Maureen McDade McGrory and her family, including daughters Sheila, right, and Maureen, left, who took over her school after her death.
Maureen McDade McGrory used to tag along when her dad’s band, The All-Ireland Orchestra, played at all the dances and Irish events in the Philadelphia. That was back in the day when the dances were where the newly arrived Irish would meet to start new friendships and where countless marriages were made.
She’d listen to the music but mostly she would dance. She begged her parents for lessons. Both Philadelphia-born but with roots in Donegal and Scotland, they agreed. She learned the proper steps with the late Sean Lavery, a Donegal native and one of the leading Irish dance teachers in the area (for 50 cents a lesson!) in the ‘50s.
When Lavery died, his student decided to start a school of her own, right in her own home. She taught Irish dancing for the next three decades, training champion after champion, until her untimely death in 1993 of cancer at the age of 54. She left behind four children—and a legacy they refused to let die.
Her daughters, Sheila, then 18, and Maureen, then 14, along with one of her mother’s McDade School dancers, Bridget O’Connell, decided to keep the school going. Immediately.
“It was a crazy time,” remembers Sheila McGrory Sweeney, now a 37-year-old mother of three. “Mom passed away, we had the funeral, and Bridget was like, ‘Let’s go,’ and we had class the following Tuesday.”
To keep the school certified so its students could compete, Bridget had to get her certification as an Irish dance instructor. “You have to be 21 to be certified and we weren’t old enough,” says Sheila.
The three women (Maureen is now a Lisowski) have not only kept the school going, they’ve made it thrive. Today, the McDade School of Irish Dance is also the McDade-Cara School of Irish Dance, a merger that provided more times, locations and instructors to handle hundreds of students, from tiny beginners to top champions (there were nine world qualifiers from the combined schools his year).
McDade is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with a reunion dinner of sorts, inviting back all those young men and women who learned their moves from Maureen McDade—and the grandchildren whose recitals they now attend. It’s scheduled for Sunday, September 30, at the Springfield Country Club in Springfield.
“We’re going to have people there from the first generation of my mom’s dancers,” says Sheila. “The minute we posted the event on Facebook we started hearing from people. My dad, John, who is a year in recovery from a stroke, told me that one lady stopped by the house—he still lives in the same house—and brought four of her old dancing costumes and a CD of pictures from 1962 to 1970. And she stayed for an hour and a half, talking about how her parents had come out from Ireland, didn’t know anyone, got involved in dancing and the people they met then are who are their friends today.”
That’s part of what’s kept up in the interest in Irish dance in the Philadelphia area long after the “Riverdance effect” wore off, says Sheila. Dancers become part of a community that persists even after everyone has sold their performance dresses and boxed up their wigs.
When she and her sister were growing up, dancing wasn’t just part of their world, it created their world. “It was a nice, tightknit group of girls who all had something in common. Our mothers were all friends, and we built weekends away around the dancing. But it was more than just about the dancing. All of my friends now are people I danced with.”
It’s been the same for her daughters, Regan, 11, and Darcy, 8. (Son Brendan, 14, “danced until kindergarten and then told us he was officially retired,” she laughs. “But he’s a musician. He plays piano.”)
“We just had a group of families go up to the Catskills, a trip built around a feis (an Irish dance competition). They all camped out and that’s all the kids can talk about,” says Sheila. “The kids love to dance, but they also love the opportunity to travel and love being on stage. My daughter, at 11, has already been to Scotland, England, and Ireland, for dancing. My husband says she has more stamps on her passport than he does! And they like to wear pretty dresses. But, really, it’s the friendships.”
That camaraderie is one of the reasons Sheila Sweeney has been teaching Irish dancing for the past 19 years. The same goes for her sister and their partner, Bridget, as well as their brothers, Jim and John McGrory, who have become accomplished musicians (and feis musicians too).
“I love it. I can’t imagine not having it as a big part of my life,” she says. And, she says, it makes her feel closer to her mother. “Of course, sometimes I shake my head and say, ‘Mom, what did you get me into?’ But it’s amazing to have that connection, to be able to carry on her tradition. If she was looking down, I think she’d think that she’d left it in good hands, between me, Maureen and Bridget. I think she’d be pretty darn proud.”
For a look back at the McDade School, check out the photos here.
