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Lori Lander Murphy

News, People

Annabella McAleer Manley, 1925-2011

Annabella Manley

The Philadelphia Irish community lost a beloved friend and one of its brightest spirits this week when Annabella McAleer Manley passed away at age 86 on July 26th. Her presence will be especially missed at The Irish Immigration Center, where she was a cherished regular at The Center’s weekly lunches.

Born in Donaghmore, County Tyrone in 1925, Annabella was just 23 years old when she came to the United States. She embraced her adopted country, but carried with her always a love of her Irish culture and homeland.

In December of 2009, I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing Annabella for a video project at the The Immigration Center. Her own words tell the story of her journey from a happy childhood spent on a farm in Northern Ireland to a new life in America.

“We had what we called a small home, it wasn’t a large farm. It was beautiful country. We had nothing really extravagant; I guess we were poor, but not church mouse poor. It was just the four of us, my brother Johnny, my mom and dad and myself.

“I always felt that I would come to America eventually. But I didn’t know this when I used to listen to my grandmother’s records. She had one called ‘I’m Off to Philadelphia in the Morning’ and I would play that one over and over. So in the back of my mind I had an idea I was coming here one day.”

Annabella’s first stop was Derry City.

“I was working there. There were a lot of girls from Free Ireland. I was from The North, and they were from The Free State. So we became very good friends. This girlfriend of mine was born in America and she said she was going back. She was going to take her sister and her brothers, and told me that if I decided to come to America like I said, she’d sponsor me.

“I left Ireland for England when I was 18, and I stayed for 5 years. My girlfriend Florence brought all her sisters and brothers out to America, and then when I was living in London, I got a letter saying she was ready to sponsor me.”

That was how it was done in those days. Annabella followed her friend to the U.S., and lived with her family while she started her new life. The lovely young Irish woman got jobs modeling and then found her way to Philadelphia. She loved to tell stories about the evenings spent dancing at The Irish Center in Mt. Airy and at 69th Street in Upper Darby.

“We’re just going to miss her so much. She was such a smiley, happy person,” Siobhan Lyons, the Director of The Irish Immigration Center said. “She was always laughing and joking, so full of joy. And I will miss her great stories. She was so inspiring. She came over to America when she was young, and witnessed so many of the changes in the country. I am going to miss her terribly.”

Annabella’s funeral will be held on Saturday, July 30th at 11a.m. at St. Bernadette Church, Turner Avenue, Drexel Hill. Further details can be found in The Delaware County Daily Times.

July 29, 2011 by
People

Antoin Mac Gabhann and a House Concert Extraordinaire

Antoin Mac Gabhann at the PCG house concert

There is no musical experience in the world quite like a house concert. And last Friday’s Antoin Mac Gabhann performance, sponsored by the Philadelphia Ceili Group, was a special one even by house concert standards.

The 25 guests in attendance were too busy enjoying the tunes and stories shared with them by one of Ireland’s best traditional fiddle players to pay any heed to the rain and thunder outside.  In the cozy living room, laughter and conversation flowed easily between performer and audience.

Mac Gabhann, whose last name translates from Irish to English as “Son of the Smith,” holds, among other honors, that of being a two time winner of the All-Ireland Senior Fiddle title. In addition to teaching weekly fiddle lessons in his County Meath home for over 30 years, and participating in sessions all over the world, the Cavan born Mac Gabhann has also published two volumes of Vincent Broderick tunes, titled “The Turoe Stone Collection.”

In between playing some Broderick reels and jigs, Mac Gabhann explained how the books came about:

“I had been playing these for years before I knew that they were Broderick tunes. I didn’t know anything that Broderick had composed. And, in fact, I discovered that these were his tunes when I was playing with him, having a little session one night. I played one of the tunes and I said ‘I got these tunes down in Fermanagh.’ And he said, ‘But they’re my tunes!’  And, in fact, I played the three jigs [“The Haunted House,” “The Whistler at the Wake” and “The Old Flame”], and he had forgotten all about ‘The Old Flame.’

