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Denise Foley

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Aon Sceal?

Michael Bradley, center, with Mayor Michael Nutter and Linda Bradley.

He’s Man of the Year Every Year

Philly’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade Director Michael Bradley has been named the Philadelphia Emerald Society’s Man of the Year for 2010.

Along with coordinating the parade and running the Irish Fest on Penns Landing in June, Bradley literally fought City Hall to keep the parade marching down the Parkway after the Nutter administration, faced with a serious budget shortfall, withdrew the city’s financial support of the parade, the second oldest in the US. A series of fundraisers helped pay some of the added bills and Bradley vowed that the parade would go on, no matter what. “It will either be a peaceful parade or an organized riot,” he joked before a meeting with Mayor Michael Nutter.

Also being honored at Philadelphia Police Sergeant Patrick McDonald, who was killed in the line of duty, and Philadelphia Fire Department Captain Larry McDonald, Patrick’s father, who died of a heart attack while riding his bike last spring. We interviewed Larry McDonald last St. Patrick’s Day at a fundraiser for a charity established in his son’s name.

The men will be honored at a banquet on October 22 at the Fraternal Order of Police Hall, 1336 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia. Tickets are $50 per person. Contact Harry Marnie at 215-298-9573, 302-736-6654, or hmarnie@verizon.net for information or to purchase tickets or an ad in the program book.

From the “We Told You She Was Inspirational” Department

In May, Denise Sullivan Morrison, a division president at Campbell’s Soup in Camden, NJ, was honored as one of 11 “Inspirational Irish Women” at a ceremony at Philadelphia’s Irish Center.

When we interviewed Denise, who credited her dad with exposing her and her sisters to the business world at a time when for girls, “business” meant being in the steno pool, she said her goal was to become a CEO one day.

That day may be coming soon. Campbell’s CEO Douglas Conant, Morrison’s boss and mentor, announced this week that he’s stepping down and Morrison may be his successor. If you’d like to find out why this would be a good move, read what we wrote about Denise Sullivan Morrison in May 2010.

Brittany Basis, the 2006 Mary from Dungloe, in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Be A Soldier’s Santa

Philadelphia’s 2006 “Mary from Dungloe” Brittany Basis is looking for a few good elves to make the holidays bright for US Marines stationed in Afghanistan—including her husband, Cpl. Roy Basis of the 2nd Batallian, 6th Marine Unit.

“There are about 800 Marines in the 2/6 alone and they have already lost 8 brothers in combat and suffered over 80 injuries,” says Basis. The men rarely shower, are connected to home via satellite phones they have to share and which drop calls after only a few minutes, making for disjointed conversations.

“The biggest morale boosters are when the men receive care pacakages from their wives, girlfriends, and family. Sadly,” says Basis, “some of the men don’t receive anything at all or have no one to get packages from.”

So she’s asking local organizations—and Irish folk—to put together packages for Operation Christmas Stocking, founded by Chaplain Dave Mowbray of the 2/6.

Here’s what they need, according to Chaplain Mowbray:

“Christmas stockings (12-18 inches long, and feel free to decorate and/or write your name/message on either the inside or outside)

“Pre-lit Christmas Trees (2-4 feet high, cheap ones are fine. These will be used in the various posts and bases around Marjah)

“Christmas related candy, candy canes, small toys and similar items. The more “Christmasy” or silly the better.

“No need to stuff the stockings, I’ll take all donations, plus the goodies we normally get, and try to make everything as equal as I can for everyone. Just use common sense on what you should or shouldn’t send. Liquor, drugs, chain saws? No. Anything else I can sort through and figure out. Chocolate should be fine, as it will be getting colder here. Boot or sport socks are a big hit too. One thing I have learned though: hygiene products and food do not usually ship well together. Food tends to absorb the scent of soap, laundry detergent, etc… Yuck.”

You’ll need to send your packages by November 1 to ensure a holiday delivery. Since the 2/6 is “too far in the boonies,” says the chaplain, don’t sending calling cards. You’ll need to fill out a customs form at the post office but you’ll only pay domestic shipping rates. Write “Operation Christmas Stocking” on the outside of the box and send them to:

Chaplain Dave Mowbray
2/6 H&S Company
Unit 73175
FPO AE 09510-3175

October 1, 2010 by Denise Foley

News

Wildwood Irish Weekend In Photos

Fun, frivolity and street smooching: It's Irish Weekend 2010. (Photo by Lisa Marie Hunt)

Another Wildwood Irish Weekend fades into memory—well, for some people, anyway, the ones who can actually remember—but thanks to photographer Lisa Marie Hunt, we have photos that could be placed in evidence should that become necessary.

