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A local theater company that specializes in contemporary plays from Ireland and the UK, an Irish radio host, a local attorney and a state legislator with Irish ties were in the news in the past two weeks–and it was all good.

The Inis Nua Theatre Company, which brings contemporary Irish and UK plays to the stage in Philadelphia, won five awards at the annual Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theater this week. Four awards went to the company’s musical, Midsummer, which took home honors in outstanding musical direction, outstanding lead actress in a musical (Liz Filios), outstanding direction of a musical (Kate Galvin) and outstanding overall production of a musical .

Inis Nua also won the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an evolving theater company which carries with it a $10,000 prize.

Tom Reing is artistic director for the 11-year-old theater company.

Marianne MacDonald, host of the popular Sunday morning Irish radio show, Come West Along the Road (noon, 800 AM), was the recipient of the Mayo President’s Award at the recent Mayo Ball at the Irish Center in Philadelphia. She also operates dance and musical tours to Ireland, Cape Breton, and other locales

Theresa Flanagan Murtagh, counsel for Murtagh Brothers Inc. in Newtown Square, was named to the Irish Legal 100, a list of top people of Irish descent in the legal profession by the Irish Voice newspaper. Murtagh is a graduate of the Villanova University School of Law and a former assistant district attorney in Delaware County.

Brendan Boyle of Philadelphia becomes the only son of Irish immigrants to serve in the US Congress. A state legislator from District 170 whose family has ties to Donegal and Sligo, Boyle was elected to Congress this week from the 13th District, which includes parts of eastern Montgomery County and northeast Philadelphia.

News, People

New Help for Vets: Horse Therapists

Janet Brennan, Max Resnick, and therapy horse, Windy.

Janet Brennan, Max Resnick, and therapy horse, Windy.

Janet Brennan had never been around horses, couldn’t ride and, she admits sheepishly, “didn’t even know how to handle them,” when the Furlong woman bought her first animal, a quarter horse mare she named Irish, in 1998.

It didn’t make a lot of sense—she traveled the world all but four days of every month as a clinical research nurse in the pharmaceutical industry. But Irish fulfilled a long-buried yearning she’d had since she was a child. “I’ve always loved and been drawn to horses,” she says.

It wasn’t long after that another longing emerged—one that totally mystified her. “I kept thinking I wanted to get involved in equine therapy and I wasn’t really sure what it was,” says Brennan, who also spent six years as an ER nurse.

Equine therapy, often called equine-assisted therapy, is an unusual but well-studied treatment that uses horses to help treat a variety of conditions, from helping autistic children learn to connect to improving muscle tone in people with cerebral palsy.

“I feel it’s a calling, that I was being pulled in this direction,” said Brennan who last month, opened Shamrock Reins, an equine therapy center for military vets, first responders, and their families, on 22 acres in Pipersville, Bucks County. (“Shamrock” stands for “Special Horses Assisting with Miracles and Recovery Offering Comfort and Kindness,” but it also reflects Brennan’s Irish roots, also evident in the horses’ names: Irish, Dublin, Clancy Donegal, Paddy, Emerald. . . .)

And she had confirmation that she was being led by unseen forces to her second career the day the certified therapeutic riding instructor she’d hired called at the last minute and told her she wasn’t going to take the job. “I had 15 minutes of pure panic. Then, in the middle of that,” she says, “the phone rang.”

It was a man named Max Resnick, a 23-year Navy veteran, who heard through the director of another equine therapy program that Brennan was looking for someone. Like Brennan, Resnick loved horses from the time he was young. Growing up in New York City, he was glued to the family’s tiny black-and-white TV every morning incongruously watching the farm reports while other kids his age were being hypnotized by Tom & Jerry cartoons.

“I got my first opportunity to ride right before I became a teenager,’ says Resnick, and he continued to ride even after joining the Navy. “They don’t allow horses on a ship,” he jokes, so he begged and borrowed rides in every port of call, from Scotland to Guam. Once he retired, he got his certification from PATH, the Professional Association of Horsemanship, International, one of the largest organizations of its kind in the world. He was determined to make his second career one that involved the horses he’d loved all his life.