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Jameeka Wilson will be the keynote speaker at a St. Malachy's fundraiser next week.
By Kathy McGee Burns
Every year, around this time, I write an article about St. Malachy’s School, the mission school in North Philadelphia, part of the parish founded by the Irish where my family worshipped when they came here many years ago. I do so in hope that you readers will be moved to donate money to continue their legacy of hope.
I thought I did this for two reasons. The first is in honor of my Grandmother, Mary Josephine Callahan who was baptized, educated, married and buried from St. Malachy’s. The second is because I love and respect the goodness of my long-time friend and Pastor Emeritus, John McNamee.
But, this spring I met someone who epitomizes why I am doing this begging again. I was at a fundraising meeting when this lovely, beautifully composed young woman addressed the crowd. Suddenly the light in my brain went on and I knew why I cheerlead for St. Malachy’s!
Jameeka Wilson,who is 20 years old and a graduate of St. Malachy’s, is the proof of its success. She is presently a senior at the University of Scranton where she is also a resident assistant, a police student officer, an advisor in the Panuski College of Professional Studies, and an eighth grade CCD teacher. Her goal is to attend Temple University School of Psychology as a graduate student.
And she’s no fluke. Her sister, Natasha, just graduated from Millersville; her twin, Chareese, is at Bloomsburg and Christopher, a younger brother, is also a sophomore at Scranton. It’s quite a family.
When Jameeka started her speech she said that her grandmother, Anna Frames, had given her this advice: “Always keep in mind the light at the end of the tunne.l” Anna, who had come to St. Malachy’s as an immigrant from Panama, is the driving force behind Jameeka’s family of seven siblings. Life hasn’t been a smooth path for the Wilsons. In fact, it’s been a series of rough, rocky roads. But for them all, there was the light, the “Beacon of Hope” that Anna talked about. It was St. Malachy’s,
During the troubled times, the teachers, counselors, and priests were there. They were there to comfort the children and keep them grounded. When baby Christina, their younger sister, died, “Father Mac said the Mass, paid for the funeral, and went with us to the cemetery,” says Anna Frames, with admiration and gratitude still in her voice.
Jameeka says she lives by two doctrines; one of them is St. Malachy’s School Creed:
I have faith in myself
I have faith in my teachers
I can learn if I study hard
I will learn because I will study hard
I respect others and seek their respect
I have self respect
I have self control
I love myself
And loving myself I will be myself
And know myself
I am the one who is talking.
She also loves the Serenity Prayer:
“God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.”
Even at 20, Jameeka is a wise woman. These are just a few of the things I heard her say that impressed me so much:
“God places special people where we need them,” she says.
“When someone loves you, you can love yourself.”
“Use your situation as a reason, not as an excuse.”
“You can take St. Malachy’s out of the city but you can’t take St. Malachy’s out of the people.”
When Jameeka finishes her education, she plans to stay in the city and work with children. “I want to give them the knowledge that I’ve accumulated so that they can be all that they can be,” she says.
Father McNamee, in his latest message to the vast community that is St. Malachy’s, writes, “The measure of St. Malachy School is more than making Catholics. The mission is to take the children in from the highways and byways as the Gospel parable of the Wedding Feast envisions. Give them Catholic teaching and view the children and their families with the respect that they will do with this opportunity what they are able. In the end we give them the groundwork. What they do with it is their charge.”
So, in the long run, I beg for the money so that the Light, the Beacon of Hope, can keep illuminating the path these children are taking.
You can support St. Malachy’s by attending the Catholic Philopatrian Literary Institute’s Ball this year at the Doubletree Hotel in Center City on September 29. Proceeds from the event benefit the school. And you can also meet Jameeka Wilson for yourself. She’ll be the keynote speaker.
There are other ways to support St. Malachy’s. On November 4, musician and folklorist Mick Moloney will return for the 24th year with some of his musical friends to perform a fundraising concert in the church. It’s always a standing room only concert, featuring some of the leading lights of Irish traditional music.
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Cillian and Niall Vallely
Maybe you have to really know Irish music, in the way that you know breathing and heartbeat, before you can begin to take creative liberties with it.
For uilleann piper Cillian Vallely, perhaps best known for his work with the exceptional Celtic fusion band Lúnasa, the seed of experimentation was planted early on.
