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Haley Richardson
For a fleeting moment, 10-year-old Haley Richardson knew what it was like to finish first in the under-12 fiddle competition at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. The Fleadh is something like the world series of Irish music, held just a couple of weeks ago in County Cavan.
After blazing through traditional tunes, “The Old Gray Goose” and “Trim the Velvet,” Haley found herself tied for first with a young man from County Laois, with the unquestionably Irish name of Senan Ó Móráin. Both were called back to play another tune. The judges asked Haley to play “Dowd’s Reel.” Ó Móráin edged her out.
But still—an American kid in a field of more than 20 players, most of them Irish, coming in second at 10 years old. It’s certainly no longer unheard of for a Yank to place at the Fleadh, but it’s a thrill nonetheless.
Haley is one of two local kids, both members of the all-kids Next Generation traditional music group, who fared exceptionally well in Cavan. Harper Emily Safko tied for third, and then was called back. She finished in fourth place.
Back at home in South Jersey, Haley seems pleased with the result, but otherwise unfazed. She’s been playing since she was 3, and competing for the past several years. Including this year, she has competed in the Fleadh Cheoil four times. In March, she shared the Kimmel Center stage with the Chieftains. As anyone who has heard her play can attest—and in any traditional Irish music session, she more than holds her own with experienced adult players—this gifted blonde-haired sprite of a fiddler is already an old hand.
“I just felt like I did the best I could do, and really couldn’t do any better,” she says. “I didn’t think I would win; I never thought I would place. All the other kids were from Ireland, so I never thought I would win, coming from the United States.”
“I was just really happy that I placed. I thought that someday I might place, but I didn’t think it would be this time.”
Kathy DeAngelo was Haley’s teacher for two years. She, together with husband Dennis Gormley and fiddler pal Chris Brennan Hagy, run the Next Generation Irish traditional music group, all kids. Haley has been a member for years. Though Irish players frequently win, she sees signs that the playing field might be becoming a bit more level.
“Everybody says it’s rare that Americans win. That may have been the case 10 or 15 years ago, but it’s not rare anymore. The level of playing here has gotten so much better here the last 10 or 15 years.”
DeAngelo says she, Dennis and Chris encourage Next Gen kids go to the Fleadh, but not just for the competition. “We think of it more like putting a bug in the kids’ ears. We’ve always been a proponent of going over there, not just for the Fleadh but for the Scoil Éigse. (Classes and workshops.) Sometimes you can get the feeling over here like you’re the big fish in a little pond. Over there, the level of play is so high hopefully it’s an inspiration.”
Of course, the non-stop music that occurs around the Fleadh town is also a draw.
“You can go into any building at any time of day, and there will be somebody playing,” says Haley, “which I think is really cool.”
Haley’s mom Donna is thrilled, of course.
“I was surprised that she placed, but I thought it was about time. She has gone for a number of years, and played really well,” she says. “I trust that she’ll do her best. She seems to take it all in stride, whether she wins or loses. I prepare her the best I can, but she goes out and does her thing, and we’ll see what happens.”
More Fleadh coverage next week, with a profile of harper Emily Safko.
Jubilant Notre Dames footballers hoist their beloved captain, Maureen Ennis, over their shoulders.
For Maureen Ennis, captain of Philly’s Notre Dames Gaelic football club, the team’s first ladies senior football championship will likely be her last.
One minute, she was thrusting the silver cup above her head to wildly enthusiastic cheers by her teammates; the next minute, she was holding in her arms the reason for her retirement, at least for now, from the sport she loves. It was her son, Shea. (She loves him more.)
“This is my first year with a child,” she said. “This is probably my last game, but it’s brilliant to win.”
Win, the Notre Dames most decidedly did, taking the final game against Connacht (Boston) with a score of 3-15 to 0-06. (Here’s how to understand Irish football scoring.) There was no moment at which Connacht even came close. Ennis wasn’t surprised by how well the Dames played.