“I am 100 percent certain that God sent him to me,” says Brennan, a trim, red-haired woman with the calm easy manner of someone used to being around both patients and horses. “There’s no one better than a veteran to understand the problems of other veterans.”

The daughter of a Vietnam veteran, Brennan was drawn to the plight of today’s combat veterans, nearly 300,000 of whom have suffered a traumatic brain injury and a quarter of whom have “invisible wounds,” often debilitating psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder. “There’s estimated to be as many as 24 suicides a day among combat vets,” she says.

Horses are uniquely suited as therapy animals for people with emotional issues. They’re the original empathetic listeners. “Horse are a mirror of your mind and your behavior,” says Brennan. “They sense your energy, your emotional state. If you’re anxious, they’ll be anxious. If you’re relaxed, they’ll relax.”

They are, in fact, like all prey animals, says Resnick. “Their survival depends on their ability to be alert to whatever might be a danger to them.”

For a combat vet who might be keeping sharp-edged feelings sheathed, hidden even from himself, “the horse becomes the therapist,” Resnick says, reflecting back what it senses from the hand that grooms her or the rider on her back. “When the vets start talking about the horse, it doesn’t take them long to realize they’re talking about themselves,” he says.

There are other benefits to working with horses. For one thing, they’re forgiving—and forgetful—if they’re treated with affection and kindness. “You do something that’s not what you should be doing and you have three seconds to tell them it’s okay, you didn’t mean it, and they forget it. Three seconds. They teach us how to live in the moment,” Resnick says with a smile.

There’s also a sense of mastery in being able to control and animal that outweighs you by at least 900 pounds, sometimes more. Horses can be scary, even if you’ve been trained for war. “My son who is six-feet tall, 250 pounds, and is a hand-to-hand combat instructor went with his wife to a stable near Fort Benning,” says Resnick, grinning as he tells the story. “He was in the paddock when one of the horses snorted. Mr. Able-To-Leap-Tall-Buildings was suddenly outside the paddock, not even sure how he got there. He told the woman at the barn, ‘That horse hates me.’ She said, ‘The horse just sneezed.’ They’re big animals, and if you don’t know anything they can be frightening.” He laughed.

As an RN who worked in clinical research, Brennan was interested in the scientific evidence behind equine-assisted therapy, particularly for combat vets with PTSD and traumatic brain injury. It wasn’t hard to find. In fact, a study reported in a recent issue of The Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development found that vets who started out deeply depressed and isolated—some hadn’t left their homes in a year or more–became more sociable as the result of working with horses and human equine therapists. Most of the vets told researchers they found the horse to be “intuitive,” “a good listener,” and “compassionate.” Many said that working with the horses helped them build trust with the humans in their lives. “I talk to people, I shake people’s hands,” one vet said. “When you’re with a horse, they give you kindness and compassion and love and they don’t expect anything,” another participant wrote.

Brennan, who with Resnick is now in the process of making the connections to bring vets and first responders and their families to the program, has talked to combat veterans herself, many of whom have been through similar programs. “Every single one says the same thing—once you get one, more will come. When they leave, they tell everyone they know. One of them told me, ‘you’d better have a lot of programs, because once we come, we won’t stop coming.’

“Our mission,” she says, “is to create life-changing experiences for people who’ve had their lives changed not in positive ways. If I can save someone from committing suicide, I’ve done what I’ve had to do.”

You can become involved in Shamrock Reins in many ways—as a participant (all of the programs are free); as a volunteer; and as a donor. The organization is a 501 (c)(3) charity, so all donations are tax deductible. Go to their website for more information.

On Sunday, Blackthorn is performing at a fundraiser for the organization at Spring Hill Manor in Ivyland.

