How to Be Irish in Philly

A very Happy Bird Day to you this week. On either side of Thanksgiving, there are plenty of ways to get your Irish on.

“Woman and Scarecrow,” Marina Carr’s play about life and death, finishes up its run this week at Villanova Theatre (November 20).

Recession or not, many local Irish bands are certainly getting work. You can hear Jamison at Curran’s in Northeast Philly which we hear (from one of the bartenders!) is a hopping spot all weekend. On Saturday night, with Jamison there, it will be a jigging spot.

The John Byrne Band will be doing an acoustic set at MilkBoy Coffee in Ardmore on Saturday night. It’s a great BYOB venue where you can actually hear the music you paid to hear, and not the loud conversations of the patrons which you didn’t pay to hear. (Yes, you’ll know us at the concerts—we’re the ones wearing the “Shut up and listen” buttons.)

The Broken Shillelaghs will be rocking Thanksgiving eve on Wednesday at McMichael’s Pub in Gloucester City, NJ. We’ve told you about Gloucester City before—just over the bridge, on the river, and Irish as all get-out.

On the same night, the Gloucester County AOH is hosting an open house at their place—Richard Rossiter Memorial Hall—in National Park, NJ. That’s really just over the bridge.

And since we’re coming up on Thanksgiving weekend, that means that the Oireachtas is in town! Pronounced or-ack-tus, it’s a major regional championship competition for Irish dancers big and small that’s held every year at the Downtown Marriott in Center City. It’s worth it to make a trip downtown to see the Christmas lights, have lunch, and watch some Irish dancing.

Also Thanksgiving weekend: The annual Donegal Ball and the Mary from Dungloe pageant. The reigning Mary, Stephanie Lennon, will give up her crown.

Check the calendar for any last-minute additions.

If you missed Mick Moloney’s concert at St. Malachy Church last week (make a vow now to never miss it again—it’s one of the best), you have a chance to hear him again on Saturday, November 12, at the Irish Center.

Moloney, with accordian player Billy McComiskey and violinist Athena Tergis, will be presenting a program that brings to life the various musical styles of western Ireland. It’s part of a series sponsored by the Philadelphia Ceili Group called “Irish Traditional Music: Influences from the West of Ireland” that will run through September 2012.

The concerts starts at 8, but Moloney, who has a PhD in folklore from Penn, will give a talk on the West of Ireland starting at 3 PM at the Irish Center. If your family came from Clare, Galway, Sligo, Mayo, Kerry, or anywhere along that stunning coastline, or if you just love music and history, you’ll want to hear this.

There’s a bucketload of other Celtic events happening this week. Let’s take them day by day, shall we?

Saturday

The Port Richmond AOH/LAOH Div. 87 has been holding an annual ball for as long—if not longer—than many of the county societies, and their 113th is on Saturday night at Romano Caterers in Philadelphia. That’s the night they honor their Hibernian man of the year (Pat Dever) and LAOH Woman of the Year (Debbie Scott). Also being feted: Patty Pat Kozlowski (Slainte Award), Steve Nolan (Putso Award), and Betty Sands (Granuaile Award).

Jamison Celtic Rock is Celtic rocking at Brittingham’s Irish Pub in Lafayette Hill; the John Byrne Band will be taking the stage at Sketch Club Players in Woodbury, NJ; and “Woman and Scarecrow,” the Marina Carr play, continues at Villanova University (through Nov. 20).

Sunday

Three stalwarts of the Irish community—Kathleen Murtagh, Tom Farrelly, and John Donovan—will be installed in the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame at a dinner at The Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia.

Paul Byrom, formerly of the supergroup Celtic Thunder, will be appearing at 8 PM at World Café Live in Philadelphia.

Villanova University is screening the Irish film, “Hunger,” the story of Bobby Sands who led a hunger strike at a Northern Irish prison in the 1980s.

Thursday

The Irish American Genealogical Society can help you track down your Irish ancestors, and they provide this help regularly at the Irish Immigration Center. A genealogist is on duty from 11 AM to 12:30 PM.

The Irish Anti-Defamation Federation holds its regular meeting at the Irish Center at 7:30 PM.

Coming soon: On Thanksgiving weekend: The Mid-Atlantic Oireachtas (Irish dance competition) at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriot and The Donegal Ball and the Mary from Dungloe Pageant.

