How to Be Irish in Philly

As the old saying goes, there’s no rest for the Celtic. We’ve barely put our “Kiss Me I’m Irish” beads away for another year and we’ve still got things to do.

This Wednesday, March 26, for instance, you can take a break from all things Irish and catch the Battlefield Band at the Sellersville Theater. They’re Scottish and Grammy-nominated too!

Then it’s back to Ireland on Thursday, March 27, when the first of the Irish Film Series debuts at the Irish Center in Mt. Airy. Jointly sponsored by the Irish Center, irishphiladelphia.com, and WTMR radio personality Marianne MacDonald, the first in a series of six great Irish films will be “The Boys and Girl from County Clare,” a romantic comedy centering on a ceili band competition. Fintan Malone, who knows more than a little about ceili bands, will be on hand to moderate a discussion afterwards. Malone, who plays in at least two bands (Blarney and the Malones) and anchors sessions at The Shanachie and McKinley’s Tavern, is a native of Milltown Malbay, County Clare, where his family’s pub is a hotbed of Irish traditional music. Admission is free. And unlike most movie theaters, you can watch the flick with your favorite brew in hand and some of Barry Club manager John Nolan’s world famous fries. You may never eat popcorn again. Read about it here.

On Friday night, March 28, legendary fiddler Kevin Burke and guitarist Cal Scott will appear at the Chester County Cultural Center in West Chester.

And though we usually wait to tell you about the next weekend, we want you to have a heads up: On Saturday, March 29, there will be a massive cook-in in Northeast Philadelphia to benefit the Hibernian Hunger Project. An estimated 10,000 meals will be cooked and frozen to feed the needy. This might be a good time to join the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, who do this several times a year, God bless them!

This is also the weekend you can see:

•McDermott’s Handy at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts in Dover, DE
•Tiarna O’Duinnchinn and Stephanie Makem performing Irish music from Counties Monaghan and Armagh at the Coatesville Cultural Center.
And if you’re in a dancing mood, the Tyrone Society’s 99th annual Ball is on tap at the Irish Center.

Haven’t seen a St. Pat’s Parade yet? Allentown is bringing up the rear on Sunday with its parade, which is preceded by a Mass and a full Irish breakfast.

As usual, all the gory details are on our calendar, which is under consideration for a Pultizer, an Emmy, and the Nobel Peace Prize. Martha Stewart wants to decorate it with tiny little marzipan flowers for Easter too, but we said no.

Okay, let’s cut to the chase—we have a lot to cover.

It’s a big weekend for parades. There’s one in Levittown, another in Conshohocken, and yet another in Springfield, Delco, on Saturday. Since the staff of www.irishphiladelphia.com consists of two and a half people, you do the math. So if you take some good digital pictures of the parades, can you hit us with your best shot? We can’t be everywhere, though it sometimes seems like we are. Just e-mail us (hit the “contact us” button) and we’ll tell you where to send them.

But before the parades hit the streets, you have some decisions to make for Friday night. Because here’s what’s going on:

Fiddler Danny Meehan is making a rare stateside appearance at the Irish Center in Mount Airy. Exuberant, spontaneous, he rarely plays a tune the same way twice, says Frank Dalton, who organizes those wonderful Irish performances in Coatesville. Tom O’Malley from the Philadelphia Ceili Group, which is bringing Meehan to town, says “the last time Danny was here we actually started the concert 15 minutes early. He just kept on going after the soundcheck. He kept on going for hours in the Fireside Room after the concert. The lame were dancing and the dumb were singing.”

We don’t know about that last part, but it promises to be a mighty good time. Irish in a “no Mardi gras beads and green beer” kind of way. You know, the real thing. If you ask us, going to hear Danny Meehan is the best way to get in touch with your roots.