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News, People

Philadelphia City Council Honors Its Rose

Philadelphia City Councilman Bobby Henon and Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh

Philadelphia City Councilman Bobby Henon and Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh

The Philadelphia City Council on Thursday honored International Rose of Tralee, Maria Walsh of Philadelphia, with a proclamation congratulating her on bringing the Rose crown to the city.

The event occurred during the regular business meeting of the council on the fourth floor of City Hall. Walsh brought a cheering section with her, including Karen Conaghan Race of the Philadelphia Rose Center. Walsh, who was born in Boston, raised in Shrule, County Mayo, and now makes Philadelphia her home, was the first Philadelphian to become an International Rose since the center started a decade ago.

Since she was crowned in August, Walsh, who is studio manager at Anthropologie, a fashion brand headquartered in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard complex, has been shuttling back and forth between the US and Ireland. And on Friday, she was scheduled to leave for Calcutta, India. for a week-long stint with Hope Foundation, a nonprofit that works with vulnerable children and families.

Below you can see some of our photos from “Rose of Tralee Day” in Philadelphia this week.

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News, People

McKenna’s Irish Shop Is Saying Goodbye

Pat Durnin, outside McKenna's Irish Shop in Havertown

Pat Durnin, outside McKenna’s Irish Shop in Havertown

McKenna’s Irish Shop started in Anne Gallagher McKenna’s tiny living room more than 35 years ago, when neighbors would traipse in on Friday night to see the sweaters, mittens, scarves and vests Anne had knitted and place their orders.

“She’d clear off the dining room table and there’d be sweaters and scarves all over the table, the couch, hung up in the corners,” recalls her son-in-law, Pat Durnin, who with his wife, Nancy, eventually took Mrs. McKenna’s little business and ran it in Ardmore, in the current location on Darby Road in Havertown, and, for seven years, in Sea Isle City, NJ.

In the old days, customers would find Mrs. McKenna sitting at a table in the middle of her store, having a cup of tea and knitting. Many would sit down with her and share a cup. “At Christmas, you got a little shot of whiskey,” remembers Durnin with a smile.

But those were other times, before the heady economic days of the Celtic Tiger sent salaries and prices soaring in Ireland and altered the face of Ireland’s cottage industries. Anne Gallagher McKenna died two years ago. The store that bears her name will close by Christmas this year, the victim of what Durnin calls “a perfect storm” of economic forces that has reduced the number of Irish shops in the US from 500 to less than 200. Locally, the Glenside Irish Shop closed over a year ago and two other stores seem to be faltering, says Durnin.

“In Ireland, wages went up, the cost of goods went up, and the cottage industry fell. A lot of the older people [who made Irish goods] have died off,” said Durnin this week, as two women looked over the sweaters and jewelry in the five-room store with its homey fireplace and sunny windows. “It’s expensive to pay people to stay out of the workplace to knit sweaters. It took Mrs. McKenna 40 hours to knit a sweater—that’s a week’s wage.”

That’s the reason why a fine Aran sweater can now cost $300 or more. When Mrs. McKenna began her business, says Durnin, it was before the Internet and email and she would personally visit knitters all over Ireland, most of them homemakers who were “happy to make a few extra shillings for the family.” The cost of making the woolen goods wasn’t as high as it is today.

Then, in 2008, the world economy crashed. Suddenly there wasn’t any money for extras. Waterford Crystal—that fallback wedding gift—went into bankruptcy. Companies that made Irish goods “couldn’t afford to make it at home so they went offshore,” says Durnin. “People don’t want to buy something Irish that’s made in Indonesia.”

And people changed too. “The table top industry crashed,” says Durnin. “You couples aren’t buying 12- piece sets of Beleek china. Most of them don’t have dining rooms, unless they have McMansions, and even if they do, they don’t want to have to store it for the times when they use it. They pick out something that they’ll change every five or 10 years when they don’t like the pattern anymore.”

