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How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Dubliner Bram Stoker on a Romanian stamp.

There is absolutely nothing Irish going on this week.

Wait for it.

April Fool!

Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s what’s really going on, starting this weekend.

Rose of Tralee! The 10th annual Philadelphia Rose of Tralee Selection night is Saturday, April 2, at the Springfield Country Club. A new Rose will be chosen and last year’s winner, Mairead Conley, will give up her crown. The chosen one will compete this August at the annual Rose of Tralee Festival in Tralee, County Kerry. This year’s Mary O’Connor Spirit Award, given by the Philadelphia Rose of Tralee Centre, will be shared by three local women, Pat Bonner, Frances Duffy, and Serena White.

Sebastian Barry’s play, “The Pride of Parnell Street,” continues at Act II Playhouse in Ambler.

Also on a run are the paintings of Irish artist T.C. Murphy at Colm Rowan Fine Art on South 10th Street in Philadelphia. This is Murphy’s second show in the US of his modern works that combine spirals, circles, pyramids, coils and waves on a palette of primary colors. The show starts on Sunday and runs through the end of April.

On Sunday, the Rosenbach Museum and Library has a special program called “James Joyce and Irish Authors” which will feature readings from Joyce’s “Ulysses” and Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” and other Irish writers. (You didn’t know Abraham “Bram” Stoker was Irish, did you? He was a Dubliner and his day job was acting as personal assistant to then famous actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London which Irving owned. Apparently, that wasn’t enough work for Stoker—he began writing short stories and novels of which “Dracula” is his most famous.  He was in essence the Stephen King of his day; most of his stories and novels fall into the horror genre. Stoker had a newspaper background. He was also a theater critic for the Dublin Evening Mail, which is how he met Irving who hired him away. Oddly enough, Stoker the Dubliner has a Pennsylvania connection—the original manuscript of Dracula, thought to be lost, was found in the early 1980s in a  barn in northwestern Pennsylvania.)

Bonus: The Rosenbach has an original manuscript of “Ulysses” written in Joyce’s hand and Bram Stoker’s notes and outlines for “Dracula” as well as other Irish manuscripts that will be available for viewing. It’s like being in the presence of greatness. Just don’t touch.

The Rosenbach is the center of all things Joyce in the Philadelphia area. Every year on June 16, the Rosenbach hosts a day-long Bloomsday celebration to commemorate the day Leopold Bloom, Joyce’s “Ulysses” protaganist, spent wandering the streets of Dublin. Local actors and politicians – pardon us if that sounds redundant—read passages from the book from morning till night.

If you’re at the Rosenbach, check out its latest Joyce exhibition—“Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Paris.” It’s a multi-media exhibition that includes pages from Joyce’s Ulysses, artist Man Ray’s portrait of Joyce, selection from fellow ex-pat and poet Ezra Pound’s “Island of Paris” report in “The Dial,” a literary magazine, and a first edition of “Ulysses” smuggled out of Paris into the US in 1922. (After it was serialized in the US magazine “The Little Review,” the book was banned in the US as obscene, hence the need to smuggle it in.)

On Tuesday, Celtic Woman’s Orla Fallon, now a solo act, will be appearing at the World Café Live on Tuesday night. A singer and harper from Knockananna, Ireland, she, like her Celtic Woman colleagues, is a major attraction on PBS.

We’re filling up the calendar for April and there’s some fun stuff on the way. Check it out.

April 1, 2011 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Matt Cranitch and Jacky Daly. Photo by Con Kelleher

We’re winding down St. Patrick’s Month—as it’s known in Philadelphia—but this is such an Irish region, there’s still plenty to do if you haven’t Irished yourself out.

This weekend, one of my favorite Celtic groups, RUNA, debuts its new CD, “Stretched in Your Grave” and its newest band member, Tomoko Omura, a native of Japan, a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, and a jazz violinist in New York. Omura a perfect addition to a band that is one of the more successful at creating a fusion of Irish trad and any other style their little hearts desire. The CD release party is Saturday at Philadelphia’s Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, in the Mt. Airy section of the city. The band recently won nine awards at the Montgomery-Bucks Music Awards. Members—Shannon Lambert-Ryan, Fionan de Barra, and Cheryl Prashker–have variously played with some of the best–Solas, Clannad, Moya Brennan, Eileen Ivers, and our own local Full Frontal Folk.

