They know there's plenty of craic coming up.
A bonus this week: Nearly a month’s worth of ways you can be Irish in Philly. The reason: We’re taking the week off. All of us. At the same time. We’re not going to be wired for a whole week. And there are some festivals coming up in September you need to plan for.
First, here’s what’s going on while we’re gone:
On Friday, August 20, works by a group of Irish artists living in London who call themselves will be on display at Villanova University Art Gallery. The exhibit will be there for several months.
The Irish Club of Delaware County will give it another try—its second annual picnic by the pool, featuring Round Tower and good eats at the Knights of Columbus De LaSalle Pool in Springfield on Saturday. The first date was a rainout.
On Sunday, “Go Irish: The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller,” a one-man play, is coming for a one-off at the Irish Center in Philadelphia. Actor Bob Hughes plays Miller, and actor who was Oscar-nominated for his role as Father Damien Karras in the 1973 movie, “The Exorcist.” and a screenwriter and playwright who was was winner of the Pulitzer Prize that same year, for “That Championship Season.” At the time of his death,Miller was in the midst of mounting a revival of Inherit the Wind at Scranton Public Theatre and writing a television script about his former father-in-law, comedian Jackie Gleason.
Jason Miller was passionate, talented, troubled and conflicted. He turned his back on Hollywood –it was not his style– to return to his native Scranton to care for his ailing mother and father. One of his Miller’s memorable roles was in the movie “Rudy” in which he played Notre Dame Head Football Coach Ara Parseghian. An avid Notre Dame fan, the greeting on Jason’s home phone was ‘Go Irish,” hence the name of the play.
Free movie night is back at the Irish Center on Thursdays through the end of summer. Kick back with a beer, a plate of Paul’s fabulous chicken fingers, and enjoy the show on the big screen in air-conditioned comfort.
Next Friday, August 27, The Celtic Tenors come to the Sellersville Theatre bringing their eclectic sound that has sold more than 1 million CDs worldwide.
Now this sounds yummy: On Saturday, August 28, the 8th annual Berks Celtic Oyster Fest takes place at St. Benedict’s Grove in Mohnton, PA. On stage will be RUNA, the Hooligans, Charlie Zahm, Trinity, John Whelan, Hamilton Celtic Pipe Band, and the Reid School of Highland Dance. There’s also an oyster-eating contest and a best men’s legs in kilts contest. Plus food and vendors and probably some oysters for public consumption.
But that’s just a taste of this particular weekend. Solas is appearing on Saturday night at Longwood Gardens. What a beautiful venue for this talented group.
And the Mairead Farrells Ladies Gaelic football club is holding a “Halloween in the Summer” costume party on Saturday night at Tir na NoG in Philadelphia to help raise funds for the team, which is going to be in great need of a trophy cabinet soon to hold all their well-earned honors. You go, girls!
And on Sunday, August 29, photographer Brian Mengini (you’ve seen his work on our pages) unveils his “Spirit of the Fallen” exhibit, photographs of dancers wearing wings who volunteered their time to honor Philadelphia’s slain police officers. Mengini is using the event, which features the Timoney Irish dancers and fiddler Laine Walker Hughes from Paddy’s Well and is being held at the Irish Center, to raise money to publish a calendar which he plans to sell to raise money for the Philadelphia Police Survivors Fund. Order your tickets here.
That takes us into September. For many people, it’s a bittersweet month. Summer fun is winding down and the kids are going back to school. But if you’re Irish, the fun is just starting. With September come festivals galore, starting with the second annual Brittingham’s Irish Festival in Lafayette Hill on September 5 featuring the ever-popular Paddy’s Well, Jamison, Oliver McElhone, Seamus McGroary, and Whiskey Folk, dozens of vendors, an outdoor beer garden, dancers, and plenty of activities for kids.
This is also a bang-up year for Irish and Scottish plays and on September 4, you can see actor Conor Lovett in Samuel Beckett’s one-man play, “First Love,” at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre in Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival of Irish Music and Dance (September 9-11) this year features Grammy-nominated fiddler Liz Carroll, about whom one critic wrote, “[she] conjures up a dizzying mixture of the sweetest tones, the fastest runs, and the most dazzling display of musicianship imaginable.” Joining her during the Saturday night concert will be Daithi Sproule of the acclaimed Donegal group, Altan, who frequently collaborates with Carroll. There will be music all day in the Fireside Room and dancing in the ballroom, Irish product vendors, kids’ activities, dance demonstrations, and classes in everything from genealogy to Irish singing and crafts.
But before that, see a showing of “The Yellow Bittern: The Life and Times of Liam Clancy” on Wednesday night at the Irish Center to kick off this year’s festival, followed by Singers’ Circle on Thursday, featuring some of the area’s finest Irish singers.
The Green Lane Scottish Irish Festival is on tap for the same weekend. It will feature the Martin Family Band, the Hooligans, Burning Bridget Cleary, Tree, Norsewind, pipers, Highland and Irish dancers, great food, and that wonking big sea monster in the middle of the Green Lane reservoir.
The Young Dubliners are coming to town on Saturday, September 11, playing the Sellersville Theatre with The Barley Boys and later, on September 14, with the John Byrne Band at the World Café Live in Philadelphia (an Irish Network-Philadelphia get-together and the informal founding of Philadelphia’s new Dublin Society).
On September 18, try something a little different–the Gloucester City 2010 Shamrock Festival, which starts at noon in Proprietors’s Park on the Delaware waterfront. Gloucester City is a couple of minutes from Philadelphia over one bridge or another and is a lovely, often overlooked little city with a long Irish history (and plenty of Irish pubs). Jamison and the Broken Shillelaghs are only two of the bands scheduled to play, and there’s plenty of kid stuff to do, great food to eat, and a beer garden. Hey, maybe next year we’ll plant beer seeds in our garden!
The Cape May County AOH Div. 1 holds its annual Irish Weekend September 23-26 in N. Wildwood, the largest Irish festival on the east coast, which lasts for four days and covers N. Wildwood like gravy on Irish stew. It includes a boxing match, a ceili, 5 K run, 1 mile walk, a pipe band exhibition, and music galore, including Paddy’s Well, the Broken Shillelaghs, Bogside Rogues, Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones, the Sean Fleming Band, and many more. It’s wall-to-wall vendors, great food, and craic. We have the whole schedule up on our interactive calendar.
There’s craic galore at the Bethlehem Celtic Classic which is held the same weekend as Wildwood’s fest every year. But in Bethlehem you also get big guys tossing hammers and cabers, border collies doing their stuff, a haggis-eating contest, lots of dancing and singing by groups like Barleyjuice, John Doyle and Karan Casey, Timlin and Kane, Bua, McPeake, the Makem and Spain Brothers, Enter the Haggis, the Glengharry Boys, the Jameson Sisters, Burning Bridget Cleary, and more. You’ll find a link to the entire schedule on our calendar.
We’ll be back soon and update you on anything new. Enjoy the last of August! We know we will!