That said, here’s the rest of Friday’s agenda:

• The 7th Annual Chester County Emerald Society Paddy’s Day Celebration at the Coatesville Moose Lodge—Irish dancers and DJ
• The St. Patrick’s Coronation Celebration at the Fearless Fire Company (we like the sound of that) ballroom in Allentown, where the 2008 King and Queen of the Allentown St. Paddy’s parade (which happens March 31) will be crowned.
• Singer Carmel Conway will be at the World Café Live
• The Belles of Dublin show will be making another appearance at the Red Room at Society Hill Playhouse
• Singer Andy Cooney will be bringing an entire Irish extravaganza to St. Mary’s Church Hall in Cherry Hill. We interviewed Andy last year–he’s a sweetheart. Voice of an angel. Face of an angel too. Oops, we’re gushing now. Time to stop.
• Finnegan’s Wake with The Barley Boys will be making its farewell appearances this weekend
  When Saturday rolls around, there will be the aforementioned parades. But if you have the energy, check out the Leprechaun 5-Mile Run starting at Philly’s Art Museum in the morning. It benefits the Special Olympics. There’s also a two-mile walk.

And then:

• If you’re in Bucks County, check out the Crossing Vineyards in Washington Crossing for its all day (starts at noon) Irish celebration, featuring the Boys from County Bucks.
• The Chieftains are appearing at the Kimmel Center—a Philadelphia tradition
• The 237th annual Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner-dance is being held at the Montrose Mansion in Radnor. Did you know that group pre-dates the Declaration of Independence?
• Chestnut Hill College is holding its Emerald Evening Casino Night and Auction as a fundraiser with an Irish theme
• Sacred Heart Church in Camden is holding its own St. Patrick’s celebration with music, poetry, “and good Irish soda bread.” Since Pastor Michael Doyle is a poet from Ireland, we suspect that it will be quite authentic.
• The Boys from County Bucks will be quite busy today—they’re also on tap for a fundraiser for multiple sclerosis research at the Gardenville Inn in Pipersville.
• The Doylestown Moose Lodge is holding its second St. Patrick’s Day Party.
• Scythian, that crazy Balkan-Celtic band from Washington, DC, will be live at the World Café.
• The Philadelphia Celtic Currach Club (they race in Irish boats) is having its annual beef and beer fundraiser at Fran Lee Caterers in Philadelphia.
• McDermott’s Handy will be at the Higher Grounds Coffee House in Bridgeton, NJ, and Catch It Grog ‘N Grill in Oaklyn, NJ on Sunday.
• The Cara Irish Society will hold its St. Paddy’s Day do at the VFW in Williamstown, NJ.
• The Erin Express leaves from various bars in Philadelphia, the safest way to drink beer to your heart’s content this season. There are eight buses to take imbibers from place to place. Again, we encourage you not to drive home if you’ve overdone it. See the list of participating saloons here.
• And fresh from their stint at Showboat Casino, The Barley Boys will be mixing it up at the House of Blues on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City.

Is it Sunday yet? Oh yeah, it is, and here’s what’s going on:

• Learn how to research your Irish and Scots ancestry at the Bucks County Visitors and Convention Center in Bensalem.
• Incredible Irish-American fiddler Liz Carroll and her partner in music John Doyle will be doing two shows at lovely Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square.
• The Crossing Vineyards will continue its St. Patrick’s Day Celebration with the Boys of County Bucks today.
• A few of the Barley Boys are taking the afternoon off but the Barley Boys Duo will be performing at the Masque Bar at the Showboat in Atlantic City. Listen to Irish music while you lose your shirt!
• The Philadelphia Immigration and Pastoral Center is holding an Immigrant Reunion for all those who were born in Ireland but now make their homes here. It’s at the Irish Center.
• You can still see The Belles of Dublin Show at Society Hill Playhouse.
• OMG, the Barley Boys are back together for yet another showing of Finnigans Wake at the Showboat. How do they do it?
• Speaking of which, The Boys from County Bucks will be performing (how many times this weekend, guys?) at Newtown Presbyterian Church’s Palm Sunday services.
• Black 47, an amazing Celtic rock group, is booked at the World Café Live. This would be a great way to rock out the weekend in Irish style.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It’s Monday. Hope you took the day off. If you did, start it with:

