Columns, News

Aon Sceal?

Jamesie Johnston of Albannach

Albannach drummer Jamesie Johnston of Glasgow, Scotland, is recovering in the University of Louisville Hospital after being stabbed in the liver and thigh by an intoxicated fan after the Glasgow, KY, Highland Games on June 5. He’s expected to fully recover.

Johnston, his band mates, and members of several other bands were relaxing post-Games at a cabin at the Barren River Lake State Resort Park. According to published reports, a fan, James E. Null, 42, of Glasgow, KY, had been hanging out with the band and started to become belligerent. Johnston attempted to force the man to leave, which is when, reports say, Johnston was stabbed. Albannach drummer Colin Walker also was scraped by the knife. Null was arrested and charged.

The popular Scottish percussive group appears every year at the Mid-Winter Scottish-Irish Festival in Valley Forge and performed on May 22 at a street fair at Molly Maguire’s in Lansdale. They’re managed by Bill and Karen Reid of East of the Hebrides Entertainments in Plymouth Meeting.

“Jamesie is on the mend,” Bill Reid assured us this week. “It will take some time but he’s physically fit so that will speed things up. If it was me I’d be in bed for years.”

The band has gigs in the US through mid-July, including the annual Celtic Fling at Mount Hope Winery in Manheim, PA, June 24-26, Camping Weekend Festival in Barto, PA, July 1-3. They plan to keep those commitments, though Jamesie will sit out the first few. “”The others can do the job and from the fan reaction, the vibe is good and the shows will have that high energy everyone loves,” says Reid, who joined the band at its gigs in Rhode Island this week.

Our Rose Moves Up!

Philadelphia’s Rose of Tralee, Beth Keeley, is heading to the finals in Tralee this August! Keeley, a 25-year-old writer, competed last week in the International Rose of Tralee Regional Finals in Portlaoise and was one of 23 Roses from around the world chosen to compete in the main event in August. Congratulations to Beth!

John Byrne and the Blind Pig

Like many musicians, John Byrne (The John Byrne Band) has a secret “other” life. Until recently, the popular local Irish musician was an English teacher and a part-time bartender (at Kelliann’s on Spring Garden Street). Soon, he’s about to be part-owner of his own pub, along with Debra Ciasullo (another tap-meister from Kelliann’s) and David Hentz.

The Blind Pig is scheduled to open soon at 702 N. Second Street in the young and trendy Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia. The menu will be “pork-centric” and the atmosphere, “neighborhood bar.”

“I’ll be working there a bit and playing music fulltime, and putting the teaching on hold for at least a year,” Bryne told us.

Know Someone Who Should be Honored?

The Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame (DVIHOF) is looking for a few good Irish people. For the eleventh year, the Hall of Fame will be honoring people from the Delaware Valley region who have contributed to the preservation of Irish culture.

Last year’s honorees include Vince Gallagher, Donegal-born and president of the Irish Center and founder of DVIHOF; Msgr. Joseph C. McLoone, son of Irish immigrants and chaplain of several Irish organizations including DVIHOF, the Donegal Association, and the Danny Browne AOH Div. 80.; and Kathleen Sullivan, vice president for government and community affairs at Comcast and vice chairperson of the Irish Memorial.

Send your letter of nomination by June 24 to The Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, c/o Kathy McGee Burns, 2291 Mulberry Lane, Lafayette Hill, PA 19444, or call 215-872-1305.

The Hall of Fame Event Dinner is scheduled for Sunday, November 13, at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia.

The Irish and Their Horses

Irish native Kevin Babington of Gwynedd Valley captured first place in the Grand Prix at the Devon Horse Show last week. He was riding Mark Q, a horse owned by a friend in Ireland.

Babington is the principal in Kevin Babington LLC, a large equestrian facility in Gwynedd Valley that provides training, boarding, and sales.

Babington, born and raised in Carrick en Suir in County Tipperary, has represented Ireland more than 30 times on National Cup teams, came in fourth as an individual in the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, and contributed to a team gold medal in the 2001 European Championships. Recently, he placed first in the $25,000 Ted Grant Welcome Grand Prix and second in the $40,000 Essex Troop Grand Prix on Mark Q.

Babington came to the US in 1987 to work as a riding instructor at a Vermont summer camp. He met his wife, Dianna, at a horse show in Pennsylvania. They have two children.

