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Calling All Cavan Folk

Angela Cassidy and Msgr. Michael Doyle

They came from Philly, New York, New Jersey, Bucks and Delaware Counties and even from Florida. What they had in common: They’d all once called Cavan home. (And some still do!)

A group of Cavan people met on Sunday at the Newtown Grill in Newtown Square for dinner, conversation, and, as the pictures show, lots of laughing. “The highlight of the evening was a talk by Sister Lucia and Msgr. Michael Doyle from Sacred Heart Parish in Camden,” said Cormac Brady, one of the local organizers. “Sister Lucia now lives in Florida but worked in New York for 10 years helping undocumented Irish immigrants. Her wit and storytelling enchanted everyone.”

Brady shared his photos of the event with us. You can see even more photos here.

January 27, 2012 by
News

2012 Philly St. Patrick’s Parade Takes Its First Steps

Michael Bradley with his battle plan

Michael Bradley with his battle plan

Many of us have only just dragged the Christmas tree out to the curb, but the folks who stage the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade are already focusing on March.

The Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association met Thursday at the Double Tree in Center City to lay out their plans for the 2012 edition of one of the city’s most colorful spectacles.

This year’s parade kicks off at noon on Sunday, March 11. It’s a later start than in previous years—an effort to make it easier for marchers to participate, says parade director Michael Bradley. The parade will still be televised—possibly on CBS3, but more likely on sister station, the CW Philly 57—from 1 to 4.

The start time of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Mass is also different: 9:30, a half-hour later than before. The Mass is celebrated at St. Patrick’s Church, off Rittenhouse Square.

It’s too early to know for sure how many groups will march this year, Bradley says, but about 200 is likely—from St. Patrick at the beginning to the Guinness truck at the end.

One other important change: the pre-parade luncheon is now a dinner. In previous years, parade officials and guests have attended a weekday ceremony at City Hall in late morning, followed by a luncheon at the Double Tree shortly afterward. For a lot of people, association president Kathy McGee Burns says, this was an inconvenience. “For many people, it was hard to come at midday and take a day off from work.” This year’s mayoral proclamation will take place at City Hall at 4 p.m., followed by a cocktail hour and dinner at the Double Tree.

As at the previous years’ luncheon, the grand marshal—this year it’s IBEW Local 98 Business Manager John J. Dougherty—will receive his sash, as will members of the Ring of Honor.

McGee Burns announced the 2012 Ring of Honor members:

  • Melissa Martin, Philadelphia Emerald Society 2011 Police Officer of the Year (she took part in the attempted rescue of a motorist whose car drove into the Schuylkill River)
  • Joseph T. Kelley, Jr., president of the Brehon Law Society (an association of Irish-American attorneys)
  • Gaelic football official Tom Higgins
  • William Watson, Ph.D., Immaculata University, historian and keeper of Duffy’s Cut (a stretch of tracks in Malvern where, in 1832, several dozen Irish rail workers died under suspicious circumstances)
  • Irish fund-raiser Tommy O’Leary
  • Well-known Irish musician and publican Gerry Timlin
January 13, 2012 by
News

“We’re Not Looking for Favoritism”

Ciaran Staunton of the Irish Lobby for Immigration at Finnigan's Wake in Philadelphia this week.

If you belong to an Irish organization in the Philadelphia area, you probably got an email this week urging you to call Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) to urge him to support Senate Bill 1983. It’s a measure, proposed by New York Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) that, if passed, would pave the way for 10,500 Irish to come to the US on E-3 work visas every year.

The E-3 visa, now only available to Australians (thanks to a sweetheart deal brokered during the Bush administration), is not a green card for permanent residency but a renewable visa for qualified Irish workers to come to the US for specialty employment. Temporary work visas are available, but in 2010, only 2,700 of these H-1B visas out of a total of 85,000 ended up in Irish hands.

Schumer’s bill amends the bipartisan HR3012, Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, which paves the way for professionals from places such as China and India to come to the US and for families of legal immigrants in Mexico and the Phillipines to sidestep decades-long waits for green cards to join their loved ones in the US.

The leaders of many Irish organizations, from the Ancient Order of Hibernians to the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Committee to the Irish Immigration Center, met at Finnigan’s Wake in Philadelphia this week with Ciaran Staunton, New York-based founder of the Irish Lobby for Immigration. Staunton told them that those visas would come at a critical time for the Irish. “Ireland’s unemployment rate is 14 percent, which is the highest it’s been in 16 years. And, as they say on the weather report, it’s getting higher,” he said.

Staunton said his organization is targeting 15 Republican senators whose support is needed to pass the bill. “Schumer told us, ‘I can get you the bill, but you have to get me the Republicans,” says Staunton. Those key potential GOP supporters include both moderates, such as Maine’s Susan Collins and conservatives, like Toomey, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, Arizona’s John McCain, and Scott Brown of Massachusetts who, with Mark Kirk of Illinois, introduced his own version of Schumer’s bill.

