How to Be Irish in Philly

Irish Network Philadelphia and the German American Chamber of Commerce will be raising a pint—and a stein—to their common saint, Killian, the Irish missionary who became the apostle of Franconia, which is now the northern part of Bavaria in Germany this week. Appropriately, they will be meeting at Brauhaus Schmitz on South Street in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, where there will be a cash bar, complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a chance to network with our German cousins. (Did you know that in Pennsylvania, the most common ethnic mix is Irish-German?)

Also on Tuesday, you can sign up for clogging class (it’s an Appalachian Scots-Irish thing that will remind you of Irish dancing) that will run every Tuesday through August 12 at the Irish Center in Mt. Airy at a cost of $10 per class. You’ll need hard leather shoes. For info, call Beverly at 267-357-1722 or email brolfsmeyer@juno.com.

On Thursday, a real musical treat: The Coleman brothers (Mickey and Raymond) from County Tyrone (and New York and Philadelphia) will be performing at the Plough and the Stars in Philadelphia along with Plunkett McGartland, another Tyrone musician who has performed with Phil Coulter. And the Coleman brothers? Singly, they’re remarkable; together, they’re beyond fabulous.

Looking ahead, triple threat singer, storyteller, and bodhran player Mairtin de Cogain (he’s also a dancer, playwright and actor, making him a sextuple threat) will be performing on Friday, July 19, at The Irish Center, a Philadelphia Ceili Group production. It should be one entertaining night.

Imagine most of the great Celtic bands from the Philadelphia area all in one place. You don’t have to imagine—they’re going to be at the Philadelphia Fleadh, at the Ed Kelly Ampitheater in Pennypack Park in Northeast Philadelphia on Saturday. The Young Dubliners are headliners on the Celtic rock stage, with Blackthorn, Jamison, Bogside Rogues, Galway Guild, the John Byrne Band and many others playing on four stages throughout the day, which is supposed to be beautiful weather-wise.

Irish comic Dylan Moran brings his new show, “Yeah Yeah,” to the Trocadero on Saturday night. You may remember him from the Simon Pegg hit films, “Shaun of the Dead” and “Run Fatboy Run.”

On Thursday, The John Byrne Band does a concert in Pastorius Park in Chestnut Hill. Grab your blanket, grab your baby, grab your bucket of beer and head over there for a lovely evening of Irish, folk, and singer-songwriter fare. On Friday, the band will be bringing its Pogues show to Tir na Nog in Philadelphia too.

A belated happy birthday to William Butler Yeats. The Irish poet would have turned 148 this week. He captured the homesickness those far away feel about Ireland:

“I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.”

This is an unusually Irish week in the Philadelphia area. This Saturday is the Penn-Mar Irish Festival in Glen Rock, near York. Headlining on stage will be The Elders from Kansas City with the Screaming Orphans from dear old Donegal. There are vendors, activities for the kiddies (who get in free), Irish dancers and Irish food.

Blackthorn is playing at YachtStock Riverjam on Saturday night. It’s happening at the West End Boat Club in Essington.

You can catch the Shantys at Paddywacks in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon.

Black 47, the NY-based Celtic rock band fronted by Larry Kirwan, will be performing on Saturday night at Fran’s Pub in New Hope.

And Jamison will be at Curran’s in the Tacony section of Philadelphia on Satruday night as well.

Sunday is Bloomsday at the Rosenbach Museum on Delancy Place in Philadelphia. Starting at noon Joyce enthusiasts from all walks of life bring the novel, “Ulysses,” to life by reading sections aloud. Among the readers are BBC’s Frank Delaney, Bill McLaughlin (founder of the Irish American Business Chamber and Network) and his daughter, Morgan, and Fergus Carey of Fergie’s Pub and other popular drinking establishments.

Speaking of Fergie, his wife, Christine Chisolm, has a month-long show of her photographs at stadler-Kahn, the store at 17th and Sansom.

And speaking of Bill McLaughlin, the Irish American Business Chamber will be celebrating its 14th year on Thursday, June 20, at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Essington.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, there’s more this weekend. Celtic Women is at the Mann Center—beautiful women, beautiful voices, killer instrumentalists. Sounds like a perfect gift for Father’s Day.

