People

Janice Pietrowicz and Charlie Lord, owners of CelticClothing.com, in their Chaddsford home, in front of a painting of The Odessa, a ship that carried Irish immigrants from Queenstown, Cork to America in the 1800’s.

Spend an afternoon with Charlie Lord and Janice Pietrowicz, owners of CelticClothing.com, and it doesn’t take long to see why their online business has not only succeeded over the past 20 years, but is now flourishing. And there is no end to the possibilities for their future growth.

For starters there is their company motto, “American First, Irish Always,” which they have trademarked into one of their most popular selling t-shirts.

But more than that is the hard work and dedication that the Belfast born Charlie put into building his own American  dream. He wanted to bring quality Irish products to the United States, and from the beginning knew nothing was going to  stop him.

After having spent some time in Boston in the late 1980’s, Charlie decided to pursue a degree in Business Studies at Derby University in England. As part of his program, he had to come up with a plan for starting a business. He directly created his own future.

When he returned to the United States through the Donnelly Visa program in the early 90’s, finding a job as an immigrant wasn’t easy. “I came back to America with a business degree and a green card. I had been in Boston initially, and a couple of the guys who were up there said they were going to Wildwood, NJ, and I thought I was going to stay in Boston on my own and try and play on a soccer team. But the guys were leaving, so I really thought about it and decided to go with them for the summer in Wildwood—one of my friends had been there before and said ‘All right, lads, there’s plenty of work in Wildwood, it’s the beach and it’s summertime.’ And we get there and I got a job for $5 an hour chopping potatoes through this big thing for the french fry machine.”

At summer’s end, Charlie headed to Philadelphia, the nearest big city, where he met Janice and decided it was time to put his business plan into action. As an immigrant with a green card, it wasn’t easy to get a loan. “Banks weren’t interested,” Janice explained. “So I co-signed a loan for him, not a big one, just enough to buy an old van, his first round of t-shirts, some tables and entry into an Irish event. Within two weeks he had the loan paid off.”

“If you want to do something, you’ll get it done,” Charlie added.

And it was Charlie’s idea to make it an online venture, even in the early days when the internet was in its infancy. “We started when mail order was definitely still the thing. So it would always be a kick, we’d be eating dinner and get an online order and go fill it,” Janice said. At that time, their warehouse was their garage.

“It just continued to get bigger and bigger, and the more I adapted to the internet, it was like turning a ship. We made a conscious decision some years ago that we were going to turn things into an e-commerce company primarily. In those early days, people kept throwing money at internet companies, but we just kept going along. So when there was a big implosion, we got through the smoke. We were still going and still going, and we’re still there. Visitors to the site are up 32% from November 2013 to November of 2014. That’s 33,000 visitors to CelticClothing.com,” Charlie explained.

In the meantime, Charlie got a Masters Degree in Business Education from Temple University and began teaching Web Design and Internet Marketing at Haverford High School, where he is now also Department Chair of the Business Faculty. Janice has always worked as a school psychologist for the past 25 years. And they had two children. Oh, and they still travel during the summer to all the big festivals, using at least a 10 x 20 truck to haul their inventory to the shows, and bringing a staff of workers with them.

And the business finally outgrew their garage. About three years ago, they rented a warehouse in Toughkenamon in Chester County and hired staff to answer phones and fill orders. Danna and Maggie are the two women who keep things going so Charlie and Janice can focus on expanding the business. “For years, it was clothing and caps,” Janice said. “Since then we’ve gotten into glassware, scarves, perfumes, jewelry, some food products. We have wine corks—they’re great for hostess gifts. We’ve added children’s clothes. And we have Aran sweaters, plus a lot of different designs of men’s flat caps. We started carrying the women’s caps this year, which are great—Downton Abbey style hats. And they look so nice on women. Sometimes a woman will say, ‘I’m not a hat person’ and I tell them to try it on. The purple one in particular looks good on everyone; it brings everybody’s eyes out. We also carry food items, from Barry’s Tea to Guinness Chocolate Truffle cups. Charlie makes sure we order the candies he likes,” Janice laughed. “That way, if they don’t sell, he can bring them home. But every Christmas we’ll do a breakfast basket and that is a really cool thing. It has Irish sausage, bacon, O’Hara’s Soda Bread, the puddings, the whole deal. It comes frozen and stays insulated.”