First came learning Irish music in its purest form at a school known as the Armagh Pipers Club, following in the footsteps of both his father Brian, a piper, and his mother Eithne, a fiddler. Brian Vallely is the club’s director; Eithne, director of music.
“When my father started playing, there wasn’t a whole lot of Irish music at all, and there weren’t a lot of pipers in Ireland,” Vallely explains. And that was the main reason why his father and several other pipers started the club in 1966, he says. “It was a real mission they were on, to keep the music going. For political and cultural reasons, Irish music was almost underground. It was looked down upon then. People were almost embarrassed by it.”
The club gave the early members the opportunity to teach themselves, even as they taught their first pupils.
Vallely remembers trooping off to the club with his sister and three brothers once a week, all of them starting out on whistle, and eventually taking up different instruments. (In spite of the club’s name, it wasn’t all pipers and piping.)
“My father tried us all on the pipes, but they (his siblings) let it go,” Vallely says. “I remember my mother trying to teach me the fiddle. I remember not liking it. I started the pipes when I was 8. I think it was just a case of liking the pipes.”
In retrospect, he laughs, “My life would have been simpler if I’d learned the fiddle.”
As obsessed with traditional Irish music as the Vallelys were, all were expected to branch out in another direction: in this case, classical music. Eithne Vallely was also a music teacher, and Cillian Vallely learned to play flute and saxophone. This is where the Vallely kids began to take a broader view.
“I was probably never just playing Irish music,” says Vallely. “My parents were never too narrow-minded about the music. They were never saying to us that there is only one way to play. We were never above doing other stuff, playing other styles. My mother put together arrangements that, when I look back on it, were pretty modern.”
At the same time, Vallely recalls, he began to be heavily influenced by the Bothy Band, the Chieftains, Moving Hearts, and Planxty, all of which were known for pioneering innovations.
In the end, it was probably a surprise to no one who knew him that Cillian Vallely’s career would take him in many non-traditional directions. And then, in 1999, came an opportunity to play with the band with which he is most often identified.
“I had been playing professionally about four years before Lunasa came along,” Vallely says. “Lunasa was already up and running when they asked me to join. I understood where they were coming from. Their music made total sense to me—that’s what I wanted to play.”
At the same time, Vallely continued to explore other musical collaborations, including the Celtic Jazz Collective, Riverdance, and the New York-based band known as Whirligig.
Perhaps not surprisingly, his collaborations are more familial, as witness his upcoming Delaware Valley concerts with brother Niall on concertina.
“Me and Niall are less than two years apart, but we’ve been playing together since I was 10. He understands piping, and he understands my music. We play different instruments and we only play together maybe twice a year, but we both like the same kinds of music, and we are playing the same style in a lot of ways. His concertina style has been affected by piping. Neither of us have to travel to0 far to play well with each other. “
You have two opportunities to judge for yourself. The Vallelys will appear in a house concert in Voorhees, N.J., on Wednesday, September 26, and on the concert stage at the Coatesville Traditional Irish Music Series on Sunday, September 30. Do yourself a favor, and go to both.
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Mmm, butterfly potatoes, a delicious staple of Irish Fall Weekend in N. Wildwood. Get some this weekend.
It’s Irish Fall Weekend in N. Wildwood. You know what that means. Music, food, parades, vendors, and fun by the sea.
On Friday night, catch Belfast Connection, Celtic Connection, the Bogside Rogues, Sean Fleming Band, and Secret Service in the Tent at the Point at Moore’s. On the free live entertainment stage, you’ll hear Brimingham 6, Celtic Pride, Ballina, Moira Maestro McKinney, First Highland Watch, all of whom will be playing the following day as well.
On Saturday, you can hear the Highland Rovers Band, Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones, and Celtic Connection at the music tent. That’s after you’ve participated in the 5K run and 1 Mile Walk or taken your free Irish dance lessons at the Anglesea Volunteer Fire House at 2nd and Olde New Jersey Avenues. Don’t forget the Brian Riley Pipe Exhibition at 10 AM with six of the best pipe bands on the east coast. And on the free stage, the Broken Shillelaghs close out the evening.
On Sunday, there’s a parade that starts at 12:30 PM at 24th and Surf Avenues. That follows a Catholic Mass at St. Anne’s Church, 2900 Atlantic Avenue in Wildwood at 10:30 AM.