Aon sceal means “what’s the story?” in Irish. If you have a story you’d like us to tell, email denise.foley@comcast.net.

June 10, 2011 by
Columns, How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish In Philly This Week

James Joyce Himself.

It’s Bloomsday week—the annual event celebrating the day (June 16) in the life of Leopold Bloom, chronicled in James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” The Rosenbach Museum on Delancey Street in Philadelphia has a copy of Joyce’s manuscript so it’s the perfect venue for a day of readings by local actors, celebrities, and ordinary Joyceans. You can also go inside and take a peek at the manuscript.

Before that—on Monday, June 13—you can spend an evening with Irish author Jamie O’Neill. His stream-of-consciousness style novel, “At Swim, Two Boys,’ tells the story of two 16-year-olds caught up in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and owes something to Joyce, O’Neill admits.

Quick, get your reading done! Fergie’s Pub is holding a Bloomsday 101 Quiz with James Joyce experts Melanie Micir and Lance Wahlbert on Tuesday, June 14. Not your usual Quizzo, but we happen to know that owner Fergus Carey is a serious literature fan and is usually one of the readers on June 16.

Speaking of literature, this is also the week to catch “Stoker’s Dracula,” a play adapted and performed by Philadelphia actor Josh Hitchens at the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion in Philadelphia. Setting: a dark, candle-lit room, perfect for this tale of horror. And there’s another Rosenbach connection. This wonderful little museum-library also owns a copy of the Dublin-born Stoker’s handwritten notes to Dracula, his best known work.

There’s plenty more going on this week that doesn’t require any extensive reading:

Sunday, June 12. An Evening at the Races at the Philadelphia Irish Center will benefit the family of Lori Kiely, who died last August leaving four small children. Kiely was involved in kids’ sports, particularly Gaelic sports, so many of her friends from the fields are sponsoring this event to help out her young family.

Thursday, June 16. After a day of Joyce, drop by the Camden Riversharks stadium. It’s Irish Heritage Night there, with Irish music, dancers, and probably a few surprises. (Order tickets for as little as $5 in advance by using the secret discount code: IRISH. Oops, guess it’s not a secret anymore.)

You can also hear Shaun and Jerry of the Broken Shillelaghs at the Blue Monkey Tavern in Merchantville, NJ, that night. Why do we know this? Because Shaun and Jerry wisely put this on our calendar themselves, knowing we would mention it here, in our most-read feature. You can do this too. Simply go to the orange bar at the top of the page, click on Irish events listing and you’ll see the words, “Submit Your Irish Event.” Fill in the blanks and submit! See, it’s so easy, even Shaun and Jerry can do it.

Check said calendar for all the details and, if people put addresses in correctly, even a map!

June 10, 2011 by
People

Tom Keenan’s Kodak Moment

Tom Keenan, in the rain, at a recent Philadelphia St. Patrick's Day parade.

Tom Keenan, in the rain, at a recent Philadelphia St. Patrick's Day parade.

Dress in a leprechaun suit or win a tiara, dance a jig or sing “Danny Boy,” march in the Patrick’s Day parade or hoist a pint anywhere in the Philadelphia area, and chances are pretty good that Tom Keenan will be there with his camera to record the occasion for posterity. Or the Irish Edition. Either one.

Keenan has been documenting virtually every aspect of Irish life in the Delaware Valley since the mid-’90s. He’s zoomed in on everyone from Irish presidents to Kensington publicans. He knows everybody, and they know him. He’s the slim, average-looking guy with the graying brown hair and the brushy moustache who quietly slips into the ballroom or onto the ball field, settles into the background and quietly, dutifully records all those Celtic Kodak moments.

The Irish Edition’s longtime shooter clearly loves being on the viewfinder side of the camera. It’s a passion he developed early in life, never realizing that his hobby might someday become a profession. He’s grateful for that, and he’s happy to continue playing the role of invisible man.

That’s why, he confesses, he’s a little embarrassed to be on the receiving end of an award recognizing his service, to be presented Sunday afternoon at the Penn’s Landing Irish Festival. “That’s why I’m on the other side of the camera,” he says. “I take pictures of other people doing good stuff.”

To Michael Bradley, Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day parade director and emcee of the Penn’s Landing festival, Keenan’s “aw, shucks” attitude just proves that he richly deserves the attention.