In order to find new products, Janice explained, they go to different trade shows, and to Ireland once a year “to see if there are any unique products. We have some people we’ve been dealing with for years. All our stuff is either bought from Irish companies or local based American companies. All our hats and sweaters, they’re made in Ireland. There aren’t many manufacturers still doing it, but it’s the old-timers, the families, people who have had them for generations are still doing them. With that the costs are higher, but you can’t beat the quality.

“Everything we buy is licensed from the company. All the t-shirts are good quality. We have a 100% return policy. And we have the girls here if you need to call us. Some people still don’t like to order online. Sometimes people want an opinion—‘which one do you like better?’ They may have seen it online, or they may have seen it at an event. We’re always adding new designs, we have a lot of new t-shirts. There’s really something for everybody. Every shirt has a life expectancy, so we keep them in and then try to come up with some new designs, whether they’re our own or somebody else’s. If you don’t come up with your own designs, you basically have what everyone else has. And we don’t carry anything derogatory—none of the drunken stuff. We really want to portray ourselves as a quality product company. We’ve got something for all ages, and we also do gift certificates online—that’s helpful because sometimes you’ve got last minute shoppers who don’t know quite what to get or what size someone is.

“Our customers are really faithful. They’ll come up to us at the shows and remember what they’ve gotten, and say ‘Oh, that’s a new one.’

“Customer service is very important to us. We send coupons with every order so the customer will get a discount the next time they buy something from the website. If you’re unhappy with something or something doesn’t fit the way you want, you just return it. It’s not a big deal. If there’s an issue, if we’re out of a particular size, the customer can call and we can say, ‘Do you want to wait a week for our next shipment, or do you want to try a similar style?’ It gives them an option what to do. We’ve definitely gotten bigger, but I still like keeping it small. I like keeping the personal touch and the personal sense. I just really want that customer to be a happy person. That’s important to us. Our customers are faithful, good people; they come from all over the country.

“And we like having the business where it is, because we support the local business community. We use the little post office around the corner; today we shipped 350 orders through them. We hire local girls who work for us, and we pay benefits to our full-time employees.”

And all the time, Charlie has his eye focused on the future and where online commerce is heading. “We have an extensive digital footprint. We have over 30,000 fans on Facebook, we’re on Pinterest, we’re on Twitter. We engage in email marketing, we have our website, we sell on other platforms. We explore Amazon, we explore eBay—we have stores on those sites. Amazon is the benchmark of e-commerce; so many people use it, you kind of have to be there. Any of these places, like Facebook, it comes back into what I teach and do everyday. If you’ve got all of those people on Facebook, you’ve got to have a presence there. You’ve got all these internet communities, you have to have some kind of presence.

“On the downside of all that, it’s very time-consuming. You have to think about the time concern and the return on the investment. For any small business, you survive on the sales and revenue that come in. That’s the bottom line. Whatever activities you’re doing, you have to see a return on them. You have to see money coming in. Otherwise, you’re not going to be in business very long. You have to pay staff, you have to pay electric bills, and rent, and hosting and festival fees. The money for that comes from sales. But social media is a form of advertising, and unless you have an advertising budget, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve got 500 fans or 5,000 fans.”

I asked Charlie if he were to come to the U.S. now, as a young man, if he thought he’d be able to accomplish all that he has in the past 20 years. His answer was “Yes” with a but:  “The problem for the Irish kids who are leaving the Island now is that they can’t get into the United States. They’re going to Australia. And that’s a missed opportunity for both the young Irish people and for the Americans because you have a highly educated workforce that can’t get into the U.S. They’re willing to work and they want to work, but the immigration laws don’t let them in. So, Australia will benefit.

“It’s not a coincidence that Celtic Clothing is owned by an Irishman. It’s just something that when I came over at first, and I created my own job and I’m working in the Irish community, with the Irish people, it still gave me that connection with home. That was a big part of it because for me it was that cultural kind of need. Back then, you would have lots of Irish immigrants in Upper Darby and the Northeast. They’d come to Wildwood and then meet their cousins in the city. And there was a community. And that’s done now, that’s gone. Those people cannot get in anymore. It’s unfortunate because businesses grew up from that, but there’s no new Irish immigrants coming in anymore to keep these things alive and start these things up.