But that’s not all. This is a big weekend for Irish musicians in New Jersey, as it always is. On Friday night, No Irish Need Apply is performing at Owen’s Pub in North Wildwood, followed by the Birmingham 6. You can hear Clancy’s Pistol at the Anglesea Pub along with the Willie Lynch Band, the Paul Moore Band at Westy’s Pub Deck, Irish Slamm Band at Flip Flopz and the Broken Shillelaghs at Tucker’s in nearby Wildwood.
On Saturday, Slainte (an offshoot of Jamison) is at Keenan’s Irish Pub in North Wildwood, while the Broken Shillelaghs will be at Tucker’s in Wildwood. Don’t miss the Hooligans (with the wild and crazy Luke Jardel) at Westy’s Pub Deck, the Barley Boys at Westy’s Downstairs, the Shantys at the Anglesea Pub tent, the Irish Slamm Band still at Flip Flopz, Seamus Kelleher at Owen’s Pub, the First Highland Watch at the Shamrock Pub, the Malarkey Trio at Westy’s Downstairs, the Paul Moore Band encoring at Westy’s Pub Deck, and Galway Guild at the Anglesea pub tent. We know we’re missing some, but hey, that’s a lot of Irish bands to account for.
On Sunday, the music plays on with some of the same bands. A few changes: the Essex Pipes and Drums will be playing at Owen’s at 3-4 and Barley Juice will be at Flip Flopz from 7 to 11.
Blackthorn will be performing in Sea Isle City this weekend at various times at La Costa, along with West of Galway and Cletus McBride.
And Jamison has six gigs over the weekend, sometimes one right after the other. See them at Casey’s on Third in N. Wildwood on Friday, at Keenans from 4-8 PM, then Casey’s from 9:30 till who knows when on Saturday. They’re back at Caseys on Sunday at noon. They’ve just released a new CD and you’ll get it first if you hook up with them at the shore.
You might think that with all that going on in Jersey, things would be quiet elsewhere, but no! The “Irish Superbowl”—the Sam Maguire Cup match between Donegal and Mayo Gaelic footballers—is on in Croke Park in Dublin. There’s a big pep rally at the Irish Center on Friday night in the ballroom with live music, food, and drink specials (though, alas, we haven’t heard that the Donegal and Mayo societies are sending cheerleaders). Then you can watch the game on TV over a home-cooked Irish breakfast at the center on Sunday at 10 AM for only $20 for the game and $10 for the breakfast.
The Irish Center is also hosting Donegal fiddlers Peter Campbell and Caoimhin Mac Aoidh on Friday night in the Fireside Room. The two will also be appearing on Sunday at the West Chester University Phillips Autograph Library in West Chester.
Oh, but that’s not all. If you can’t go to the shore for the weekend, how about the river? Maggie’s Waterfront Café is holding its own Irish Fall Weekend on Saturday featuring drink specials and The John Byrne Band.
Byrne has started a new regular Sunday session at Maloney’s of Ardmore which will be having two sessions every week. The second, on Tuesday, is the heretofore itinerant session from the Shanachie Restaurant in Ambler, which closed several months ago, led by Fintan Malone. The Shanachie session moved down the street to Finn McCool’s, but when the pub closed after a rear wall collapsed, the session musicians wound up playing in private homes. Now they have a pub to call their own.
How about a blast from the past? The Tannahill Weavers will weave their Scottish musical magic at the Sellersville Theatre on Sunday night. Members get in for half price.
On Tuesday, William Desmond, Irish philosopher and professor at the Higher Institute of Philosophy at the Katholicke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and at Villanova, will be leading a discussion at Villanova’s Driscoll Auditorium on the complexities connected with the philosophical thinking development in the Irish tradition. We Irish love to philosophize.
Then on Wednesday, Irish brothers and musicians Cillian (“Lunasa”) and Niall Vallely will perform at a house concert in Voorhees, NJ. They’re back the following Sunday for a concert at the Coatesville Cultural Center.
Fresh from her triumphant appearance at the Democratic National Convention, one of the “nuns on the bus,” Sister Simone Campbell, will be speaking at Chestnut Hill College on Thursday. Not only is she a religious leader, she’s an attorney and poet who lobbies on issues of peace building, health care, comprehensive immigration reform, and economic justice.