“We knew we were going to be strong,” she said. “As soon as we started training, we just knew.”
The Dames’ North American championship continues a tradition of national ladies football titles by Philly teams. The Mairead Farrells held the honor last year and the year before.
Two other Philly teams made it all look too easy.
The Eire Ogs Junior C team triumphed over the team from San Francisco, 3-16 to 1-6. It was a long time coming for the Eire Ogs, too.
“We’ve been trying to win (the championship) for 10 years, so we didn’t know what to expect,” said Conor Trainor, captain of the eire Ogs. “You come out, not knowing who you’re playing.” Giving due credit to the team from San Fran, Trainor acknowledged, “We both played against tough teams to get here.”
And while we’re on the subject of lopsided victories, let’s all raise a glass for the Young Irelands, who took the men’s intermediate football trophy gainst the Michael Cusacks club from San Francisco, 5-16 to 0-7.
Edged out on Sunday in their final game against New Hampshire were the Hibernians of Allentown: New Hampshire 1-11 to the Hibos’ 0-16. They didn’t win, but they sure didn’t make it easy.
We have so many photos from the championships, both on and off the field, that we’ve just lost count of them all.
Check them all out here.
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Whoo--hoo! I'm having a good time!
There were three–count them–three lovely Irish pageant winners at the fourth annual Brittingham’s Irish Fest in Lafayette Hill on Sunday, September 2. There were also hundreds of happy folks who braved a spritzing of rain to attend the parking lot-sized festival that kicks off festival month in the region.
There was music–Jamison, the Paul Moore Band, and No Irish Need Apply (which features 2012 International Mary from Dungloe, Meghan Davis)–as well as vendors and some kick-butt barbecue. And dancing? There’s always dancing at this event, by those who know what they’re doing and those who don’t. It’s always a happy time.
If you don’t believe us or that adorable baby to the right, check out our pictures.
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Rosaleen McGill sings her heart out at the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival this weekend.
When singer Jim McGill momentarily forgot the next stanza of the traditional Irish song he was singing, half a dozen people in the audience for “Singer’s Night” on Thursday, the launch of the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s annual music festival, called out the first few lines. It was that kind of crowd. All night, feet tapped and people sang along, even before Lancaster singer Matt Ward handed out song sheets.
Gabriel Donohue, a multi-intrumentalist and singer who toured with the Chieftains and has recorded with everyone from the Boston Pops to Liam Clancy of the Clancy Brothers, hosted the night and sang, sometimes solo, and also with his frequent partner, Marian Makins. Other performers included local talents Rosaleen McGill, Steve Stanislau, Teresa Kane and Ellen Tepper, and Courtney Malley. Singers Night was established several years ago to honor Malley’s father, the late Frank Malley, long time director of the annual festival, whose portrait in brights splashes of purple and orange held court at the side of the stage at the Irish Center in Mt. Airy.
More than many other events throughout the year, attending the Ceili Group Festival is authentically how to be Irish in Philadelphia. It’s a celebration of Irish traditional music and dance, a place to see local performers and internationally acclaimed musicians, like De Danann—called “the Rolling Stones of Irish traditional music”–who will be in concert on Saturday night, and Paddy Keenan, one of the founding members of the Bothy Band who is considered one of the best uilleann (Irish) pipes players in the world.
On Friday night, Irish folk singer Sean Tyrell will be bringing his one man musical, “Who Killed James Joyce?” to the Fireside Room, where singers’ night is held, while in the ballroom you can try out your dance moves in the very traditional set dancing event featuring the region’s best ceili band, The McGillians and Friends, featuring local legend, octagenarian Kevin McGillian and his sons, John and Jimmy, with others.
On Saturday at 11 AM, Kitty Kelly-Albrecht leads the John Kelly Memorial Session in the Fireside Room, to honor the late fiddle and conertina player from Sligo, who played a major role in the resurgence of interest in Irish music in Philadelphia in the 1970s. If you play an instrument or just love the ambience of an Irish jam session, you can join in.