“At the heart of it, you have to love the business you create. You have to be enthusiastic, it has to be something you enjoy because in any business, that has to be there. You have to be answering the phone from Ireland in the middle of a conversation in the kitchen. Otherwise, it’s going to be too much like work, and you’re not going to want to do it.”

According to Janice, “There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by in 20 years where the words ‘Celtic Clothing’ have not come up in a conversation at our house.”

But at the end of the day, Charlie said, “What’s most important to Janice and me with our own kids is to make them aware of their family back in Ireland, so the kids know that story and that history that came across the ocean. I want them to understand their family background.” And Janice added, “We both work hard, and we want to teach that to our kids. We don’t just give them everything.”

American First, Irish Always.

To receive a special 10% discount for Irish Philadelphia readers, go to CelticClothing.com and enter the coupon code “PHILLY” at the checkout.

Check out the photos from my behind-the-scenes tour of CelticClothing.com’s warehouse:

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And to follow CelticClothing.com on social media, here are the links:

Twitter: CelticClothing.com on Twitter

Facebook: CelticClothing.com on Facebook

Pinterest: CelticClothing.com on Pinterest

Youtube:

Last month, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person, at age 17, to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her devoted advocacy in her mission to ensure that all females around the world have the right to an education. Her story has become a rallying cry and she is known around the globe.  Born in Pakistan, her town was taken over by the Taliban, and the school founded by her father, Ziaudden Yousafzai, was threatened because girls were allowed to attend. Malala became targeted personally for her passionate stance, and was shot in the head in an assassination attempt as she rode the bus home from school. Not only did she survive the attack, but she has taken her fight against the Taliban’s position worldwide. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif commended her as the pride of Pakistan and encouraged: “Girls and boys of the world should take lead from her struggle and commitment.”

And that’s exactly what the girls at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, commonly referred to as “The Mount,” in Flourtown, PA, did. “You’re never going to hear a teacher here who tells you your ideas are too big. Nothing’s ever too big. And that’s just what you get in every single class…they say ‘I support you. Go for it,'” explained senior Jess Tyrrell.

So when the 16 students in the 20/20 club (an organization that’s committed to solving 20 global problems over a span of 20 years) at the all-female Catholic high school read Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” last spring, it was the club’s advisor Kate Shevlin who encouraged the girls to reach out to Malala.

Colleen McBride, one of the members of the club, had just been elected student body president for the 2014-2015 school year. With the theme of “Bring a Whole New Spirit to the Mount” in mind, Colleen knew this was a big idea and she ran with it.

“Reading her book, and realizing that she was our own age, and that even though she’s across the world we can still connect to her, I knew there was something to this, that this is happening for a reason. Our mission at The Mount is ‘On the education of women largely lies the future of society,’ Colleen said. “Then we realized she was coming to Philadelphia and it became real, it became an attainable goal.

“We decided we wanted to ask Malala to come to The Mount, and when we found out she was going to be receiving the Liberty Medal here, we began brainstorming. Even though this was in June, we knew October 21st was going to be here before we knew it. We decided to make a video, and we spent the whole week of July 4th filming and putting it together.”

Katie Mars, another student in the group, came up with the video’s tag line, “Malala is…” and all the girls then took it from there.

“We were talking about it, and I went home and decided to write a reflection. I write poems and reflections when I have spare time and feel inspired, and it all just sort of happened,” Katie explained.

With the video finished and on YouTube, they began an ardent twitter campaign at https://twitter.com/mountformalala to get their message to Malala. “We tweeted directly to Malala, and everyday we would have a tweet dedicated to her—like a picture of her, or a quote, and then throughout the day we would post the video saying ‘We made this video for Malala, we stand in solidarity with her, education first.’ And then we would do small stuff; for her birthday, July 12th, I made her cupcakes that said ‘Mount for Malala’ on them and posted the photo, and that was the first favorite [on their twitter account] we got directly from her,” Colleen said.

“Eason Jordan, the director of operations and communications of the Malala Fund, he reached out to my account and the Mount for Malala account,” Colleen relayed. “First they said thank you for this inspirational video, so we knew they had actually seen the video. And then he tweeted to me and said, ‘Would you be able to have a phone chat tomorrow regarding Malala’s Philadelphia visit?’ so the next day I was sitting here in this room and Eason said ‘Malala and the Malala Fund are so impressed with your efforts.’ We had worked so hard, and it was a huge group effort and then to hear that they’re impressed—and they’re inspired by US–when we’re so inspired by THEM, it was just an incredible thing.”

