How to Be Irish in Philly

We’re gearing up this week for what’s shaping up to be three slam-bang months of Irishness in the Philadelphia region.

First, this weekend the Cumann Rince Naisunta 2009 Regional dance championships will be held at the Irish Center, starting early Saturday morning with a parade of Irish dancers. Winners of this competition will be heading to Dublin in May for the world championships.

On Saturday night, Blackthorn will be performing at Archbishop Ryan High School, while the Barley Boys will be on stage at Porter’s Pub in Easton.

On Sunday, the Braveheart Pub in Hellerstown is launching the latest session in the area—the second Sunday session which will, of course, occur every second Sunday of the month.

You can take your favorite squeeze to the Springfield Inn in Springfield, Delco, for a Valentine’s dinner and dancing or head to the Sellersville Theatre to hear the McDades, a five-piece Canadian ensemble of siblings who fuse Celtic sounds with everything from jazz to global music.

On Wednesday night, The Grand in Wilmington, DE, is hosting an Irish Spectacular, featuring Irish performers Gerry O’Connor, Emer Mayock, Frankie Gavin, Cora Venus Lunny, Robert Harris and Regina Nathan with the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Make your way over to Camden, NJ, on Thursday night for a treat—the annual fundraising concert for Sacred Heart Parish featuring Mick Moloney and Friends, who this year includes legendary Northern Ireland singer and activist Tommy Sands (look for Sands to return in March to appear at Longwood Gardens with his daughter, Moya). Special bonus: There will be a raffle for a trip to Ireland with only 150 tickets available for $50 each. We like those chances.

Starting on Friday, there will be three days of Irish music, vendors, and whiskey tastings at the 17th Annual Scottish and Irish Festival at the Valley Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia. The lineup is incredible and includes the Tannahill Weavers, the McDades, Dublin City Ramblers, Brother, Five Quid, Searson, the Hooligans, and many, many more. This is one of those don’t miss events for the entire family. And the food is usually pretty good. Best of all—there’s lots of parking and it’s all free.

We’ve been updating our calendar almost daily, so if you want to take a peek ahead, please do. You’re going to get as excited as we are about what’s coming up this month and next.

Remember, support your local Irish merchant and if you have a few extra bucks, think about donating it to the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance Committee, which runs the annual parade. Philly’s budget cuts have left the parade organizers $40,000 in the hole. Contact them at info@philadelphiastpatsparade.com.

It’s almost too quiet out there. Oh, if you don’t count the sessions that run every night of the week in the Philadelphia region. We’re lucky. A reader recently asked us about sessions in Atlanta where he was heading on a trip. We did a little search and didn’t turn up much. Oh, they have their Irish pubs, but most of the music is either provided by DJs or patrons using the karaoke machine. Now, there’s a little bit of hell for you.

There is one great event this weekend you won’t want to miss. The Next Generation, a group of local youngsters who are following in the footsteps of some of the great session musicians we have here, will be performing at the Garden State Discovery Museum in Cherry Hill on Saturday.

And we have one correction. The Ambassador’s and Taoiseach Awards luncheon of the Irish American Chamber and Business Network that has appeared on our calendar for this Sunday is actually scheduled for February 27. We apologize for the error. So don’t be showing up at the Ritz Carlton this weekend.

Since there’s a light schedule now, we want you to rest up, because the events are starting to build up in February and March, when you won’t have a moment to even think. But if you have some time, get out for a pint and some craic at your local Irish pub. They need the business, and we need them.

On the horizon: The World Irish Dance Championships are coming to Philadelphia in early April (thousands and thousands of curly wigs—imagine it!). To get yourself ready, there’s a regional dance competition next Saturday at the Irish Center you an attend. Trust us, it will put a smile on your face. And we need that too.

Check out our calendar for all the details. Most of them correct, we hope.

The Irish are Celtic. TheScots are Celtic. So it’s not a far stretch for an Irishman or woman to celebrate the 250th birthday of Scotland’s beloved poet, Robbie (or Rabbie) Burns.

