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You can catch Shannon Lambert-Ryan and Runa at two venues this week.

Just back from 10 days in Ireland. Did you miss me? What, you didn’t notice that I was gone? Okay for you.

But you won’t want to miss any of the great events on our calendar this week. Good segue, eh?

“The Early Bird,” a play by Irish playwright Leo Butler, opens this Saturday at the Adrienne Theatre in Philadelphia. Produced by the Inis Nua Theatre Company—the city’s finest purveyor of new plays from Ireland and the UK—“The Early Bird” is, like many Irish plays, dark, disturbing and humorous. Hey, we know Irish people like that too. The story: Debbie and Jack blame one another for the disappearance of their child and their exchanges uncover the inner secrets of their relationship. I know it’s hard to imagine how that could be funny, but if past experience with Irish plays is any indication, you will be laughing—at least, some of the time.

If it’s some good music you’re after, RUNA, a Celtic fusion band based in Philly, will be playing at the Tinicum United Church of Christ in Pipersville on Friday, October 22. Tickets are only $10. RUNA will also be opening for Barleyjuice at the Sellersville Theatre on Saturday, October 30.

On Saturday, catch Burning Bridget Cleary at Chaplin’s Music Café in Spring City. This young band has been collecting fans and gigs like nobody’s business over the past couple of years.

Harper Robert Mouland returns to the tri-state area on Sunday with his one-man show, “Before the Dhoul Knows Yer Dead,” at the East Jersey Olde Towne Village in Piscataway, NJ. He plays Michael Keane, a harper who came to American in 1754. He’ll be playing a wirestrung harp and a variety of antique instruments.

Also on Sunday: Blackthorn appears at a fundraiser at the Palombaro Club in Ardmore for the Havertown Republicans. Do Celtic rock and politics make strange bedfellows? We’ll see.

Back for a second year: the (we hope) annual Samhain Rambling House at the Irish Center. Samhain is the Irish version of Halloween (since it started in Ireland, technically Halloween is the American version of Samhain). Last year, a coven of witches, some great performers, and even a Celtic tarot card reader made for a fun, spooky night at the Irish Center which, some folks say, is haunted. The Malones—Fintan Malone and Luke Jardel—will be providing the music (everything from Irish trad to reggae) for dancing, but they’ll surrender the mike to anyone who wants to perform their party piece. That includes stand-up comedy, story telling, singing or dancing. Your $5 admission fee covers all that and some eats too.

Looking ahead: The Irish Immigration Center is holding its first ever gala at the Hyatt Regency at Penn’s Landing on Saturday, October 30. The first ever Mathew Carey Hibernian Award is being given to Anne O’Callaghan, executive director of the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, a nonprofit serving the region’s immigrant community. In the 1700s, Mathew Carey was the driving force behind the organization of the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland, one of the first societies of its kind in Philadelphia. A portrait of Carey hangs at historic St. Mary’s Church in Philadelphia, his burial spot (along with that of Commodore John Barry, one of the Revolutionary War’s most famous immigrants).

The John Byrne Band will be playing. For more information on the event, go to www.icphila.org.

Irish guitarist and singer/songwriter Sarah McQuaid will be appearing at the PSALM Salon in Philadelphia on Saturday, October 30. McQuaid will also be conducting a guitar workship before the show, which starts at 8 PM.

I’ve spent the past week updating the calendar, and there’s plenty of good craic coming, including “Irish Christmas in America,” with the band Teada and singer Seamus Begley, returning to the Irish Center on December 12.

But November is jam-packed with Balls (Donegal and Mayo) and the Mary from Dungloe Pageant, Mick Moloney’s return (to Delaware County Community College on November 6 and his always standing-room-only concert “with friends” at St. Malachy’s in Philadelphia on November 7, and at Wilmington Hall in Delaware on November 7); the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame (November 14), the Philadelphia Gaelic Athletic Association All-Star Banquet on Nov. 21 (with two national championship teams, that’s a lot of all-stars), and, of course, the annual Oireachtas—top notch Irish dancers from the Mid-Atlantic competing to be the best—on the Thanksgiving Day weekend.

Can you carve one of these bad boys? Test your punkin-carvin' mettle at Molly-O-Ween.

We’re heading into a big, fat honkin’ weekend, including one big fall festival, not-to-be-missed concerts, and a couple of really fun benefits.

All the Saturday action is concentrated into the nighttime hours. You may have a very hard time making up your mind.