At ACT II Playhouse in Ambler, catch the The Pride of Parnall Street by Sebastian Barry, the latest entry in the Philadelphia Irish Theater Festival.

At St. Paul’s Church in Chestnut Hill, father and son musicians Mark and Tim Carroll will play Irish and Scots music in a benefit for peace activist Roy Bourgeois on Saturday night..

And a real treat—button accordian player Jackie Daly and fiddler Matt Cranitch will take you back to old Ireland at the Coatseville Cultural Society on Sunday night. Daly was born in the Sliabh Luachra region between Cork and Kerry. The area is known for its lively—some say wild—musical style filled with polkas and jigs that will wear your legs off. Expect some aching thighs after the concert. He’s joined by Cranitch, a multiple all-Ireland fiddler whose doctoral thesis at the University of Cork was about the Sliabh Luachra fiddle tradition.

Speaking of treats, one of Ireland’s other premier fiddlers, Kevin Burke, along with multi-instrumentalist Cal Scott, will be at West Chester University twice this week. On Wednesday, they’re conducting workshops as a lead-in to their Thursday concert at the Madeline Wing Adler Theatre on the West Chester campus.

If you’re a trad music fan, this is what is known as an embarrassment of riches.

We welcome April on Friday with singer-songwriter Seamus Kelleher (late of Blackthorn) at the School of Rock in Doylestown, part of its Guest Professor Program.

And next Saturday, head to the Springfield Country Club for the 10th annual Philadelphia Rose of Tralee Selection Night Gala where judges will pick the 2011 Philadelphia Rose. I was a judge last year and it’s always a lovely event.

As always, check the calendar for details on these events. And keep checking back. Procrastinators are always adding more.

 

 

 

March 25, 2011 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Dervish will be performing for The Little Sisters of the Poor.

Have you recovered from St. Patrick’s Day? Hope so, because there’s plenty going on this week and you need your strength.

Here’s how it goes:

Saturday

Michael Flatley’s “Lord of the Dance” is showing on movie screens in the area—in 3D! Watch out for those flying feet.

The 8th Annual Notre Dame Alumni 5K Race and Walk will explore Valley Green in Fairmount Park—the physically fit are doing it to benefit St. Malachy’s School.

You can pretend it’s still St. Patrick’s Day at Triumph Brewing in New Hope where the Bogside Rogues are playing.

A must-see! The Donnybrook Cup, which pits American rugby team the Tomahawks against the Irish Wolfhounds at Charles Martin Memorial Stadium on Cottman Avenue. Gates open at 2:30, kick-off and blood flow starts at 4 PM.

Irish tenor Anthony Kearns will be on stage at the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center.

Altan, one of Ireland’s top trad groups, is on stage at the Zellerbach Theatre in Philadelphia.

Fresh from their CD release party, Burning Bridget Cleary will be rocking it at The Farmhouse Tavern on Doylestown.

The Waterfront South Theatre in Camden is presenting the play, “Go Irish: The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller.”

Sunday

They’re taking it all off for kids with cancer: Collingswood, NJ, firefighters along with friends and family are shaving their heads at this annual St. Baldrick’s Day fundraiser at Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood. The Broken Shillelaghs are playing music to go bald by.

Rita O’Hare, Sinn Fein representative to the US, will be speaking on the role of Irish Americans in fulfilling one of the tenets of the Good Friday agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland—eventually, one Ireland.

If you live in Allentown, you have a parade marching by—the St. Patrick’s Day parade steps off 1:30 for our northern brethren.

The Irish band Dervish will be at Archbishop Prendergast High School in Drexel Hill for a benefit for The Little Sisters of the Poor.

