How to Be Irish in Philly

Enjoy Christmas all over again at the Irish Center lunch on Monday.

Wear your green along with your red and white to the Temple-UCF game on Sunday at the Liacouras Center for the Owl’s first annual Irish Heritage Day. There are discounted tickets for Irish groups, so check our calendar for a contact and spend Sunday courtside. Go Owls!

On Monday, celebrate Little Christmas at the Irish Center at the Immigration Center/Irish Center senior lunch. It’s always a festive occasion, with great food and live music (dancing is encouraged).

While there aren’t lots of special events this week, one look at our calendar will tell you that there are still plenty of ways to be Irish, with sessions almost every night somewhere, Irish dance lessons at the Irish Center and at the New Castle County (Delaware) Irish Society hall in Wilmington, a mom and babies play group at the Immigration Center in Upper Darby on Thursday, and the Vince Gallagher and Marianne MacDonald radio shows on Sundays from 11 to 1 PM on WTMR 800 AM, which you can stream on the web rom anywhere, even Ireland. Make one of your New Year’s resolutions to get more Irish this year. It’s not just for St. Patrick’s Day.
And let us help!

We’ll be adding January events to our calendar this week so if you haven’t posted yours already, send it to us via the “contact us” button and we’ll take care of it. You’re also welcome to post your events on our Facebook page. We’re getting closer to 5,000 members on that page where there’s now a lively discussion going on about a proposed situation comedy on the Irish “famine” for Britain’s Channel 4. That discussion has spawned a change.org petition asking Channel 4 to reconsider making light of an event that killed more than 1 million people and forced another million to leave Ireland (some of whom may be responsible for us being here). Go where it’s all happening!

And do us a favor: When you’re stocking up on your St. Patrick’s Day gear or are looking for a nice Irish gift for someone, click on our ads for Celtic Clothing. Chadds Ford’s Charlie Lord, who owns the company, is giving us a 15% commission for everything sold through our site. We don’t make much money from ad sales–barely enough to cover our expenses–so we need a bit extra to add more bells and whistles to the site and to occasionally pay our fabulous freelance photographers to go to events that we can’t cover. You’ll be helping two local businesses and some deserving photographers! Thanks!

New Year’s Eve at the Irish Center.

We hope your Christmas was merry indeed. This week, we’re looking at New Year’s Jigging Eve. There’s the annual New Year’s Eve party at the Irish Center, with the Vince Gallagher Band—if you know them, you know that means dancing!

There’s also a New Year’s Eve party at Marty Magee’s Pub in Prospect Park .

But you can get your Irish on before that at Paddy Whacks Pub on Welsh Road where the Shantys are playing on Saturday, with special guest, Bob Hurst from the Bogside Rogues.

“Outside Mullingar,” the play by Pultizer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley, continues at the Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia, to rave reviews.

Next weekend, (Sunday, January 4) the Irish Heritage Day phenomenon—all the sports teams seem to be having them—takes over the Temple-UCF basketball game at the Liacouras Center in the city. There will be Irish food and drink and special discounts for Irish groups (who can also get an on-court experience). Check our calendar for more details, including who to call.

And on January 5, celebrate “Little Christmas” at the Irish Center with the Irish Immigration Center—lunch, music, camaraderie.

And it’s how many days till St. Patrick’s Day 2015?

Last year’s winning wren hat.

Christmas is on Thursday and we hope that all of you will be spending the day with loved ones or, if you can’t, at least doing something you love. Before then, many of you (and many of us) will be finishing up the shopping you foolishly put off for months. Take a few seconds in those harried hours to do something nice for somebody, including yourself. Someone did that for me this week, and I can tell you that it’s a gift without equal. And you don’t have to wrap it. (Now, where IS that tape?)

If you have the time, go see “Outside Mullingar,” the play by John Patrick Shanley at the Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia that’s getting stellar reviews.

Tyrone-born singer Raymond Coleman is returning to Philly on Saturday night to launch his new CD, Trouble with a T, at the Plough and the Stars, where he spent many hours (singing!) when he lived in our city. We miss him and love it when he pays us a visit.

This weekend, Paddy’s Well is having a reunion show on Sunday starting at 3:30 PM at Brittingham’s in Lafayette Hill, their old first Friday haunt which has gotten a spectacular reno by the new owners. Also on Sunday, the Broken Shillelaghs will be headlining the holiday party at Marty Magee’s in Prospect Park starting at 7 PM. They’ll also be doing a Christmas show on December 23 at Westbrook Lanes in Woodlawn, NJ.

Also on Sunday, several Celtic artists will be performing both chamber and contemporary Celtic music at Sellersville Theatre, including award-winning guitarist Phil Keaggy, Jeff Johnson, flutist Brian Dunning, and violinist Wendy Goodwin.