The store phone starts to ring and Durnin excuses himself to answer it. The call illustrates yet another pressure on McKenna’s and other Irish shops—the price of gold. The woman on the phone wants a St. Brigid’s Cross in gold as a gift for her niece, who is making her confirmation. He doesn’t carry them in stock, he tells her, a pained look spreading across his face. But yes, he can order one for her. He hangs up the phone. “Wait till she see the price,” he says, shaking his head.

Gold jewelry, particularly wedding ring sets, used to be a big part of the shop’s business. “There was a time when Irish wedding rings, like Claddaghs, were really hip and we sold so many of them, even to people who couldn’t even spell Ireland,” says Durnin. “Then, a popular ring set for both man and woman would cost $700. Today, a lady’s ring alone is $900. For the past three years, the price of gold has gone up and up to $2,000 an ounce at one point. “

Not only can’t many couples afford them, there’s a smaller profit for the retailers, says Durnin.

And the last “piece of the puzzle,” as Durnin puts it? Probably the Internet, where today you can get everything from groceries to a date for Saturday night.

“I understand that. We have two sons, 23 and 28, and the older one doesn’t know what the inside of a store looks like,” says Durnin, laughing ruefully. “I talked to a lot of people about it and the local community doesn’t really realize what happens when you you’re not supporting local businesses. Mom-and-pop stores are the lifeblood of a community,” he says.

For one thing, without them, downtowns become nothing more than strip malls of franchises selling Starbucks’ coffee, Subway sandwiches, and Hallmark gifts. Neighborliness, the personal touch—seeing a storeowner knitting while drinking her cuppa, for example—is part of the social fabric of a community, its charm. When the change comes, as it has to many communities across the US, that element of a town, unquantifiable for the purposes of a spread sheet, becomes lost forever.

Durnin and his wife didn’t make their decision overnight. “It took us a long time to come to this reality,” he says. “We really did this as a labor of love, but financially, it wasn’t going to be a good finish. We decided that we had to make this decision with our heads, not our hearts.”

He made the announcement earlier this week on Facebook. “I had to have a few cocktails after I hit send,” he admitted.

The store will remain open through the Christmas season and after that, Durnin says, he’ll be moving ahead with another plan—one that might keep McKenna’s corner as Irish as it is now. But it’s still in such an early stage he doesn’t want to talk about it. “We’re pretty excited about it,” he says. “I hope it works.”

Food & Drink, News, People

A New Brew Pub Comes to Town

Second Story's John Wible and Ken Merriman

Second Story’s John Wible and Ken Merriman

The twos were just too overwhelming to ignore.

When native Dubliner Ken Merriman was looking for a name for his new brew pub, Second Story Brewery seemed like a natural. It’s at 117 Second Street, a few steps from Front Street, in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood. The gleaming stainless steel brewing vats that once held Triumph Brewing’s craft beers are on the second floor of the 19th century former cotton and silk warehouse.

And it’s a second story—meaning a real passion for something–for Merriman, his partner, Debbie Grady, and brewer John Wible. “Deb is a farmer (Tilted Barn Farm in Pottstown) and we’re going to be using the wheat, hops, barley and probably yeast from her farm to make the beer,” explained Merriman last week during an invite-only preview that served as a dry run for the pub. “John is an IT guy in Cherry Hill who started as a home brewer. And me, I’ve been drinking beer all my life and now I’m making it!” He laughs.

It’s a second story in another way for Merriman, who grew up in the hotel/restaurant business. It’s his second Philly restaurant adventure. He was until fairly recently the general manager and partner at Tir na Nog at 16th and Arch and continues to run District Riverton Bistro in Riverton, NJ, where he lives.

Serendipity brought the three together. Merriman and Grady met years ago on the rugby field while watching their sons play for St. Joseph’s Prep. Wible is married to Grady’s daughter who started him on his obsession with beer making when she suggested he “find something to do with my time” while she was living temporarily in Vancouver.