• Breakfast for charity, AOH style, at Fado in Philadelphia. (Breakfast starts at 7 AM, for those of you who have to go to work.)
• Lots of pubs and restaurants are having St. Patty’s Day celebrations, including Casey’s Tavern in Quakertown; Slainte, New Deck Tavern, The Irish Times, McGillins in Philly; Brittingham’s and Shanachie in Montgomery County, the Erin Pub in Norwood. . . and those are just the ones we either know about or who put their events on our calendar (anyone can do it!).
• Blackthorn will be performing at Brownie’s Pub in Ardmore. They’re always a good time!
• Solas at the World Cafe Live!
• The Barley Boys (do they never rest?) will be at Maloneys in Atlantic City and doing Finnigan’s Wake. Not sure how that’s happening, but we’re hoping someone will clue us in. We frequently need to be two places at once.
• The Belles of Dublin is still at Society Hill Playhouse.
• Crossing Vineyards in Washington Crossing is offering a St. Patrick’s Day dinner with all the appropriate wines, of course.
• The amazing duo, McDermott’s Handy, will be at the Porch Club at Riverton, NJ, as well as at Murphy’s Market.
• And you can see Bill Monaghan and Celtic Pride with Irene Molloy at the Sellersville Theater, one of our favorite music venues.

We’re going to stop here, not because this is when the fun stops, but because we are coming down with repetitive strain injury from typing. As always, you can get more details from the calendar all the Hollywood Stars are talking about.

There’s a parade this weekend in Philly. There’ll be music, dancing girls, and more green than they see at the Mint in a year. And the best part of all—everybody there is your friend.

Philly’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is a lot like those hometown events where the bands and floats are interspersed with kids riding bikes with streamers on them. Okay, there are no kids on bikes (there will be a women’s rollerblade team and they dress pretty funky), but it has a small town feel even when you see it marching from Broad Street to the Parkway. People are laughing, cheering, singing and dancing and—hold on to your hats—actually chatting with complete strangers. Last year, I talked to two guys who were sharing a beer together outside Tir na Nog. When I asked them how long they’d known each other, they looked at one another. “Oh,” said one, “I think about 20 minutes.” It kinda goes like that.

The shenanigans start on Friday night, March 7:

• Celtic beer tasting at the Washington House restaurant in Sellersville
• The Hothouse Flowers at World Café Live
• Phil Coulter and the Irish Pops Orchestra at the Keswick in Glenside
• The Chieftains at Princeton’s McCarter Theater
• Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfetones at the Irish Center
• Irish Beef and Beer Night with Celtic Spirit at The Arts Scene in West Chester

Then, on Saturday:

The Erin Express leaves the station. Eight busses will be available to take revelers from one Irish pub to another. No driving, no cost, no need for the family to see a bail bondsman to spring you from jail after your drunk driving arrest. If you do drink too much, stay in town. That’s what credit cards are for. Here are the participating saloons:

• Mill Creek Tavern, 42nd & Chester
• Smokey Joe’s, 40th & Walnut
• The Blarney Stone , 3929 Sansom Street
• O’Hara’s Fish House, 39th & Chestnut
• Cavanuagh’s, 39th & Sansom
• Bridgewater Pub, 30th Street Station
• Mace’s Crossing, 17th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway
• Green Room,1940 Green Street
• Kelliann’s, 16th & Spring Garden
• Parkway Bar & Grille, 22nd & Spring Garden
• Westy’s, 1440 Callowhill Street
• T.A. Flannery’s, 11 South 21st Street
• Bonner’s Irish Pub, 23rd & Sansom
• Callahan’s Grille, 26th & South
• Tom Hagan’s Tavern, 20th & Arch

Teetotaller? Here’s some fun events on Saturday for you too:

• Grainne Hambly and William Jackson, masters of the Celtic Harp, at the Cultural Center of Chester County
• Mick Moloney at the Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in Elmer, NJ
• Jamison at the Dover Elks Lodge in Dover, DE

And on Sunday? The parade! It starts at 11AM (and we don’t mean 11 Irish time) at Broad and Washington Streets and heads down to the reviewing stands on the Parkway, near the Irish flag. And afterwards, you could just go home and look at your digital pictures, or you could go to one of the post parade parties (at Slainte, New Deck Tavern, the Irish Center, or the Kensington String Band HQ, where they’ll have the tireless Jamison and a group of Irish dancers).

But that’s not all. If you have the energy, you can see:

• The Irish Rovers at the Grand Opera House in Dover, DE
• Grainne Hambly and William Jackson at the Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown, NJ
• Tommy Fleming at Penn
• Dervish at the Sellersville theater

And it won’t even be St. Patrick’s Day yet!