This one’s a freebie: Dublin comes to Ambler, An evening of Irish music, poetry, food “and general mayhem.” We like the sound of that. And Barleyjuice will be there—we really like the sound of that. This is to lead up to Act II Playhouse’s production of Sebastian Barry’s “The Pride of Parnall Street.”

And DeDannen is going to be at the Sellersville Theatre!

Monday

Oisin MacDiarmada, fiddler and founder of the acclaimed group Teada, and Seamus Begley, quintessential Irish musician and story teller, will be peforming at the Spring Lake Public Library in Spring Lake, NJ. You can also catch them at a house concert in Voorhees on Tuesday. See our calendar for contact info for the house concert—it’s a real house and seating is limited.

The High Kings, a group in the tradition of the Clancy Brothers (in fact, one of them is a Clancy), will be at the World Café Live in Philadelphia.

Wednesday

“The Pride of Parnall Street” by Sebastian Barry opens at the Act II Playhouse in Ambler, part of the Philadelphia Irish Theater Festival.

Thursday

Gaelic Storm is on stage at The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville.

Friday

Put on your dancing shoes—there’s a St. Patrick’s Day Ceili Dance at the Irish Center in Philadelphia.

One teeny, weeny peek ahead: RUNA, a Philadelphia based Celtic group, will be releasing its new CD—and playing from it—at a party at the Irish Center on Saturday, March 26. Even our non-Irish friends love them.

March 18, 2011 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Wear the deely bobbers, but leave the umbrella at home this weekend.

There’s always a big build-up to the region’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities, and this is put up or shut up week. St. Paddy’s Day is next Thursday, March 17, and many of the big parades are this weekend, including Bucks County, Springfield (Delco), York, and Conshohocken this Saturday, and Philadelphia—the oldest and biggest—on Sunday.

Since there’s so much going on, here’s a blow-by-blow listing of what we know is going on this week. We’re updating the calendar DAILY, so check back frequently so you don’t miss a thing. Here’s what’s happening:

Saturday

Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic organization, will be holding a conference on “justice and renewal in the Church” at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, starting at 9:30 AM. Guest speaker will be Sister Maureen Turlish, a longtime sexual abuse survivor advocate.

The Bucks County St. Patrick’s Day Parade gets its start at 10:30 AM at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Fairless Hills. After party is at Fraternal Order of Eagles in Fairless Hills.

Looking for a pub crawl? You have many choices. The Running of the Micks starts at Finnegan’s Wake at Third and Spring Garden Streets in Philadelphia. The Erin Express, the oldest of the crawls, goes all over Center City starting at noon. And The St. Patrick’s Green Mile Pub Crawl which also covers Center City kicks off at noon. There are buses available at each bar, usually every 20 minutes, to make sure you don’t do something stupid, like drink and drive. When we could, we included the pub names and addresses in our calendar entries.

Springfield’s always delightful parade (which was washed out last year by rain) starts at noon as well. York’s parade starts at 1 PM and  Conshohocken’s steps off at 2 PM. Conshy’s after party, featuring Oliver McElhone and the Belfast Connection, is at 5 PM at AOH Notre Dame Div. 1 Hall.

Chester County’s AOH Wolfetone Div. 1 is starting its St. Paddy’s Day party at the Elks Club in West Chester at lunch time—it’s their 35th!

Take the wee ones to Sesame Place in Langhorne and join Ernie, Bert, Elmo, and very likely Kermit for some Irish celebrations on Saturday too.

The McDade Irish Dancers and Seamus McGroary will be featured at Irish Night at the Italian Club in Ardmore. No, they will not be serving meatballs and cabbage. We’ll leave you to ponder that.

Crossing Vineyards (owned by the Carroll Family) is holding its annual Irish weekend with The Boys from County Bucks.

Celtic Pride is playing at the Temperance House in Newtown and The Broken Shillelaghs will be at Dublin Square Pub in Bordentown, NJ.

You can still catch “Brendan,” a play by Ronan Noone at McCoole’s Arts and Events  Place in Quakertown and “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” at Plays and Players, a Theatre Exile production.