This is a man (a very handsome man, if his portraits are any indication) who once wrote a poem to a haggis which, in case you didn’t know, is a Scottish dish made from sheep intestines stuffed with sheep’s heart, lung,and liver with spices and oatmeal. (Now, now, the Scots might experience a little bile in the craw if you told them about scrapple.)

Here’s how Rabbie felt about stuffed sheep’s intestine:

“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o the puddin’-race!

Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are ye wordy of a grace

As lang’s my arm.”

We wouldn’t be surprised if there’s haggis on the menu somewhere in Bethlehem this weekend as the city celebrates Burns’ big one. They’re kicking it off Friday night, January 23, with an art show, poetry reading, and other events at the Hotel Bethlehem. On Saturday, there will be a lecture and supper (look for the haggis there) at the Hotel on Bethlehem’s Main Street, and a whiskey tasting cross the street at Donegal Square/McCarthy’s Tea Room. On Sunday, at the Braveheart Highland Pub in nearby Hellertown, there will also be a Burns supper featuring kilts and music.

Sligo Pub in Media is still offering free Gaelic lessons on Monday nights. And on Friday, popular local duo Gerry Timlin and Tom Kane (we love them!) will be appearing at The Shanachie Pub in Ambler, where Timlin is part-owner and genial host.

Just a peek at the following week: Those wonderful pint-sized musicians called The Next Generation will be performing at the Garden State Discovery Museum in Cherry Hill next Saturday, January 31 for the museum’s Irish American Children’s Festival.

On Sunday, February 1, the Irish American Chamber and Business Network will be giving out its 2009 Ambassador’s and Taoiseach’s Awards to ICON PLC and ICON Clinical Research, headquartered in North Wales and Warrington, and John and Joan Mullen of Apple Leisure Group and AppleVacations respectively.

Speaking of business, we’re going to take this opportunity to again urge you to eat, drink, and buy Irish. If you’re a local business owner, let us know what you’re doing to bring in the crowds and separating them from their money and we’ll mention it here.

For example, we think Kildare’s idea of offering a bottomless bowl of stew for only $10.99 is great and we told you about it here last week. Brittingham’s Irish Pub in Lafayette Hill is offering “recession proof prices” for food and drink specials during the week: On Tuesdays, enjoy burgers and fries for less than $5 from 4 to 10 PM, and prime rib for under $20 on Thursdays, when appetizers are half price and beers are $3.

Can you say “free advertising,” boys and girls? Email us!

Eileen Ivers

There’s an embarrassment of riches this weekend in the Philly region. Three great Irish women performers will be in town at the same time Saturday night: Eileen Ivers, fiddler extraordinaire, in Media, and singers Susan McKeown and Mary McPartlan, together for the first time, on stage at the Irish Center. And if you’re in Delaware, the Scottish group Malinky will be performing at the Blue Ball Barn in Wilmington.

I hate when that happens.

But things could be worse. It could be quiet here, and we don’t like that.

There’s also a remarkable Irish play debuting at the Adrienne Theater on Sansom Street with a performance that same night, but Paul Meade’s “Skin Deep,” a production of the Inis Nua Theatre Company (they brought us the darkly funny “Trad”) will be here till January 18 so you have more than one chance to see it. Knowing Inis Nua’s Director Tom Reing’s record for finding the best in Celtic theater, you may actually want to see it more than once.

For those of you worried about cost, some reassurance: It’s the rare Irish event that will put you out more than $50. Most musical and theatrical events cost somewhere in the $20-$25 range, by any standards a bargain (and possibly why so many Irish musicians can’t quit their day jobs).

On Monday, head over to the Sligo Pub in Media for another free Gaelic lesson. Or, if you’re in Bethlehem, hear the Celtic group BUA at the Bethlehem BrewWorks. Are you from Derry? The Sons and Daughters of Derry, one of the oldest county associations in Philadelphia, is making a comeback and is holding a meeting Monday night at the Irish Center.

There’s more coming up this month. In fact, it’s the rare day in January that there isn’t something Celtic going on that will remind you of where you came from. Pick something and go. Pubs, restaurants, gift shops, musicians and actors are all hard-hit in economic downturns. Let’s support them. Eat, drink, and buy Irish! Check out our calendar for all the details.