There will be vendors, food, and free workshops throughout the day, including one on Irish genealogy with Lori Lander Murphy. There’s also free parking at the SEPTA lot directly across the street from the Irish Center, at Carpenter and Emlen Streets.
If you’re in New Jersey, check out the Mercer Irish Fest at Mercer County Park on Saturday, featuring live Celtic music, vendors, kids’ activities, food and a beer garden. I’m an avid gardener, but I’ve never tried to grow beer. Hmmmm.
On Sunday, the Cavan Society is holding its annual golf tournament at the Cobbs Creek Golf Course. Tee off with this always fun—and funny—group. You don’t need to trace your roots to Cavan to play.
If you’re a member of the Sellersville Theatre, you have a party to go to on Sunday. You’re going to be partying with The Young Dubliners, who are making their second appearance in the area (they were at World Café Live on Wednesday, with the John Byrne Band).
Next Friday, catch the Shanty’s at The Glenside Pub in Glenside.
Next weekend, Blackthorn will be headlining the second annual Haverford Music Festival. Get there early—we’ve heard that this festival is expected to draw thousands.
It’s also Commodore Barry Day at the Commodore Barry Bridge on the New Jersey side with a ceremony and wreath-laying by the Gloucester County Ancient Order of Hibernians. A Mass will be celebrated at the Richard Rossiter Memorial Hall in nearby National Park, NJ, with a free lunch and music.
And next Saturday is also the day of the Gloucester City Shamrock Fest. This little town just over the bridge from Philadelphia is very proud of its Irish roots and occupies a picturesque spot on the Delaware River.
Also coming up: On September 17, the annual Ciara Kelly Higgins Benefit for Cerebral Palsy golf tournament and dinner at the Plymouth Country Club in Plymouth Meeting. Dinner is at 6 PM and features music by the Paul Moore and Friends band with comic Joe Conklin. The event raises money to offset medical and therapy expenses for 9-year-old Ciara Higgins, a fourth grader at St. Philip Neri School in Lafayette Hill, who was born with a form of cerebral palsy.
The same day, the Claddagh Fund, a nonprofit founded by Ken Casey of the Boston Celtic punk band, The Dropkick Murphys, is holding its first annual Celebrity Golf Tournament. The foundation raises money for underfunded charities in Boston and now in Philadelphia.
There’s plenty more coming up this month, including the Irish Fall Festival in Cape May, Blackthorn in Sea Isle, and a variety of Irish events at Villanova. Check your local listings—and by that I mean our calendar.
Check out our photos from Singers’ Night at the Irish Center.
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There's gonna be a lot of this in September.
September is the month that makes March seem like a breeze. There are so many festivals you could spend the entire month just eating dogs and burgers. I mean, when you’re not eating fish and chips or haggis.
Let’s just start with this weekend, shall we?
The games are underway in Pennypack Riverview Park on State Road in Philly—the North American Gaelic Athletic Association Championships, which will draw the best amateur Gaelic football, hurling, and camogie teams from all over North America to our backyard. If you’ve never see Gaelic games, this is your chance to see some talented athletes make American sports look like a kids’ tea party.
On Sunday, the first of September’s festivals, the fourth annual Brittingham’s Irish Festival at Brittingham’s in Lafayette Hill. Bring a lawn chair and listen—and dance—to the music of The Paul Moore Band, Jamison, No Irish Need Apply (the 2012 International Mary from Dungloe, Meghan Davis, is the lovely singer and keyboard player for this group), and Seamus McGroary.
Well, that takes care of my weekend. Hope to see a lot of you out there.
Later this week: Local favorite, The John Byrne Band is again opening for the Young Dubliners (since Byrne is himself a young Dubliner, it’s appropriate) at the World Café Live in Philadelphia on Thursday.
And Thursday kicks off the second festival of September—the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival of Irish Music and Dance—with Singers’ Night, hosted by Galway’s Gabriel Donohue, and will feature local favorites including Marian Makins, Rosaleen McGill, Matt Ward, and I hope, Teresa Kane, and more.