Although due to time constraints and security issues, Malala wouldn’t be able to schedule a visit to The Mount, the 16 girls all got an invitation to attend the Liberty Medal Ceremony.

Colleen was further blown away when Eason told her, “Five girls will be onstage at the ceremony to read blogs and then greet Malala, and the Malala Fund has chosen you to be one of those girls.”

“That was such an honor for me,” Colleen said. “Because it wasn’t just for me. I was representing the whole school on that stage, and I wore my uniform. And I know Malala loves her uniform, so I was really proud to be up there representing The Mount. I sat right behind her onstage. We stood and greeted her, and that was the first time we made eye contact. I was just beaming and it was just an overwhelming experience. I read her excerpt about when the Taliban first came to her village, and the artillery fire she and her friend heard as they were doing their homework. They thought it was a normal day, and weren’t really focused on it. Then it talked about her blog, and how no one could know it was written by her.”

Although the other girls weren’t onstage, they did meet Malala as part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit before the actual ceremony. As they waited for Malala to meet them, “the energy was just amazing,” Jess said. “The room went completely silent the second she walked in. I’m pretty sure everyone was just staring because she just walks in and she’s this larger than life figure.” Katie further described the moment, “She took the entire presence of the room, and everyone was focused on her. Though she’s very small in stature, she has such a big presence. And she’s just so humble as well. She’s accomplished so much but she just came in and shook hands with every single person in the room.”

“We met her dad as well,” Jess went on. “He’s much more talkative than she was. He said, ‘Yes, my daughter has this opportunity to go and spread her message, but it’s left to people like you to spread it around.’ He’s saying that every single girl is inspirational, and to hear that from someone whose daughter is the biggest inspiration in the world was so encouraging. He believes we can be like her without having the kind of situation she’s suffered. It just takes the courage to stand up and go for it.”

For Katie, Ziaudden Yousafzai’s message was just as powerful. “He said, ‘Every girl is special.’ A Nobel Peace Prize winner’s father is telling me I’m special. Sometimes you forget that. It’s not about me personally being special, but everyone, even the girls who feel forgotten, they ARE special. It really brought new light to my eyes.”

The experience has been a life changing one for all the girls.

Colleen explained, “I went home that night thinking, okay, Malala came here to Philadelphia and she inspired us so much. Now she has left and she’s going on to other countries, but we have the obligation to carry out her message here in the United States. We’re a developed country—and she works to help girls in countries that aren’t developed—but we still have those problems here. We want to continue her mission. I envision all teen-age girls coming together and really being supportive of one another, and being able to create a network where we can be there for one another.”

“We want to start a new initiative here in the schools in Philadelphia,” Jess said. “Malala’s focused on the big picture, so if we start working towards doing little things and make a difference on a local level, hopefully that will spread all over the country. The Philadelphia school system is the perfect example because it’s just in crisis right now. But every single voice that stands with us for the Philadelphia schools counts. Malala said, ‘When the whole world’s silent, one voice becomes powerful’ and you can imagine how many voices we can raise for the schools here.”

“We’re brainstorming right now,” Colleen revealed. “We’re an all-girls school, and there are many like us in our area and we’d like to come together, including girls in co-ed schools that share the same message.  By coming together, and starting an organization, we can have an impact in Philadelphia and help here. And then if other schools around the country do this, and they can focus locally, it’s really a national impact. We’re thinking, start local, think global.”

And they all have plans to continue their mission beyond their 2015 graduation.

“I’ve completely transitioned,” Colleen said. “I was always into science, and last year I thought I wanted to be a nutritionist. That was my goal, and I still love science, but being elected president, and then being in this initiative, I’ve really embraced my leadership skills and my creativity. I now see myself focusing on an emphasis on education, and the whole planning process within the community and carrying out a mission of women’s education.”

With Jess, the experience solidified her plans for the future. “I’ve always wanted to major in foreign affairs, with a minor in communication. So, what I’ve realized now is that I want to be an advocate for countries like Pakistan, for these countries that don’t have nearly the rights we have.”