“When I played it, he remembered it. So I said to him, ‘Well, do you have more tunes?’ And he said he had, a good few.”  Mac Gabhann asked if Broderick would put them on tape and send them to him, which Broderick was happy to do. “He was concerned that the tunes would be lost. And people were playing some of them and didn’t know they were his. So, every now and again, I’d get a tape, and then I’d get another tape, and a few more.

“We published a book of them, it was about 1994 or 1995 I’d say. And then when that was done, he’d begin to give me another tape, and another tape.  It took me longer to get to listen to the tapes the second time around, but we did publish, a few years before he died, a second book of his tunes.”

We managed to capture Mac Gabhann playing some Broderick reels and jigs on video, as well as a few other tunes, so take a listen to a snippet of what was indeed a rare and magical night of music:  Antoin Mac Gabhann Playing Tunes in Philly

July 15, 2011 by
Arts, People

Catherine Barry & Charlie: The Dublin Author Pens Her Story of Recovery

 

Catherine Barry's new memoir, "Charlie & Me"

All of us have our demons, but few of us ever can, or do, write about them as honestly and eloquently as Catherine Barry has in her new memoir titled “Charlie & Me.” 

The writer, Dublin born and bred, has three well-received novels to her name: “The House that Jack Built (2001),” “Null and Void (2002)” and “Skin Deep (2004),” as well as a place on the fund advisory board of the Dove Self-Esteem Awareness campaign.  But for her latest book, Barry is mining her own life, and turning the focus to her fierce battle with recovery from alcoholism.

“There’s a saying,” Barry told me by phone from her home in Dublin. “It’s called a ‘dry drunk.’  It’s when someone stops drinking, but they still have the disease.  In the beginning, you’re just so thrilled to not be drinking, it’s a honeymoon period. But then, you start having to deal with the issues underneath, what made you drink in the first place.”

Barry began her recovery in 1993, on an April night when she made her way to her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.  She had finally said the words to herself, and out loud to her physician, “I think I might have a bit of a drinking problem.”  Still, she had already turned around to leave the meeting before it began when she felt a staying hand on her shoulder.  Charlie Gallagher, who would become her sponsor, her mentor, her lifeline, her savior, and her title character, had found her. And with a smile and the words “Welcome home, Cathy,” he led her back inside.

The decision to begin her story on the first day of her journey to recovery was deliberate; Barry realized that many of the books on the topic of alcoholism start with the destructive road to the bottom, and end at the point where the person decides to seek help. But for Barry, and for everyone facing recovery, that’s where the real fight begins.

“I literally woke up in the middle of the night with the idea for ‘Charlie & Me.’  I was in the middle of writing another book at the time, when I realized that this was what I was meant to be writing.  I knew I was onto something, I just felt that with this book.  I’m on a mission now to just tell the truth because it needs to be told. I don’t think I would have made it through the first year without Charlie.”

At the time, Barry was the unemployed mother of two small children, and was in the process of removing herself from an abusive marriage: “I had no job, no money, I was in an insane marriage.”  She was at her rock bottom.

Charlie, as Barry writes about him with undying love and affection, is a character quite unlike any other.  He had to begin their relationship by explaining what a sponsor was, by telling Barry that he would “simply pass on the tools of recovery as they had been passed on to him twenty-five years earlier.”  He would help her get, and stay, sober.

He was a man who had equal parts passion for coaxing dilapidated old cars to run for him, for collecting junk that he masqueraded as antiques, for chain-smoking rolled up tobacco cigarettes, for dressing up dapper in suits of many colors and hats of many feathers and for warbling Sinatra tunes off-key. “He wasn’t a saint,” Barry told me, but as she writes in her book, Charlie “imparted his wisdom, warmth and sense of humour to me…His attitude towards life gave me a blueprint—an instruction book on decent living, if you like.”

“The funny thing, I suppose,” Barry laughed, “is that we were a bit like the blind leading the blind. Two sick people trying to help each other, like the patients themselves healing each other.  It was a strange paradox that I still don’t fully understand.”