Or maybe Dad would prefer Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller, two Scottish musicians, who will be performing with Aaron Jones, front man for The Old Blind Dogs, are performing on Sunday at the Blue Ball Barn in Alapocas Run State Park in Wilmington.

Kildare’s is calling Monday “St. Practice Day.” Along with your Irish nachos, you get free Irish dancers because it’s the 17th.

And speaking of practice, try out your dance steps—or learn a few—at a special sean nos Irish dancing workshop with noted sean nos (meaning old style) dancer Keiran Jordan, who grew up in the Philadelphia area but now makes her home in Boston. That’s happening at the Irish Center, thanks to the Philadelphia Ceili Group.

On Wednesday, there’s an important meeting at the Irish Center. Ciaran Staunton of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform will be explaining the immigration reform proposals now before Congress. Before you make up your mind to tell your legislator to vote yay or nay, listen to Staunton and get your questions answered. The program is free and starts at 8 PM.

Wednesday is also Irish Heritage Night at the Camden RiverSharks at Campbell Stadium. Check our calendar for promo codes to get $5 or $8 tickets.

Love to have tea with an Irish minister? That’s a government, not a church minister. Irish Minister of State at the Department of Health Alex White is paying a visit to the Irish Center on Friday morning for tea and conversation. You need to RSVP at 610-789-6355 by June 17.

Then, clear the decks for Saturday’s awesome first annual Philadelphia Fleadh, featuring four music stages (everyone from the Young Dubliners to Blackthorn, Jamison, and the Bogside Rogues, to the John Byrne Band and some fabulous local Irish session musicians, and even a passel of DJs) for an all-day Irish lovefest in Pennypack Park.

Check out our calendar for all the gory details.

Our good friends, RUNA, will be performing on Sunday with the Boys from County Bucks at the Newtown Theater in Newtown, one of our favorite little Bucks County towns. Lots of places to eat and shop in Newtown—make a day of it!

Our other good pals, the Notre Dames Ladies Gaelic Football Club (2012 national champs!), will be holding a fundraiser on Saturday in Philadelphia.

This week, check out the latest entry in Irish music sessions, at Billy Murphy’s Irish Saloon in East Falls. We’ve been hearing good things about it from local musicians and we checked out the menu—mmmmm, looks good. Not diet food, but they’ve gotten media kudos for their burgers and they’re very beer-centric. The session is every Thursday night.

Also, all this week: a special exhibition of contemporary art and literary manuscripts as part of the build-up to Bloomsday at the Rosenbach Museum on Delancey Place in Philadelphia. Bloomsday (June 16) celebrates the stroll around Dublin by Leopold Bloom chronicled in James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” The museum has an original hand-written copy of the manuscript on display.

Next weekend is the Penn-Mar Irish Festival, featuring the Elders, the Screaming Orphans (we love them!), Nua, and other bands, as well as Irish dancers, kids’ activities, and loads of vendors. The 13th annual event takes place in Glen Rock, PA.

And you can catch Blackthorn next weekend at YachtStock River Jam, a charity event at the West End Boat Club at Essington. You don’t need your own yacht to get in.

Festival fever this weekend!

The annual AOH Montgomery County Irish Festival runs all weekend at St. Michael’s Picnic Grove in Mont Clare, PA, featuring Jamison, the Bogside Rogues, Irish Thunder, the Celtic Flame Irish dancers, the McGillians and Tom McHugh, as well as vendors, food, and kids’ activities. It’s only $7-10 to get in (or $20 for the entire weekend).

On Sunday, the annual Irish Festival on Penn’s Landing kicks off at 1 after an outdoor Mass at the Irish Memorial. Blackthorn, the Hooligans, and Jamison will be performing.

Later in the afternoon, dancers from the region’s Irish dance schools will perform together as a tribute to 7-year-old Jane Richard, an Irish dancers from Massachusetts who lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombing. The schools and other Irish organizations have been raising money to send to the Richard Family Fund to help defray medical costs for the family. Jane’s 8-year-old brother was killed in the terrorist attack and her parents were both injured.

And it’s a festival of sorts—actually of language—at the Irish Center on Saturday. It’s the annual Satharn na nGael, a day of immersion in the Irish language. It’s the place to be if you want to learn the language of your forebears or just pick up a few more phrases other than “Erin go bragh” to mutter on St. Patrick’s Day and amaze all your friends. There will also be “craic.” You’ll have to go there to find out what that is, but trust us, you’ll like it.

