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The Year That Was: 2012

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Where do we start?

How about parades? There’s no shortage of St. Patrick’s Day parades in the Philadelphia. The biggest and longest one by far is the Philadelphia parade, and it really brings together most of the major aspects of Philadelphia Irish life, from Ancient Order of Hibernians divisions to Gaelic Athletic Association teams to Irish dance schools. The Philly parade gave us one extra special reason to cheer: The Divine Providence Rainbow Irish Dancers, who won an award for their first performance in the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We’re so proud of them.

There were festivals, too, including the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival, the Penn’s landing Irish Festival, the Scottish-Irish Midwinter Festival, and many others. We were there for most of them.

We spent an awful lot of time at Irish music concerts. We clapped along to the clatter of hard-shoe dancing. We applauded the local pageant winners, including Norristown’s own Meghan Davis, who became the 2012 International Mary from Dungloe.

The North American Gaelic Athletic Association championships came to Philly this year, and we were there for most of. We celebrated the championships of three local teams: the Notre Dames, Young Irelands and Eire Ogs. We also spent a lot of time along the sidelines at Cardinal Dougherty High School football field during the summer, as the local teams battled it out among themselves in the games leading up to the North American championship.

One championship that wasn’t decided locally was the all-Ireland Gaelic football win of the team from Donegal. There was substantially more than a passing interest in the outcome of that championship, given the many local folks with roots in Donegal. One of the most thrilling moments in the entire Irish Philly year came the night the Donegal coach, along with two of his all-star players, visited the Philadelphia Irish Center, bringing the Sam Maguire Cup with them.

Truth be told, we shot several thousand photographs throughout the year, at more Irish events than we can count. It’s hard to remember them all. (And no, it’s not because we’re older than dirt.) It was a real job just to narrow things down to 295 photos.

Anyhow, we’ve put together quite the photo essay, some our best moments and best pics. Check them out, above.

December 22, 2012 by Jeff Meade

Music, People

Nearly a Wrap

Just about a year ago, we started a CD recording project, gradually bringing together some of Philly’s best Irish music and artists on one great little disc. Roughly half of the tracks are original, recorded at Milkboy Studios in Center City; the rest were donated by many of our nearest and dearest friends. The result is “Ceili Drive: The Music of Irish Philadelphia.

As we’ve noted in the past, “Ceili Drive” features terrific contibutions from three of Philadelphia’s major musical families, the Boyces, the Brennans, and the McGillians; several of our youngest, scary-good musicians, including three rising stars under the age of 13 who’ve already competed twice in the All-Irelands; plus a stellar group of Irish-born musicians who now call Philadelphia home.

We’ve reached a point where we can now show you the cover, which we have finalized. Next up: Duplication, and that begins next week. It should take a couple of weeks more to wrap things up. Sorry we couldn’t be ready for Christmas, but hey … you’re definitely going to want to have a copy of “Ceili Drive” for St. Patrick’s Day, which will be here before you know it. And really, do you need a reason to treat yourself to the best Irish music in Philly?

In addition to the CD cover preview, will whet your appetite with a preview of some of the tracks.

The Milkboy Set

Father Kelly’s, Pigeon on the Gate, Over The Moor To Maggie (trad.); Mountain Road (Michael Gorman)
Kevin and John McGillian (button accordion); Jimmy McGillian (banjo); Tim Hill (uilleann pipes); Caitlin Finley and Chris Brennan Hagy (fiddle); Tom O’Malley (guitar); Dave Hanson (bodhran)

Click here to play: Milkboy Set

Peggy Gordon

Karen Boyce McCollum, John Boyce, and Michael Boyce

Click here to play: Peggy Gordon

Traver’s, Tinker’s Daughter

The Next Generation Kids: Haley Richardson, Alex Weir, Alanna Griffin, Blair Cunningham, and Patrick Glennan (fiddle); Dylan Richardson (guitar); Keegan Loesel (tin whistle); with Dennis Gormley (flute) and Kathy DeAngelo (fiddle)

Click here to play: Next Generation

Stay tuned for ordering info!