“I didn’t know anything about home brewing but then I found a place close to my office that sold the equipment,” says Wible, 29. “Within two months, my new hobby had become a serious obsession.”

It was something of a learning curve to go from making 10 gallons to 500 gallons, but Wible started brewing and testing his own tried and true recipes on a grander scale for Second Story back in July and has 8-10 winners that will be available, along with a few ciders and six outside beers, including Guinness, and a test line done in 10 gallon batches. There’s also a beer engine at the bar for naturally carbonating beer as it’s pumped from the cask which adds a different texture to the beer, explains Wible.

“He’s really not happy about that Guinness,” Merriman confided later with a grin. “He says he’s working on a good dry Irish stout for me so we may be carrying that.”

Like the craft beer, the food is also farm-to-table, including an imaginative array of “bar bites” like black bean egg rolls, sliders with tomato jam and manchego cheese, and grilled wings that are brined, then baked, then grilled.

And the venue, warmed by oak floors, exposed brick walls, a working fireplace, and heavy fire doors that date back to its warehouse days, does double duty—both as a restaurant and event space. There’s a large room with a separate bar upstairs that can handle large parties.

Surprisingly, in a big beer town like Philly—where one section of the city is called Brewerytown—there are only a handful of brew pubs so Second Story doesn’t have lots of competition and certainly not in its neighborhood.

“Philly is a huge craft beer town but what it has is craft breweries,” says Merriman. One of the latest, for example, is St. Benjamin’s in Kensington, where they brew and deliver beer to local bars but don’t yet have a pub (one is in the planning stage). “If you go to a place like Denver, for instance, there are brew pubs on every corner,” Merriman says.

The brew pub is even catching on in Ireland, where traditional pubs are in decline. “I got a great laugh the last time I was in Ireland,” Merriman says. “The Irish were always trashing American beer. When I was back there in February and on the computer researching brew pubs, when I came across six or seven of them in Ireland and they were all advertising ‘American style craft beers.’” He laughed. “I just loved it.”

 

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Arts, History, Music, News, People

Duffy’s Cut: A Voice in the Arts

Matt Patterson, Walt Hunter, Bill Daly, Pat McDade, Anna McGillicuddy, Bill Watson, Earl Schandelmeier and Frank Watson

Matt Patterson, Walt Hunter, Bill Daly, Pat McDade, Anna McGillicuddy, Bill Watson, Earl Schandelmeier and Frank Watson

 

They’ve been called the “forgotten souls” of Duffy’s Cut, but the 57 Irish railroad workers whose deaths in 1832 remained a mystery for nearly 180 years are now well on their way to achieving immortality.

The story of the immigrant laborers hired by Philip Duffy to work Mile 59 of the Pennsylvania-Columbia Railroad in Malvern, PA, but who died within six weeks of their arrival and were buried in a mass grave alongside the tracks, has captured the interest of the news media since it first came to light through the efforts of the Duffy’s Cut Project, led by Bill and Frank Watson, Earl Schandelmeier and the late John Ahtes.

But the story is far from finished (there is still much excavation work to be done, DNA testing, historical and genealogical research), and the impact of the discovery of the Duffy’s Cut site has significance that demands an audience far beyond the one it’s already found.

Irish Network Philadelphia President Bethanne Killian, who is also deeply involved with Duffy’s Cut, realized that the project has established a voice in the Arts. To promote awareness of the presence it’s found in film, music, theater, painting and literature, as well as to raise funds for the continuation of the work, she organized “Duffy’s Cut & the Arts: A Symposium.” Held at Immaculata University, where Bill Watson is both a professor and the History Department Chair (and it’s also the home of The Duffy’s Cut Museum as well as the center of the project), the Symposium was a daylong event that focused on the artistic achievements that are bringing Duffy’s Cut into greater public awareness.