Check out our calendar for other events, too. You know there’s an Irish music session every day or night in the Philadelphia area. You can hear some fine Irish music with no cover charge, though it’s likely the venue makes that up in the beer you’ll drink. It’s a lovely, relaxed time that will remind you of being in Ireland (and if you’ve never been to Ireland, this is what it’s like, minus the scenic vistas and sheep).

Pop some extra vitamins today. You’ll need them for this week which is jam-packed with Irish events, so many in fact that if you attended them all, you’d have to hit the kids’ college funds. And it’s going to be hard to choose wisely—they’re all good.

Friday:

You’ve got Enter the Haggis and Scythian at Union Transfer, Philly’s newest music venue. Last time there was that much energy in one building the atom was smashed.

Crossroads School of Irish Dance is holding its fundraiser at McFadden’s 3rd Street so they can afford to look great at the Mid-Atlantic Oireachtas, the annual Irish dance competition, that comes to Philadelphia on Thanksgiving weekend.

And in Trenton, trad performer Derm Farrell will be at Tir na Nog where you can listen to some fine music as well as hear Farrell’s stories about his grandfather, Richard McKilkenny, one of the famed Birmingham Six, men who were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for the alleged IRA bombing of a pub in Birmingham, England, in 1974. The men’s convictions were overturned in 1991.

Timlin and Kane – that’s Gerry and Tom—will be performing at St. James Gate Pub at the Sands Casino in Bethlehem.

Jamison Celtic Rock will be taking the stage at Brownies 23 East in Ardmore.

Saturday:

Tune in at 11 AM to WNJC 1360AM to hear the new installment of the Vince Gallagher Irish Hour. Vince also has a show on Sunday at 11. That’s two times the Irish music and twice the Vince.

Irish-American comedian Joe Conklin is headlining at the Sellersville Theatre, with two other jokesters, Pat Barker and Dennis Horan. (I’ve heard Dennis Horan perform and he’s a scream.)

Speaking of comedy, that’s what it’s all about at the Richard Rossiter AOH Hall in National Park, NJ. This night of comedy is a fundraiser for AOH charities in Gloucester County.

The 106th Mayo Ball and the crowning of Miss Mayo is Saturday night at The Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, in Philadelphia. The county balls are an Irish tradition with staying power. Mayo is one of the oldest.

The Church of the Holy Family in Sewell, NJ, is holding an Irish-themed indoor festival for the Feast of All Saints with entertainment by Celtic Cross.

Head over to Paddy Whacks Irish Sports Pub on Comly Road in Philadelphia for the annual beef-and-beer benefit for the Sgt. Patrick McDonald Scholarship. Jamison and Mike LeCompt are providing the music, and there are raffles, silent auctions, and discounted beers. Sgt. McDonald of the Philadelphia Police Department was shot and killed in the line of duty on September 23, 2008.

Bob McQullien and Old New England—purveyors of New England dance music that has its roots in the UK, France and beyond—will give a house concert in Lansdale. By their nature, house concerts have limited seating, so go to our calendar and email the host to see if there’s still room.

Sunday:

The secret word for Sunday is “holy moly.” That’s because there’s just so much going on.

Mick Moloney and Friends are set to do their 23rd annual Concert for St. Malachy’s at St. Malachy’s Church in North Philadelphia. Always topnotch entertainment, this concert raises money for St. Malachy’s School, which is not financially supported by the Archdiocese. It’s usually a standing room only event. Moloney is the founder of Cherish the Ladies and several other powerhouse musical groups, a folklorist, musician, radio and TV personality, and advisor to dozens of Celtic music festivals and concerts internationally.

The Irish Immigration Center is celebrating winter (it dropped in last week, remember?) with the Bogside Rogues at Finnigan’s Wake in Philadelphia. The $40 event, which features open bar and buffet, will raise money to pay for a social worker to provide outreach to the region’s elderly Irish.

And at Molly Maguire’s Pub in Phoenixville, a host of performers will help raise money for the “Come West Along the Road” radio show, which airs on Sundays at noon on WTMR 800AM. Host Marianne MacDonald has assembled much of the local talent–The Jameson Sisters, Paraic Keane (fiddle), Fintan Malone & Co., The King Brothers, Kane & Beatty, Matt Ward, Mary Malone & Den Vykopal (fiddle & pipes), and Galway Guild, among others—and some fabulous raffle prizes, including hand knit Irish sweaters and concert tickets. This is always a good time.