One event next week to put on your calendar: The Ancient Order of Hibernians Div. 1 of Swedesburg is holding its third annual Irish Coffee contest on Thursday, March 13. Come for a free taste. Or two. Or three. Definitely worth coming out for on a school night.

As always, check our soon-to-be-canonized calendar for all the whiskey-laced details.

Are you getting excited? It’s less than two weeks till March madness starts, and while we’re all about resting up for big events, there are still plenty of do-not-miss Irish activities in February.

Like this weekend’s concert at the Irish Center by Matt and Shannon Heaton, once part of the critically acclaimed Irish band, Siucra. This multi-talented couple from Massachusetts blend traditional and original tunes, with Matt on guitar and Shannon on flute. Those of you who attend the Catskills Irish Arts Weekend know the Heatons and may even have sat in on their workshops. In fact, they’re offering workshops before the concert, which starts at 8 PM on Saturday.

If you’re in the Allentown area, stop by Jack Callaghan’s Ale House on Tilghman Street to help raise money for the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, scheduled for March 30. See our calendar for all the great events leading up to Allentown’s parade, including a Mass and pre-parade breakfast. They’re also promising a coronation. We’re not sure what that is, but the King of Prussia had better watch out.

On Sunday, the Celtic Fiddle Festival arrives at the Sellersville Theater. See our review of the remarkable new CD by these four amazing musicians, each representing a different take on Celtic music.

On Monday, the Ladies AOH Division 4 of Delaware County will attend a Mass in celebration of the feast of St. Brigid (a County Louth girl) at The Church of Notre Dame de Lourdes on Fairview Road in Swarthmore. For those not familiar with the lives of the saints, Brigid refused many offers of marriage to become a nun, founding the Convent of Cill-Dara, now Kildare. She was a good friend of St. Patrick.

Of course, Finnegan’s Wake is still playing at the Showboat Casino in Atlantic City (featuring The Barley Boys). On Thursday, you can hear the local group, The Shantys, at McKinley’s Tavern in Elkins Park, and the dynamic duo of Kathy DeAngelo and Dennis Gormley (McDermott’s Handy) at the Bridgeton Public Library in Bridgeton, NJ.

The first parade of the season is March 1. They’ll be stepping out on High Street in Mount Holly for the annual Burlington County event. That weekend is jam-packed with events, so check our calendar before checking yours.

Tonight, check out the work of artist Pat Gallagher, formerly of Ardmore, on exhibit all month at Advanced Medical Solutions in Doylestown. Read more about Pat in our feature story. He’ll be on hand at 6:30 PM to meet and greet. Chat him up–he’s a real hoot. And bring your checkbook.

On Sunday, we hear there’s going to be a pig roast at The Irish Times, the newest incarnation of the Blarney at 629 S. Second Street in Philadelphia, to help local Irish people celebrate the Superbowl. Roast a pig and I’ll watch football too. Sounds like great fun.

On Friday, February 8, talented musician and comic Seamus Kennedy is performing at Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster to help raise money to send high schoolers to Australia this year for World Youth Day. Wood happens to be the alma mater of the staff of www.irishphiladelphia.com. We salute you, alma mater, hail with pride your honored seal. (Jeff, I don’t remember a seal, do you? We didn’t even have a pool.)

For our Jersey friends, and fans of Irish dancing everywhere: Head up to New Brunswick Friday night, February 8, to see the Trinity Irish Dancers do their thing. This group has been featured in feature films by Disney, Dream Works, Touchstone, and Universal, countless national television programs and won two Emmy® Awards for their appearance on the PBS Television Specials “One Step Beyond” and “World Stage,” and performance in ABC’s special “Dignity of Children,” hosted by Oprah Winfrey.

In between, there are sessions galore all over the map–and all over our calendar. Check it out. And check out our St. Paddy’s Day calendar. If you’re a Philly St. Paddy’s Day virgin, you should know that we celebrate the day all month because, well, that’s the way we are.

Unfortunately, there are clashing events on Saturday night, all worthy. Here are your choices:

On Saturday, starting at 6:30 PM, Irish Northern Aid will mark the 26th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry, followed by an awards dinner honoring Kathy McGee Burns of the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association, Charlie Schlegel of Irish Northern Aid and Bob Grover of Clan na Gael.