The day after Christmas (Friday, Dec 26) Comhaltas is holding it’s annual Wren Party at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Glenside. It’s a really traditional Irish event celebrating the feast of St. Stephen who, legend has it, became a martyr because he was betrayed by a wren. There will be lots of topnotch music from many performers and we hear that the fabulous accordionist John Whelan will be making an appearance. He’s coming down from his Connectcut home just to have fun, but he’ll also likely be coaxed into play a tune or two, possibly with his young sometime duet partner fiddler Haley Richardson. That’s just what we hear. There will also be a wren hat contest and if you look at the photo with this article, you’ll see what I’m talking about. As they say on ‘Portlandia,” “put a bird on it.” I was a judge last year – I may enter this year!

Speaking for myself, Jeff Meade, and Lori Lander Murphy (without their permission, of course), we wish you a very happy Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Cahal Dunne, who returns to the Irish Center with his Christmas Show this Sunday.

This Sunday, head over to the Irish Center for a dose of Christmas cheer, as the very funny and talented Cahal Dunne brings his cabaret act to Philly again. You can park yourself at your table if you like, but if you’re a dancer, there will be room for kicking up your heels.

Also on Sunday, Joannie Madden and Cherish the Ladies will present their Christmas show at Tellus 360 in Lancaster, the closest this popular group will get to us this season.

This week, the John Patrick Shanley play, “Outside Mullingar,” continues at the Suzanne Roberts Theater on Broad Street in Philadelphia.

On Saturday night, the Broken Shillelaghs are performing at Tavern on the Edge in the great Irish town of Gloucester City, NJ, just over the bridge from Philadelphia.

Irish Network Philly and the Brehon Law Society are joining forces this year to celebrate Christmas and raise some money for “Friends of Kevin Neary,” to help out Neary, a Penn student who was paralyzed when he was shot in a robbery attempt in 2012. The event takes place at “The Philo,” at Stotesbury Mansion just off Rittenhouse Square on Tuesday. The John Byrne Band will perform.

On Thursday, the Irish Immigration Center at 7 S. Cedar Road in Upper Darby is holding its annual Christmas party, with festivities starting at 7 PM.

Don’t forget – McKenna’s Irish Shop in Havertown is having a major going-out-of-business sale, with huge discounts on many Irish products. McKenna’s has been one of our faithful advertisers, but besides that we love Nancy and Pat Durnin so let’s give them a big sendoff with our warmest wishes for big success on their next venture (and there will be one!). McKenna’s is at 1901 Darby Road in Havertown.

If you’d like to shop local and help irishphiladelphia.com at the same time, click on our Celtic Clothing ad and use the word “PHILLY” to get a discount. Charlie Lord, a Belfast-born Chester resident, is giving our readers a break–and giving us a percentage of the sales so we can keep the electricity on. Read about Charlie and his company here. 

And if you’re looking for a calendar to take you through the year, think about buying one from the Irish Immigration Center. This year the Center’s seniors recreated scenes from famous Irish movies from “The Quiet Man” to “Darby O’Gill and the Little People” to produce the calendar, proceeds from which benefit programs for seniors. Order yours here. And check out a video of some of the behind the scenes shenanigans that went into the making of the calendar. Irishphiladelphia.com was proud to partner with the Immigration Center to help produce it.

Check out our calendar for more details on these events and others that get added during the week.

Dancers like these are competing in Philly this weekend.

It being Thanksgiving weekend, downtown Philadelphia is alive with the sound of Irish music. The Mid-Atlantic Oireachtas (o-rock-tas), the regional Irish dance championships, draws dancers from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware to Philly each year for three days of hard-fought competition. It’s fun to watch even if you don’t have a dancer competing. Actually, I think it’s more fun if you don’t–it must be tense for the moms and dads.

Next weekend, American Celtic Christmas comes for the third time to Bensalem High School. Featuring Jamison, John Byrne, Raymond Coleman, Bob Hurst of the Bogside Rogues, singer Kim Killen, and more than 100 dancers and other performers.

The John Patrick Shanley play, “Outside Mullingar,” is continuing its run at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on South Broad Street in Philadelphia.

Also continuing: the going-out-of-business sale at McKenna’s Irish Shop in Havertown, where new discounts are in effect.

Barlyejuice is playing the World Café Live on Saturday night at 8 PM. Jamison is at Curran’s Tacony starting at 9:30 PM Saturday.

On Sunday, Gabriel Donohue, John Byrne and other musicians will be playing live in studio for the last pledge drive of the year for WTMR’s “Come West Along the Road” Irish Radio Hour, which starts at noon. The station is at 800 AM and is available online.

On Wednesday, Paul Byrom of Celtic Thunder will be on stage at the Sellersville Theatre where he’ll be performing tunes from his holiday album, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” to get you in the mood.

On Friday, Carbon Leaf, the Virginia-based indie band known for its folk- and Celtic-infused rock, will be at World Café Live.