Sunday

Do we have to tell you again? The country’s second oldest and one of its biggest St. Paddy’s Day Parades starts off at 11 AM in Philly and doesn’t finish marching down the Parkway until 3 PM. There’s a Mass at 8:45 AM at St. Patrick’s and many after parties, including at the FOP on Spring Garden Street and at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, starting at 3 PM.

Searson, the all-girl group from Canada, is playing at Molly Maguire’s Pub at 4 PM in Phoenixville.

And in Vineland, NJ, a variety of performers, including 8-year-old fiddle phenom Haley Richardson and her brothers, will be playing at Cumberland County College.

Monday

The Brehon Society is holding its St. Patrick’s Day Party at McGillins Olde Ale House in Center City Philly on Monday night. Special discount for law students (to be a Brehon you need to be a lawyer).

Tuesday

Head down to AOH 61 at 4131 Rhawn Street in Philadelphia to discuss strategies for dealing with defamatory merchandise–like t-shirts that imply all the Irish do is drink and fight–with other like-minded folk. A group picketed outside a Spencer’s Gifts last weekend and this week Philadelphia Councilwoman Joan Krajewski has also taken a stand against the merchandise. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss how to address the matter with businesses and vendors.

Wednesday

The Ryan Kilcoyne School of Dance will be at Bounce U of Langhorne, where kids pay to get in but parents don’t. Clever!

The Villanova University Irish Dance Team is performing at the Connelly Center at the university in Villanove at 7 PM.

Celtic Crossroads is on the bill at Sellersville Theatre. This stage show features not only Irish music but also bluegrass, gypsy, and jazz.

St. Patrick’s Day!!!

Judge Jimmy Lynn’s annual breakfast fundraiser is once again at The Plough and the Stars on Chestnut Street in Philly, starting at 7:30 AM. A wreath laying ceremony will be held later at the Irish Memorial which is just around the corner.

The Commodore Barry AOH Div. 1 is holding its open house at their HQ in National Park, NJ.

The Bogside Rogues will be performing at Tir Na Nog at 16th and Arch.

Belfast Connection in playing at Dublin Square Pub in Cherry Hill.

Blackthorn will be on stage in “County Blackthorn,” AKA the Springfield Country Club in Springfield.

Laurel Hill Cemetery, where the living have a great sense of humor, is having a party that involves spirits of every kind. Called “In Heaven There is No Beer, That’s Why We Drink it Here,” the program will give you a tour of Irish graves and supply you with beer and other spirits.

You can also spend St. Patrick’s Day with The Broken Shillelaghs at McMichael’s Pub in Gloucester City, NJ.

The John Byrne Band will be at Slainte at 30th and Market in Philadelphia in the afternoon till close, but before that they’ll be appearing with Preston and Steve of WMMR at the annual bash at Finnigan’s Wake on Spring Garden Street (where, we admit, we once had a beer at 8 AM and liked it). That gig runs from 7:30-9:30 AM. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.

Solas is playing at the World Café Live on St. Paddy’s Day, also a Philly tradition.

If you’re down there, check in on Burning Bridget Cleary, which is releasing a new CD that night!

Another regional tradition—Bill Monaghan and Celtic Pride at Sellersville Theatre, also St. Paddy’s eve.

You knew it had to be playing somewhere: Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance is at the War Memorial in Trenton.

And St. Agnes Church is hold it’s Irish Music Night in Blackwood, NJ with tenor Mark Forrest. It’s a fundraiser for special needs kids.

 

Friday

Oh, it’s not over yet!

The National Park Boat Club in National Park, NJ, is holding a St. Paddy’s Party starting at 6 PM. You don’t need to be a member nor have a boat.

DeDanaan, one of the greats, is performing at the Baby Grand at the Gran Opera House in Wilmington. You can also catch them next week in Sellersville.

At the Waterfront Theatre in Camden, you can see the play “Go Irish: The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller.”