Also on Thursday, the Irish group, BUA, will be performing at a house concert in Ambler. In 2009, they won the Irish Music Awards’ “Top Traditional Group” prize.
Next weekend: Bethlehem’s Celtic Classic, definitely worth a trip north; the Philo Ball at the Doubletree by Hilton, which is raising money for St. Malachy’s School in North Philadelphia; and plenty more. Check our calendar for all the details.
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Donegal Coach Jim McGuinness played in the Philly GAA in 1999. Photo Evan Logan
By Liam Porter
Across County Donegal, Ireland, there is only one topic of conversation this week – and that’s football.
Gaelic football that is. Donegal have qualified for their first all-Ireland final in twenty years and the county has gone crazy.
Houses, shops, even sheep have been painted in the county colours of green and gold and the one question everybody wants an answer to – where can they get their hands on a ticket for the game?
The all-Ireland final, is to Gaelic football what the Superbowl is to American football.
It is arguably though, a much bigger deal.
Over 82,000 people will pack into Dublin’s Croke Park on September 23rd to watch Donegal play Mayo – many thousands more will watch on television.
And they’ll be there to watch – not multi-million dollar earning sports stars – but amateurs; teachers, bank officials, engineers – all giving their all in an effort to win Gaelic football’s biggest prize.
It’s a tough prize to win too. The country’s most successful football team, Kerry, was the last team to win back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.
Fancied again for success in 2012, Kerry fell to Donegal at the quarter-final stage in August. Last year’s winners, Dublin, were put to the sword against Mayo who have waited even longer than Donegal to taste all-Ireland success.
Their last win came way back in 1951 and rumors abound that having driven past a funeral during their celebrations, they were cursed by a priest who said they’d never win another until every member of that squad was dead.
They’ve been in five finals since then, most recently in 2006 and have lost them all.
It’s perhaps not such a surprise then that the build up in Mayo is a much lower key affair than the hype and hysteria that has been going on in Donegal.
Mayo manager James Horan has kept his squad in the county doing what they would normally do in the build up to a match.
And he’s confident that their approach will be the right one to topple a Donegal side who have ruffled the feathers of big teams like Kerry and Cork on their way to the final.
The man responsible for the Donegal transformation – Jim McGuinness – was a member of the Donegal panel in 1992 when the county won their only All-Ireland, and as a coach he has really earned his corn.
Yet as a player, McGuinness had pretty much done it all. A fringe member of the 1992 squad he has won Ulster and All-Ireland medals and at College’s level he won three prestigious Sigerson Cups.
He represented Ireland in the 1998 Compromise Rules series against Australia and in 1999 he travelled to Philadelphia to play for a Philadelphia Donegal team that included fellow Donegal player Brian McLaughlin and Tyrone player Ciaran Gourley.
Playing with his home-town club Naomh Conaill from Glenties in 2005 he won the Donegal Senior Championship after which McGuinness had his eyes on coaching.
“I’ve always liked working with people who want to achieve, who want to better themselves,” he said last week as he prepared his team for the biggest game of their lives.
Under his guidance the Donegal players who have themselves won two Ulster titles, have become hugely respected for their fitness, discipline and dedication.
That is in no small measure down to the level of preparation and the attention to detail the coach and his backroom staff have brought to the set up.
As the county went wild with flags and bunting and songs for Donegal, McGuinness had his players whisked away from all the madness to training camps in Kildare and Meath.
There the Donegal team could work without distraction on tactics and preparations for their battle with Mayo.
Meanwhile back in their home county and indeed everywhere there are Donegal folk gathered including Philadelphia, the talk continued about football, football, football and the search for tickets…
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Constance the Butterfly
From singers’ night last Thursday to Saturday’s smashing finale, a concert by the legendary Dé Danann, the 2012 Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival was far and away one of the most popular and best attended ever.
Probably the best sign of success was the Saturday Dé Danann show, with opener, the uillean piper Paddy Keenan accompanied by Dé Danann bouzouki player Alec Finn. The Irish Center ballroom was as packed as it’s ever been, with a lot of late-arriving concert-goers going chairless. They didn’t seem to mind. Dé Danann, with the luminescent singer Eleanor Shanley belting out tunes, was incredibly sharp for a band that was formed at about the time the Pleistocene era was ending. OK, maybe not that long ago, but there sure was a lot of gray hair up onstage.
