Tango Traffic, and former director of the Pennsylvania Film Office, received the Uachtaran Award, given annually to people who initiate cultural or economic alliances with Ireland. Chambers was the writer-director of “The Mighty Macs,” an inspirational film about the Immaculata College women’s basketball team that won the first national championship in women’s basketball. The movie starred Carla Gugino and David Boreanaz.

View our photos from the event.

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March 2, 2012 by
Dance, News, People, Sports

They DID Dance Like Stars

It had everything you could have wanted from a star-studded evening worthy of the Red Carpet: Talented performers, beautiful costumes, and even a wardrobe malfunction.

Don’t expect anything titillating. It was only Pat Bourke’s Elvis wig that came off during his final dance number with Carmel Donaghy who, in her white halter top and peroxide-blond Marilyn wig, did a more than fair impression of the ‘50s bombshell.

Delco Gaels coach Pat Bourke as Elvis with partner, Carmel "Marilyn Monroe" Donaghy

By any measure, the Delaware County Gaels Gaelic sports organization’s “Dancing Like a Star” fundraiser last Friday at Springfield Country Club was a rousing success. With more than 700 people in attendance at $40 a person and votes for the eight dancing couples costing $1 a pop, it appeared to be the mother of all fundraisers, sure to spawn a few copycats in the coming months.

The 16 volunteer dancers started practicing in January—some five days a week—and it showed. There were a few stumbles, one or two feet got stomped, and there was the wig incident, but the evening showcased grit, determination, and some real talent.

We were there, had a ball, and took lots of photos so you can be there virtually yourself.

March 1, 2012 by
History, People

Will They Go No More A-Roving?

A scene from the film, "Settling Down."

They’ve had many names: tinkers, travelers, gypsies, Lucht Siuil (“the walking people” in Irish), and Pavee, in their own tongue. There are only about 36,000 of them in Ireland and they’ve traded their distinctive horse-drawn carts for gleaming trailers and, increasingly, houses, just as they’ve given up tinsmithing and seasonal farm labor as 21st life encroaches on their centuries-old itinerant culture.

On Sunday, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology will present the short film, “Settling Down,” a look at a small group of Irish travelers in Cork and how their identity and culture has been transformed as a result of bigger changes in Ireland.

Joseph Lennon, director of the Irish Studies Program at Villanova University, will be speaking about the film and the uncertain future facing the travelers. We spoke to Lennon this week.

What’s the film about?

It focuses on pretty localized incidents in Cork and right outside Cork City where the city corporation is trying to negotiate with a group of travelers about keeping some of their camp sites open and creating more open space and fields for their horses. One of the travelers asks many, many times, “Where can we go?” It seems like the big question in today’s Ireland. How are travelers going to find any place they can go? It’s a problem that endures. It’s about land. It’s about prejudice. There’s still a lot of fear of this pretty insulated community and what they do and what they’re about. As much as we know about them and studied them and talked to them, they’re a closed community with their own language, and people are fascinated by that.

Travelers are ethnic Irish. Why is there so much prejudice against them?

It’s half romanticism and half fear. Historically there has been this projection of the settled population, of us, onto this romantic itinerant group that seems to buck the rules of modernity. The truth is, for every incident of traveler theft there are hundreds of thousands of incidents of no theft, but things get magnified both in the media and our cultural imagination. You have to remember too that the population of Ireland had struggled to own their own land for hundreds of years after it was confiscated by the British. It was one of the goals of Irish immigrants to the United States and in Ireland to get land. They have a great passion for that; it’s seen as the most prized possession. For people who never aspired to that, there was a sense that they were the losers in life. Michael Hayes, a scholar in this area, calls it the dropout theory: They couldn’t make it in society so they dropped out. And as the documentary points out, the travelers were left out of Ireland’s economic boom times. They’re considered working class people who don’t have the same ambitions as settled people. They’re not seen as a different ethnic group or lifestyle, but a group that should assimilate and most travelers don’t want to assimilate. Their lifestyle and culture is to be on the road. Ireland has difficulty with multiculturalism. Only in the last 15 has Ireland had any immigrants. The immigrants who are coming to Ireland have brought awareness of the need for advocacy for the travelers.