It was Charlie who encouraged Barry to begin really using her writing talent. “I was always writing as a child, always writing diaries. I fell in love with the smell, the ambiance of libraries. I would write short stories and poems…and then put them in the drawer. “

But there was one poem of Barry’s that a friend had had written up and framed for her. Charlie noticed it hanging on the wall one evening, and commented, “God, that’s brilliant…Do you know who wrote it?”  When Barry replied that she was the author, Charlie wouldn’t let her off the hook until she’d shown him what else she’d written. He made her type out the poems, and begin the submission process.

“We writers, we’re always the last people to see it in ourselves.  I’m always looking for validation from the outside world. I used to pester other authors and say ‘Am I a writer?’ You have to acknowledge it yourself.”

Writing “The House that Jack Built” came about as a bit of a dare, when someone said to Barry, “You know, you could write a book.” She could barely conceive of it, but she persevered.

“The day I got the check for the advance on the first book, I brought the check to the bank and then kept waiting for them to ring me and tell me that it had bounced.  It’s almost like a passion for self-destruction that an alcoholic has…practicing forgiveness is something you have to do up until the day you die.”

Barry is unstinting in her honesty as she recounts the darkest days of her early recovery.  One chapter in particular recounts her obsession with a boyfriend who had his own issues of addiction.

“A lot of people have spoken to me about that chapter. It’s struck a nerve with many people.  It’s the mentality of ‘Now I’ve stopped drinking…what other things can I use to distract myself from the pain that started the drinking in the first place.’ I wanted to fix this man; I’d spent my life trying to fix other people. There was a hole in me that I wanted to fill, and it’s just the same old thing. It’s what I see addiction is, trying to find a way to cope with the pain.”

“And while I’m saying this,” Barry laughed. “I still haven’t figured it all out.  Insanity—the definition is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

“I just say, ‘Go for progress and not perfection.’”

Barry’s mission to “just tell the truth” has produced a beautiful, poignant, funny, devastating memoir. Even seeing the end coming, I have to say I sobbed as I finished the book. Her personal triumph is that she continues her recovery, one day at a time, and that she has shared her story with the world. Based around her fight for sobriety and stability, it’s a narrative that will resonate with anyone battling any kind of demons.  Although I daresay readers will wish they had their own Charlie by their side for the rumble.

“Charlie said it to me, that I can’t stop from touching the flame, and he was right. That’s the way I am. But I found a higher power and I still continue to rely on that higher power today. Forgiveness is a process.”

Charlie always told Barry that “the writing will cure you” and she has never felt that more strongly than with this book. “I feel like it’s saving my life all over again. This is the road I want to be on…I’ve found my voice now.”

“Charlie & Me” can be ordered online through www.amazon.uk and www.easons.com. And check out Catherine Barry’s facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Catherine-Barry/230954423587434#!/pages/Catherine-Barry/230954423587434

July 5, 2011 by
Arts, History

Colin Quinn Makes a “Long Story Short”

Colin Quinn in "Long Story Short"

Colin Quinn, you are funny.

I already knew that, but I had it reconfirmed for me on the opening night of Quinn’s one man show, “Long Story Short,” at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on Broad Street. Fresh from Broadway, and making its Philadelphia debut, this 75 minute tour-de-farce of history bites where it’s supposed to and makes short work of some of history’s biggest moments.

And keeps the audience laughing throughout the entirety of the evening.

Quinn’s point, made with his trademark raspy-voiced rat-a-tat delivery, is that in all the years humanity has been evolving, we haven’t changed all that much: “With all the progress, where’s the progress?” he asks early in the show.

He points out that “our ancestors weren’t the ones who starved to death waiting their turn in line for food.”  In other words, survival of the fittest doesn’t mean survival of the nicest.

Directed by Jerry Seinfeld (I looked all around the theater in the hopes that he is a hands-on director who was perhaps directing from the seat next to me; no luck), the show’s style of humor reflects the sensibility of the man best known for his show about nothing. This time, however, he’s steering a show about all things universal.

No history stone is left unturned: politics, philosophy, psychology, arts & literature. Quinn touches on all of them. And the points he makes are the kind that have you going, “Oh, yeah…” Like his take on democracy, for instance:

“It’s sad. Marxism didn’t work. Communism didn’t work. Capitalism doesn’t work.  Nothing works. Even democracy doesn’t work. Democracy—the greatest form of government and we have two choices for who’s our leader. In fascism you only have one choice. That’s great. We have one more choice than the worst form of government.”