Lest we forget—this is a fundraiser by the AOH Cape May Div. 1 and they use the money for a variety of charities including the Hibernian Hunger Project, a national campaign to provide food for the needy. So anyway you look at it, it’s a good thing.

Check out Lisa’s photos.

October 1, 2010 by Denise Foley

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Sean Tyrrell comes to Monmouth College this week.

Recovered from last weekend? No, we didn’t think so. That’s why it’s a good thing that this is a relatively light week, Celtically speaking. There are three big events:

On Wednesday, the masterful and energetic Irish trad group Lunasa comes to Philly for a Crossroads Concerts’ show at Calvary Church.

Lunasa features, among others, piper Cillian Vallely and flute and bodhran player Kevin Crawford, who is also one of the funniest guys we’ve ever seen on stage. Music, comedy—it doesn’t get much better than that.

Then on Thursday, you can hear Galway folk singer Sean Tyrrell celebrate Ireland’s many poets in a one-man show called “Who Killed James Joyce?” at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ. That starts at 7 PM.

Or you can hear Irish folk rocker Luka Bloom (brother of Christy Moore) at the Sellersville Theatre, also on Thursday night.

On October 2, photographer Brian Mengini is having his coming out party for the Spirit of the Fallen calendar, featuring his exquisite black and white photographs of dancers at Finnigan’s Wake in the Spring Garden section of the city. Proceeds from the sale of the calendar will go to the Philadelphia Police Survivors Fund. There will be music and fun–because it’s Finnigan’s Wake, and that’s how they roll there.

You’ll get the equivalent of a hole in one by taking part in the Jack McNamee Masters of the Green Golf Tournament on Monday at the Paxon Hollow Golf Club in Media. You get to honor a great man—the late Jack McNamee, a longtime restaurateur and member of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association and a past Grand Marshal of the parade—and help raise some money to keep the parade marching this year.

There’s also a new session on the calendar—at The Bards on Walnut Street in Philadelphia—featuring Paraic Keane and Tom O’Malley both of whom you’ve probably seen at the Plough and the Stars. This session runs on Wednesdays starting at 6 PM.

And don’t forget the new Irish genealogy group that is meeting on Thursday in Cherry Hill featuring crack genealogist Deborah Large Fox and our own Lori Lander Murphy.

There’s a happy hour networking event on Thursday starting at 6 PM sponsored by the Irish Network-Philly at the Shanachie Restaurant and Pub in Ambler. It’s free (including the appetizers) with drink specials.

Next Saturday, Voice of the Faithful Greater Philadelphia, is holding a forum on “Saving the Catholic Church” at Chestnut Hill College. That means you can contribute your suggestions for rescuing a church under siege all over the world.,

In the next few weeks, lovers of Irish music will be treated to a house concert by singer Aoife Clancy (yes, of that family) in Lansdale (October 16); Begley and O Raghallaigh, two superlative trad performers who will be both at the Irish Center and Coatesville Culture Center (October 16, 17); and Blackthorn in concert to raise money for St. Laurence Parish in Upper Darby (October 16).

East of the Hebrides—those wonderful folks who bring us the Mid-winter Scottish-Irish festival, Brittingham’s Irish Festival, the Phoenixville Street Festival and many more—has added Lansdale to its repetoire: On October 17, they’re throwing a free street fair with Irish music and vendors near Molly Maguire’s Pub and Restaurant, which recently opened there. They’re calling it “Molly O’Ween.” Get it? There will be a costume contest, pumpkin carving, and kiddie activities.

For details on these events and more, check out our calendar.

September 29, 2010 by Denise Foley

Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

That's a caber and it's about to be tossed. You can see this in Bethlehem this weekend.

Get those deely-bobber shamrocks and your best funny Irish t-shirt out of mothballs, folks. It’s that time again.

That’s right, the 19th annual AOH Div. 1 Irish Weekend in N. Wildwood, where the pipe bands will flow like beer and the beer will flow like, well, beer. This annual AOH fundraiser spans four days and features some of the best Irish music talent around, including Paddy’s Well, the Bogside Rogues, the Broken Shillelaghs, the Birmingham 6, the Bareknuckle Boxers—and Blackthorn is also in town, playing at the Anglesea Pub. There’s amateur boxing on Thursday, a golf tournament, and the Brian Riley Pipe Exhibition on Saturday at 8th and Central Avenues. There are also miles and miles of vendors and other music to lure you into any one of N. Wildwood’s many pleasant pubs.