And Katie is still up in the air, but is “looking into public policy and political science, maybe even going into the government realm or the non-profit realm—an area where I can help girls in this country who are struggling for an education…I would even love to be President one day—set your hopes and standards high! I’ve got a few years.”

Wherever they end up individually, they all see themselves coming together again in the future to continue their mission. Colleen summed it up: “I think it’s exciting because we all took this initiative and we’re running with it now with our futures.  And I feel like we’re all going to go our separate directions, but say, Katie’s in politics, and I’m staying here in America helping, and Jess is in Pakistan, and we can all come together. Because it all started at The Mount, and that’s what’s wonderful here. They say we create founders here, and the sisterhood is just so strong here. I came in as a freshman not knowing anyone and I’ve transformed. I think it goes to show that at The Mount it doesn’t matter who you are, we all come together. We all grow into leaders and founders.”

With this determination and drive, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see these women accepting their own Nobel Peace Prizes one day in the not so distant future.

Watch the video that started it all:

Watch Malala receiving the 2014 Liberty Medal:

Kathy McGee Burns

The Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association carefully matched its parade theme to its selection of grand marshal this year. The parade will honor families, and its grand marshal, Kathy McGee Burns, has a huge one: She’s the mother of nine children.

But there’s far more to Burns than motherhood on a grand scale. She sits on the boards of most of the Irish organizations in Philadelphia—and has headed most of them at one time or another. She has served as president of the Donegal Association, the parade board, is currently the president of the Delaware Valley Hall of Fame (which inducted her into the hall in 2012), and serves on the boards of the Irish Center, the Claddagh Fund, and the St. Malachy’s School Advisory Board. She was the driving force behind the direct mail campaign to raise money for the Irish Center this year and has thrown her support—financial and otherwise—behind the Duffy’s Cut project, whose board she now sits on. In 2010, she was one of the first recipients of the Inspirational Irish Women awards.

Read more about the woman who will be leading the parade here.

The parade will be held rain or shine on Sunday, March 15.

Musician Luke Jardel holds a photo of Emmett’s Tavern while Emmett Ruane shows off his new white apron, a gift from Jardel.

Emmett Ruane, whose Emmett’s Place tavern in Philadelphia gave birth to the careers of countless Irish musicians and provided a dance floor for countless Irish dancers, was one of four people inducted into the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame on Sunday night.

Joining Ruane at the head table at the Irish Center were Donegal-born Jim McGill, former president of the Philadelphia Ceili Group and the Donegal Association, whose daughter Rosaleen pointed out was her—and many other people’s—first introduction to the Irish heritage and culture he loves; and Frank and Bill Watson, twin brothers who persisted against all odds and donated hours of their time and thousands of dollars of their own money to keep the memory of 57 Irish immigrants who died violently at a railroad site called Duffy’s cut more than 130 years ago, victims of disease, fear, and intolerance.

The first Commodore John Barry Award was given posthumously to Barry himself, the Wexford-born Revolutionary War hero who is considered the father of the US Navy. He lived in Philadelphia and is buried in the graveyard of Old St. Mary’s Church, near Independence Hall and the large statue of Barry that sits behind. Accepting the award in Barry’s name was Barbara Jones, Irish Consul General in New York, who is from Wexford.

The award was first proposed by Frank Hollingsworth, a member of the Hall of Fame committee, who traces his ancestors back to Wexford.

More than 300 people attended the event, which is held annually at The Irish Center.
See our photos below.

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Declan Forde in the iconic scene from “Waking Ned Devine.”

Don’t order that Sierra Club calendar for 2015. The Irish Immigration Center of Greater Philadelphia has something better hitting the lucrative calendar market this year.

The Center’s full color 2015 calendar features photographs of more than 20 of the regulars at the weekly senior luncheon acting out iconic scenes from 12 popular Irish films of the last 60-some years, from “The Quiet Man” to “Once.”

The calendar idea was inspired by a similar calendar of classic films such as “Titanic” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” that were recreated by seniors at a German retirement center last year, says Siobhan Lyons, executive director of the Immigration Center, located in Upper Darby. “I thought it was an excellent idea and lots of fun. I thought it was something we could do, but with Irish films.”