Now that you’re sobered up from the holidays, you can find out what all that “Nollaig Shona Duit!” meant by taking a free Irish language lesson (Donegal dialect, quite lyrical) at theSligo Pub in Media on Monday night.

Before that though, support the Eire Og Gaelic footballers at their annual banquet Saturday night at the Irish Center.

On Thursday, January 8, the first Celtic Media night sponsored by the Celtic Cultural Alliance, kicks off in Bethlehem with the film, “From Shore to Shore: Irish Music in New York City,”at McCarthy’s Tea Room on Main Street (part of the Donegal Square shop). This media night will be held on the second Thursday of each month in the upstairs Great Room with a limited menu and BYOB.

Sound like a slow week? Maybe, but next week will kick off in style with fiddler Eileen Ivers, Irish singers Susan McKeown and Mary McPartlan together for the first time, and the Scottish group, Malinky, all next Saturday night. As they say in Ireland, oy!

The Wren Boys are on the prowl Friday night, December 26. According to an ancient Irish tradition, the day after Christmas a group of rowdies kill a wren and hang it on a holly bush. They have a good reason. The wren, legend says, betrayed the hiding place of one of the first martyrs, St. Stephen.

Of course, in Ireland these days, there’s no bird killing. Instead, those same rowdies dress in costume and go from door to door, beating drums and playing whistles, and begging for “a penny for the wren.’ So if you woke this morning to hear male voices singing, “The wren, the wren, the king of all birds, On St. Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze, Although he is little, his family is great, I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat,” it wasn’t a horrible Christmas hangover.

Okay, so it’s not going to happen here. But there is a Wren Party Friday night, December 26, at the Knights of Columbus in Glenside, where you’ll be able to sing and dance still 11 PM to live Irish music.

Also on Friday night, the popular U2 tribute band, 2U, will be appearing at the Sellersville Theatre.

Save some time on Sunday, December 28, for a special Christmas treat from Fergus Carey, owner of Fergie’s Pub on Sansom Street in Philadelphia. Actors Michael Toner and Jack Barrett will be performing two “Christmassy plays” by Delaware playwright William Rolleri upstairs at the Center City pub. There are only 50 seats so call asap.

There’s no shortage of places to be on New Year’s Eve. There’s a 32-County Ball at the Irish Center with dinner and dancing to usher out 2008 (and may we say, good riddance!). The Celtic-klezmer band Scythian will be rocking out at the Stotesbury Mansion on Walnut Street, and Timlin and Kane and the King Brothers will be ringing in the new at The Shanachie Irish Pub. If you head down to McGillins, a great old Irish pub in Center City, you’ll be making your own music. You can karaoke out the old and boogie in with the new year.

Some terrific stuff coming up in the earliest part of 2009, including Eileen Ivers in Media, Irish singers Susan McKeown and Mary McPartlan in concert at the Irish Center, and the Scottish group Malinky in Wilmington. Check out our calendar for all the details (and read an interview with McKeown and McPartlan, two of the most amazing voices on Ireland’s folk scene, next week on irishphiladelphia.com).

It’s official now: There’s a way to be Irish just about every day of the week in the region. We know, since we put together the calendar. Between sessions and special events, there’s something going on just about all the time, even leading up to Christmas and beyond.

On Sunday, for example, McCarthy’s Tea Room in Bethlehem is holding a Winter Solstice Tea. (Will there be Druids?) Let’s see if you’re up for it after you’ve gone on Friday night to the Winter Extravaganza Show with Andy Cooney at the Irish Center (dinner, dancing, and the wonderful and really cute Andy Cooney, plus a comic, dancers and others), seen Scythian in Sellersville, The Broken Shillelaghs in Gloucester City, or enjoyed an evening with Seamus Kennedy at Bethlehem’s Ice House.

There’s a session every night leading up to Christmas—at Kildare’s Fado, Shanachie, and a Piece of Ireland pubs. The Auld Dubliner Pub in Gloucester City, NJ, will be holding its Christmas party on Sunday, December 21, starting at 4 PM featuring local favorites, The Malones and Their Cousin, and a special visit from Father Christmas, who we understand is in the area all week. It’s a family-oriented place, so you can bring the kids. And your dancing shoes.