The main difference between the Schumer and Brown bills is that Brown’s does not include a waiver for Irish immigrants who stayed in the US after their temporary visas expired. Staunton, who supports the Schumer Bill, says having two opposing bills “doesn’t help us.” Asked by Liam Hegarty, a member of the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia’s board of directors, whether Staunton would be satisfied if the bill passed without the waiver, Staunton replied, “I’m not going to say I’ll take less than Senator Schumer wants.”

He urged the Irish leaders to “burn up the phones” to encourage Senator Toomey to break ranks and get behind the Democrat’s bill. “We’re not looking for favoritism,” he said. “We’re looking for fairness.”

View our photos to see some of the Irish community leaders who met with Staunton.

You can contact Senator Toomey’s office by calling 202-224-4254.

January 13, 2012 by
News, People

We Need a “Little Christmas”

Having a great time: Irish Immigration Center Executive Director Siobhan Lyons and Irish Center President Vince Gallagher, who co-sponsored the event.

Roast pork, mashed potatoes, Geraldine Quiqq’s legendary salads, and Mary Crossan’s scone–if that doesn’t bring them in, nothing will.

This delicious lunch was part of the Little Christmas celebration for seniors at the Irish Center on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, which is always celebrated in Ireland. Traditionally, it’s when you take your tree and trimmings down. But the only “work” the attendees did was fill their plates at the buffet–and a few did a little dancing to tunes from the Vince Gallagher band.

We were there and took photos, which we’re sharing with you here.

January 6, 2012 by
News

Major Immigration Meeting Set


An email went out this week to Irish organizations throughout the Philadelphia area announcing a meeting Monday night with the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform to discuss Senate Bill 1983 which would allow 10,500 Irish citizens to come to the US on E3 work visas. The visas  now are available only to professionals in specialty occupations from Australia. The E-3 provision was signed into law in 2005 by President George W. Bush.

The Bill, introduced by Democratic New York Sen. Charles Shumer, came on the heels of HR 3012, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2011, which eliminates the country-specific quotas on green cards for workers, mainly techies from India and China. Demand is high in the US for those highly skilled professionals. The bill also includes a measure that will more than double the available green cards based on family ties for mainly Mexican and Filipino immigrants who are in the US legally. Many of those family members now are faced with as much as a two-decades long wait. That GOP-sponsored bill passed the House and is awaiting Senate action.

The E3 work visa is not a green card, which grants permanent US residence to the foreign-born, but a visa program that allows foreign workers to come to the US for employment. It’s renewable every two years. Currently, a college degree is a requirement for an E3 visa and would likely be the case for E3s granted to Irish citizens.

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (Rep.) has proposed a bill similar to Shumers’, except that under Brown’s proposal, undocumented workers—those already here illegally—cannot apply.

Ciaran Staunton, a Mayo native and New York-based founder of the Irish Lobby for Immigration, will be at Finnigan’s Wake at Second and Spring Garden Street on Monday night, January 9, starting at 7 PM to discuss the various proposals.

While it’s far from comprehensive immigration reform, says Siobhan Lyons, executive director of the Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia, the Schumer bill, “if it goes through, will be a great first step toward a sensible solution to our current immigration problems.”

The HR 3012 family provision doesn’t apply to the Irish, she says, but it’s not necessarily discriminatory, as some have claimed. “There are countries other than Ireland with huge waiting lists of people who are already qualified for green cards,” she points out. “In some places, there are people who have been waiting for green cards for 15 to 30 years before they’re able to join their families. This is not much of an issue for the Irish. The problem is that the Irish don’t qualify for green cards in the first place.”

January 6, 2012 by
Music, News, People

Post-Christmas Pick-Me-Up

Modeling the latest in Wren Hats are Alexander Weir, his mother Katherine, and Haley Richardson. Photo by Carl Weir.

Every year in Ireland, on the feast of St. Stephen (December 26), the Irish celebrate in a way that has been handed down for centuries. They go out, hunt down a wren, kill it, put it on a stick and parade it around town while they’re dressed in funny costumes.

No, that’s not what they do. That’s what they used to do.  “Wren Parties” are still held, but they’re bloodless these days. People still get together, as they did December 26 at the Wren Party in Glenside sponsored by  the Delaware Valley chapter of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. They even wear costumes. Well, hats anyway. And they eat, drink, play music, sing, and dance.

Thanks to Carl Weir, whose son, Alexander, was one of the performers and hat-wearers, we have photos from this year’s event (the 13th  Wren Party the Comhaltas has thrown). And here they are.

 

January 6, 2012 by
News, People

Aon Sceal?

The brand new gravestone for Irish-American boxer Eddie Cool and his brother.