“I’m still amazed at the number of people from the Philadelphia area who are completely unaware of Duffy’s Cut,” Bethanne explained. “Anyone I’ve shared the story with who hears it for the first time is fascinated and appalled. We need to get the word out there—this isn’t just for history buffs. This is a human story—and given its reach into the art world—the humanities as well.”

With an appearance by Irish Vice-Consul Anna McGillicuddy, who braved the trip down from New York for the occasion, the Symposium officially was underway.

Throughout the day, there was music provided by Vince Gallagher and his Band, Marian Makins (who sang Wally Page’s haunting song “Duffy’s Cut”), Pat Kenneally (who sang her original song “Duffy’s Cut” that won first place in the 2013 Pennsylvania Heritage Song Writing Competition), Karen Boyce McCollum, Rosaleen McGill, the band Irish Mist and Bill and Frank Watson on the bagpipes.

There were readings by poet John Bohannon who recited three poems from his collection, “The Barmaids of Tir na Nog,” writer Kelly Clark who has a forthcoming book called “Duffy’s Cut—A Novel” and writer Kristin Walker whose forthcoming book is titled “Between Darkness and the Tide.”

Maria Krivda Poxon performed scenes from her play “Ghost Stories of Duffy’s Cut” with actor Mal Whyte, there were showings of the documentaries “Ghosts of Duffy’s Cut” and “Death on the Railroad” and the presentation of the music video “57” from Kilmaine Saints.

A lot of interest was generated by the panel discussions. The first was “Duffy’s Cut and The Pennsylvania Railroad” with Bill and Frank Watson and Earl Schandelmeier. The second was titled “Duffy’s Cut: Why It Matters” featuring CBS3 news reporter Walt Hunter, film producer and director Bill Daly and actor and Drexel University Film Studies Professor Pat McDade.  Daly and McDade have partnered to form their own production company, Duffy’s Cut Films. They have three feature films in development, and first up is a movie based on Duffy’s Cut. They have the script written, and filming is scheduled to begin in Ireland in April of 2015.

Walt Hunter, who was the first Philadelphia area reporter to cover the Duffy’s Cut discovery explained why the story resonated with him from the beginning. “This was a no-brainer for me. My grandfather was a railroad engineer. He came over from Ballina in County Mayo…it is a very captivating story…at it’s most basic level it is a deeply human story of people with a hope, a dream…and everybody dead within six weeks.”

It was Pat McDade who summed up the the motivation behind the upcoming film he and Bill Daly are developing. “These guys who died, these 57 men, they’re the real Irish story, and we never hear that…here is the beginning of it. Because there are 8,000 other stories out there, about these hardworking, honest people that come to try and find America and don’t find it. And then some of them do. And we’ve got to make sure to get the story told.”

A CD titled “Songs of Duffy’s Cut” was introduced at the Symposium, with all proceeds going to raise money for the Duffy’s Cut Project. It will be available at future Duffy’s Cut events and may also become available for purchase online.

Check out our photos from the day’s events:

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Food & Drink, People

Memorable Monthly Mondays: The Senior Luncheon at The Irish Center

Sean McMenamin & Kathleen Murtagh Sharing a Laugh at the Irish Center Senior Luncheon

Sean McMenamin & Kathleen Murtagh Sharing a Laugh at the Irish Center Senior Luncheon

They call it the “Senior Luncheon,” but organizer Sean McMenamin thinks they need to come up with a more  dynamic moniker to characterize the monthly lunches at The Irish Center in Mt. Airy.

And anyone who has attended one of these social gatherings would agree that there is nothing “senior” about the energy and camaraderie that fill the room.

Co-sponsored by The Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia and The Commodore Barry Irish Center, and subsidized by the Irish government, the lunches take place at noon one Monday each month, and there is no cost to attend. There are also volunteers who coordinate a transportation schedule for those who want to attend, but don’t have a way of getting there.