Blackthorn’s former guitarist Seamus Kelleher is releasing his second album and he’s throwing a part at Puck in Doylestown. He’ll be pouring Irish coffees for the first 50 fans and there’s a CD signing at 6 PM.

Monday:

Poet Peter Fallon, winner of the O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award from the Irish American Cultural Institute and the inaugural Heimbold Professor if Irish Studies at Villanova, will be reading from his work at Immaculata University, starting at 7:30 PM.

Tuesday:

Irish playwright Marina Carr’s “Woman and Scarecrow,” a mesmerizing play about a feisty woman who intends to die as she lived, debuts at Villanova University. It runs through November 20.

“Endgame,” by Samuel Beckett, tells the story of an aged and blind man and his servant who live with the elderly man’s legless parents. This “Theater of the Absurd” work as interpreted by Dublin’s Gate Theatre comes to the Harold Prince Theater of the Annenberg Center for the Performing arts for four performances, ending November 13.

Thursday:

Enjoy Frankie Gavin and De Dannan at the Sellersville Theatre. In its various permutations, De Dannan has included such singing greats as Mary Black, Dolores Keane and Maura O’Connell. Gavin, who founded the group 40 years ago, is a Guinness World Record holder—“fastest fiddle player in the world.”

Friday:

This is the famous 11-11-11 day. Magical things are sure to happen.

You can catch Blackthorn at the Media Theatre in Media, starting at 7:30.

You can also catch—for free—a performance of “Hunger,” a play by Eamon Grennan, poet and former Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova, at the Vasey Theater at Villanova at 4 PM.

“Watt,” another Gate Theatre of Dublin production of a Samuel Beckett play, starts a three-performance run at the Harold Prince Theater at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. It stars Barry McGovern as Watt, an itinerant worker who finds employment at the remote country home of one Mr. Knott. If you know Beckett, absurdity ensues, along with much laughter.

Celtic Thunder’s Paul Byrom is making a stop in Philadelphia at the World Café Live with his “This is the Moment” tour.

The John Byrne Band is all set to play at The Shanachie in Ambler, starting at 9 PM.

Some week, eh? We’re kind of inclined to offer a special prize to the person who went to the most Irish events this week. Now, you’ll have to prove it. We’re not going to take your word for it. We want to see ticket stubs and receipts. But if you really knocked yourself out, I bet we have tickets to another event we can offer for the most over-achieving Irish person in the Philadelphia area. Email me at denise.foley@comcast.net and I’ll tell you where to send them.

It’s getting closer, that day when ghouls and zombies scare the living daylights out of us—before they take our stuff.

No, I’m not talking about election day. It’s Halloween, silly! What were you thinking?

In Ireland, the holiday is known as samhain (pronounce sow-in). In Ireland, it was always a harvest festival, the end of the “lighter” half of the year and the beginning of the darker half. It used to involve bonfires (perhaps where our lighted Jack O’Lanterns got their start) and gatherings were stories were told.

That said, there’s not a lot of Halloween-themed frivolity going on, except for the Bogside Rogues Halloween Party on Friday, October 28, at Con Murphy’s Pub in Center City and a Ghost Tea and Haunted Tour of Bethlehem sponsored by McCarthy’s Tea Room and the Moravian Book Shop in Bethlehem on Saturday, October 29. Of course, there’s the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire in Manheim where they dress in costume all the time.

But there is a lot going on in Irish Philadelphia so here we go:

Also on Friday night, Scottish singer Julie Fowlis is performing at Bryn Mawr College.

On Saturday night, Sligo-style fiddler Kevin Burke and his frequent co-conspirator, multi-instrumentalist Cal Scott, will be performing at the Irish Center at 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia. The concert and workshops (learn from the best) are sponsored by The Philadelphia Ceili Group.

On Sunday, join the Donegal Association at its annual mass at the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal in Germantown. A meal follows at the Irish Center.

On Tuesday, Booker-nominated novelist Patrick McGuinness will be giving a reading at Villanova University. McGuinness is a fellow at St. Anne’s College in Oxford, a poet (“The Canals of Mars” is his latest book of poetry) and novelist (“The Last Hundred Days,” about the last months of the Ceausescu regime in Romania).