The slow session at the Irish Center has been cancelled for the day after Christmas. But not so the appearance of 2U, the World’s Second Best U2 Show, scheduled for the Sellersville Theatre at 8:30 that night.

On December 28, two of Philadelphia’s finest actors, Michael Toner and Jack Barrett, will be performing two monologues with a Celtic flavor at Fergie’s Pub on Sansom Street in the city. It’s a fundraiser to help local playwright, William Rolleri, produce his latest work, “The Brothers Flanagan,” about two Grays Ferry pub owners whose business is being sharply curtailed by a local serial killer. We smell “dark comedy!” We recently interviewed Bill Rolleri and you can read all about him and his work next week on www.irishphiladelphia.com.

And you don’t have to worry about being Irish on New Year’s Eve. Scythian, those crazy Celtic-Gypsy-Klezmer musicians from DC, are holding a “Mad, Mad, Masquerade” at the Stotesbury Mansion in Philadelphia, and there’s a 32-County Ball at the Irish Center, with music, food, dancing, and a parade of flags that’s in no danger of being canceled because of city budget cuts.

Don’t forget to eat, drink, and shop Irish. Check out our calendar for more details on these and other Irish events in the area. And have a wonderful Christmas!

Check this spot next week for a look ahead at the big (and small) events of the new year.

There’s only one break in the holiday action this week: The irrepressible Malachy McCourt—actor, barkeep, politician, author—who will be signing his books (like “Danny Boy” and “The History of Ireland”) at Donegal Square in downtown Bethlehem on Saturday, December 13. Oh wait–a signed McCourt book will make a nice Christmas gift for some Irishophile on your list. So, we’re wrong. No break.

Continue the holiday cheer on Saturday at the Willows Mansion in Villanova where Philadelphia’s Rose of Tralee, Colleen Tully, will be hosting a family-friendly holiday party featuring music, vendors, crafts, and Santa himself. And there’s some good-deed doing involved. Bring a nonperishable food item for the Delco Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry and receive 5 free raffle tickets.

The fabulous local group Burning Bridget Cleary will be holding a CD Release Party and Holiday Show at the Steel City Coffee House in Phoenixville on Saturday night. Their new release is called “Everything is Alright,” and, given everything going on in the economy, we’re hoping they’re being prescient.

History buff alert: On Sunday, go back in time with Robert Mouland at the Durand-Heddon House in Maplewood, NJ. Mouland will be portraying Michael Keane, an Irish harper?who came to America in 1754 with the Royal Governor of North Carolina. He will perform on the cláirseach na h’Eireann (wirestrung Irish harp), baroque violin (c.1760), baroque flute (c.1795), English guittar (c.1770) and union pipes.

Also for history buffs (who like stories and music together), at the Sellersville Theater, favorites Coyote Run will present “A Kilted Christmas.” Expect trad, rock, bagpipes, even a didgeridoo, and lots of fun.

A reminder to you session fanatics: We’ve added a new session at the Auld Dubliner Irish Pub in Gloucester City, NJ, where you can also see some of your local favorites including Kane and Beatty (December 13) and an Irish Christmas Party with the Malones and their Cousin (December 21).

By December 19 you should be finished your Christmas shopping, right? So plan on celebrating the holiday with your friends at the Irish Center, where the amazing Andy Cooney Band from New York is headlining a 50th Anniversary holiday extravaganza featuring comedian George Casey and others. Dinner is available (and can we just say, Mickey Kavanaugh knows his way around a kitchen) and, of course, there’s dancing.

That same night, that crazy Celtic-Klezmer band Scythian is holding its holiday show at the Sellersville Theare, and singer Seamus Kennedy is throwing his party at the Icehouse in Bethlehem. So many choices, so little time!

Are you planning a holiday party, looking for the perfect gift, need a break? Check out your local Irish pub, restaurant, and gift shop. Times are tough and they can use the business. Let’s keep the Irish community alive and vibrant!