The Immigration Center has held weekly luncheons for seniors for years at their home in Upper Darby, but Sean reached out to Siobhan Lyons, the Center’s Executive Director, to arrange an additional lunch at The Irish Center. “We started about 4 years ago, with 36 people attending the first one, and now that it’s been established, we get a regular crowd of about 100 people coming,” Sean explained.

So popular has the luncheon become, that in addition to the newsletters from the Immigration Center, there are also informal pipelines in place to make sure everyone knows the date of the upcoming lunch. Mary Cannon, of Hatboro, has a regular group of 10-18 people she brings with her. She calls her friends after she confirms the date with Leslie Alcock, the Director of Community Programs at the Immigration Center, and they get there about an hour early to make sure they can get their two tables. “I’ve been coming since they started the lunches. It’s really marvelous. They do a great job, the food is marvelous and I get to have lunch with all my friends,” she said.

Mary Jane Rogers and her husband Ted (a former president of the Mayo Society), are also devoted attendees. “We come pretty much every month. It’s a wonderful thing. I don’t know how they do it—and they don’t charge. There is always an abundance of good food. And they do a 50/50 raffle every month, with different prizes.” They usually share a table with their friends from the Irish Community: Betty and Tom Broderick, Arline and Wayne McKeever, Mike Lyons and Jim McDonald.

Talk to anyone at the luncheon, and the reaction is the unanimously the same: It’s a great time. Tom Staunton, who was among those who were at the very first event at The Irish Center, the Mayo Ball in November of 1958, expressed it this way, “It’s a social gathering. You get together with people you don’t see all the time, people you’ve known for a long time in a nice setting.”

Chickie Harvey (real first name Helen), is another regular. “I’ve been coming here for years. My husband Charles was a manager here for 2 years about 25-30 years ago, before he got sick. Now I come to these luncheons, and it’s a real good time. I’ve met a lot of nice people.”

Because the luncheons aren’t just for folks who have been lifetime members of the Irish Center; among the group that Mary Cannon brings with her are friends who were initially unfamiliar with the Mt. Airy home to the Irish community. But once they started to attend the luncheons, they’ve been coming back ever since. “It’s a welcoming place,” one of them said. “I just enjoy everything about it.”

For more information on which Monday of the month the luncheon will be held, or for assistance with transportation, contact Leslie Alcock at The Irish Immigration Center of Philadelphia at 610-789-6355.

And take a look at the fun that goes on there:

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Music, News, People

Last Call Tour for Singer Mary Black

Singer Mary Black

Singer Mary Black

Just a couple of years ago, Dublin-born singer Mary Black was touring the world with a new album, “Stories from the Steeples,” her twelfth studio album. This year, she’s taking what might be called a victory lap around the world, marking the last time she’ll be singing abroad. At 58, with grandchildren to cosset, she’ll be bringing her “Last Call Tour” to Phoenixville’s Colonial Theater on Friday, October 24, and drawing it to a close this spring in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK.

“Last Call” has an unmistakable finality about it. “I’m trying not to think about it too much,” said Black on the phone from her home in Ireland, where her daughter, Roisin, a singer-songwriter who will be opening for her, was making tea. “Cuppa tea, love,” she calls out to her. “I’m looking at her now,” she says into the phone. “I’d love a cuppa,” she says to Roisin.

Along with Roisin, Black has two sons with husband, Joe O’Reilly of Dara Records—Danny is part of the popular Irish group The Coronas and Conor “is the only one in the family with a real job,” she laughs. He’s a surveyor.

It was tough balancing motherhood and a music career that kept her away from home for weeks at a time. It occasionally burned her out—hence the long stretches between tours—and finally, she says, “I had enough of traipsing around.

“I’m not giving up singing,” she hastens to add. “I’ll still perform in Ireland and I may pop across the water to England and if the odd interesting festival pops its head up, I may go. But it’s time to call it a day.”

The tour coincides with the publication of Black’s autobiography, “Down the Crooked Road,” which she wrote, with Roisin’s help, at the request of Transworld Publishers—their second request for a book in two years. (The book was released in Ireland on October 9, but isn’t available in the US until late November.)