On Thursday, BUA, a traditional band—and a boy band—from Chicago will be at the Irish Center. Their lead singer, Brian O hAirt, is the youngest and first-ever American to win the top award for singers at the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Listowel, County Kerry, in 2002. That’s the equivalent of getting an Olympic gold medal in Irish music.

On Friday, Dr. Sean Kay, a professor of politics and government at Ohio Wesleyan University, will be speaking about the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger—Ireland’s first economic boom that went bust—at Temple University. Dr. Kay’s appearance is sponsored by Irish Network-Philadelphia, a networking organization for people of Irish descent. See our interview with Dr. Kay. 

Support the Crossroads Dancers on Friday night at McFaddens on 3rd Street in Philadelphia. The group made up of adult dancers, regular winners in the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day parade, is raising money for costumes, competitions and more. They’ll be competing on Thanksgiving weekend at the Mid-Atlantic Oireachtas, the regional dance competition that draws hundreds of Irish dancers to Philadelphia.

Even more to do on Friday night: You can see what happens when you mix one popular Celtic group with another. Enter the Haggis and Scythian will be appearing at Union Transfer, the newest Philly music venue, located on Spring Garden Street. Or you could go to Brownies 23 East in Ardmore to hear local Celtic rockers Jamison.

Coming up: The Mayo Ball is on November 5, as is the comedy show featuring Joe Conklin at Sellersville Theatre, AOH Comedy Night At Richard Rossiter Memorial Hall (home of the Gloucester County, NJ, AOH division), the Feast of All Irish Saints at the Church of the Holy Family in Sewell, NJ, and a house concert in Lansdale featuring Bob McQuillien and Old New England.

Don’t forget – Mick Moloney and Friends will be here on November 6 for the annual Concert for St. Malachy’s in North Philadelphia (which is usually SRO so get there early and grab a pew), the Irish Immigration Center’s Winter Celebration fundraiser with the Bogside Rogues (who always put the fun in fundraiser, also November 6), and the fundraiser for WTMR-800AM Irish radio show, “Come West Along the Road,” (again, on November 6) at Molly Maguire’s Pub in Phoenixville, featuring The Jameson Sisters, Paraic Keane, Fintan Malone & Company, the King Brothers, Kane and Beatty, Matt Ward, Mary Malone and Den Vykopal and dancers.

Don’t say no one gave you a heads up. Check our calendar for all the details.

The annual Molly Maguires’ street fair in Lansdale—known as Molly O’Ween– s on Saturday and the music will be wild, to say the least. You can hear the heart-throbbing percussion stylings of Albannach, those kilted purveyors of barbarian rock from Scotland. And the only thing that might be wilder than that is Luke Jardel who is bringing his Hooligans to the party. All fabulous musicians. It’s free, there’s a costume contest with prizes, and loads of activities for the kids. You can’t go wrong.

Blackthorn also has two gigs this week—on Friday night, October 21, at the Blarney Stone in West Chester and on Saturday, at JD McGillicudy’s newest spot in Roxborough. Get there early—there’s always a crowd. These guys can fill a room and then some.

AOH Div. 61 is having it’s Crab Night and Derby at St. Dominic’s Hall in Frankford. For $30 you get all the crabs you can eat plus hot roast beef, wine, and beer. Wish they’d let us know what the Derby part of the event is. We have images of crab races, but that’s probably not right. Go and find out and report back to us.

The John Byrne Band will be rocking Cherubini Yachts in Delran on Saturday night too, part of the Circle of Friends house concert series. Go, listen, pick out a boat.

Feeling goodly? The Irish Memorial Garden at Front and Chestnut needs some work and you can help. They’re looking for volunteers for clean-up, planting, mulching, and getting the garden ready for winter. Pauline Hurley-Kurtz, an landscape architect from Temple, will be giving and overview of the garden and its plants at 11 AM. And you don’t need to bring tools or snacks—they’ll be provided by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Work details start at 9 AM.

Next Friday, October 28, Julie Fowlis—Gaelic singer of the year in 2007 and 2008—will be at Bryn Mawr College. This talent from Scotland has performed with a wide variety of musicians including James Taylor, Martha Wainwright, Ronan Browne, Liam O’Maonlai of the Hothouse Flowers, Mariead Ni Mhaonaigh of Altan, and Karen Matheson of Capercaille.