It’s sageness like this that keeps the audience holding fast for the next pithy piece of insight wrapped in humor to be delivered by the craggy-faced man pacing the stage.  It’s actually a bit like sitting around with a funny friend, the one who minored in history and knows how to draw the connections between the follies of early civilizations and our own modern messed-up universe.

As Quinn makes perfectly clear, we have always been searching for the truth of our existence, or as he puts it: “Don’t judge me by what I do…judge me by what I’m telling you when I’m doing the opposite.”

“Long Story Short” is here in town through July 10th, and it’s worth an evening of your time.  For more information, check out The Philadelphia Theatre Company’s website: http://philadelphiatheatrecompany.org/events/LSS.html

July 1, 2011 by
Arts

Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” by Gothic Candlelight

Josh Hitchens, writer and actor, "Stoker's Dracula"

It’s often a jolt for folks when they first hear that the world’s most famous vampire was created by an Irishman. Bram Stoker, author of “Dracula,” was born in Clontarf, north of Dublin, and moved to London in 1878 where he was hired to manage the Lyceum Theatre and act as personal assistant to the theatre’s owner, Henry Irving. But in his spare time, Stoker kept busy creating the ultimate tale of nocturnal terror.

This weekend, the Ebenezer Mazwell Mansion and the Rosenbach Museum & Library are presenting “Stoker’s Dracula,” adapted and performed by Philadelphia actor Josh Hitchens. 

From the time of its completion, Stoker envisioned “Dracula” being turned into a dramatic piece for Henry Irving to enact onstage.  According to Stoker’s grand-nephew, Daniel Farson, who wrote a biography on his relative, Irving walked in on a reading at the theatre (to an audience of two people) and gave his one word review of the piece: “Dreadful!”

That is not a word that’s being applied to this weekend’s presentation.

The Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion is “the perfect backdrop” for Stoker’s legend. Located in Germantown, the Mansion is the only Victorian house museum in Philadelphia. And boy, is it a good one. With its stone façade and gothic tower, visitors can experience the spectral mood before they even enter the dark parlor, lit only by candlelight, where the reading is being held.

Hitchens’ adaptation is abridged, but contains Stoker’s own words—giving the dramatization the authentic sense of horror created by the author.  “This is how Stoker wanted to see his novel,” Hitchens explains.

Also on display at The Mansion this weekend are facsimile copies of Stoker’s notes kept during the seven years he spent writing the novel.  The originals are owned by The Rosenbach Museum & Library, a Philadelphia treasure house that is home to “a nearly unparalleled rare book and manuscript collection, with particular strength in American and British literature and history.”

During Stoker’s lifetime, “Dracula” did not produce the kind of critical and financial success that he had hoped for. When he died in 1912, his widow Florence was forced to sell the notes at a Sotheby’s auction the next year. They were purchased for a little over 2 pounds. 

This weekend’s presentations of “Stoker’s Dracula” promise to thrill and chill audiences with the author’s words that are “better and scarier than any of the ‘Dracula’ movies.”  As of Friday, there were still tickets available for tonight’s 9PM performance, as well as Sunday’s 2PM and 4PM performances. Saturday evening is sold out.

For more information, contact the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion at 215-438-1861, or online at www.ebenezermaxwellmansion.org/dracula.

June 10, 2011 by
Arts, Music, People

The Heavenly Voices of Cappella Caeciliana

Last night some of the most heavenly voices on earth dropped by St. Malachy’s Church in Philadelphia.

The parish, located in the middle of North Philadelphia, was established in 1850 by Irish immigrants. Today, the church is also home to St. Malachy’s School, an independent Catholic school that educates over 200 minority children.

For Cappella Caeciliana, the Belfast choir founded in 1995, the church was a must stop on its first American tour. The choir’s music director, Donal McCrisken, is the Head of Music for St. Malachy’s College, Belfast, Northern Ireland’s first specialist music school.