What are their origins? I’ve read that they’re descended from ancient traveling poets or that they’re descendants of people turned out of their homes during the famine.

It’s difficult to say. There’s no absolute origin story for the travelers. Going back to the mid-17th century, there were these traveling bards or the Filid, people who would travel between districts or kingships as storytellers, bringing news, telling stories, acting as historians, doing genealogies, things that were very meaningful in those societies. It may be that the travelers picked up on that tradition, coopted it if you will, and picked up some of the stories and the oral culture. They are certainly more practiced in orality than, say, people who watch TV all the time, so there may be some truth to it.

I’ve also read that their language, shelta, can be traced back to that time.

Nowadays people have about 200 to 1,000 words of vocabulary and they mostly use it for bargaining. [Irish travelers trade in everything from dogs and horses to scrap metal.] A part of the language appears to be Norman Romany, a root of the language of Romany and what was to become English. Languages like shelta are actually what are considered “anti-language.” They’re there to obfuscate, to be intentionally not understood, which makes them useful in bargaining so people outside the community would not understand.

What do you think viewers will come away thinking after they’ve seen the film?

I hope they come away thinking that what’s going on with Irish travelers is much more complicated than they had guessed and the problems haven’t been solved for good reasons, including prejudice.

February 29, 2012 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Skull bones found at the Duffy's Cut dig in Malvern.

It’s a story worthy of the big screen. In 1832, a group of 57 Irish immigrants, arriving in Philadelphia for a new life, find work on the railroad in Malvern, PA. Six weeks later, they’re all dead. Only ghost stories keep their memory alive until, 170 years after their deaths, twin brothers—a college professor and a minister—uncover their secret graves and start to unravel the mystery—a murder mystery—of the Ghosts of Duffy’s Cut.

You can hear this story on Saturday at the Irish Center when one of those brothers, Dr. Frank Watson, a Lutheran minister, talks about the years-long archeological dig that he and his brother, William, a professor at Immaculata College, undertook to find out what really happened to the men and women of Duffy’s Cut. It’s a story of prejudice, fear, hysteria, and ultimately murder. Evidence from the bones salvaged from the site suggests that at least some of the immigrants were murdered, likely to keep them from spreading cholera to the wider community.

The Watson brothers co-authored the book, “The Ghosts of Duffy’s Cut,” and were featured in a Smithsonian Channel TV documentary of the same name. They are co-founders and co-directors of the Duffy’s Cut Project. One of the brothers’ aims has been to either return the remains they found to family members in Ireland or to bury them in proper graves. On Friday, March 9, the remains will be buried after a ceremony at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd.

The event at the Irish Center is free.

This is the last week to see “Little Gem,” the critically acclaimed play by Dubliner Elaine Murphy, at the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, the new home of the Inis Nua Theater Company.

On Saturday, catch noted Boston Irish musician (and publican) Patsy Whelan with Maxie Courtney at McGillin’s Olde Ale House (which is haunted, by the way). You can also catch Jamison Celtic Rock at Keenan’s Irish Pub in Wildwood if you’re lucky enough to be at the shore. And Timlin & Kane will be at The Shanachie. That’s always a good time.

Head back to the Shanachie on Sunday for a fundraiser for the WTMR 800-AM Irish radio shows featuring many great local musicians, including John Byrne.

Speaking of fundraisers, it’s fundraiser number two for the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade at Insulator’s Hall on Horning Road in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. Jamison, the Bogside Rogues, Raymond Coleman and the Celtic Flame Irish Dancers will be there rabble-rousing. The $35 ticket price covered wine, beer and buffet.

In Coatesville, it’s a triple threat for trad lovers: Guitarist Ged Foley, along with fiddler Orla Harrington and accordion player Andrew MacNamara will be on stage at the Coatesville Cultural Society on Sunday night.

