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Marianne MacDonald

News

Last Rambling House Till Next Year!

Karen Boyce McCollum, Mike Boyce and John Boyce were the house band for last week's Rambling House.

We confess: We’re addicted to the Rambling House events at the Irish Center. There won’t be another one until January and we’re looking at a month of withdrawal.

For those of you who just joined us, a Rambling House is a tradition of rural Ireland in which neighbors would gather together at someone’s house and entertain one another with their “party piece”—a song, story, recitation, something they did well. And the Irish Center’s Rambling House events, started last year by WTMR Irish radio hosts Vince Gallagher and Marianne MacDonald, are authentic. Audience members, occasionally fortified at the Center’s bar, have gotten up to sing, tell jokes, play an instrument, and, last week, to delve into local Irish history.

Part of last week’s excitement was hearing Karen Boyce McCollum sing, with her brothers Mike and John Boyce (of Blackthorn) accompanying. She was “due any minute,” and a few days later did deliver a boy, Daniel Terrence McCollum. Congratulations to Karen, Brian, and Sarah Carmel!

We were there, of course, and did the photo thing.

November 27, 2009 by Jeff Meade

People

Halloween at the Philadelphia Irish Center

Four hags, no waiting.

The witches didn’t both waiting for the witching hour. In fact, the whole darn coven—four altogether ugly hags—showed up for the start of a special Rambling House party at the Philadelphia Irish Center Friday night.

And they weren’t the only creepy crawlies at the bar that night. There was an especially strange looking thing in a dashiki, for one.

But of course, it was all in good fun, and host Marianne MacDonald kept the fun rolling all night long. There was music, for sure, as there always is. And there was dance, as there always is, but with monsters on the Irish Center floor this time around.

A ghastly time was had by all.

November 4, 2009 by Jeff Meade

News

An Evening of Music and Dancing

Maired Timoney Wink is enjoying this dance.

There ought to be a bumper sticker that says, “Irish Dancers Have More Fun Than You,” because it sure seems that way.

At Sunday’s benefit for the WTMR 800AM Irish radio shows, the dancers turned out in force, and if there had been a rug to cut, they would have shredded it like roast pork.

The money from the benefit will help radio hosts Vince Gallagher, president of the Commodore Barry Club where the event was held, and longtime dancer Marianne MacDonald raise the $36,000 they need to keep the shows on the air.

August 27, 2009 by Denise Foley

News

Save The Irish Radio Shows

Going over pledge drive strategy are, from left, radio hosts Vince Gallagher and Marianne MacDonald, and St. Patrick's Day parade director Michael Bradley.

“It’s Pentecost Sunday,” Michael Bradley told the listeners to Vince Gallagher’s Irish Radio Hour on Sunday, May 31, as he kicked off the five-week fundraiser for the WTMR 800AM Irish radio shows. “”I hope the Holy Spirit moves you.”

Apparently it did, because the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade director and a group of volunteers including dance teachers Rosemarie Timoney and Olivia Hilpl (Rince Ri) pulled in more than $5,000 in two hours, including a $1,000 donation from the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association, headed by local restaurateur Michael Callahan, who called in.

In the last three weeks, says Marianne MacDonald, host of the show, “Come West Along the Road,” more than $8,000 in donations have come in, including proceeds from a benefit by the Camden County Emerald Society Pipes and Drums and a brunch at the Auld Dubliner, a restaurant in Gloucester City, NJ.

Tune in on Sunday morning, from 11 AM to 1 PM, and call in your pledge. Or give it director to Gallagher and MacDonald at the Penn’s Landing Irish American Festival on Sunday, June 7, where they’ll be sponsoring the Traditional Tent.

Check out our photos and videos from last Sunday’s fundraisers.

See the photos.

Check out videos:

June 5, 2009 by Denise Foley