Also on Saturday, you can enjoy an up-close-and-personal concert with Celtic Thunder’s Paul Byrom at Normandy Farm Hotel and Conference Center in Blue Bell. Very few tickets were available to start with—only 40—and they’re pricey. But if you’re a Byrom fan, it may be worth it.

And that’s not all: GaelFest, an all-star Irish festival featuring Joannie Madden of Cherish the Ladies and friends, is on at the Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, NJ. Some of our local GAA teams will be on hand to give demonstrations. And Enter the Haggis is on stage at the Sellersville Theatre on Saturday night.

The 40th Anniversary Show featuring Timlin & Kane in Bethlehem was cancelled and will be rescheduled later.

In the run up to Bloomsday (June 16), the annual celebration of Leopold Bloom’s famous walk around Dublin chronicled by James Joyce in “Ulysses,” the Rosenbach Museum and Library has launched a Bloomsday Exhibition of Contemporary Art and Literary Manuscripts. The Rosenbach owns a hand-written copy of “Ulysses” that you can get pretty close to. There’s also the entire text of a novel written out in 310 yellow rubber kitchen gloves. Don’t ask. Or, rather, ask—that’s what the Rosenbach is all about. It’s a magical little spot on Delancey Place in Philadelphia and worth the trip.

If you’re down in Holmes on Friday night, catch Jamison at RP Murphy’s.

If you’re closer to Philly on Friday night, come and celebrate with us. We’re having a party to honor the musicians who play on our own CD, Ceili Drive. The musicians get in free (let us know if you’re coming, guys and gals!), and there’s a $25 charge for everyone else which gets you hot and cold appetizers, wine, beer, and soft drinks, and, of course, music. It’s at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia, starting at 7:30 PM. All proceeds from anything we do go right back into the website, which Jeff Meade, Lori Lander Murphy, and I do in our spare time and on our own dime.

Here’s our dream: To be able to hire reporters to get to the events and write about (photograph and video) the terrific things we see in the Irish community that we don’t have time to do. We have started paying some of our formerly volunteer photographers (a pittance of course) and we’d like to have some extra cash to pass to writers. We don’t take any money ourselves. Our reward has been the wonderful people we’ve been blessed to meet while doing this for the past seven years—and the great craic we’ve enjoyed with them. But we all have spouses who think it would be nice to have a weekend where they’re not hearing yet another version of “The Fields of Athenry” (I never get tired of it) or baking in the broiling sun watching Gaelic football (I never get tired of it), so we can’t be everywhere and do everything (okay, that does make me tired).

Thanks for all the support you’ve given us in the past, especially those of you who helped us fund “Ceili Drive” in about 24 hours (we cried). Come out and let us thank you in person. (Oh, and we all have birthdays within weeks of one another, so you can help us celebrate that too.) Hope to see you there!

Click below to hear Blackthorn’s John and Michael Boyce, with their sister, Karen Boyce McCollum, sing “Peggy Gordon,” a track from “Ceili Drive.”

Happy Memorial Day!

Since it’s the time of the year when we remember those who fought for our freedom, the Commodore John Barry Societies of Philadelphia and New York will be gathering to honor Barry, a Revolutionary war hero and father of the American Navy, on Sunday, May 26. The day starts with a Mass, celebrated by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, at Old St. Mary Church on Fourth Street in Philadelphia, where Barry is buried. The day ends with dinner at the Commodore Barry Club (The Irish Center) on Emlen Street in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia.

On Saturday, Slainte will be performing at Keenan’s in North Wildwood, then later that night they’ll join the rest of the gang, known as Jamison, at Casey’s in North Wildwood. It’s the weekend to open up the house, so take a break and catch these great Irish musicians after you’ve cleared out the cobwebs. You can catch Jamison at Keenan’s on Sunday night at 5 PM.

On Thursday, May 30, the Young Irelands GFC squares off against the St. Patricks GFC at Cardinal Dougherty High School field in the Olney section of Philadelphia. It’s pre-season for the Philadelphia GAA. Irish players are on their way and then it’s every Sunday. It’s great sport and great entertainment. Many families come (with umbrellas and liter containers of sunscreen) and enjoy a picnic while watching the action. The small admission price ($5) helps support the GAA which is in the process of building a complex in Limerick.