A Beef and Beer Benefit at the National Guard Armory, starting at 7 PM, will raise funds for the family of Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy, who was gunned down last year when he tried to foil a robbery in West Oak Lane.

There will be music, dancing, and great food when the Philadelphia County National Convention of the AOH holds its annual fundraiser at St. Dominic’s Hall in Philadelphia, starting at 8 PM.

You can find more details on our Oscar-nominated calendar (best calendar in a musical comedy).

The best way to be Irish this weekend is to head over to the Irish Center on Saturday night to hear a quartet of talented musicians bring to life the music of Traditional Music Hall of Famer Ed Reavy. If you’ve ever been to a session—that’s an informal gathering of musicians—you’ve probably heard a Reavy tune or two. (For more info, read Part 1 and Part 2 of our story on Reavy.) Since most of his famous pieces are hornpipes, you probably tapped your feet or drummed your table too. Maybe you even got up and danced.

Well, you can get up and dance on Saturday night too. You’ll certainly be joined by Reavy’s son, Ed Jr., who, with his wife, Mary, is as smooth as butter on the dance floor. (He’s been a dance teacher for decades, since before the resurgence of interest in Irish dancing. “I started teaching so I could find a partner,” he told us recently.)

The Reavy concert, which will feature fiddler Jim Eagan, bodhran player Myron Bretholz, banjo player Peter Fitzgerald, and guitarist Andy Thurston, is also your chance to relive a little Philadelphia history, to go back to a time when this music was played in a parlor, cleared of furniture so the dancers would have a place to twirl.

If you’re in Delaware, Green Willow is presenting an inventive program of fiddling featuring five masters of Scottish, Irish, and Appalachian styles, also on Saturday night.

It’s thankfully quiet after the holidays, Celtically speaking, but there’s an event coming up that needs some explanation. On January 13, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Lafayette Hill (around the corner from Brittingham’s) is holding a Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival.

Like you, at first I wondered what fascination the Lutherans had with lunch meat.  Really pricey lunch meat, too. But I did some digging. This pageant–a British import dating back to 1340–harks back to a time when boar was the first dish served at a medieval banquet. It was the prime rib of its day. A secular tradition, it eventually took on Christian overtones: The boar’s head, served at Christmas time, began to symbolize the triumph of the infant Jesus over sin, good over evil.

 Legend has it the holiday event was born when a scholar at Queen’s College in Oxford encountered a wild boar on his travels and, having no other weapon, rammed a philosophy book down its throat, choking it to death. Later that night, the scholar and his colleagues enjoyed roasted boar’s head, which was brought into the dining hall by carolers singing “in honor of the King of Bliss.”

As time went on, the Boar’s Head pageant included the story of the nativity, the Three Kings, Good King Wencelas, carolers, mince pie and plum pudding, and a Yule log, lit from last year’s ember.

The festival was first celebrated in the US the 1800s in Troy, NY, with music described as “exquisite.”

 Expect beautiful music and pageantry at St. Peter’s annual staging (delayed this year because of renovations to the beautiful 256-year-old church), which includes some 200 performers, crew, and prop masters, not to mention the Cameron Highland Pipe Band (ah, you knew there was a Celtic connection, didn’t you?). A harpist will play “Silent Night” with a full orchestra accompaniment. You’ll think you’re in the 14th century.

For more information, go to www.stpeterslafayettehill.org, or call 610-828-3098.

Looking ahead: Irish Northern Aid rescheduled its 26th annual testimonial dinner for Saturday, January 26, at the Irish Center. Among the honorees are Kathy McGee Burns of the Donegal Society and the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association; Charlie Schlegel of Irish Northern Aid and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and Bob Grover of Clan na Gael. There will also be a mass in observance of the 26th anniversary of what is called Bloody Sunday, the clash between Irish protestors and British Troops in Derry that rekindled a war that has only recently given way to a wary peace.

That same evening, there will be a Beef and Beer Benefit for the family of slain Philadelphia police officer Chuck Cassidy–a long-time AOHer–at the National Guard Armory in northeast Philadelphia. For more information, contact the 35th District at 215-685-2854. Tickets are $25.

As always, see our calendar for more details and maps.