And on Saturday, another treat—Kevin Burke and Cal Scott in concert, a Philadelphia Ceili Group production at the Irish Center in Philadelphia. Burke is a master of Sligo style fiddling (just try to keep your feet from tapping—not possible). He’s often teamed with Scott who pretty much plays everything—and does it all well.

Coming up: Mick Moloney’s annual concert at St. Malachy’s Church in Philadelphia is on tap for November 6. Moloney will be back in Philadelphia on November 12, along with New York’s Billy McComiskey, master of the East Galway accordian style, and violin virtuoso, Athena Tergis. Billy and Athena will also be giving workshops and Moloney, a folklorist, will provide an illustrated talk on “Into the West.” This is part of the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s year long series, “Irish Traditional Music: Influences from the West of Ireland.”

Also on November 6: The Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia will be holding a fundraiser at Finnigan’s Wake in Philadelphia and there’s also a fundraiser the same day for the “Come West Along the Road” radio show with Marianne MacDonald at Molly Maguire’s in Lansdale.

Some great theater happening in November too—but more about that later (unless you want to sneak a peek at the calendar now, always a good thing).

Father Sean McManus will be reading from his new autobiography, “My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland” and signing books on Saturday, October 15, at 2 PM at the AOH Div. 87 Hall, 2171 Wakeling Street, in Philadelphia.

Father McManus is president of the Irish National Caucus, a Capitol Hill-based organization which in 1984 initiated and launched the MacBride Principles – a code of conduct for companies doing business in Northern Ireland and. Those principles, which, among other things, call for fair employment practices, have also been passed into law by the US Congress as the standard for economic aid and investment. All recipients of the International Fund for Ireland—to which the US contributes almost $20 million a year—must be in compliance with the principles.

Father McManus was born in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, in a parish that was divided by the North-South border (part is in County Cavan). “England not only divided my country, but my parish as well, for Heaven’s sake, you don’t have to be a political genius to figure out why I have such an abhorrence for the injustice and absurdity of partition,” he told the Irish Echo in 2009.

He lost his brother, Patrick, in 1958 when the IRA bomb he was transporting exploded. Father McManus was arrested during an anti-internment demonstration in 1971. A Redemptorist, he served a parish in Boston before moving to Washington, DC. He started the Irish National Caucus in 1974 to lobby for peace and justice in Northern Ireland.

Admission to the book signing is free and copies will be on sale.

Also on Saturday, enjoy an evening of Irish music and dance at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, featuring the Martin Family Band.

On Sunday, the inimitable Timlin and Kane will be appearing at The Shanachie, Timlin’s pub in Ambler.

And in Coatesville, the equally inimitable Oisin MacDiarmada will be flying solo with his fiddle—he’s usually part of the remarkable group, Teada, which has appeared many times in the Philadelphia area, always to large crowds.

Monday is theater night. At Villanova, one of Ireland’s leading theatre directors, Patrick Mason, will talk about new Irish theater. And Philly’s own Inis Nua Theatre Company—which brings that new Irish (and UK) theater to the US—is staging a reading from British playwright Joe Penhall’s play, “Landscape with Weapon,” at Inis Nua’s new digs at the First Baptist Church at 17th and Sansom Streets in Philadelphia.

There are also two house concerts this week of note: On Tuesday night, Winnie Horan and Mick McAuley—two-fifths of the super group, Solas—will be in Ambler and Andy Irvine will be in Philly. It looks like both are sold out, but Irish Philadelphia will be there so we’ll share some pix and maybe even a video with you next week.

House concerts are a great way to hear a performer. So are concerts in businesses, a new thing to us. Next one up is the John Byrne Band at Cherubini Yachts in Delran, NJ on October 22. It’s part of the ongoing Circle of Friends concert series. Tickets are $15, BYOB.

What happens when one of the best Celtic music harpers in the world meets up with one of the best Celtic music harpers in the world? You can find out on Saturday night when Grainne Hambly and William Jackson perform at the Gates Family Recital Hall at West Chester University.

They don’t just bring harp to their performances either. You can hear these two musical masters play a variety of instruments, including the exotic bouzouki, the concertina and tin whistle.

Jackson is from Glasgow, a composer and a founding member of Ossian, one of Scotland’s best-loved traditional bands. (If you’re a History Channel aficianado, you may have heard his work on “The Battle of the Clans,” or on the soundtrack of the movie, “A Shot at Glory, starring Robert Duval and Michael Keaton.)