Enjoy the party responsibly. Check out some of previous years’ action in our photo essay.

If you’re up north, this is also the weekend for the Celtic Classic, which has loads of music and vendors and beer, but also highland games like caber tossing and hammer throwing, border collie demonstrations, and haggis eating contests. On stage this weekend will be Enter the Haggis, Timlin and Kane, Barleyjuice, John Doyle and Susan McKeown, Bua, McPeake, Burning Bridget Cleary, the Makem and Span Brothers, and our personal favorite–the Red Hot Chili Pipers (no, that’s not a typo). There’s also a play, Bombshells, from Ireland’s Jasango Theatre, on tap at Foy Hall at Moravian College. It’s described as a wildly passionate comedy—and we like the sounds of that. Great craic–and whatever the Scots call fun.
View some photos from last year’s Classic.

And as they say on late night infomercials, but wait, that’s not all. On Friday night, Immaculata College is hosting Beth Phillips Brown for a talk on how Welsh and Irish literature that influenced the tales of King Arthur. What, we had something to do with Camelot?

On Friday night and Saturday, some of Irish traditional music masters, including Father Charlie Coen, Michael Tubridy, Paddy O’Neill and Lesl Harker, will play and tell stories about the music that harkens back to old Ireland at the Irish Center. “Irish Flute, Music, and Stories” will also feature Irish Gaelic scholar Tom Cahill talking about how sean nos singing—old-time unaccompanied singing—relates to the playing of tunes. Meals are included in the $85 fee for both days. And if you play an instrument, you can count on some of the region’s most serious musicians playing in the sessions so come, sit, and learn.

This has got to be the busiest weekend in all of Irish Philadelphiadom. On Saturday, you have a few other choices:

Irish Network Philly is holding a friendly 5-a-side World Cup Competition at Fox Chase Fields, 701 Rhawn Street in Philadelphia, to help raise money for charity. Participation will cost each player $20 which will be collected on the day. Register individually or register your team on the IN-Philly website. Players must be 18 and over to participate. If you’re 40 or over, fair warning, mate—ambulances are not standing by. There will be a post-game happy hour at Tir na Nog in Philadelphia.

At the Sellersville Theatre, the fiddlers three, Kevin Burke (Ireland), Christian Lemaître (Brittany) & André Brunet (Quebec) combine their musical traditions and spontaneous humor for an evening of dazzling energy, showcasing their regional repertoires.

At Penn’s Zellerbach Theatre, there’s going to be more dazzling fiddling going on—Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul, one of our faves. We talked to Eileen last week.

Then, on Sunday, the lovely and talented Fil Campbell does a reprise of her “Songbirds” show at the Irish Center in which she performs the music of five of Ireland’s top female singers, including Delia Murphy, Maggie Barry, Ruby Murray, Bridie Gallagher and Mary O’Hara. I saw her last year and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen at this very intimate venue. Have to give this one a “must-see” rating. Read our interview.

September 23, 2010 by Denise Foley

Columns

Aon Sceal?

Kathleen Quigg

A Barry Girl Turns 80

Her grandchildren had her whirling around the Irish Center’s dance floor in her wheelchair (see photo above), and Kathleen Quigg appeared to be enjoying every minute of it as she celebrated her 80th birthday with family and friends on Sunday, September 12.

The widow of Eddie Quigg, a former manager at the Irish Center (whom she met at a dance in Germantown, Kathleen Quigg is the mother of four (Michael, Brian, Kathy and Maureen), and grandmother to, well, let’s say, many. She has been part of the fabric of the Irish community since she arrived in the US from Buncrana, County Donegal, as a young woman looking for work.

An inductee in the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, Kathleen Quigg was known as one of the Barry Girls, a group of young women who spent a good part of their time at the Irish Center (there were Barry Boys too). Many still do, and old friends such as Sarah Walsh, Mary Brennan, and Michele Higgins were on hand to celebrate her big day.

Blackthorne Resort Burns to the Ground

Hundreds of local fans of Irish trad music who have slept, drank, and session-ed at the Blackthorne Resort in East Durham, NY, during Catskills Irish Arts Week every July were saddened to learn that the main facility at the Inn burned down last Saturday. The accidental fire was apparently sparked by a steam table burner in the banquet hall.