True to his word, local boxing maven John DeSanto has made sure that Philadelphia Irish-American boxer Eddie Cool, the “Tacony Flash,” will no longer be forgotten. Recently, DeSanto placed a marker on the previously unmarked grave shared by Eddie and his brother, Jimmy, also a boxer, in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Cool, who died in 1947 at the age of 35 of liver problems related to alcoholism, compiled an amazing ring record to 95-29-15 with 15 KOs “against the very best fighters in one of the true golden eras of the sport,” says DiSanto, who has placed stones on the graves of three other Philly boxers of different eras whose final resting places weren’t marked. DiSanto is the founder of the website, phillyboxinghistory.com and the Philly Boxing History Gravestone Fund.

John DiSanto is serious about honoring the Philadelphia boxing fraternity. Over the past two years, he guided the project that placed a statue of former middleweight champion Joey Giardello in South Philadelphia. The bronze tribute to Giardello also honors 70 other South Philly boxers as well as a list of long lost gyms and arenas. It was dedicated in May.

“My job is to remember these guys, and to remind people of their stories,” DiSanto said. “There are so many Philly boxers in unmarked graves. I still have a lot of work to do.”

Read the story of our visit to Eddie Cool’s grave with DiSanto in September.

Piping His Thanks

After a serious heart attack three years ago, Philadelphia Emerald Society piper Joe Tobin could barely breathe, let alone squeak out a recognizable version of “Minstrel Boy” on the pipes.

But the heart team at Penn Medicine’s Heart and Vascular Center helped bring him back from the brink of a transplant and Tobin is back playing he heart out of “Amazing Grace” and “Garryowen.” In fact, there’s no place Irish you can go in the month of March without seeing him in his kilt, bagpipe under his arm.

So how does a piper say thanks? Last month, Tobin went back to Penn and serenaded his former heart team with seasonal music on his bagpipes. Way to blow, Joe!

An Appropriate Honor for Commodore Barry

Today, workmen will be installing the arch over the new “Barry Gate,” a pedestrian gate at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Funded by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Commodore John Barry Memorial—named for the Wexford-born Commodore John Barry, founder of the US Navy, who made his home in Philadelphia—will also include a Barry Memorial and a Barry Plaza on the Annapolis grounds.

The AOH approached the Naval Academy with the proposal in 2008, and it was approved last May.

John Barry, who is buried in the graveyard of Old St. Mary Church in Philadelphia, a few blocks from his statue behind Independence Hall, was the first commanding officer of the US Navy, serving under Presidents George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Named Captain of the ship Lexington in 1776, he captured 20 British ships, was seriously wounded, and fought in the last naval battle of the Revolutionary War in 1783.

You can donate to the project by making out a check to “Hibernian Charity Barry Project” and sending it to Hibernian Charity c/o Frank Kearney, Secretary, PO Box 391, Meriden, CT 06450.

Aon Sceal is Irish for “what’s the story?” If you have a story to share, share it with us. Email denise.foley@comcast.net.

January 5, 2012 by
News

A Hibernian Ho-Ho-Ho

Mary Patrick loads up the truck.

Mary Patrick loads up the truck.

It was just after 9 o’clock Saturday morning at Shamrock Food Distributors in Frankford, a few minutes after local Hibernians were scheduled to start loading up trucks, cars and vans with Christmas baskets for the needy.

In all, 84 cardboard boxes were slated for delivery to local families. Each box contained a 14-pound frozen turkey with all the holiday trimmings, including enough for leftovers. And as well-organized as the Hibernian Hunger Project effort was last year, the project this time around was even more so. Minutes after the drive began, it was nearly all over. Most of the boxes had already been picked up and were on their way. Only a few volunteer drivers remained to finish up the job.

“It all went smoothly,” said chief Santa Bob Gessler. “We had a lot of volunteers from last year who knew what they were doing, and the people who came out last year brought more volunteers.”

Ten more families will receive gift cards, Gessler said.

Out on Fraley Street, Kathy Blair worked with Thomas Wiegel to cram boxes into an SUV. It was her second time out. “We only delivered two boxes last year,” Blair said. In some cases, she knows who’s on the receiving end, “and I know they need it.”

Michael Flynn of Chestnut Hill stopped to pick up three boxes for delivery in the Mayfair section. He works with the Irish Memorial at Penn’s Landing and the Mayo Society. “Bob sent an email to all the members of the Irish Memorial,” he said. “We do a lot for various charities. Hey … it’s Christmas!”

First-timer Anne Redmond came all the way from Medford Lakes, N.J., to help out. She heard about the project from Irish Philly Mickmail. Her decision to volunteer is all part of a larger personal process to get in touch with her roots. “I’m embracing it instead of running, screaming into the night.”

Tom and Anne Mitchell of Newtown Square also were alerted via Mickmail. For Anne, there was almost no choice whether to join in. “Christmas really only feels like Christmas if you reach out and help others in need.”

December 22, 2011 by