“When you hear a remark like that, you know that’s the right person to honor,” says Bradley. “There are always so many people behind the the scenes who don’t get recognition. Tommy’s at everything. I’ve never seen him honored. He’s gotta be there for 20-30 years and never any recognition. I don’t see a lot of people saying ‘thank you.’ I thought he was a great choice.”

That Keenan would ever become such an integral part of the fabric of Philadelphia’s Irish community is as much a surprise to him as it is to anybody. He’s been part of the community for his entire life. His grandparents are from Ireland, and his uncle Mike Ruan headed up Irish Northern Aid in Delaware County. “When I was a kid,” he recalls, “my parents used to take me and my brothers to the Irish Center. That was our playground.”

As an adult, he became active in the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Still, he didn’t set out to be the Philadelphia Irish community’s unofficial documentarian.

Tom Keenan first started taking photos as a leisure-time pursuit back in the ‘70s when he served in the Navy. “I always took pictures wherever I went,” he says. “I entered some contests and won some amateur contests. People liked what I did.”

After his discharge, Keenan didn’t completely sever his ties to the Navy. He settled into a job at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, installing missile systems. Then, in the early ‘90s, work at the shipyard started to slow down—and on September 30, 1995, the facility closed, costing Keenan his job.

“When they closed the shipyard, I had to find a new career,” Keenan says. “They offered to send us back to school for something, so I decided to go to Antonelli Institute (in Erdenheim, Montgomery County) for photography.”

Round about the same time, he noticed that the Irish Edition office was in Wyndmoor, just around the corner from school. He’d spent a lifetime in the Philadelphia Irish community and he thought shooting photos for the paper might be a good fit.

“I looked for a niche,” he says. “Jane Duffin (the editor) is a very nice lady, and she started to send me out on projects. Over the years, I’ve developed a pretty good clientele from it.”

Keenan is quick to point out that photographing Irish people and events is only a part of his business these days. “There’s nothing I can’t shoot,” he says.

Maybe there is one thing Tom Keenan can’t shoot. That moment will come on Sunday afternoon, when he steps onto the main stage overlooking Penn’s Landing’s Great Plaza and accepts his award. For someone who’s happiest becoming part of the scenery, it’s an uncomfortable position to be in.

Well, we’ve known and admired our fellow photographer for several years. In fact, it’s very likely that we’ll be there to record his special moment. So here’s to you, Tom, and let us offer this advice: Just smile and say “Cheese.”

June 3, 2011 by
Dance, Music, News

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Not all the dancers belong to a dance school.

Not all the dancers belong to a dance school.

Memorial Day is seen as the official start of summer. But for those of us following a slightly different calendar, summer doesn’t truly begin until the annual Penn’s Landing Irish Festival.

This year’s festival kicks off Sunday at 12 noon, going all the way to 8 p.m., at the Great Plaza at Penn’s landing, Columbus Boulevard at Market Street.

If you’ve never been, here’s why you should go…

Music (and lots of it, all day long), with Blackthorn, Jamison and the Hooligans headlining on the main stage.

Dance, with so many of the Philadelphia area’s schools of Irish dance prancing all over the place that we can’t list them all.

Food and drink, including traditional Irish noshies like shepherd’s pie, along with water ice, ice cream, and appropriately seasonal liquid refreshment.

Vendors galore, so you can pick up all of the T-shirts, hats, mugs, home decor, jewelry and other goods necessary to confirm in the eyes of all the world that you are, yes indeed, Irish.

Kiddie stuff, including face-painting, of course.

Atmosphere. Yes, Penn’s Landing lacks shade and technically, kids aren’t supposed to wade in the fountains (but they do anyway), and it can get a little hot out there along the river. But, hey, you’re along the river, which you can bet will be dotted with pleasure boats, some of which stop dead in the water to take in the music emanating from the main stage.

OK, so we’ve told you. But if you still need convincing, let us show you. Check out our photos from past years.

June 3, 2011 by
History

The White Walls of Malin Town

The white-washed walls of the Malin Town bridge.

By Tom Finnigan

You know that summer is approaching Malin Town, when white-wash appears on the bridge’s parapet and brushes scrub walls. Other places count swallows; we look for immaculate stones. When the rim surrounding our triangular green gleams white, the matter is fixed: summer has arrived.