The festival runs for three days at the Irish Center. On Friday, September 7, Sean Tyrell brings his one-man musical show, “Who Killed James Joyce?” to the center’s Fireside Room, while the ballroom is turned over the the killer ceili band, McGillians and Friends, for some lively set dancing. (If you’re afraid of looking like a spaz on the dance floor, stop into the Irish Center on Thursday night; instructor John Shields will show you some moves.)
On Saturday, September 8, come to the center for all kinds of musical workshops with the night’s headliners, De Danann, and piper Paddy Keenan, plus nonmusical workshops on everything from making a St. Brigid’s Cross to genealogy, featuring our own Lori Lander Murphy, who can dig up your ancestors better than a gravedigger (she’s dug up a couple of mine).
Now Sunday, you have a choice – day of rest, or playing golf at the annual Cavan Golf Tournament at Cobbs Creek Golf Course in Philadelphia.
On the horizon: the Gloucester City Shamrock Fest on September 15; the Second Annual Haverford Music Fest, featuring Blackthorn, also on September 15; Irish boxing to kick off the AOH Irish Fall Festival in North Wildwood, which starts on September 20 and runs through September 22; a simultaneous appearance by Blackthorn those two days at LaCosta in Sea Isle City (I liked it better when Blackthorn was in Wildwood during the AOH fest—what’s the scoop there?); and then Celtic Classic in Bethlehem on September 28, 29, and 30.
There’s some fabulous Irish traditional musicians coming to town this month too, including Donegal fiddlers Peter Campbell and Caoimhin MacAoidh, who will be performing on September 23 at West Chester University, and brothers Cillian (uilleann pipes) and Niall (concertina) Vallely who will take the stage at the Coatesville Cultural Society on September 30.
We and quite a few other folks have been adding to our totally free calendar for September, including, we note, something being held in County Meath, in case you happen to be there. Check it out so you can plan ahead.
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Mick Conneely (© 2011 Con Kelleher)
Fiddler Mick Conneely won’t forget the first time he saw the pioneering Irish folk group De Danann live, every last detail permanently etched into his memory.
“I was 15. It was Sunday the 23rd of May 1982. It was the first time I saw them live, a concert my teacher Brendan Mulkere had organized, in Slough, a town south of London. It was dinner time. Me and my dad went. It was the ‘Star Spangled Molly’ tour, my favorite album. It was the only time I was starstruck.”
Conneely, born in Bedford, England, to Irish dad and fiddle player Mick and mum Lizzi, in a home where Irish music was ever present, had been playing fiddle under Mulkere’s tutelage since he was 11. Mulkere must have thought pretty highly of the young man’s abilities, because, Conneely recalls, “didn’t Mr. Mulkere drag me by the scruff of my neck up to the stage to play solo during the intermission?”
Conneely nearly passed out from fear, but the terror quickly passed as he started to play sets from the 1977 duet album, “Frankie Gavin & Alec Finn.”
Looking back, he says, “it was a brilliant exposure. For the first five minutes I was afraid for my life, but then the butterflies turned into something else.”
Gavin, he recalls, was mightily impressed that his young friend had chosen to play tunes from that album, which Conneely describes as his favorite, both then and now. “When I met the lads afterward, Frankie gave me a hug,” he recalls, still sounding like that starstruck kid. “I was on a high from it for years afterward.”
Conneely kept on plugging away devotedly at his fiddle, playing at sessions, ceilis and house parties, in time maturing into a young virtuoso. Then, in 1984, when Conneely was 17, his parents allowed him to accompany some other young musicians to the Willie Clancy Summer School Festival in the West Clare Irish traditional music hotbed of Miltown Malbay. He suddenly found himself surrounded by the royalty of Irish music.