Cappella Caeciliana performed selections from their vast choral repertoire for a blissfully enraptured audience. Filling the church was a crowd that braved the dreary weather and was richly rewarded for its effort. As a tribute to Michaela Harte McAreavy, the daughter of Tyrone’s senior football manager Mickey Harte, who was murdered on her honeymoon this past January, the choir sang “She Moved Through the Fair.” It was a favorite song of the young woman who had many friends in Philadelphia’s Irish Community where her loss is still mourned.

McCrisken spoke afterwards. “Music is probably the most powerful medium there is. It has a way of going from heart to heart. Music transcends boundaries, transcends difficulties; somehow music cuts through and none of those divisions mean anything.

“But at the same time…when you walk into this parish, when you walk into this church, you know they’re very special people here. There’s something intangible, something special in the air here.”

And he would know something about that; Cappella Caeciliana is a Northern Ireland choir made up of both Catholic and Protestant singers.

For the choir who spent the day at St. Malachy’s school, talking to and performing with the children there, the warmth and genuineness that floods the church and the school made an impression.

“We hope our music in a small way is a return for that,” McCrisken said. “And we’re delighted the music has spoken to your audience so powerfully.”

See our photo essay from the concert.

April 29, 2011 by
People

RUNA Launches “Stretched On Your Grave” at The Irish Center

Shannon and her grandfather, Bob Lambert

Shannon and her grandfather, Bob Lambert

If there was a handbook on how to successfully launch a new CD, RUNA could have written it, with the first rule being: Fill the audience with old and new fans, and welcome them all as though they were part of the family.

Deciding to hold their launch concert for “Stretched On Your Grave” at the Commodore Barry Center (aka The Irish Center) in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia was a no-brainer for the group, whose lead singer, Shannon Lambert-Ryan, grew up dancing there. Turning it into a place as welcoming and familiar as a pub in Ireland became a family affair, with Lambert-Ryan’s mother, Julie Lambert, taking the lead in creating tables of authentic food.

The significance of the role family plays in the band members’ lives was on relaxed display throughout the evening. With percussionist Cheryl Prashker’s husband Charles Nolan at the CD table, and Lambert-Ryan’s younger sister Emma joining her onstage for a delicate and luminous duet of “I Wish My Love Was a Red, Red Rose,” everyone took part.

Even family members across the sea were included, as Dublin-born guitarist Fionán de Barra explained to the packed audience that his mother told him the other day that “she doesn’t think there’s anybody in Ireland who sings the Irish songs as well as Shannon sang them on the album—anybody.” Lambert-Ryan added, “She was the ultimate test, we’ll tell you. If it doesn’t pass her and doesn’t pass Fionán’s eldest brother, Cormac, it doesn’t go onto the album, it doesn’t go into the set. Fionán’s family actually has been very involved in bringing the Irish language back into use in Ireland…so it’s quite a compliment.”

Lambert-Ryan’s best friend from childhood on, Erin McMenimen was also in the audience, and shares photo credits on the CD cover with Philadelphia photographer Jayne Toohey.  McMenimen took the delightfully disquieting picture of Lambert-Ryan that appears as the front of the album. “We went on a search for the perfect front cover…to find THE perfect grave…and that is me on the cover of the album.  We searched around this area, and up into New England and the Northeast,” said Lambert-Ryan. But the photo they went with was taken by McMenimen in Doolin, County Clare, last summer when they were all over in Ireland for Lambert-Ryan’s Irish wedding to de Barra. “None of the graveyards that we found looked quite forlorn enough over here.  So we said we need to stick with that one.  And it was a gorgeous picture.”

And the latest addition to the RUNA family is violinist Tomoko Omura. “As we’ve gotten into more of the traditional side of things, we’ve stolen her, or borrowed her, so to speak, from the jazz and classical world, and we really don’t want to give her back,” Lambert-Ryan told the audience. Hopefully, they will be able to keep her for a long time to come, Omura’s exquisite playing is a brilliant addition to the band.