The first person she approached was Declan Forde,79, a self-described “Cork rebel” who now lives in Havertown. “I spoke to Declan, who plays the character on the motorbike in ‘Waking Ned Devine,’ and told him I needed him to get naked for the Immigration Center, he said, ‘Name the date,’” says Lyons, laughing.

You can see Forde half-naked—just shirtless—on a motorbike on the October 2015 calendar page. Husband-and-wife Jim and Kathleen McCaffery appear as actors Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the sweet Irish romance “Once,” strolling down Grafton Street, which is played in the calendar by Elfreth’s Alley in Philadelphia. Tom McArdle was cast as the John Wayne character, Sean Thornton, and redheaded Kathleen Murtagh as Mary Kate Danaher, played by Maureen O’Hara, in the movie, “The Quiet Man.” The “cottage” was portrayed by the Fireside Room of the Irish Center in Mt. Airy. And Barney Boyce donned a brown wig to be Darby O’Gill joking around with the leprechaun, played by Jimmy Meehan in crown, green cape, and white knee socks, from “Darby O’Gill and the Little People”—a photo that required a little perspective trickery.

The Immigration Center partnered with www.irishphiladelphia.com to produce the calendar, which is on sale now online.

“What we think makes our calendar a standout is that we didn’t have a large budget, green screens, or bought costumes,” says Lyons. “We took the idea of the film and interpreted it the best we could with Philadelphia scenes. Where would this have happened in Philadelphia? So it really has a Philly flavor to it.”

Along with Elfreth’s Alley and the Irish Center, the latter which provided the back drop for “Darby O’Gill,” “The Quiet Man,” “The Field,” “My Left Foot,” and “The Commitments,” the photos were shot at McGillin’s Olde Ale House on Drury Lane in Center City (“Michael Collins”), Valley Green in Fairmount Park (“Waking Ned Devine”), the Italian Market (“Agnes Browne”), Harrowgate Gym in Kensington (“The Boxer”) and the Upper Darby Police Department (“The Guard”).

Many of the locations even have an Irish connection. “McGillin’s is the oldest Irish pub in the city,” says Lyons. “The Upper Darby police station—there are plenty of Irish there. If you look at the census, most of the original residents of Elfreth’s Alley were Irish people who worked as weavers and linen workers. And the Italian market? Well, a lot of our people married their people!”

The Irish community also helped. The seniors created their own costumes and props with the help of Leslie Alcock, the social worker from County Carlow who runs the senior programs at the center. (She’s listed as “key grip” in the calendar credits, but she was also prop girl, lighting director, and senior wrangler, among other things.)

AOH/LAOH Div 25’s Pearse and Liz Kerr connected the Center with Charlie Sgrillo of the Harrowgate Boxing Club to arrange to photograph Pete McEneany in his role of Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Boxer” at the club in Kensington which regularly hosts Irish boxers in the summer in AOH-sponsored bouts. Sgrillo even taped McEneany’s hands to make the photo look more authentic.

Gary O’Neill of Drexel Hill responded to an Irish Philadelphia Facebook request for a motor scooter for the “Waking Ned Devine” scene. One Saturday, he hitched his cherry red, nonfunctional Honda scooter to the bed of his truck and drove it to Valley Green where he, his daughter, Eve, and friend, Brian McCaul, unloaded it and set it up. “We were going to use Declan’s son’s motorcycle, but Declan has two artificial hips and he was not getting a leg over a motorbike,” explains Lyons. He had no trouble with the scooter, though taking his shirt off on a cool autumn day was a little daunting.

Besides making some money for the Center’s senior programs, Lyons hopes that the calendar will make people think a little differently about the elderly. “There’s a stereotype that older people are just sitting down in wooly slippers waiting to die,” she says. “Working at the Irish Immigration Center, I have another view. If they were devils at 15, they’re still devils when they’re 75 and heaven help us, they worse because they don’t care anymore what people think!”

The making of the calendar proved to be so much fun—“we laughed through the whole thing,” says Lyons– that now more of the seniors want to be in next year’s production, theme still undetermined. “We might have to be doing some large crowd scenes,” she laughs.

The Irish Immigration Center 2015 Calendar sells for $20 ($15 for seniors; $4.95 postage) with discounts available for bulk purchases. You can purchase yours from the Irish Immigration Center starting on Monday, or pre-order at the online store.

Check out our photos below–some are actual calendar photos, others, outtakes from the shoots.

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