I carry a pint from Maclean’s and sit on a bench near the Food Store and watch sunlight coax colour from the flowerbeds on the green. Outside the Malin Hotel, a couple sprawl under an awning and smoke. Beech trees cast shadows across the green. Seated majestically on a mower, Hughie sweeps past me and waves. A smell of cut grass follows him.

A van turns from the Glengad road. The enlarged face of a politician grins from its panels. In a stink of exhaust fumes, a microphone blares and a voice bleats for support in the coming election. The van circles the town and exits across the bridge to annoy sheep on the Carn road.

On August 7th in 1843, it was reported, thousands of people assembled near the Green Hill, outside Malin, to listen to Daniel O’Connell. The authorities feared violence and hid behind the muskets of the military but all passed quietly and J. McSheffry Esquire had no regrets about allowing his land to be used for a political gathering. “But,” a local historian remarked: “The great agitation has gone for naught…and Ireland groans under the burthen of her sorrows.”

The Psalmist says that man is like grass in a field. He grows in the sun, then withers and dies. Shinnere and Finners; Blueshirts and the Loose-your-shirts; Labour and Independents: they are blades of grass. Their sun has set. Who will remember the names of the defeated when the placards rot and the loud-speakers are silent? A few lines in the local papers, comment on Highland radio, an argument over drinks. For a few weeks their faces haunt us from telegraph poles and lamp-posts. Votes cast, they are lifted down and thrown into the back of a van to be re-cycled at ten euro a time. Those left hanging, wait for wind or rain to throw them into the dirt under a whin bush. Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return…

Free of electoral blather, Malin resumes the tranquillity of summer. A swallow flits under oaks. The church of Ireland raises its castellated tower behind a copper beech as it has done since 1827. Outside Maclean’s, two old carousers sit on the wall by the bridge and watch a girl in shorts fill her car with petrol.

Politicians lick wounds, newspapers castigate the clergy and the banks are bust. Let the world go about its business. Be still, relax; sit on a bench under a sycamore tree at the edge of the green with a pint to hand and listen to a tractor lifting silage along the Lagg road. Gaze at what a Planter built and be thankful for white-wash and brushes – those perennial signs of summer in Malin.

Tom Finnigan writes his essays from his home in Malin, Inishowen, County Donegal, Ireland.

June 2, 2011 by
How to Be Irish in Philly

How To Be Irish in Philly This Week

Blackthorn's Michael Boyce at a prior Penns Landing fest.

This is one jam-packed weekend if you like rugby, Irish music, dancing, and fun. Surely, one of those things will entice you out either to the 2011 USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championships in Chester on Saturday and Sunday, the Irish festival in Mont Clare throughout the entire weekend,  or the Irish Festival on Penns Landing on Sunday.

Notre Dame is one of the teams competing over the weekend at the Philadelphia Union’s waterfront soccer stadium during the sevens—so-called because the team is made up of only 7, rather than 15 players, which amplifies the action. The matches will be televised by NBC, but only if you go out can you also enjoy the Saturday night concert by the Dropkick Murphys.

Speaking of Notre Dame, the AOH Notre Dame Division 1 annual Irish festival is this weekend too. The fun starts Friday night at St. Michael’s Picnic Grounds under the pavilion in Mont Clare, PA. Enjoy the music of Jamison, the Belfast Connection, Misty Isle,  the Bogside Rogues, and a ceili with Tom McHugh, Kevin and Jim McGillian.  There’ll be food, vendors, pipers, Irish dancers, $2 pints all weekend long and tickets are only $15 for the entire weekend. Doesn’t get any better than that. Oh, wait, yes it does. All proceeds from this annual festival go to support AOH charities.

It’s year 13 for the Penns Landing Irish Festival which draws thousands to the Delaware River for free music and entertainment along with plenty of vendors selling beer, food, and Irish stuff. This year, Blackthorn, the Hooligans, and Jamison will appear on the main stage. There will be nonstop Irish dancing and kids activities.

The events simmer down during the week (though there’s a session every night somewhere) until Friday, when the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion and the Rosenbach Museum present the world premier of “Stoker’s Dracula,” adapted and performed by Philadelphia actor Josh Hitchens. The story by the Irish writer will be told by candlelight in a dark room. Sounds like spooky fun!