Here’s what’s on tap:

• Two of the most talented and creative Irish traditional musicians appear together in a Coatesville Traditional Irish Music Series concert. Breanndán Begley and Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh (Kwee-veen O-Rye-allah, if you want to say it right) take the stage at 8 p.m. at the Coatesville Cultural Society (a very cozy venue indeed), 143 East Lincoln Highway in Coatesville. For tickets, contact Frank Dalton at (610) 486-2220. 
• The Spring Hill House Concert Series hosts Aoife Clancy—she of the amazing voice and hair—starting at 8 p.m. You may know her from her stint with Cherish the Ladies. The daughter of Bobby Clancy, Aoife (“EE-fa”) sings pretty much everything. For you singers, there’s a workshop before the concert. The show takes place in one of our favorite (and most intimate) settings, the home of Bob Hendren and Bette Conway, 136 East Third Street in Lansdale. For details, call (215) 368-0525.
• Blackthorn takes the stage, starting at 8 p.m., for a beef and beer benefit for St. Laurence Parish, 8245 West Chester Pike in Upper Darby. Tickets are 40 bucks per person, including food, beer and set-ups. The boys of Blackthorn never fail to entertain. You just know you’ll be on your feet the whole night. To order tickets, call Ann Char at (610) 789-6960 or e-mail her at achar@stlaurence.org.
• Also Saturday night, The Martin Family Band returns for their third year in an Evening of Celtic Music, Song & Dance at Bucks County Community College Gateway Auditorium, 275 Swamp Road in Newtown, Bucks County. Showtime is 7:30.
• If you want to hear a very talented Scot (Irish, Scottish … we don’t discriminate), lend an ear to singer-songwriter Brian McNeill (founder of the Battlefield Band) Saturday at 8 p.m. at Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church, 101 Old Kennett Road, in Wilmington. This is a presentation of the Green Willow Folk Club, and they know how to put on a show.

Sunday is almost as crowded:

• If you’re a golfer, you can start your Sunday on the links and help the Philadelphia Irish Center at the same time. The Irish Center will host a benefit golf outing at Walnut Lane Golf Course, 800 Walnut Lane (near Henry Avenue), with tee time set for 9:30. Call John Nolan at (215) 843-8051 for details. The fee is $60, but it includes a lot: greens fee, cart, awards, luncheon & on-course refreshments. And plan on Saturday night Mass.
• Later in the day, you’re likely to run into lots of your Irish compatriots at Molly-O-Ween, a free (we like “free”) festival at Molly Maguire’s Pub, Main and Wood Streets in Lansdale, Sunday from 1 to 8 p.m. Carve pumpkins! Slip into your Halloween costume, and win a prize! (If you’re looking for ideas, I read a story predicting Lady Gaga and the cast of “Jersey Shore” will be the most popular costumes this year. But I digress, and the mental images are just too disturbing to continue.) There’ll be plenty of great food and drink, of course, plus music by Seamus Kennedy, Celtic Spirit, the Doc Freeman Band, and a local bagpipe band. The Timoney irish Dancers will also take the stage throughout the day.
• Later on that night, Breanndán Begley and Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh will appear in concert at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street in the Mount Airy section of town, starting at 8 p.m. So if you miss them at Coatesville, you get a second chance. Better yet, see them both nights.

And that, folks, is just the weekend!

Inis Nua Theatre Company’s presentation of the Leo Butler play “The Early Bird” continues throughout the week at The Playground Theatre at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., in Center City. Show times vary. Check the Web site for details.

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.

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.

You might run into these guys from Irish Thunder in Wildwood.

Lace up your running shoes, kiddies. You are going to be oh, so very busy this coming week.

Honestly, we’re not this crazy busy with Irish and Celtic stuff in March.

First, this weekend. There are three festivals. Let me start by saying that Irish people could not possibly have planned any of this weekend’s events, or they would all be on the same day, and you’d have to figure out which one to go to, and which two to blow off. Fortunately, such good planning hardly ever happens.

All you have to know is, they’re all in Jersey:

Dublin Square Pub over in Bordentown is hosting its Halfway to St. Paddy’s Day event Friday night, starting at 8 and continuing until whenever. Live Irish tunes with the Broken Shillelaghs, and lots of fun.