Also on Friday, the City Theater Company is producing James Joyce’s “The Dead” at The Black Box at OperaDelaware Studios in Wilmington, DE.

Along with An American Celtic Christmas next weekend, keep three other events on your radar:

First-rate trad fiddler Kevin Burke will be performing solo at the Coatsville cultural Society in Coatesville on Saturday night.

The Philadelphia Rose Center’s Christmas Celebration on December 7 at The Saturday Club in Wayne, featuring arts and crafts, music by Karen Boyce McCollum and “The Lads” (Pat Close and Pat Kildea), and a special visit from Santa who is sure to be upstaged by International Rose of Tralee, Maria Walsh, because, well, she’s charming and she can do that.

The Divine Providence Village Rainbow Irish Step Dancers, a group of developmentally disabled women who live at the Catholic institution in Elverson, will hold their Christmas recital at the Masonic Lodge in Prospect Park on Sunday, Dec. 7, from 2:30 to 5 PM. Doors open at 1:30 for a baked goods sale and Santa will be available to hear your wish list from 1:30 to 2:15, when he’s expected elsewhere.

Catch John Byrne and his band this weekend in Lancaster.

A new festival—new to us, anyway–joins the Celtic scene. The Rose and Shamrock Celtic Festival is this weekend in Lancaster (at Tellus360 and The Ware Center) and features some Philly stars, including the John Byrne Band and the Birmingham Six, as well as Burning Bridget Cleary, Charlie Zahm, the Kilmaine Saints and more.

There will be workshops at The Ware Center , including how to play the bodhran and the tin whistle, as well as lectures on Duffy’s Cut and poetry readings. Of course, there are vendors (Christmas is coming!), food and drink.

Speaking of Christmas, McKenna’s Irish Shop in Havertown is closing and every week stock dwindles and prices go down. Make sure you stop in before it’s gone forever!

On Monday, join Maureen Faulkner, widow of slain Philly police officer Daniel Faulkner, at the Irish Pub in Philadelphia for a fundraiser for the Fraternal Order of Police Survivors Fund. Maureen will be one of the guest bartenders.

The night before Thanksgiving (Wednesday) I will be baking and cooking. Others will be performing, including the Shantys at Paddywhacks on Welsh Road in Philly; Slainte at Curran’s in Bensalem, and Enter the Haggis will be in concert at the Sellersville Theater.

On Friday, the play, “Outside Mullingar,” by John Patrick Shanley, opens on stage at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on South Broad Street in Philadelphia, a production of the Philadelphia Theatre Company. Use the code “irishphilly” to get a $10 discount on every full-priced ticket. It’s very likely you know John Patrick Shanley’s work: he wrote Doubt, which was a movie starring Meryl Streep, and Moonstruck, the Cher-Nicholas Cage classic. Check our calendar for dates and times.

On Saturday November 29, the Donegal Ball and the Mary from Dungloe selection takes place at The Irish Center. (I’m a Mary judge this year, so I hope to see some of you there!) Also on Saturday: Barleyjuice is at World Café Live, the Broken Shillelaghs are at McMichael’s Pub in Gloucester City; and Jamison is at Curran’s in Tacony.

And when we at irishphiladelphia.com give our thanks for our many blessings on Thursday, we’ll be including you.

These two remarkable musicians will be joined by All-Ireland fiddler Dylan Foley in concert on Saturday.

After a jam-packed week last week, this one is relatively tame, but still filled with some wonderful ways to be Irish.

All-Ireland fiddle champ Dylan Foley of The Yanks will be performing at a Philadelphia Ceili Group house concert on Saturday night with two topnotch trad musicians, Rose Conway Flanagan from Cherish the Ladies, and flute player Laura Byrne.

On Sunday night, they’ll be dancing the night away to the Theresa Flanagan Band at McGillcuddy’s in Upper Darby. Unless they’re in Wilmington, in which case they’ll be dancing the night away at the ceili at Wilmington’s Irish Center.

On Tuesday, join genealogist John McDevitt at the Irish Immigration Center in Upper Darby for more tips and tricks to finding your Irish ancestors, including the ones that don’t want to be found.

On Friday, St. Patrick’s Church in Norristown is holding an oldies night hosted by the AOH/LAOH Notre Dame Division 1. You don’t have to be an oldie to go—this term refers to the music. There will be food, beer, wine and setups, all for $25, most of which will go to local charities, because that’s what the AOH/LAOH does. We love them for it.

A heads up for next Monday, November 24: Maureen Faulkner, widow of the late Daniel Faulkner, who was killed in the line of duty, will be guest bartending at The Irish Pub on Walnut Street in Philadelphia to help raise money for the Fraternal Order of Police Survivors Fund. Great place, great cause.

Check our calendar for more details and for any late-breaking events. Or join our Facebook Irish Philadelphia group, where we post updates. We’re approaching 5,000 members. Shouldn’t you be one of them?