The resort was packed with bikers celebrating the 13th anniversary of the Catskill Mountain Thunder event. No one was hurt, but the building was reduced to charred rubble even though firefighters from seven companies battled the blaze that quickly overwhelmed the wooden structure.

Paul Edward Keating, the artistic director of the popular festival, whose faculty includes some of Irish traditional music’s brightest lights, said he was “thinking so much of the Handel Family [Blackthorne’s owners] who put their blood, sweat and tears into the place for so long and helped keep East Durham Alive through their hard work and sheer determination to keep it a resort area. They will need a lot of support to overcome this massive setback but I know there are many out there willing to help them in whatever ways it takes.”

You can watch a home video of the blaze here.

Kildare’s KOP Location Closed

Local Irish pub czar Dave Magrogran closed the doors of Kildare’s Irish Pub’s King of Prussian location a week ago. But you know what they say, when one door closes, another opens. New Kildare’s debuted in State College and across from the Notre Dame University campus in South Bend, IN.

The Irish Center Board with members of the Inspirational Irish Women committee.

Pay Day

Members of the Inspirational Irish Women Committee presented a check to the Irish Center board of directors on Tuesday night—proceeds from the May 24 event at the Irish Center which honored 11 women of Irish descent from the Delaware Valley whose intelligence, courage, generosity, pride, strength, and grace embodied the Irish spirit.

Among the honorees were Project Home’s Sister Mary Scullion, Campbell’s Soup executive Denise Sullivan Morrison, Connolly Foundation Executive Vice President and philanthropist Emily Riley, and Princess Grace of Monaco, whose nephew, J.B. Kelly, accepted the posthumous award on behalf of her children.

The event, which also kicked off an ongoing art exhibit of portraits by artist Pat Gallagher, raised money for both the Irish Center and for Project Home, Sister Mary Scullion’s nationally acclaimed program to end homelessness in the Philadelphia area. The Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia was fiscal sponsor of the event. Executive Director Siobhan Lyons was on hand to help present the check to Irish Center Board President Vincent Gallagher. Other Inspirational Irish Women committee members Sarah Conaghan, Jocelyn McGillian and Denise Foley were at the meeting.

Aon Sceal is Irish for “Any news” so if you have any news, send it to us at denise.foley@comcast.net and let us tell everybody.

September 22, 2010 by Denise Foley

News, People

Tee Off for Ciara

Ciara Kelly Higgins: Indomitable and irresistible.

She’s a tiny thing, with a mass of blonde hair swept up on top of her head and cornflower blue eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses. You’d never know to look at Ciara Kelly Higgins that she was just a few weeks out from an operation where a drug pump the size of a hockey puck was inserted in her abdomen and her hamstring and calf muscles cut.

With her right leg in a cast (covered in pink with, she points out, precious Jonas Brothers autographs she got during a backstage visit), she can motor using just a walker.

But she’s had lots of practice. The fourth child and only daughter of Tom and Dee Higgins of Lafayette Hill, Ciara was born at only 26 weeks, seven years ago. But she was 2.2 pounds of fighter.

“She spent four months in the Jefferson Hospital NICU [Neonatal Intensive Care Unit] on a ventilator,” says her dad, a Galway-born realtor who is active in the Philadelphia Gaelic Athletic Association. “It wasn’t until she was almost two that she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. We just chose to fight it. Ciara has an indomitable spirit that wants to fight—just ask her brothers.”

That would be Tom, 16; Conor, 14, and Ronan, 11.

To help her along, her parents launched a golf fundraiser five years ago to help pay for some of her therapy and to support places like Jefferson and Shriners Hospital that specialize in children with disabilities. They also donate to Sebastian Riding Associates in Collegeville where Ciara gets an unusual form of therapy—hippotherapy, from the Greek word, hippos, meaning horse.

Hippotherapy usually takes place in a controlled environment where therapists use the movements of the horse to help children improve their balance, posture, mobility and function.

“It’s really worked for Ciara,” says Higgins. “It’s keeping her core muscles strong and helping her stay upright. She hunches over on the walker and the crutches and this helps her stand upright. It’s also made her more confident.”

At first, Higgins said, he thought having four people surrounding Ciara while her horse walked around the ring “was overkill.”

“Then one day she got thrown, and by thrown I mean 10 feet in the air, and one of the women caught her,” he says. “I never thought of it as overkill again. They put her on another horse and she never said anything about it. When they say you should get back up on the horse—she did.”