December 14, 2012 by Jeff Meade

Dance, People

Dancing to the Spirit of Christmas

Colleen and Noreen soak up the applause after their duet.

Before the show started, Kathleen Madigan, dressed in her dark green velvet Irish dance costume, made the announcement. The audience had to be patient. Some of the dancers needed a little extra time to get into place.

The audience was more than patient as the Divine Providence Village Rainbow Irish Dancers, a group of developmentally disabled women at the Catholic Charities-supported community, joined with the Irish Stars Parker School of Irish Dance from Hellertown for their first Christmas recital. They were enthralled–and maybe, at some points, a little bit teary eyed.

The dancers performed a dozen numbers, this little group that started less than two years ago, the offshoot of an every-other-Saturday Irish dance class that Madigan was teaching. The troupe was born when Madigan, former nutritionist at Divine Providence and a student at the Parker School, realized that some of the women were pretty good dancers–and terrific performers. Their first recital followed their first-ever appearance at the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day parade last March, where they earned the Mary Theresa Dougherty Award for the outstanding organization dedicated to serving God’s people in the community. The women also performed on the field during Irish Heritage Night at the Phillies in June. They’ve learned many more dances since then, says Madigan. Enough to have a holiday recital.

The Christmas Show was held at the Cardinal Krol Center in Springfield, Montgomery County, on Sunday, December 2. Proceeds from the show will go toward buying the dancers logo jackets to wear at the parade.

December 6, 2012 by Denise Foley

News, People

Big Benefit for “Wee Oscar”

Organizers Brian McGarrity and Charlie Lord

A little boy from Belfast continues to hold a special place in the hearts of the Philadelphia Irish community.

Everywhere you looked at a jam-packed fundraiser at Tír na nÓg Bar & Grill in Center City on Sunday, there were reminders of Oscar Knox, a 4-year-old boy from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder and high risk neuroblastoma, a quite rare and aggressive childhood cancer.

Guests wore commemorative “Wee Oscar” T-shirts, pictures of the smiling boy flashed by on monitors throughout the bar, and musicians like John Byrne and Seamus Kelleher, who donated their time, never passed up a chance to remind everyone why they were there.

The grand total raised: $27,000.

On Sunday, organizer Brian McGarrity couldn’t even hazard a guess as to how much money was pouring into the local fund’s coffers—but he knew it was going to be big.

“We had sold maybe 200 to 250 tickets beforehand. I would say we might have sold at least another 100 to 150 at the door,” said McGarrity, straining to be heard over the happy crowd noise.

Perhaps no one should have been surprised by the outcome. At an October bake sale at Sacred Heart Parish in Havertown, Delaware County, McGarrity, his wife Laurie, and friends had hoped for a profit of $1,000; they wound up with $8,000.

The McGarritys and their friends first came to know Oscar Knox when he and his parents, Steven and Leona, came to Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in early October for a course of immunotherapy for his cancer. In a heartbreaking turn of events, Oscar developed pulmonary hypertension, an also rare condition affecting the lungs and heart. He had to discontinue immunotherapy and return home to North Ireland.

“We’re originally from Northern Ireland (County Tyrone), where Oscar is from,” said McGarrity. “It’s very, very big news in Northern Ireland. We had seen from watching the news from home that this little guy was coming to CHOP for treatment. There were a few of us who put together a hamper to send down to the family. Aisling Travers and Fidelma McGroary brought it down. That kind of got a connection going with the family, and then it just progressed.”

Despite the bad news and the family’s return to Northern Ireland, there’s still plenty of reason to continue aiding the family, McGarrity said.

“We wanted to keep the momentum going because everything we raise goes directly to the family to help them with living costs so they can concentrate on Oscar’s situation. They won’t have to worry about bills. We started out thinking we would be able to raise maybe a month or two worth of bill money, but it has progressed to be a lot, lot more than that.”

Of course, nothing as successful as the Sunday fundraiser happens without plenty of help. Among others, McGarrity said, Laurence Banville of Irish Network-Philadelphia, Celtic Clothing entrepreneur Charlie Lord, and Tir na Nog general manager Roger Power were a huge help.