Looking ahead to next week, you’d think every day was St. Paddy’s Day. (Allentown is having its parade, for example.) The only place that’s really true is here on www.irishphiladelphia.com. But we’ll be back again next week to give you fair warning of many more events, including a USA-Ireland rugby game in Philly, visits from groups such as Altan, Dervish, and Seamus Begley and Oisin MacDiarmada of Teada, the High Kings, Gaelic Storm, as well as the latest play in the Philadelphia Irish Theatre Festival series, “The Pride of Parnall Street,” by Sebastian Barry, at the Ambler Act II Playhouse.

Check the calendar. Daily!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 11, 2011 by
Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Where’s CBS3’s Bob Kelly when you need him? The city’s on-air traffic controller needs to keep an eye out this week for the various buses shuttling revelers from pub to pub on a motorized version of a pub crawl. There are two of them going on in Philly on Saturday—the Center City-bound Erin Express (which has a second run the following weekend) and the Shamrock Shuttle, which will give you a tour of Northeast Philly’s bars. Fortunately, they’re not taking the same routes so we don’t expect any unfortunate pub crawl accident. At least, not involving the vehicles.

The third pub shuttle is the Running of the Micks (oh yeah, and we’ve taken grief because we call our e-newsletter Mick Mail) which starts out with a footrace before the drinking begins at Finnigan’s Wake at Third and Spring Garden. That’s next Saturday.

There’s so much else going on in this run up to the parades and St. Paddy’s Day we’re just giving you a list:

Saturday

As usual, the Mt. Holly, NJ, parade is the first to step off the curb on Saturday, March 5. Pearse Kerr, a former Northern Irish political prisoner and president of AOH Div. 25 in Philadelphia, is grand marshal.

Queen of Peace Parish in Ardsley is having its annual Irish Night with Jamison providing the music, the Timoney Dancers doing what they do best, and DJ John Purshock. This is a major fundraiser for the parish.

Pick up your kilt from the drycleaners. It’s Celtic Kilt Night at Temperance House in Newtown, sponsored by AOH Bucks Division 2, to benefit the Hibernian Hunger Project.

Team Ratty Shoes, a group of Blackthorn fans who walk every year to raise money for multiple sclerosis research, is having its big fundraiser at North Penn VFW Post 676 in Glenside with music, fun, door prizes, and an auction. When they’re not walking, this group is a party to be around, so you’ll have a good time.

The Shanachie’s genial host, Gerry Timlin, will be performing solo at the Yardley Community Center.

The play, “Brendan,” by Ronan Noone, continues its run at McCoole’s Arts and Events Place in Quakertown. Likewise, “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” is still at Plays and Players Theatre in Philadelphia.

This is also Gael Scoil weekend—an Irish language and culture immersion for kids 7 to 17, now in its fourth year at Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, NJ.

Sunday

A busy day for Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade Director Michael Bradley: In the morning, he’s picking up a “Spirit of O’Hara” award at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield. In the afternoon, he’s presiding over the last and biggest of the parade fundraisers at Springfield Country Club, featuring Blackthorn. Expect to spend the day in Springfield. Lucky for us, O’Hara and the country club are on the same street.

In the afternoon, Father John McNamee, the poet-priest, will be reading from his latest book of poetry, “From Derrybeg and Back.” At the MacSwiney Club in Jenkintown.

Tuesday

The Dropkick Murphy’s will be playing the first of two shows at The Electric Factory. Count on them performing their St. Patrick’s Day singalong, “Kiss Me, I’m —-faced.” The second show is Wednesday.

Wednesday

Duo Gabriel Donohue (he’s from Galway) and Marian Makins (she’s from DC) return to the Shanachie in Ambler after their popular debut performance last month. Donohue is a remarkable musician and Makins has the voice of an angel. We really like them around here.

Thursday

The day starts with the annual wreath-laying at the plaque honoring the Irish who served in the American Revolution on the west side of Philadelphia’s city hall, followed by Mayor Nutter’s proclamation of March as Irish Month in the city. At noon, the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade Association holds its annual luncheon to introduce the parade Grand Marshal—this year, Sister James Anne Feerick, IHM—and the Ring of Honor. Association president Kathy McGee Burns this year has selected a group of eight women to form the Ring, including her daughter Kelly Wall, a judge in Montgomery County.