This summer’s operation should nudge Ciara further along towards her goal—to walk unaided or virtually unaided. The pump in her stomach will send a constant dose of Baclofen, a drug used to treat spasticity, to her affected leg to keep the muscles and ligaments loose.

“She’s very tight and she couldn’t get her heel on the ground to walk properly,” says Higgins. The operation appears to be successful: Ciara’s heel does touch the ground. “She just won’t put it down,” he says. “She hasn’t been able to put it down so it must feel funny to her. But now it can also be manipulated in therapy.”

The other half of the operation—cutting her hamstring and calf muscles—sounds like torture, but it too will relieve the tightness.

Her prognosis, says Higgins, is anyone’s guess, and the experts aren’t making any guesses. “They say that no two cases are alike and they’ve never seen her exact condition before. Technically what she has isn’t cerebral palsy, because that usually affects two legs and only one of hers is affected.”

But if anyone is going to walk, Ciara is. “She’s very stubborn. Even in the hospital when they were measuring her for a wheelchair she was saying, ‘No, don’t do that. I’m not going into a chair.’ They finally convinced her that she would be able to go more places and she went for it,” says Higgins, laughing.

But when you’re facing a tough battle, as Ciara is, stubborn is just another word for determined. And that’s a good thing.

The Fifth Annual Ciara Kelly Higgins for CP Fundraiser is scheduled for Monday, September 20, at the Plymouth Country Club at Belvoir and Plymouth Roads, Norristown. Breakfast starts at 7:45 AM and tee times follow throughout the morning. Dinner is at 6 with music provided by Paddy’s Well and some comedy from Joe Concklin. There will be both live and silent auctions.

If you can’t make the event, you can send a donation to Ciara’s parents, Tom and Dee Higgins, 4027 N. Warner Road, Lafayette Hill, PA 19444.

September 15, 2010 by Denise Foley

Music

Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival Ends on a High Note

Kevin McGillian was honored for his 30-plus years playing at the festival.

They’re going to be talking about this one for a long time. The Philadelphia Ceili Group’s annual festival of Irish dance and music ended a three-day run on Saturday night, September 11, at the Irish Center in Mt. Airy with a concert that audience members were calling magical—even before it was over.

Headliners Liz Carroll—the only Irish trad artist ever nominated for a Grammy award—and Daithi Sproule, best known for his work with the Irish group, Altan, invited the performers who preceded them on stage for the finale which brought the audience to its feet before the last note sounded.

It was an appropriate finish for a festival that couldn’t have gone any better. There were crowds for the Singers Circle on Thursday—dedicated to the late Frank Malley, who ran the festival for many years—for the Gary Quinn and Anthony McGrath concert on Friday night, the ceilis on Friday night and Saturday and the workshops, from the fiddle session with Carroll to the St. Brigid’s Cross lessons and the drama workshop for kids.

The kids were well taken care of. In fact, many stayed for the entire afternoon, having their faces painted, coloring, learning to act, blowing bubbles, and making new friends.

On Friday night, the Philadelphia Ceili Group recognized musician Kevin McGillian, who has been playing at the festival for almost its entire 36 years, with a plaque and a lifetime membership. They also surprised festival organizer Anne McNiff—the emcee of Saturday’s concert—with an award for her work.

Check out our photos of the event.

September 15, 2010 by Denise Foley

Sports

GAA Ladies Bring It On Home

Woo-hoo! The Notre Dames cheer their trophy. Photo by Eileen McElroy.

The Mairead Farrells (Máiréad Ní Fhearghail) Ladies Football Club of Philadelphia became the 2010 North American Senior Football Champions over Labor Day weekend at the national GAA games at Chicago’s Gaelic Park. The footballers had already won the Philadelphia senior football title a few weeks before.

The team they beat in the city match-up, the Notre Dames, also brought home a trophy from Chicago. This team is now the 2010 North American Intermediate Football Champions. They’ll both be defending their titles next year in San Francisco.

Notre Dames player Eileen McElroy is also a talented photographer and she shared some photos from the ladies’ competition and the men’s matches featuring Philly GAA teams the Kevin Barrys and the Young Irelanders. The men didn’t bring home trophies, but they fought like Celtic tigers.

Check out Eileen’s photos:

Thanks to Peadar McDiarmada for reporting the results from Chicago.

September 14, 2010 by Denise Foley

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