“You’d hear music in a pub, with the likes of Frankie and Mary Bergin and Jackie Daly. It was just unbelieveable. You couldn’t dream it. I’d never been exposed to that level of music. It changed my whole life. 1987 was the year I knew I would be playing till the day I die. What I experienced in Miltown Malbay would never leave me.”
The members of De Danann didn’t forget about Conneely either, as he found out in 1991, when he was 24 years old. What happened then was musical kismet.
“I toured America with the band,” he says, a note of awe still in his voice. “Frankie had broken his arm or his wrist just before the tour, and I got a call from the tour coordinator.” At first he thought it was his childhood friend, now Lunasa frontman Kevin Crawford, playing a joke on him, but it soon became clear: This was no joke.
“That was unbelievable. I knew the tunes, there was no learning curve at all. Why I was thought of, I have no idea to this day, really. I was totally honored and blown away. Imagine being a guitarist and getting a call from Mick Jagger. I went over a boy and came home a man, musically speaking.”
So began a relationship with De Danann that has lasted years, as Conneely became established as Frankie Gavin’s stand-in. He did a couple of tours after that, and a couple of one-off concerts.
Conneely is on the tour that will take De Danann through Philadelphia on Saturday, September 8, for the grand finale concert of the 38th Annual Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival at the Philadelphia Irish Center in Mount Airy. He’ll join De Danann originals, bouzouki wizard Alec Finn and bodhran player Johnny “Ringo” McDonagh, together with the great singer Eleanor Shanley, accordion player Derek Hickey, and Brian McGrath on piano and banjo.
Of course, this incarnation of De Danann is absent Frankie Gavin. The band split up in 2003. Conneely says he doesn’t harbor any illusions that he can take Gavin’s place. “No one can really replace Frankie. He’s still my favorite fiddle player. He’d lift anyone’s soul.”
For now, though, Mick Conneely is happy to share the stage with the band that most inspired him as a kid. “Looking back now,” he says, “I realize I’m the luckiest guy on earth. I’ve realized many of my ambitions, which is rare. Some dreams do come true.”
Learn more about the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival.
The summer is fading fast; Labor Day, that great divider between the season of sun and fun and the season of back-to-school clothes and pencil sharpeners is coming up in a week.
But that’s a good thing, because it’s bringing with it hundreds of Gaelic footballers, hurlers, and camogie players to Philadelphia for the 2012 North American Gaelic Athletic Association championships. The action will center at Pennypack Riverview Fields in Pennypack Park in northeast Philadelphia.
Tickets for the entire weekend is just $45. See our calendar for the details and a link to the ticket website.
But before the games begin, there’s the annual Irish Festival at St. Patrick’s Church on this Saturday and Sunday, August 25 and 26, with food, music, vendors, and fun. On Sunday, the Rev. Gus Puleo will celebrated the Mass of the Golden Rose to honor Our Lady of Knock. After Mass, there’s a celebration at the AOH Notre Dame Div. 1 Hall with more music, food, dancing and fun.
You shore goers can catch the Broken Shillelaghs at Tucker’s Pub in Wildwood, NJ on Saturday night and Jamison at Shenanigans in Sea Isle City on Sunday.
Our friends to the north—that would be Allentown—are holding an Irish Heritage Night at Coca Cola Park, home of the Iron Pigs baseball team, a Phillies Triple A affiliate. Check our calendar for the details because there are discounts and group benefits available.
In the not-too-distant future: The Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival of Irish Music and Dance on Sept. 6-8, with DeDannann, Paddy Keenan, Gabriel Byrne, Marian Makins, the McGillians’ topnotch ceili band (for dancing the night away), and Sean Tyrell’s one-man show, “Who Killed James Joyce?” There are also workshops for musicians and some for those interested in genealogy, St. Brigid’s Cross making, the Irish language, and other topics.
Look for The Young Dubliners to head our way in early September, and both the Mercer and Gloucester City Shamrock fests by mid-month, with AOH Wildwood Weekend, the Bethlehem Celtic Fest, and Blackthorn’s shore weekend towards the end of September. That’s your reminder that you’re more than halfway to St. Patrick’s Day.