A fabulous, fun evening at The Irish Center, filled with an audience treated to some innovatively traditional music. Watch our videos and take a look at our photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishphiladelphia/sets/72157626282836011/with/5580045046/

April 1, 2011 by
Arts, Music, People

RUNA: “Stretched On Your Grave”

RUNA Launches Their New CD, "Stretched on Your Grave"

I first heard RUNA perform live almost two years ago, shortly after they had recorded their debut CD, “Jealousy.”  I fell in love with that album, and I fell in love with the band that has pioneered their own innovative style of taking traditional Irish songs and “Celting them up” in a way that is uniquely their own.

With the release of their second CD, “Stretched On Your Grave,” they have only managed to surpass themselves.

RUNA is Philadelphia-based: singer Shannon Lambert-Ryan is a home-girl who grew up at The Irish Center in Mt. Airy, first as a step-dancer with the O’Donnell School of Irish Dance, and later dancing at the Friday-night ceilis with her mom, Julie Lambert.  Percussionist Cheryl Prashker may have been born in Canada, but she was adopted by the folk scene here years when she joined up with the band Full Frontal Folk.  And Dublin-born guitarist, Fionán de Barra, had no choice; he became a full-fledged Philadelphian when he showed his brilliant taste by marrying Lambert-Ryan.

This is an album whose release I have long been awaiting, if only because I knew it would contain the song that I have come to think of as RUNA’s signature piece, “The House Carpenter/Jolene.” “The House Carpenter,” a traditional ballad that is also known as “The Daemon Lover” and “James Harris,” is a well-known work that tells the story of a young wife and mother who is lured away from her home by a former lover who promises her the world. Shortly into their voyage, she regrets her decision and is drowned, never to see the face of her young child again. 

Lambert-Ryan and de Barra were playing around with the tune one day, working with the verses: “There are many versions of the song…we wanted to craft the song to fit our style without changing it,” Lambert-Ryan explained. At the same time, they were listening to Dolly Parton’s classic song “Jolene,” and they realized that they could both be sung in the same key. Adding Prashker’s percussion underneath, the two songs blend perfectly, and create a brilliant and addictive take on an old ballad.

This is what comes through on the cd, the band’s love of “haunting melodies and universal themes.” Lambert-Ryan’s pure vocals shine on “I Wish My Love was a Red, Red Rose/Hector the Hero,” accompanied only by de Barra’s guitar playing. Simple, quiet and affecting, Lambert-Ryan preserves the original grace of the song while imbuing it with the passion that she imprints on everything she sings.

The title song, “I Am Stretched On Your Grave,” opens with Lambert-Ryan singing sean-nos, and then builds on the raw emotion of the tune as de Barra comes in with guitar, and fiddler Tomoko Omura draws the energy of the song to its conclusion. It’s an artistic fusion that creates a captivating and satisfying arrangement to the 17th century Irish poem originally titled “Táim sínte ar do thuama”.

Lambert-Ryan also sings several songs in their original Irish, “Cailín deas Crúite na mbó” and “Siúbhán Ní Dhuibhir.” The lovely ballad “Cailín deas Crúite na mbó” is performed with an effortless straightforwardness that captures the tale of “The Pretty Girl Milking a Cow,” while “Siúbhán Ní Dhuibhir” is infused with energy and percussion and the peerless flute playing of Isaac Alderson.

de Barra displays his own vocals on “Fionnghuala,” a tour de force of what has been described as Gaelic scat. The Scottish song was made famous by The Bothy Band, but de Barra’s version is a joyful gem that deserves its own place in the annals of Celtic music.

Throw in the instrumental “The Star of Munster,” which showcases Prashker’s percussion, de Barra’s guitar, and Alderson’s flute, and you have an album overflowing with stunning tunes and songs.

“Stretched On Your Grave” is an inspired album from a group that has found its voice, and its place, in the world of Irish music. With songs like “The Newry Highwayman” and “Lowlands of Holland,” played to traditional perfection with RUNA’s Celtic twist, it’s a CD that will get frequent play when you add it to the music shelf.

And those of you fortunate enough to live within traveling distance to Philadelphia can see them play live at their launch concert this Saturday, March 26th at The Irish Center in Mt. Airy.

For more information, check out their website: http://www.runamusic.com/

March 25, 2011 by