All that work clearly paid off, McGarrity said, looking around the bar crawling with guests. “In our wildest dreams, we never thought it would be anything like this.”

Check out our photos.

December 6, 2012 by Jeff Meade

News, People

Open House at the Irish Center

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com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/hollingsworth-270×300.jpg” alt=”Frank Hollingsworth” width=”270″ height=”300″ /> Frank Hollingsworth

Never volunteer. That’s the old saying. Frank Hollingsworth doesn’t believe it, and it’s a good thing for the Philadelphia Irish Center/Commodore Barry Club.

Hollingsworth, a member of the center’s board of directors, is close to realizing a goal he set for himself several weeks ago: launching the first-ever “Irish Gathering,” a kind of open house for the rambling facility at Carpenter Lane and Emlen Street in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia—home to the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Emerald Society Pipe Band, the Danny Browne Ancient Order of Hibernians Division, the Philadelphia Ceili Group, the Cummins School of Irish Dance, and so much more.

“This idea has been sort of on my mind for a while,” Hollingsworth says. “I’m a great believer in outreach, so I appointed myself outreach chairman.” With a good many old hands helping Hollingsworth pull everything together, the Irish Gathering should be an impressive affair.

The club is the living, breathing epicenter of Irish life in the Delaware Valley, and has been for years, but many Philly Irish folks are complete strangers to the place. Hollingsworth wants to bring them all into the Irish Center on Sunday, December 9, for a day of Gaelic schmoozing and socializing. He believes they’ll like what they see, and want to come back again and again.

“I know it’s been difficult to get people to come here, so I thought the thing to do would be to have an open house,” says Hollingsworth. “Some people have heard of the center, but they don’t know where it is. Where is Carpenter and Emlen? By doing this, it’ll let people know that there’s a lot going on here.”

Once upon a time, Hollingsworth himself was one of those curious strangers. Once drawn in, though, he knew he was going to be a regular. “I came here, and signed up to be a member. Then I volunteered to work in the Irish Center library, and then I stayed.”

The Irish Gathering promises to expose visitors to all of the groups and organizations that meet in the center on a regular basis. The open house begins at 10, fittingly, with a full Irish breakfast. The cost is $10.

After that, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Vince Gallagher and Marianne MacDonald will present a live airing of their Sunday Irish radio shows. From 1 to 6 p.m., you can check out many local Irish organizations, including the Cummins School of Irish Dance, the Philadelphia Emerald Society Pipe Band, the Next Generation youth Irish music group, John Shields and his adult Irish dance group, Rince Ri School of Irish Dance, the Timoney dancers, the Philadelphia Ceili Group, the Danny Browne AOH division, and more. You’ll also get to hear some great Irish music, performed by Terry Kane, and Kevin McGillian and Friends.

If you’re looking for a great Christmas gift, you can check out the vendor tables. You can also pick up some great books, signed by the authors who will be on hand, including Tom Lyons (“You Can’t Get to Heaven on the Frankford El”); Tim McGrath (“John Barry: An American Hero in the Age of Sail”), and Frank himself, co-author of “Northeast Philadelphia: A Brief History.” Marita Krivda Poxon, who is on the verge of publishing a book about the Irish in Philadelphia will also be there, Hollingsworth says.

For more details, visit the Irish Center website.

News, People

Irish Hall of Fame Inductees Honored

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=”http://irishinphilly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/front-photo.jpg” alt=”” width=”380″ height=”356″ /> Maureen Brett Saxon, vice president of the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, presents the award to Siobhan Lyons, executive director of the Irish Immigration Center and the Brehon Law Society.

It’s hard to recall what drew the most laughs—longtime Irish Edition newspaper photographer Tom Keenan asking how many people in the crowd of more than 400 at the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame dinner Sunday night he he’d never photographed (then whipping out his camera to capture the three people who raised their hands) or Montgomery County Court Judge Kelly Wall revealing that her mother, president of the organization, “thought gourmet cooking was putting a can of fruit cocktail into a can of baked beans.”