What made her say yes the second time?

“In light of my last world tour, if I ever needed to write my autobiography, this was the time,” she says. “Roisin stepped in, typing and drawing the stories out of me. She’s an avid reader and has a natural instinct for painting a picture and setting the scene. It’s hard to be objective about it because I was so involved in it, but I think for fans it will be a good read and will give them insights into who I am and how I handled the ups and downs of life.”

There are no big revelations, she says, but the “crooked road” reference is to more than just a line from one of her songs. “My life was all twists and turns all the way, little hills and dips,” she says. Fans may be surprised to learn that at the height of her career in the 1990s, Black was beset by depression. “It’s very personal, really, but I thought it was important to speak about these things because mental health issues are still a little bit taboo. At times it was a huge problem in my life, so it seems silly to write a book about my life an not say anything about that. At one stage it was really bad, probably the highest point in my life from a career standpoint, when I was really flying high—that was the toughest time. ”

She also struggled, like most working mothers, with the dreaded “work-life balance,” and she delves into the ways “the Catholic religion affected me,” both deep sources of guilt. “I was riddled with guilt and not even aware of it,” she admits. “When I finally realized I thought, well, what the hell was that about?”

Black was born into a musical family. Her father, who came from a rural part of Antrim, played the fiddle and other instruments. Her mother was a singer. Black began singing Irish traditional songs at the age of eight, and she and her four siblings, brothers Shay, Michael and Martin, and her sister, Frances, performed as The Black Family in little clubs around Dublin.

In the 1980s, Black joined a small folk group called General Humbert. They toured Europe and produced two albums. Then, in 1982, she put out her own solo album, Mary Black, which went gold in Ireland. She was part of the group De Dannan and the album, Anthem, which she recorded with them was named Irish Album of the Year.

Her subsequent solo efforts took her into new territory for someone who still sang centuries-old songs in Irish. She began to blend more contemporary tunes into the mix, drawing particularly from two songwriters she loved: Jimmy McCarthy, who wrote “Adam at the Window,” “Bright Blue Rose,” and “Wonder Child;” and the late Noel Brazil who wrote, among other songs, one of Black’s biggest hits, “Columbus,” from her “No Frontiers” album. “No Frontiers” was a career changer for Black. It stayed in the top 30 in Ireland for a year and went triple platinum. It’s also the album that won attention—and adoration—from a new group of American fans. She did her first American tour in 1991.

Though she has co-written several songs, Black does not come from the tradition of singer-songwriters, as her daughter and son are. Her gift and what she is recognized for is her remarkable voice, her interpretation of songs, and a talent for choosing the right material.

“Coming from a folky background, the tradition of writing isn’t there,” she explains. “You’re always on the lookout for a good song, something you hear at a session, but I never thought to pick up a pen. My real talent is interpretation, that’s what I’m good at. I leave the really good writing to people who are really good at it. If you’d ever heard Noel sing his own songs, you would not be impressed. He’s probably listening to me saying this from wherever he is.” She laughs. “But I would take them and put in a bit of magic, not change the lyrics but build on the arrangement. “

Nevertheless, the first piece of advice she gave to the offspring following in her footsteps was “Get the pen out and start writing. Number one, that’s where the money is,” she says, laughing again. “But you need to start from an early age learning the craft. When you’re younger you’re too full of emotions, with the ups and downs, the sadness and the heartbreak, and it’s easier to write when you’re vulnerable like that.”

Though she’s happy with her decision to pull the plug on extensive touring, Black admits that the words “last call,” when she does think about them, leave her “a bit emotional” knowing that this will be a final time she’ll be traveling this particular crooked road.

“But I’m looking forward to it and it’s great having Roisin with me and all the amazing musicians in the band,” she says. “As I said, I try not to think too much about it being the last tour, about it never happening again. I’m just going to try to enjoy it.”