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Tea party essentials!
It was a tea party. If you didn’t know it by the pretty pots and cups and the table groaning with sweets, you could tell by the hats.
Especially Sylvia Tolan’s hat, a floppy, sparkly J. Lo hat from Kohls, decorated with. . .a hot pink bra. “I made it myself this morning,” said the Havertown woman with a grin. “I needed something girly.”
Clearly, this was no ordinary tea party. And, in fact, it wasn’t. It was a fundraiser for Carmel’s Crew, a group of women, friends of Carmel Bradley of Havertown, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. The group of 20 women each must raise $2,300 to participate in the 3-Day Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in October.
Aisling Travers, a 19-year-old education student at West Chester State University, who has been part of the group since it began, planned the tea party—right down to delicate china cups and the “Keep Calm and Fight On” posters. It was held on Sunday, August 19, at the Malvern home of her parents, Seamus and Marie Travers.
Why a tea party? Travers is blunt: “I hate asking people for money. Plus, fundraisers are usually beef-and-beers and bar-oriented, and being the youngest on the team, I thought it would be cute for the kids to be involved. I wanted it to be a Mom-and-Me event, and there’s nothing more girly than a tea party.”
She signed on for the 3-Day because “it was on my bucket list and I’ve known Carmel and most of the girls since I was little,” says Travers. It was all she hoped for and more. “It was awesome,” she says. “I was nervous the first time, first because we’re walking 60 miles and I was hoping I’d survive, but also because I didn’t know everyone that well. But by the end of the three days, we all became unbelievably close.”
All of Carmel’s Crew are friends of Bradley, a 47-year-old mother of three and Donegal native. In May 2009, after a routine mammogram, she learned she had an aggressive form of breast cancer.
“I know all the controversy about mammograms,” says Bradley, referring to a 2009 recommendation from a government task force that women in their 40s not get screened. “But a mammogram found my cancer. It wasn’t even a lump. It was a thickening of the skin. All I keep thinking is that if I didn’t get a mammogram, if I’d waited three years, I wouldn’t be here.”
Bradley went through both chemotherapy and radiation after a lumpectomy. While she was in treatment, she and the two of her seven sisters who live in the US began talking about the Komen 3-Day. “We talked each other into it,” laughs Bradley, who is completing her degree in special education at West Chester State University.
Initially, she and her sisters—Una McDaid and Fionnuala McBrearty—thought they’d do it themselves. “Then a few friends said they’d liked to and it just grew—to 20,” Bradley says.
The experience was fun, exhausting, but also healing. “I had just finished up treatment three or four months before, but I got so much energy from the group,” she says. “We would just stick together and carry each other along.”
She’s not normally very emotional, Bradley admits, but it got to her. “The survivors wear different colored t-shirts and when I saw the number that were there, I got emotional.”
In fact, everyone in Carmel’s Crew had a weepy day, says her sister, Fionnuala. “In Manayunk we were trudging along and the sister of one of our walkers came out with a sign for us and gave us candy. When we went through Havertown, our kids were lining Darby Road, and they had Irish dancers there, and they were clapping. It really lifts you so much. On the final day, there’s a ceremony for the survivors and we all took our shoes off and raised them to honor Carmel.”
Bradley says that’s the reason she can’t do the walk without dark glasses. “I’m laughing and crying the whole way!”
What also kept her going, she says, was her husband, Louie, who is president of the Philadelphia Gaelic Athletic Association, and their children, Fiona, 17, and twins Shane and Conor, 15. “I don’t know what I would have done without their support and help,” she says. “I knew I needed to keep going because of them.”
Friends and parents at the children’s schools helped out. “We had more dinners than we could eat,” Bradley recalls, laughing. “I was just overwhelmed by the goodness of everybody. When I came from Ireland [25 years ago] I didn’t have any family and friends here at the time. These people have become our family.”
See our photos from the Carmel’s Crew tea party.