There were plenty of laughs—and a few tears during emotional speeches—at the 12th annual awards ceremony at the Irish Center in Philadelphia during which Keenan, Burns, and Irish Immigration Center Executive Director Siobhan Lyons were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Burns is retiring this year after 7 years as president of the organization, which honors those who have made significant contributions to the Delaware Valley Irish community. Also honored this year with a special award was the Irish American Business Chamber and Network, founded 13 years ago by entrepreneur Bill McLaughlin to build a business bridge between the US and Ireland.

We were there and took photos. See the celebration here.

People

A Leprechaun, Remembered

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Pete Hand remembers the point at which Ed Slivak decided to become a leprechaun.

Hand, who was then president of Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 1 in Swedesburg, says he was sitting around the club one night, and Slivak came over and popped the question.

“He walked up, and he said, ‘Do you mind if I dress up like a leprechaun?’ I said, ‘Sure, you look like one, anyway.’”

And he really did. Edward J. Slivak, who died this week at the age of 70, was small of stature, with a face that always looked like he was ready to ask a question. The turned-up nose, the laughing eyes, and the little scruffy beard completed the picture. It didn’t take much makeup to complete the transition. After he added a set of latex pointed ears, tinted his beard orange, and donned the green bowler hat (sometimes a crumpled top hat), that’s who and what he was.

The women of the division’s Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians helped Slivak flesh out the other elements of his wardrobe―jacket, vest, bow tie, knee pants, athletic socks with green and orange stripes, and green Converse All-Stars. “He looked good,” says Hand.

(Slivak’s own recollection of events was a little different. In a 2010 interview shortly after he was named Grand Marshal of the Montgomery County St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Slivak said his outfit wasn’t quite all there yet: “I looked like an immigrant, just off the boat.” He also confessed to not being completely at home in the role at first: “I felt a little goofy. I thought, here I am a grown man dressing up as a leprechaun.”)

In time, Slivak reached his comfort level, and then some―maybe because there was a lot more to being a leprechaun, in his view, than just dressing the part. His leprechaun had a charitable heart.

“He always remembered being sick in a hospital when he was a kid, and he really liked to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House (at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children),” says Hand.

Current Division President Mark Ryan says Slivak was tireless in his pursuit of the greater good. “He was the one who came up with the idea of collecting money for the children’s hospital. He did a lot of events, like our annual Irish Festival in Montclare and the Scottish-Irish festival at Green Lane. He always seemed to enjoy it very much, and he loved to take pictures with the kids. What he did was important. He really exemplified our values. Charity is one of the things the AOH is about.”

Slivak kept it up until 2009, when he became ill at the end of the Montgomery County St. Patrick’s Day in Conshohocken. Someone gave him a ride home, and that was the last thing he remembered until waking up in Montgomery Hospital. He had suffered a debilitating stroke. After he returned home to his wife Gi (short for Virginia) and a little pug dog named General Patton, he began several long, trying months of rehabilitation.

In spite of it all, he counted himself lucky to be alive. “I think the Lord was calling me for judgment day,” he recalled in his 2010 interview. “But St. Patrick, St. Brendan and St. Bridget all went to the Lord, and they gave me a little extra time on earth.”

Slivak, of course, is not an Irish name. Growing up in Fishtown, he took the name of his stepfather, whom he recalled as “a good man.” His mother Clare had roots in Cork and Donegal, however.

After working for 25 years as a tearsheet clerk at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, Slivak and his wife moved to Swedesburg in 2001. AOH Division 1, up the hill on Jefferson Street, beckoned, and the curious Slivak joined the same year―even though he only had a vague notion what the AOH was all about. “I remember, I didn’t know what the initials stood for,” Slivak said in his interview. “But in the past 10 years I’ve learned a lot more about being a Catholic and Irish.”

Once in, Slivak was completely in. His commitment to the AOH was noticed and appreciated: in 2007, he was the division’s Hibernian of the Year. “He made a lot of friends,” Hand recalls. “But he wasn’t hard to make friends with. He was just a good guy.”

Funeral arrangements for Slivak have been announced. Learn more here.

November 15, 2012 by Jeff Meade