Burlington County is holding its annual St. Patrick’s Day Grand Marshal Dinner at the High Street Grill in Mount Holly. Marie Hempsey is the grand marshal this year. This is also the time when Miss St. Patrick is crowned.

If you have any spare time, you can try to catch the IN-Philly 7-a-Side Soccer team at Star Finders in Manayunk around 5 PM on Sunday. They’re still smarting from their first major loss so they’re probably going to come back fighting.

And the weekend isn’t over yet. Jesse Smith and Ryan McGiver, two topnotch trad performers, will be doing a house concert in Lansdale on Sunday. They were just in Coatesville a few weeks ago. Here’s an opportunity for you “Northerners” to hear them in person.

On Tuesday, poet Nell Regan, who was shortlisted for the 2006 Patrick Kavanagh Awards, will be reading from her works at Villanova University.

Gaelic Athletic Association hurlers take note: Your practices are now on our calendar. No excuses! There’s even a map to the Torresdale Boys Club.

On Thursday, the Irish American Business Chamber and Network will be presenting awards to film writer and producer (“The Mighty Macs”) Timothy Chambers, Independence Blue Cross President and CEO Daniely Hilferty, and Shire Pharmaceuticals of Wayne, PA, which produces drugs for attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among others. Irish Ambassador Michael Collins will be on hand to present awards.

On Friday, genealogist Deborah Large Fox will be talking about the basics of Irish history research at the National Archives at 9th and Chestnut in Philadelphia.

On Friday night, the Bucks County Irish Ball takes place at King’s Caterers in Bristol.

RUNA, a band that plays contemporary and traditional Irish music, is performing on Friday at the Irish Center.

And photographer Brian Mengini, whose work you see frequently here at www.irishphiladelphia.com, will be holding a reception at his studio in Phoenixville next Friday night to kick off the month-long exhibit of his fine art photography series, empoweredME. The series was inspired by Mengini’s trip to Utah to take photos as part of a fundraiser for a young dancer with terminal cancer. He has since taken many more photos of dancers as part of the series, including Misty Copeland, soloist with the American Ballet Theatre Company in New York City.

Check the calendar for all the details.

February 24, 2012 by
News

Irish Anti-Defamation Group Has New Target

A storefront in NYC. Photo by iStockphoto.

Shamrocks may say Ireland to you, but does a drunk vomiting shamrocks? It apparently does to Urban Outfitters, a US company that started in Philadelphia in 1970 selling funky fashion and other products to the 18-30 crowd. It’s selling wearable merchandise with the image to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day.

The Philadelphia-based Irish Anti-Defamation Federation has set its sights on the company, which has several stores in Ireland. This week, Federation Chairman Timothy Wilson, in an email to members, said that he had “written to the CEO, sent him an email and sent an email to their customer service department,” demanding a public apology along with removal of the merchandise bearing the image.

This isn’t the first time Urban Outfitters crossed an ethnic line. In 2011, the Navajo Nation demanded that the company stop using the term “Navajo” for a line of products that included a liquor flask.  The company removed the name. They also voluntarily withdrew products including a t-shirt that read “Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl” surrounded by dollar signs, a Monopoly-style game called Ghettopoly, and a “Jesus Dress Up” game, after protests from various groups over the years. In 2006, they agreed not to sell sparkly handgun-shaped Christmas ornaments after the murder in Philadelphia of Police Officer Charles “Chuck” Cassidy.

Headquartered in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the company has 140 stores in the US and abroad, and also operates Anthropologie, Free People, and Terrain.

Federation officers, including Wilson, will be on the “Come West Along the Road” Irish radio show with Marianne MacDonald on Sunday, February 26, at noon at WTMR 800AM where they’ll be talking about Urban Outfitters and other retailers whose merchandise they’re targeting in the region. Last year, the new organization went head-to-head with Spencer Gifts, picketing its stores which sell gag and risqué gifts the federation deemed offensive. (A check of their website finds that most of those products are back. “Drink all day and fight all night” is one of the few Irish-themed slogans that can be printed here. )

February 24, 2012 by