How to Be Irish in Philly

It’s “kick up your heels” Saturday as the Martin Family Band plays Celtic tunes at the Willow Creek Orchard’s 5th annual open house in Collegeville and Canadian fiddler and singer April Verch performs at Calvary Church in Philadelphia.

But save some toe-tapping strength for Tuesday’s “Irish Christmas in America” at the Irish Center in Mt. Airy, featuring Karan Casey and Teada and some incredible musicians and dancers. And get your tickets now. In many cities where this show is touring, it’s playing to sold-out crowds. This year you can purchase performance CDs or you can win a copy in our “help irishphiladelphia.com hit 1,000 subscribers to its newsletter” contest. All you have to do to be entered is to subscribe to our weekly informative email newsletter (we call it Mickmail) or, if you’re already a subscriber, forward your issue on to someone else who you think might subscribe. We’re only about 13 people away from achieving our goal for the year. Next year: world domination.

On Wednesday, our friends Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo, otherwise known as McDermott’s Handy, will be performing their own Christmas special at the Fox Chase Library in Philadelphia. Not only are they fine musicians, Dennis never fails to crack us up, so expect some great fun.

And if you’re not too Christmased out, Leahy—an astonishing family of eight talented brothers and sisters from Canada—will present their Christmas show at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania on Friday, December 12. You may have seen their PBS special or heard their award-winning albums. They even stole some thunder from Shania Twain when they opened for her in her inaugural world tour.

If our calendar isn’t out Christmas shopping, you can check it for all the details.

This is also Irish traditional dancing.

As you’re reading this, they’re already jigging their little hearts out at the Mid-Atlantic Oireachtas, the annual Thanksgiving weekend Irish dance competition held in Philadelphia. All the little boys and girls—and even grownups—will be movin’ and groovin’ at the Downtown Marriott all weekend, from 8 to 6 PM. Admission is only $15, though parking is another story.

This is actually a good week to be Irish in Philly, especially if you like Celtic-rock fusion. Enter the Haggis, the popular Celtic rockers from Canada, are playing Friday night at the World Café Live in town. The Broken Shillelaghs will be rocking out at The Auld Dubliner in Gloucester City, NJ on Saturday night. And on Sunday, some of the best local Irish bands will be playing at Finnigan’s Wake on Second Street in Philly for the Irish Winterfest 2008—that’s Paddy’s Well, the Bogside Rogues, the Sean Fleming Band, and the Hooligans, all under one great big roof. There will also be Irish dancers, vendors, and workshops at a venue where it always seems like there’s a party is going on.

The Boys of the Lough will be giving their tour of traditional Celtic music from wherever it’s played, from the Shetland Islands to Brittany, at the Sellersville Theatre on Sunday afternoon. It’s a great, comfy venue, with no bad seats–a terrific place to bring the entire clan. The Washington House Restaurant is right next door with its comfy bar and homey dining rooms—you can make a special family day of it.

If you’re in Wilmington, get into the spirit with Christmas with the Celtic Tenors at The Grand on Sunday night. If you mention “Green Willow” when ordering tickets, you get a discount.

In Bethlehem, the Celtic Cultural Alliance (those wonderful folks who bring you the Celtic Classic every year) will hold its first Celtic Music Night, featuring local faves, Barleyjuice, at the Bethlehem BrewWorks on Main Street in the Christmas City (and we do mean that—Bethlehem does it up bigtime during this season). Get a little shopping in at the Moravian Bookstore, then head over to the BrewWorks for a burger, artisan beer, and some music. There’s lots of parking and it doesn’t cost as much as it does in Philly. Then put it on your calendar for every first Monday. We’re going to.

If you want to really get outta town, The Church of the Holy Family in Sewell, NJ, is offering a bus trip on Thursday, December 4, to see the Celtic-flavored Magic of Christmas show at Carnegie Hall, featuring Andy Cooney, who is a dreamy looking as he sounds, with harpist Aileen O’Donnell, violinist Vladimir Tablokov (he’s not Irish), the Mark Miller Gospel Choir and the Children’s Festival Chorus.

Closer to home, the Shanachie Irish Pub in Ambler is hosting a dynamic trio on Thursday night: Guitarist and singer John Doyle, performer and folklorist Mick Moloney (who knows more about the Philly Irish music tradition than just about anyone), and amazing fiddler Athena Tergis. Not to be missed, and I’m planning to limp there myself.