AOH Notre Dame Division 1 in Swedesburg is hosting its annual Irish Coffee Contest, featuring concoctions from restaurants and pubs in the Conshy area. This is a lead-up to the Conshy parade next weekend.

Dublin-based singer Paudy Timoney is on tap to do some foot-stomping ballads at The Plough and Stars on Second Street in Philadelphia. If you’ve never been the The Plough, whatever is wrong with you? On cold nights there’s a wood and peat fire in the fireplace and, despite the ceiling that reaches to the sky, it’s one of the coziest pubs around. Both real and plastic Paddys love it.

Irish Tenor Michael Londra, whose “Danny Boy” rendition is breaking all YouTube records for views, will be performing at Sellersville Theatre.

Catch Jerry and Shaun of the Broken Shillelaghs at The Blue Monkey Tavern in Merchantville, NJ.

Friday

The John Byrne Band will be performing at The Shanachie in Ambler. If you haven’t caught this group yet, here’s a chance to hear some wonderful Irish and folk music from some top-notch musicians. It’s debut album, “After the Wake,” has gotten lots of air time and critical acclaim. We’re expecting an Amos Lee-like breakout any minute now. (And not just because Byrne Band member Andy Keenan also plays with Lee.)

The Sellersville Theatre is presenting the first—as far as we know—performance in the area of a Canadian group called The Town Pants which mixes Irish trad with acoustic pop, American, and a little Australian and Mexican sounds tossed in. Sounds like stone soup to us. This group sells out quick.

Next weekend

All parades, all the time, including Philadelphia, Bucks County, Springfield (Delco), and Conshohocken. But we’ll cross that particular bridge next week. It’s all on the calendar however, so you can scoop us by taking a look.

March 3, 2011 by
Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish In Philly This Week

You know what this means: St. Paddy's month is about to start!

Hope the words “busy week ahead” don’t scare you because you’re going to be hearing it for the next month. This weekend alone is jam-packed with Irish-themed events, including a visit from Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones (at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Glenside on Saturday) and the John Byrne Band, fresh from their appearance this week on The 10! Show, appearing at World Café Live on Saturday night – in the big room downstairs!

AOH Division 51 is having its pre-St. Patrick’s Day party at the Holy Name of Jesus Hall on Saturday night, with live music by Jamie and the Quietmen (why do we think they’re probably not all that quiet?).

The Second Street Irish Society is throwing a fund-raising bash for the benefit of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday night. This is the second to the last fundraiser before the parade on March 13 (the last one will by at the Springfield Country Club, featuring Blackthorn).

St. Denis parish of Havetown is holding its annual St. Denis Irish Night on Saturday too, with entertainment by Misty Isle, a group that will get you up and dancing whether you like it or not.

The Broken Shillelaghs will be at McMichael’s Pub and Grill in Gloucester City, one of New Jersey’s most Irish towns, right on the river.

It gets serious on Sunday: A group of Irish community activists are gathering at Spencer Gifts at the Franklin Mills Mall to protest the derogatory Irish merchandise the store carries. (You’re welcome to join them at noon.) Expect to see more of this—we heard recently that a local supermarket agreed to pull its collection of Irish t-shirts after customers of Irish descent complained. What do the products say? Usually drinking and fighting are involved. We’re waiting to see what happens at the festivals—including the AOH festival in Wildwood—where you can see the same t-shirts and paraphernalia. Will ethnic pride triumph over capitalism? In a recession? We’ll see.

On Sunday afternoon, head to The Shanachie Pub and Restaurant in Ambler for the afternoon-long Sunday Irish Radio Shows benefit, featuring many great local musicians (including the aforementioned John Byrne), raffle prizes and auction items (and the stand-up auctioneering comedy routine of Publican Gerry Timlin).

If you’re in Lehigh County, Jack Callaghan’s Ale House on Tilgman Street is the headquarters for the Allentown St. Patrick’s Day parade fundraiser that features a Chinese auction, a DJ, and Jello shots (hey, sign me up).