Then get ready for a fun weekend: The annual AOH Montgomery County Irish Festival starts on Friday night and runs through Sunday. Have dinner at the festival on Friday night (gates open at 6 PM), and enjoy the music (Tom McHugh, Jamison, the Bogside Rogues, Irish Thunder Pipes and Drums, and the Celtic Flame dancers) all weekend. Proceeds from the event go to AOH charities.

Also next weekend, the annual Irish Festival on Penn’s Landing is on Sunday, June 2, featuring Blackthorn, the Hooligans, and Jamison, as well as dancers from all of the region’s Irish dance schools to pay tribute to Jane Richard, the 7-year-old Irish dancer who lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombing. The event is free.

Check our calendar for details on these events and more. And if you have an Irish event, you can post it to our calendar and get a mention in How to Be Irish, our most read feature, and promoted in Mick Mail, our e-newsletter. Just go to the orange bar at the top of the page and click on “Irish Events Listing” and do everything the nice directions tell you to do. We try to post events when we learn of them, but we haven’t gotten that mind-reading thing down pat yet.

Hope you’re feeling like a festival, because there are plenty of them coming up. Just this weekend you can hear a couple of local Irish bands (Celtic Spirit and Clancy’s Pistol) at the annual Molly Maguire’s Irish Festival in Lansdale (on Saturday); catch Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones headlining the Scranton Celtic Festival (also on Saturday) or hear our own Seamus Kelleher at the Irish Festival at Spring Lake, NJ (Saturday too).

Coming up in the next couple of weeks: The annual 3-day festival (May 31, June 1-2) sponsored by AOH Notre Dame Div. 1 in Mont Clare, PA, and the Penn’s Landing Irish Festival on June 2 which will feature a special dance tribute to little Jane Richard, the Irish dancer who lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombing. There’s a Mass before the Penn’s Landing Festival at the Irish Memorial.

Also, on June 1, there’s GaelFest, which features Joanie Madden and her All-Star Band (when she says “star” she means some of the best Irish musicians around), Mickey Coleman, Girsa, The Pride of Moyvane Ceili Band, and Blackwater. The Allentown Hibernians and the Na Toraidhe Hurling Club in Philadelphia will be presenting a hurling exhibition, along with the Long Island Gaels and Hoboken Guards. There will also be a Gaelic football exhibition by the New York Police Department Gaelic Football Club and the St. Barnabas GFC. As you can probably guess from the lineup, it’s a drive up the New Jersey turnpike—the event takes place at the Christian Brothers Academy, 850 Newman Springs Road, Lincroft, NJ. It runs from 10 AM to 10 PM and is sponsored by the Claddagh na nGael division of Comhaltas in New York.

Speaking of Gaelic football, this Sunday’s game at the Cardinal Dougherty fields is postponed, but you can catch some action on Thursday at 6:30 between the Kevin Barrys and the newly resurrected Tyrone GFC. With Gaelic teams disappearing over the last few years, it’s heartening to see one returning.

Before we leave the weekend, two more events: the Shanty’s at the Red Rooster Inn on Saturday night and a Human Rights Benefit for Michael Campbell, a political prisoner being held in deplorable conditions in a Lithuanian prison. The Shantys and the Bogside Rogues will be performing at The Red Rooster Inn, 7960 Dungan Road in Philadelphia on Sunday. A local woman, Mary Larkin, is lobbying to have Campbell transferred to an Irish prison to serve out his sentence.

Also coming up: Would you like to learn to speak Irish? The Satharn na nGael, a day of immersion in the Irish language, is scheduled for Saturday, June 1, at the Irish Center. There are classes for beginners, intermediate and advanced Irish speakers, as well as “craic” in between. (First Irish lesson: Craic means fun.) For information, contact Marcella Reis at 610-352-5722.

And on May 26. Archbishop Chaput will say Mass at Old St. Mary’s Church in Philadelphia and preside over the memorial service for Commodore John Barry, father of the US Navy, who is buried in the historic church’s graveyard. This is an annual event also attended by the Commodore Barry Society of New York. A dinner follows at the Irish Center.

You can find more information on all of these events and more on our calendar, recently named one of People magazine’s sexiest calendars alive.