On Friday, Irish singer John MacNally will be performing a fundraiser for St. Mary’s Parish at the Gloucester High School gym in Gloucester, NJ. And the Irish Rovers will be at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside. I’m humming “The Unicorn” song already.

And mark your calendars for Tuesday, December 9, for Teada’s Christmas Tour with former Solas singer Karen Casey, harpist Grainne Hambley, uillean piper Tommy Martin, and Teada’s own Sean McElwain and others at the Irish Center in Mount Airy. It’s sure to be a magical evening. And we could all use a little magic these days, couldn’t we?

Check out our calendar not just for this week, but for the next couple of months. We just added new events that you’re sure to want to put on your calendar (in fact, you can ask our calendar to do that for you!).

If you’re out Christmas shopping, remember to visit your friendly local Irish shop. See our listing for the address of a retail store near you. And check out our pub finder for a nice spot to rest your weary feet (and wet your thirsty whistle) during the Christmas shopping season. We all need to do our parts to keep the Irish community healthy and vibrant.

If I had the music in me, it would be fiddle tunes played in the Sligo style. For those of you who think all Irish music sounds alike (my husband is one of those), an evening listening to someone really talented playing in this highly ornamented, lively style will change your mind.

You have that chance on Saturday night at the Coatesville Cultural Society when the renowned Brian Conway will play, accompanied by Brendan Dolan on piano and flute. The Bronx-born Conway was encouraged by his musical parents, Jim and Rose, immigrants from County Tyrone. His first instructor was fiddler Martin Mulvihill of Limerick, one of the most acclaimed teachers of Irish music in America. His album, “First Through the Gate,” was named CD of the Year by The Irish Echo newspaper in 2002.

But you have to hear him—and you can, on his website. See if you don’t think that the Sligo style is something special.

Also on Saturday, the Celtic Cultural Alliance, those wonderful folks who bring you the Bethlehem Celtic Fest, will be holding their fundraising campaign kick-off at Bethlehem BrewWorks in the Christmas city.

You have plenty of sessions to attend right up to Thanksgiving, but save some room for next weekend’s Mid-Atlantic Oireachtas, the regional championships for Irish dance, which will be held in Philadelphia at the Downtown Marriott. See all of last year’s fun.

Enter the Haggis is also appearing at the World Café Live next weekend. They usually play to sellout crowds so make that call or go to the website today.

Next Friday is the official kickoff of the Christmas buying season. Consider gifting your loved ones with something Irish from one of the many Irish shops in the region. You can find them at our handy-dandy virtual mall. Support your local community! If you’re out at King of Prussia Mall on Black Friday, head over to Kildare’s where Blackthorn will be cheering up the crowd.

And you can get all the details on what’s happening, Irish style, on our kicking calendar. Today, tomorrow, and for who knows how far in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving from the staff of www.irishphiladelphia.com!

Could this really be happening—a quiet week in the region’s Irish community? Or is our calendar not as smart as we think it is?

It’s true: While there are plenty of sessions around the region this week, the only big events are all on Sunday. And here they are:

At 1 PM, the Allentown Hibernians hurling team is holding a clinic for prospective new members. The Hibernians burst on the scene this past season at a great time: There are fewer players in the region because so many have returned to Ireland and only the Shamrocks remained and, like the Hibernians, many of the Shamrocks players are Irish-Americans who wanted to learn to play this rough-and-tumble game.

The Hibernians will be holding the event at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome.

If you’re in New Castle, DE, on Sunday, there’s a Celii-Set Dance Pot Luck Dinner sponsored by the New Castle County Irish Society. Delaware is the most Irish state in the US (the Irish are the number one ethnic group) so we’re going to guess they get a great turnout.

On Sunday evening, three people will be inducted into the Delaware Valley Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Irish Center. Read the profile of Father John McNamee of St, Malachy’s parish and Billy Brennan, who runs the library at the Commodore Barry Club (The Irish Center), written by Hall of Fame President Kathy McGee Burns. The third honoree is the late Anne McFadden Donfry, a longtime volunteer in the Irish community.

Hey, Feile Samhain, everyone!

If you can get your hands out of that trick-or-treat bag for a few seconds this week, there are a number events that can help you feel Irish all over.

For example, the Mayo Ball, which is being held Saturday at the Irish Center. You don’t have to be from Mayo to go, either. I know, they invited me and I’m a Donegal gal. There’s guaranteed to be some great food and music. The Theresa Flanagan Band is playing (she’s a Donegal gal too—in fact, she’s president of the Philadelphia Donegal Association) and Tommy Flynn and the NY Show Band is also scheduled.