Earlier in the day, festival-goers had their choice of things to do, from face-painting with the kids to dancing lessons to musical workshops with the likes of Dé Danann iconic bodhran player Johnny “Ringo” McDonagh.
Sean Tyrrell’s one-man show, “Who Killed James Joyce,” was likewise well attended on Friday night.
We were there for most of it, and we have the pictures to prove it.
Check them out:
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Emily Safko
Amy and Greg Safko knew early on that their daughter Emily had vision problems. When Emily was 2, doctors told the Medford, N.J., couple that their daughter was highly nearsighted.
“We knew something was off,” says Amy Safko. “She would pull everything right to her face.”
Then, three years ago, Emily’s vision declined dramatically. She was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder call Stickler Syndrome, which damages the eyes, along with the ears, and connective tissue throughout the body.
Emily’s vision problems came to a head late last year when she started noticing spots and flashes in her field of vision—floaters—and she suddenly couldn’t read the blackboard in school. What followed were multiple surgeries and, finally, the finding that Emily, now 10 years old, is legally blind.
All of which makes Emily’s fourth place finish in the under-12 Celtic harp competition at the Fleadh Cheoil last month—the annual “world series” of Irish music—that much more remarkable. Some might say it was miraculous.
“She’s remarkably better than we ever could have expected,” Amy says. “We are just so happy.”
Optimism apparently runs in the family. When she learned of her condition, Emily recalls, “I thought it was cool because not many other kids have it. It wasn’t getting me down.”
Stickler Syndrome also appears to run in the family. Testing showed that Amy Safko herself had Stickler, but had never been symptomatic. She had been born with a cleft palate, which is associated with Stickler Syndrome. Additionally, her joints had always been hyperflexible, which can also be a sign.
The family’s upbeat attitude was sorely tested in the months leading up to the Fleadh Cheoil (flah KEE-ole), held in August in County Cavan.
Following her surgeries, doctors told the Safkos that Emily had a long road ahead of her. “Her right eye has no lens,” says Amy. “The left eye is the better of the two. She still has a cataract they didn’t want to touch.”
Emily’s eyes are both filled with silicone, a temporary step to help promote healing, her mother explains. “The silicone was put in there as part of the retinal detachment repair. It usually comes out in three months, but she still has it in both eyes. If they work on the cataract, the oil can get in other parts of the eye. No one wants to touch that eye.”
Overall, Emily lost a month of practice time leading up to competition season, and when she was finally able to start playing again, nothing about it came easily.
“I had to re-learn harp, sort of,” says Emily. “At first, I lost some parts, but my teacher always talks about ‘muscle memory.’ My fingers remembered.
“It was really tricky with the strings. When I started to play the harp again in January, the strings were all weird. Some of the strings are see-through, and I couldn’t see them at all.”
Those difficulties held Emily back for just a week. “It doesn’t take long for me to remember things. Once I learn a tune, all I have to do is put my fingers in the starting position, and then I just go from there.”
Before her most recent Fleadh, Emily had competed in Ireland twice. This is the first year she finished so high up in the rankings. She almost finished in the top three in slow airs. She tied for third, but finished fourth after a callback.
One reason for Emily’s strong finish is her deeply competitive nature, Amy Safko says. But support from the Irish music community provided another big boost.
“One of the biggest things that was so amazing to us was just how supportive the Irish music community was to us,” says Amy Safko. “We got cards from harpists every day from around the world, people we didn’t even know. Some of them sent gifts, and we didn’t even know them. It was amazing to us.”
As for where she goes from here, Emily Safko has no doubt about it. She wants to go back to Ireland next August to try again.
“It’s a lot of fun going there. I’m looking forward to next year.”
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There's a golf tourney this week to benefit Ciara Kelly Higgins, who doesn't let a little thing like cerebral palsy get her down.
If you’re new to this area, you may not realize this: September is waaaay more Irish than March. And this September is more Irish than usual.