Like to play the flute or tin whistle? There’s a free workshop at West Chester University’s Phillips Autograph Library by one of our favorite librarians and musicians Dennis Gormley. He’ll have a limited number of tin whistles for sale if you’ve been thinking of taking it up. Follow it up with am Irish session with Dennis and his wife, Kathy DeAngelo (a harper), at Kildare’s Irish Pub in West Chester.

On Tuesday, the Celtic folk group DeDannan, with founding members Alec Finn and Johnny “Ringo” Mcdonagh will be on stage at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington with special guest Eleanor Shanley. Mention Green Willow for a ticket discount—this is a Green Willow production.

We’re sorry we won’t be getting to those one – a fundraiser for the York St. Patrick’s Day parade for which a dozen York restaurants are creating a menu item containing Guinness. It’s called “There’s Guinness In It,” and we think it’s a great idea! This happens next Friday, March 4.

In Bucks County, the Bucks County St. Patrick’s Day group is honoring its grand marshal, John T. Galloway, at the Irish Ball at Kings Caterers in Bristol on Friday night, March 4.

That same night: Catch Solas in concert at the Sellersville Theatre or the play, “Brendan,” by Ronan Noone, about an Irish immigrant in Boston who is visited by the ghost of his mammy, at McCoole’s Arts and Events Place in Quakertown.

On stage all week is The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Plays and Players Theatre in Philadelphia.

There’s loads going on next week, including Gael Scoil—and immersion weekend in Irish—in Lawrenceville, NJ, the Erin Express has a warm-up voyage, Queen of Peace Parish in Ardsley is holding its annual Irish night, Celtic Kilt night kicks off at the Temperance House in Newtown,  the Gloucester County AOH is throwing its St. Paddy’s Party, and Blackthorn is rocking it for the Philly parade.

Plenty more where that came from—on our calendar, as well as details on all these events.

February 24, 2011 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish In Philadelphia This Week

Shannon and Matt Heaton

Less than a month away. That’s right. St. Paddy’s Day—and all the local St. Paddy’s day activities are less than a month away. In fact, this week many pubs are celebrating “St. Practice Day” to help folks get ready for March 17, commonly known among Irish bartenders as “amateur night.”

Well, there’s plenty to do to get yourself conditioned. On Friday night, for example, Tir Na Nog in Center City is hosting the Bogside Rogues for “The Great Guinness Toast,” an international more-or-less simultaneous quaffing of the brown stuff.

And the 19th annual Greater Philadelphia Mid-Winter Scottish and Irish Festival gets underway in Valley Forge with a concert featuring the Scottish tribal drum group Albannach and The Dubliners, as well as locals Jamison and The Hooligans. This one runs all weekend and features everything from swordplay to whiskey tasting, with a whole lot of music and dance thrown in. There are people who need to practice for this event too. Not us—we’ll be there all weekend and you can see how we handle all things Celtic.

Direct from Boston, Irish duo Matt and Shannon Heaton will be making their magic at Trinity Episcopal Church in Swarthmore on Friday night.

And you have your choice of two great Irish plays – Terminus at the Zellerbach Theatre and The Lieutenant of Inishmore at Plays and Players. Better yet, go to both. If you buy tickets for two or more plays in Philadelphia’s Irish Theatre Festival, you get  a 20 percent discount. Go to the Philadelphia Theater Alliance website to order.

On Sunday, Dr. William Watson, director of the Duffy’s Cut Project in Malvern, where the bodies of 19th century Irish immigrants have been unearthed, will be speaking at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Glenside.

At 12:30 PM on Sunday, Irish Network-Philadelphia is holding a public meeting at the Irish Immigration Center in Upper Darby to discuss future events. Tea, coffee and sandwiches will be provided. If you’re not a member of this networking group, here’s your chance to join and. . .network.

There are still a few spaces in a one-day course at Temple University-Fort Washington on Celtic Christianity, which will be held on Wednesday evening. Dr. Ken Ostrand will take you from Irish Christianity before Saint Patrick to today, and introduce you to a variety of Irish saints (some with amazing powers).