On Sunday, the not-to-be missed St. Malachy School Benefit concert kicks off at 4 PM with Mick Moloney and Friends. You never know who Mick is bringing with him—one year, Tommy Sands flew over from Ireland just for the evening. The concert takes place inside St. Malachy’s Church, which is stunningly beautiful and, like many churches, has seriously great acoustics. This is just one of the fundraisers that helps keep St. Malachy’s an independent school, not reliant on the Archdiocese, but it is by far the most exciting.

The only calendar snafu this week–and it happens every year–is that Sunday is also the Ceili for Kayleigh, the Blackthorn event to raise money for research into methylmalonic acidemia, or MMA, a rare disease that afflicts and local child, Kayleigh Moran.

If you’re up north, the all-guy singing group Celtic Thunder is playing at the Reading Eagle Theater on Wednesday.

And next Friday, November 7, the Ulster American Society is hosting the Northern Ireland Film Festival at the National Consitution Center in Philadelphia which will run through Saturday. Among the films: “A Dander with Drennan,” a documentary that follows folklore expert and trad musician Willie Drennan in search of local characters and history; an episode of Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door, from PBS, exploring Northern Ireland; “Blood Ties,” about an American family in search of its Ulster roots; “Charlotte’s Red,” about a talented 7-year-old painter named Charlotte and her career-burglar father; and the Oscar-nominated short, “Dance, Lexie, Dance,” about a single parent struggling to balance night shifts with his lively 10-year-old daughter who dreams of being a Riverdancer.

Check our calendar for more details. Oh, except for Tuesday. It will be out voting. Hope you will too!

Perhaps the best way to be Irish this week is to attend the October Feis sponsored by the Dennis Kelly AOH Division 1 in Havertown, which benefits the “Heroes Homecoming Fund,” a charity that offers help to financially needy injured soliders from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. See our story about this wonderful benefit.

Also on tap this weekend, friends of Emmett Ruane will be holding a “wake” for Emmett’s Place, a small pub in Oxford Circle that has been a mainstay of Irish entertainment for 37 years. Emmett is retiring, and many of those friends are musicians who’ve played at his place over the years, who will be performing starting at 7 PM Saturday and going into the wee hours. If you enjoy Irish dancing, you can pretty much count on burning lots of calories doing sets.

On Sunday, at the Irish Center in Mt. Airy, there’s a benefit, with live music by Paddy’s Well, to raise money for a Havertown plumber named Tony McDermott who has been battling cancer since last year and unable to work. Your $25 will help support the family of this Creeslough, Donegal native: his wife Bernadette, and two daughters, ages 5 and 7. If you’re unable to attend, you can send donations to the McDermott Family Benefit, Box 823, Havertown PA, 19083.

One of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians, John Carty, will be performing on Sunday night at the Coatesville Cultural Society—a very comfy and intimate venue—with guitarist Donal Clancy, who is now actively touring with the group Danu. Singly, they are remarkable performers; together, wow.

On Monday, Irish novelist Tom Phelan will give a talk at Villanova University’s St. Augustine Center on Ireland’s “forgotten heroes,” its World War I soldiers who fought in the British army. Phelan, whose novel, The Canal Bridge, tells the story of these soldiers who were not welcomed home as heroes, will discuss the conditions these soldiers—and there a quarter of a million of them—faced in the trenches and the reception they got at home.

On Wednesday, the group, Crowfoot, will be appearing at the Blue Ball Barn at Alapocas Run State Park in Wilmington, DE. This group melds musical influences from England, Ireland, Quebec, and the Appalachian mountains into a distinctive style.

There are also several performances of the Brendan Behan play, “The Hostage,” at the Roselle Center for the Arts in Newark, DE, this coming week.

Of course, we all know that Samhain is coming (that would be Irish for Halloween, or, strictly translated, summer’s end), so be sure to have some goodies on hand to keep the wandering souls of the faithful departed at bay. Halloween is an Irish invention; the ancients used to leave gifts of food for the dead during this magical time when the laws of space and time were suspended. They carved out turnips to look like protective spirits and lit candles to help guide the spirits home. This was also the time when the “wee folk” pulled pranks on unsuspecting humans, though in those days, no toilet paper or soap were involved.

As always, check our calendar of events, and don’t be surprised to see it trick-or-treating at your door next week. It’s thinking of going out as CNN.