Also on Friday night, catch Philly-based, Dublin-born singer-songwriter John Byrne with jazz vocalist Lili Anel at Milkboy Café on Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore. Byrne has received accolades for his debut album, “After the Wake,” and Anel, who grew up in New York but now makes Philly her home, was recently honored as best female singer/songwriter and best female jazz vocalist in the prestigious New York Music Awards.

As always, there’s more information on our calendar, the cutest, most cuddly calendar in the entire Delaware Valley.

June 2, 2011 by
News, People

Honoring the Inspirational Irish Women of 2011

Honorees Carmel Boyce, Anne McDade Keyser Hill and Karen Boyce McCollum

Honorees Carmel Boyce, Anne McDade Keyser Hill and Karen Boyce McCollum

It’s not for nothing that they’ve earned the description, “inspirational.”

The 12 recipients of the 2011 Inspirational Irish Women awards are really quite remarkable, accomplished people, coming from all walks of life—the judiciary, law enforcement, music, religious orders, fire and rescue, nursing, business, broadcasting and more.

The honorees were:

  • Sister Christine McCann
  • Margaret Reyes
  • The Honorable Pamela Pryor Dembe
  • Kathy Fanning
  • Anne McDade Keyser Hill
  • Mary Ann McGinley, Ph.D., R.N.
  • Kathy O’Connell
  • Carmel Boyce
  • Karen Boyce McCollum
  • Christine M. Coulter
  • Liz Crehan Anderson
  • Sister Peg Hynes, S.S.J.

(To read more about them, click here.)

For all their accomplishments, they remain quite humble—and more, as they accepted their awards in a special ceremony Sunday afternoon at the Philadelphia Irish Center, all credited the key people in their lives who helped guide them along the paths they ultimately followed.

Speaking of her parents Barney and 2011 honoree Carmel Boyce, communications executive and singer Karen Boyce McCollum thanked her parents for “bringing us up in a household where growing up Irish was a blessing and the greatest gift they could give.”

Businesswoman Anne McDade Keyser Hill, her voice quavering just a bit, thanked her husband Joe for his loving support. (And he blew a kiss back at her.) But she also recalled the strong influence of her father in her life: “My dad, when I was 14 or 15 years old, took me aside and he said, ‘Sis’—he called me ‘Sis’—don’t let anyone ever tell you that you can’t do what you want in your life because you’re a girl.”

The highly regarded nurse leader Mary Ann McGinley spoke lovingly of her own parents and credited them for setting a good example: “My dad clearly inherited the Irish talent of telling stories. My mom was a ‘Type E’ personality—everything for everybody each and every day.”

And, finally, WXPN Kids Corner host Kathy O’Connell recalled one exceptional woman in her life: “I want to dedicate this award to my grandmother, who became a widow 10 seconds before the Depression hit.”

Attending the event were more than 400 family members, friends and co-workers who attended the ceremony, who cheered and applauded as each woman (and representatives of two women who were honored posthumously, social activist Sister Peg Hynes and musician Liz Crehan Anderson) accepted her award. They also had a chance to admire the striking black-and-white portraits of the honorees, created by photographer Brian Mengini and commissioned by the Inspirational Irish Women committee.

In addition to honoring women of high achievement, the awards program benefited the Philadelphia Irish Center.

We’ve assembled an extensive photo essay from the day. We also present video highlights.

May 27, 2011 by
Sports

Play Ball! Irish Heritage Night at the Phillies 2011

Brian Boru's drum major on the largest Jumbotron in the National League.

Brian Boru's drum major on the largest Jumbotron in the National League.

It had to have been a thrill to be on the field at Citizens Bank Park. But what a kick it must have been to see Phillies third baseman Placido Polanco trot out onto the field to hang out with the Brian Boru pipe band, which had been playing in center field. (Polanco neglected to wear a kilt.)

All around the stadium, Phillies fans were treated to Irish music, from 5 Quid just outside the park to the Bogside Rogues and the Hooligans inside the park.

Just before the game, dancers from many of the area’s Irish dance schools lined up along the first and third base lines and out on the warning track to get jiggy. (And many proud dance parents got to see their kids displayed on the park’s super-size Jumbotron.)

But by far the biggest thrill of the night had to belong to John and Michael Boyce, the brothers of Blackthorn, who were tapped to sing the National Anthem.

Oh, yes, let’s not forget: Roy Halladay on the mound. Final score: Phillies 3, Rangers 2.

May 27, 2011 by