Big day next Friday. The Irish American Business Chamber and Network Ambassador’s Awards Luncheon will honor Aramark Corp, the Rev. Timothy R. Lannon, outgoing president of St. Joseph’s University, and businessman James Hasson and his wife, Sarah. The event will take place at the Crystal Tea Room at 100 East Penn Square in Center City. Irish Ambassador to the US, Michael Collins, will make the presentations.

Later that evening, Collins along with Consul General Noel Kilkenny will be attending a fundraiser for the Duffy’s Cut Project. Money raised at the event, which will feature the music of Paul Moore and Friends, will be used to cover the costs of continued DNA tests on the remains found at the archeological site and to erect a memorial to the dead at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in East Falls.

The details for all these events and more are on our amazing calendar. If you have an event you want to publicize, you can add it to our calendar yourself or email me at denise.foley@comcast.net.

February 17, 2011 by
Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish In Philly This Week

Double proof that you don’t have to be Irish to be an Irish musician: Isaac Alderson and Jonas Fromseier.

Isaac Alderson was 11 or 12 when he discovered Irish music. A friend of his mother’s gave him a set of practice pipes and he was hooked. By the time he was 17, he was being paid to anchor Irish sessions in his native Chicago. At the 2002 Fleadh Cheoil in Ireland—the Superbowl of traditional musicians—Alderson was named the All-Ireland Senior Champion in three instruments, uilleann pipes, flute and whistle, becoming the first American ever to perform that particular hat trick.

Alderson will be on stage at the Irish Center this Saturday, bringing with him Fromseier, the Danish-born bouzouki and banjo player who, with a grant from the Danish government, wound up in Galway studying Irish music after a stint with a Danish Irish trad group called “The Trad Lads.” (The Danes, while not Celtic, do have an Irish connection: They conquered the little island long ago when they were members of the well known group, the Vikings.)

Before the Vikings land here, check out “Cherish the Ladies,” Joanie Madden’s fabulous girl group, performing at the Sellersville Theatre on Friday night. Band members change, but the quality of these amazing musicians never dims. Plus, Madden is a hoot.

Another unusual sighting this week: Belfast-born indie musician Henry Cluney from the group Stiff Little Fingers will be performing at Kung Fu Necktie in Philadelphia on Sunday.

Sunday is also the second in a series of fundraisers for the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade, this one at AOH 39 on Tulip Street in Philly. On board for this one: Winners of the “best Irish band” in the US battle of the bands sponsored by Strangford Lough Brewing Company in Northern Ireland, Jamison Celtic Rock.

For Valentine’s Day, the Irish Immigration Center is hosting a luncheon and party at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, in Philadelphia on Monday at noonish. Great food, music, dancing—and love, they promise, will be in the air.

This week, two great Irish plays debut as part of the Philadelphia Irish Theater Festival. The Abbey Theatre of Dublin’s “Terminus,” a playing serial killers, avenging angels, and love-sick demons (of course, you’ll laugh), is at the Zellerbach Theatre. On February 16 and 17, Father David Cregan, OSA, PhD, associate professor of theatre and English, will host a post-show question and answer session with the cast. On February 17, catch the opening of The Lieutenant of Inishmore, one of the Martin McDonagh’s wildly dark and comic plays about a soldier who returns home to find that his only friend. Wee Thomas, the cat, has been assassinated. Bad things ensue. This one is at Plays and Players Theatre on Delancey Street in Philadelphia.

On Friday, Boston’s Matt and Shannon Heaton (with new baby, Nigel!) will be performing at Trinity Episcopal Church in Swarthmore. Shannon, whose newest CD is “The Blue Dress,” was named Live Ireland’s Female Musician of the year two years running (2010 and 2011).

Friday night is also the kick-off concert for the Mid-Winter Scottish-Irish Festival in Valley Forge, now in its 19th year of making winter bearable for fans of Celtic everything. There’s music, drink, food, dancing, and Irish tchotchkes for sale. Always fun.

February 10, 2011 by