It’s another of those weekends: So much to do, so little time. Here are your choices. . .

On Saturday:

Hear some great Irish bands at a benefit for the families of slain Philadelphia police officers Patrick McDonald and Isabel Nazario at the Bridesburg VFW. The event starts with a mass at 11 AM.

Watch screenings of the latest film from Irish-American filmmaker Shawn Swords which will be running continuously from 5 PM at Rembrandt’s Restaurant in Philadelphia. Swords, who previously produced a documentary on local Celtic rockers Blackthorn, had turned his focus on the American Bandstand era in Philadelphia and the payola scandals in “Wages of Spin.”

Enjoy McDermott’s Handy (Dennis Gormley and Kathy DeAngelo) at the Celtic Café concert series at the Medford Friends Meeting House in New Jersey, starting at 7:30 PM.

Help the LAOH Trinity Div. 4 raise money for AOH charities at Sacred Heart Parish Hall in Clifton Heights, Delaware County. The Old News Band provides the soundtrack, starting at 8 PM.

Tap your feet and clap your hands to Tony DeMarco, noted New York fiddler in the exuberant Sligo style, at the World Café Live in Philadelphia at 8 PM.

But don’t stop there. On Sunday:

Put on your dancing shoes for a ceili at the Polk Township Fire Hall in Kresgeville, PA, starting at 2 PM.

Help raise money for the Inis Nua Theatre Company at a special performance of “Trad,” a play written by Mark Doherty at Fergie’s Pub on Sansom Street in center city. Inis Nua is the only theater company in the city to produce the best of plays by Celtic playwrights. Everything starts at 6 PM.

And it’s not over yet.

On Monday, Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill will be hosting the players from St. Malachy’s College in Northern Ireland in a basketball game (the last one in 2006 ended in double overtime, so prepare for excitement). Donations will be sent to a scholarship fun at Archbishop Ryan High School in the name of slain Police Officer Patrick McDonald. The Dennis Kelly AOH Div. 1 in Havertown is sponsoring the event, which starts at 7 PM.

On Wednesday, brush up your Gaelic at an Irish language meet-up at 7:30 PM at The Irish Times in Queen Village.

Also on Wednesday, the Roselle Center for the Arts in Newark, DE, begins a run of “The Hostage” by Brendan Behan, which concludes on November 8.

And don’t forget: On Thursday, John Carty and Donal Clancy will be playing at the Moorestown Community House in Moorestown, NJ. If you miss them there, they’ll be playing at one of our favorite venues, The Coatesville Cultural Society in Coatesville, on October 26. Carty is one of Ireland’s finest Irish traditional musicians. Clancy (of the famous Clancy family) is touring with the group, Danu.

I sure hope you’re well-rested, because you have an lot of Irish stuff to do this week and you’ll need the energy.

Saturday is so jam-packed, it ought to have a few more hours. AOH Division 87 is holding its annual golf outing fundraiser Saturday at Byrnes Golf Course in Philadelphia, which includes a barbecue lunch. On Saturday night the Bristol AOH is holding a release party to celebrate its CD, Hibernian Sessions, a recording of all the great bands that have played at Bristol’s AOH. Some of those great entertainers will be there Saturday night: the Birmingham Six, The Shantys, Jamison and Bogside Rogues. There will also be Irish dancing and vendors. All proceeds go to AOH charities. See our story here.

Also on Saturday night: Join the Crossroads Irish Dancers at Our Lady of Grace School in Penndel where they’ll join up with local group, Celtic Crossroads, for an old-fashioned ceili. (Don’t know how to do ceili dances? Don’t worry, they’ll teach you!)

Or head over to Bucks County Community College for a night of Irish music, dance, and storytelling with the Martin Family Band and storyteller Tom Slattery.

Sunday, in the most Irish state in the US, Delaware, you can enjoy all the music, dancing, and great Irish wares at the 15th annual New Castle County Irish Festival in Wilmington. Things are bad all over—we all need to enjoy ourselves, and this is one way to do it.

On Monday night, you have a rare opportunity to hear legendary singer and piper Finbar Furey at The Shanachie Pub and Restaurant in Ambler. Read our exclusive interview with Furey here.

Next Friday, at The Irish Center in Mt. Airy, enjoy some great music at the Brian Boru Pipes and Drums Fundraiser to benefit the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Music Education Fund to Preserve the Music of Our Celtic Heritage. On the bill, Albannach, an energizing group that puts the perk in percussion. If you love drums, as some of us do, you gotta be there.