The Gloucester City 2010 Shamrock Festival kicks off on Saturday, starting at 12 noon, in Proprietor’s Park & Marina on the waterfront at 225 South King Street, in Gloucester City, one of our favorite towns. The Broken Shillelaghs will be there, too, with Jamison, Beautiful Day and the Misty Dew’rs. Vendors galore, and plenty of activities for the kiddies.

On Sunday, starting at noon and going until 5, Mount Holly launches its Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day Music Festival at the High Street Grill. Music by Paul Kennedy, Celtic Connection and the debut of O’Farrelly’s Whiskey. Bonus: Find out who the 2011 Mount Holly St. Patrick’s Day Parade grand marshal is going to be.

After the weekend festivals are over, shoot back over to Pennsy—Norristown, to be specific— for the Ciara Kelly Higgins for CP 5th Annual Fundraiser at Plymouth Country Club (Belvoir and Plymouth Roads) on Monday. It’s an all-day event, including breakfast, golf, music by Paddy’s Well, dinner and the comedy of Joe Conklin. There’s also a silent and live auction. All to raise money for 7-year-old Ciara Higgins, who has cerebral palsy, and other kids with CP, to make sure they get the therapy they need. Learn more here. 

Knock off for a couple of days after that. You’re really going to need your rest because …

Irish Weekend down in North Wildwood—one of the biggest such events on the East Coast—gets under way with live amateur boxing Thursday night at 7 in the Music Tent at New Jersey and Spruce Avenues. The main celebration kicks in on Friday from 8 in the morning until 7 at night with music and vendors, and no small amount of food and drink.

It continues on Saturday, with the Brian Riley Pipe Band Exhibition at 8th and Central at 10 a.m., and more entertainment and vendors all day, and a ceili at Anglesea Firehouse from 7 to 11 p.m.; and a big, splashy parade on Sunday. Lots of your favorite bands will be booked down the shore that weekend.

But wait! The annual Celtic Classic, Highland Games and Festival—another event that also easily fits the “one of the biggest” description—kicks off Friday, runs throughout Saturday and wraps up on Sunday. We’d tell you what’s happening hour-by-hour, but there’s just so much going on, we would fall down from exhaustion before we got midway through Saturday.

Suffice to say that many of the top Celtic bands will be performing, including some of our particular favorites: Bua, the shy and retiring (not!) Timlin & Kane, Burning Bridget Cleary, Enter the Haggis, and the Jameson Sisters. Plus, the great John Doyle and Karan Casey team up for concerts Thursday and Friday night. Their CD “Exiles Return,” was one of the best Irish traditional recordings of the year. They’re just terrific together. This is an absolute “don’t miss.”

(UPDATE Sept. 18, 2010: Karan Casey will not be appearing, due to a family emergency. Taking her place is the marvelous Susan McKeown.)

The Classic also features enough pipe bands to cause ringing of the ears for weeks, Highland games (think beefy tattooed dudes in kilts tossing telephone poles … the dudes, not the kilts), sheepdog trials, haggis … it’s a jam-packed weekend.

With all the festival fun going on, you run the risk of missing two very good concerts: the Celtic Fiddle Festival Saturday at 8 p.m. at Sellersville Theatre, and Eileen Ivers—a one-woman fiddle festival in her own right—the same night and time at Zellerbach Theater on the Penn Campus. If you can see your way clear, either one is likely to be a rock-solid hit.

I don’t know about you, but after all that running around, I might sleep until March.

Expect a lot of exuberance at this year's Ceili Group festival.

Welcome to September! Dust off your shamrock deely bobbers, folks. You’re going to need them.

In a couple of weeks we’ll be halfway to St. Paddy’s Day and this is the month where we all start practicing because we have plenty—and I mean plenty—of opportunity. I don’t want to say there’s an Irish festival every week, because I think we’re skipping a week this year. But there are some weekends when there are two or three to make up for it.

[A brief pause to air a pet peeve: Now, seriously, folks, can we get some coordination here? Before you decide on a date for your event, check our calendar. It’s the only comprehensive Irish events calendar in the region and you’ll get more people at your fest if it’s not scheduled say, when most of the Irish people in Philly are in Wildwood destroying their livers or heading to a festival where, in addition to hearing great Irish music, they can see half naked men in kilts throwing telephone poles around. Now, back to our regularly scheduled column.]

