To Denis Hickie it all makes sense. There are more Irish in Delaware County (where they’re 25% of the population) than in Philadelphia (13.6%, the second largest ethnic group in the city behind African-Americans). The drive to the Philadelphia Irish Center from his home in Upper Darby takes 45 minutes.
Then there are the steps. No doubt about that—the steps to the Irish Center are steep and daunting. The Center, also known as the Commodore Barry Club, sits atop a hill in the Mt. Airy section of the city, and those stairs can be punishing to old knees. “Some of the older people can’t make it up,” says Hickie. Even the ones who still love to set dance can’t make the drive, then the climb, he says.
So he wants Delco to have its own Irish center “with rooms for meetings, dancing, music, and the rest. I’ve talking to a lot of people in Delco who say they’d like to have an Irish center in their backyard.” On Sunday, May 11, at 2:30 PM, he’s holding a meeting at J.D. McGillicuddy’s on West Chester Pike in Upper Darby to see if there are enough like-minded people to establish an Irish Center of Delaware County. The meeting will not only be his way to judge interest, but he hopes people will bring ideas for what they’d like to see in a center—and even where in Delco they’d like it to be located.
Hickie doesn’t believe that a separate organization in Delco will compete with Philadelphia’s Irish Center, which turned 50 this year. “This will be catering to the people who don’t go to Philadelphia anyway,” he says.