We started out with the national Gaelic Athletic Games in Philly this year, moved to the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival of Irish Music and Dance last week—along with the Mercer Irish Fest in New Jersey—and this week we have the Gloucester City Shamrock Fest in Gloucester City, NJ, the Commodore Barry Day on the New Jersey side of the Commodore Barry Bridge, and the opening day of the AOH Irish Fall Weekend in N. Wildwood, NJ.
Yes, it’s halfway to St. Patrick’s Day, and around here we need to do a lot to keep our spirits up through the fall and winter.
Blackthorn is performing at Xfinity Live for a Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day event on Friday at 9 PM—totally free, along with parking. Nice!
They’ll also be on the main stage at the Haverford Music Festival in Havertown (someone needs to explain that one to me) on Saturday, an all-day fest with all kinds of music.
On Friday night, catch Timlin and Kane at Brittingham’s in Lafayette Hill and the Shantys at the Glenside Pub.
Monday, it’s golf for charity day. In Plymouth Meeting, you can tee off at the Ciara Kelly Higgins Benefit for Cerebral Palsy, which is followed by a dinner, raffles and auctions, The Paul Moore Band, and comic Joe Conklin at the Plymouth Country Club. It benefits 9-year-old Ciara, who is adorable. She was born prematurely and suffers from a form of cerebral palsy, though if you know this feisty little girl, “suffers” may be too strong a word. But her therapy is expensive and her family needs the help.
In Cherry Hill, NJ, on Monday, The Claddagh Fund holds its first annual celebrity golf tourney at the Woodcrest Country Club. The foundation, helmed by the Dropkick Murphy’s lead singer Ken Casey, raises money for underfunded charities serving children, veterans, and recovering substance abusers in the Philadelphia area.
On Wednesday, bring a batch of business cards to the Fairmount Boathouse on Boathouse Row in Philadelphia for the “welcome back” networking reception sponsored by the Irish American Business Chamber and Network. The Chamber promotes business between the US and Ireland as well as business connections between its members.
Those of you who missed the great folk singer Sean Tyrell at the Irish Center last week can catch his one-man musical show, “Who Killed James Joyce?” at the Falvey Library at Villanova University on Thursday. I saw him last week and it was a funny, informative, and moving show that sent me to Google to find some of the Irish poetry Sean set to music.
Boxing fans: The traditional first event of the N.Wildwood Fall Irish Festival is a boxing match, and it’s no different this year. At the Irish Music Tent at Spruce and Olde New Jersey you can catch the action between the Harrowgate Boxing Club of Philadelphia and the Holy Family Boxing Club of Belfast, Northern Ireland on Thursday, September 20.
The music, frivolity, parades, food, vendors and the like start on Friday, September 21, one of the busiest days of the week, Irish-wise.
At the Irish Center, you can take your pick: the 2012 All-Ireland Football Championship rally which will feature drinks, light refreshments, and music to cheer on your favorite team. It’s Donegal Vs. Mayo this year and there are plenty of people in the region who trace their roots back to those two counties, so count on some heated cheering. Then you also have Peter Campbell and Daoimnhin Mac Aoidh—performing as the Fiddle Cases—making those fiddles sing, hopefully in another room, far, far away from the pep rally. They’re also scheduled to appear at West Chester University on Sunday night. Since they’re both Donegal fiddlers, I guess we know who they’ll be rooting for.
Head back to the Irish Center at 10 AM on Sunday to actually watch the game. Wear your helmets.
You can also see Blackthorn again at La Costa in Sea Isle City both Friday and Saturday. I know I’ve said it before, but I liked it better when Blackthorn was in Wildwood during the Irish Weekend. It really sweetened the musical lineup and spread that mayhem over a wider area.
Jamison is in N. Wildwood, playing at Casey’s on Third on Friday night, and at Keenan’s Irish Pub on Saturday, and then back to Casey’s on Sunday. You can catch The Broken Shillelaghs at Tucker’s Pub in Wildwood on Friday night.
Next weekend also starts a new session at Maloney’s Pub of Ardmore, with John Byrne of the The John Bryne Band launching a 6:30 Sunday trad and ballad session.
Coming up: The Bethlehem Celtic Classic and the McDade School of Irish Dance 50th anniversary celebration. But more on those later. Check out our calendar for other upcoming events, including many more events at Villanova, and the Vallely brothers, Cillian and Niall, coming to the Coatesville Irish Music Series on September 30.