First festival of the season award goes to Brittingham’s in Lafayette Hill where East of the Hebrides launched a nice, kid-friendly Irish fest last year in Brittingham’s parking lot. On Sunday, September 5, there’s great music from Paddy’s Well, Jamison, Oliver McElhone, Seamus McGroary, and Whiskey Folk; a beer garden (I’m having one of those next year); Irish dancers and bagpipers; and vendors and delicious food both inside and out (for those of you who’ve been to Ireland, Brittingham’s serves authentic toasties!).

The Saturday before, you can see the Samuel Beckett play, “First Love,” at the Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia. It stars Irish actor Conor Lovett in his 19th role in a Beckett play. And boy, is his sense of the absurd tired.

Then, come Thursday, gear yourself up for three days and nights of the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s annual festival of traditional Irish song and dance at the Irish Center in Philadelphia.

This year could be one of the best years ever: Remarkable fiddler Liz Carroll will be joining forces with Altan’s Daithi Sproule on stage on Saturday night., September 11. Irish Philadelphia will be there on Saturday afternoon with a table filled with fun for the kiddies, so stop by and see us. (And bring the kids: We have free Silly Bandz and tattoos.) There will be other vendors too, as well as food, drink, Irish dancing, and classes on everything from the Irish language, to making a St. Brigid’s Cross to genealogy (our own resident genealogist Lori Lander Murphy will be giving a talk on how to find your Irish ancestors).

But before that, you can see “The Yellow Bittern: The Life and Times of Liam Clancy,” a much-heralded documentary on the life of this Irish music legend who died last year, on Wednesday night at the Irish Center. On Thursday night, the Singers Circle brings some of the best voices in the area to one place (and if you have a nice voice, come on down and add it!). And on Friday, kick up your heels for a ceili (set dance) featuring legendary Kevin McGillian (on accordian) and Friends along with a Fireside room concert featuring Galway’s finest, Gary Quinn on accordian and Anthony McGrath on guitar.

There are some other amazing musicians who will be performing and/or offering workshops, including Myron Bretholz (bodhran) from Baltimore; Dave Abe (fiddle) from Washington, DC; singers Karen Boyce McCollum and Michael Boyce of Blackthorn; guitarist John Brennan; Cara Frankowicz from New England, who will be teaching fiddle; Dave Hanson (bodhran); and Tim Hill, who, at 17, is an up-and-coming uillean piper.

Also on the bill: Tom Reing, director of the Inis Nua Theatre Company, will be offering an acting workshop for kids aged 8-14; Paraic Keane, from the well-known Keane family in Ireland (dad Sean was with The Chieftains, uncle James is a celebrated box player), will be performing; the Jameson Sisters (angelic voiced Terry Kane and the very funny harper, Ellen Tepper) will be performing and offering workshops in sean nos singing and harp; singer Marian Makins (she of the unbelievably beautiful voice); uillean piper Dan McHugh; flute player Paddy O’Neill; and the irrepressible Gerry Timlin, musician, publican (he’s co-owner of The Shanachie Pub in Ambler, which serves as the occasional home office of irishphiladelphia.com) and comic.

The Ceili Group’s festival will be overlapping on Saturday, Septmber 11, with the Green Lane Scottish-Irish Festival. Music will be provided by the Martin Family Band, the Hooligans, Burning Bridget Cleary, Tree, and Norsewind. There will be pipers of every strip, Highland and Irish dancers, great food, kids activities, and, of course, the big sea monster in the middle of the Green Lane reservoir.

The Young Dubliners are also coming to town on Saturday, September 11, playing the Sellersville Theatre with The Barley Boys and later, on September 14, with the John Byrne Band at the World Café Live in Philadelphia (an Irish Network-Philadelphia get-together and the informal founding of Philadelphia’s new Dublin Society).

Speaking of the Jameson Sisters, they’ll be playing on Friday, September 10, at the Meet The Artists night at Villanova University, where the works of a group of Irish artists in London, “The Quiet Men,” are on exhibit through October. The London Irish co-curator and painter Thomas Whelan will be speaking on the topic, “Who are the Quiet Men?” — referring to the artists who, like many Irish-Americans, have Irish roots but grew up or live in England.

On Saturday, September 11, The Gloucester County AOH will conduct a wreath-laying and short ceremony honoring Commodore John Barry, father of the U.S. Navy and Wexford-born American Revolutionary War patriot, at the monument at the Commodore Barry Bridge. A mass will follow at the AOH hall, with a free luncheon afterwards and music by The Broken Shillelaghs.

There’s more heading our way, so stay tuned!