Hambly, of Mayo, is a senior All-Ireland winner for harp and concertina, and garnered many other awards for her playing. She tours most of the year, bringing her “danceable” harp playing to all the major Celtic music and harp festivals in the US and Europe.

The two are also holding workshops on Sunday at the Swope Music Building at the university in West Chester.

Looking for a respite from nonstop sports watching? Rosin up your bow (or what have you) and head over to the AOH Notre Dame Div. 1 hall in Swedesburg on Sunday at 4 PM for a session.

The Echoes of Erin 2011 North American tour stops in Middletown, NJ, at the Middletown Arts Center on Wednesday, October 12. Sponsored by the Comhaltas Coeltoiri Eireann (also known as Coal-tus), an international organization dedicated to the preservation of Irish music and dance, the show brings All-Ireland champions in singing, dancing, and playing from Ireland. This is the only show in the tri-state area this year.

On Thursday, let genealogy expert John McDevitt help you find your Irish roots at the Irish Immigration Center in Upper Darby. This week he’ll be talking about the Tithe Applotment Survey of the 1820s. Since it’s hard to find other Irish records going back that far, this should be enlightening.

Special heads up: Next Saturday, October 15, Father Sean McKay, founder of the Irish National Caucus, will be in Philadelphia at the AOH Div. 87 Hall to sign copies of his book, “My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland.”

As you probably know, all the details on these events are on our handy-dandy calendar. Check it out now. And we mean it.

In 1981, a small group of Irish prisoners in Long Kesh (Maze) Prison in Lisburn, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, began a hunger strike to press the British government to recognize them for what they considered themselves—political prisoners protesting a foreign occupier, not criminals. Most were members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

By the time the strike ended a few months later, 10 men were dead, including Bobby Sands, 27, who had been elected a member of parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone a month before his death by starvation.

There have already been marches and other 30th anniversary commemorations in Ireland, Northern Ireland, the US, and around the world. In Philadelphia on Sunday, the Irish community will gather for a special Mass at the Irish Memorial at Penns Landing. Breakfast will follow at The Plough and the Stars. Cost: $25.

Also on Sunday, St. Malachy Parish and School will be holding its Jubilee Mass and reception at the church in North Philadelphia that was founded in 1850 by Irish immigrants and the Sisters of Mercy, an Irish order.

This is also the weekend of Hungerstock, featuring rocker-writer Patty Smyth and our own John Byrne Band, all taking place in Camden. Proceeds go to local food banks.

On Sunday night, the Tartan Terrors will be at the Sellersville Theater for those who love their bagpipes and dancing and don’t mind that it’s Scottish.

Speaking of the broad definition of Celtic, on Tuesday, the Paul McKenna Band and the Celtic group, Comas, who mix Irish, Scottish, and Breton with a little Belgian thrown in there, will be performing at The Grand Opera House in Wilmington.

Speaking of John Byrne (we did, way up there), he’s launching a new Irish session at The Blind Pig in Northern Liberties on Tuesday night. Members of his band will be there to keep the tunes flowing at this great pub where John is a co-owner and bartender.

Speaking of The Blind Pig (gee, this is getting repetitive), Irish Network-Philadelphia is hold its latest networking happy hour there on Thursday evening. Food is yummy, so head on down to meet your peeps.

Thursday is a busy night. Orla Fallon, late of Celtic Women, is on stage at the Musikfest Café at ArtsQuest in Bethlehem. Tenor Ronan Tynan is performing at the Patriots Theater at the Trenton War Memorial in Trenton, NJ. And County Down singer-songwriter Fil Campbell is performing at The Shanachie Pub and Restaurant in Ambler.

A heads up for next weekend: the amazing Celtic harpers William Jackson and Grainne Hambly will be performing at West Chester University on Sunday night. There are also harp workshops in the afternoon, so throw your instrument in the back of the car (carefully) and head on down (register first!). There’s a session afterwards at Kildare’s, West Chester.

Galway Guild (they promise Irish rock and rebel songs) will be at Marty Magees in Glenolden.

And Saturday also marks the final Ancient Order of Hibernians National President’s dinner for Philadelphia’s Seamus Boyle, who has helmed this organization for the last few years. There’s a Mass at 4 PM and dinner at 7 at the Radisson Hotel in Trevose.