Paddy Keenan – Irish in Philly

How to Be Irish in Philly This Week

Uillean piper Paddy Keenan will be at Shanachie in Ambler this week.

Irish festival!

We love the sound of that. This time it’s in Phoenixville, one of our favorite places, and it’s free and on the street. You can hear local greats including Barleyjuice, The Brigade, Oliver McElhone, Charlie Zahm, the Ted the Fiddler Band, and the Irish Thunder Pipe Band. Also on tap, the New York Celtic Dancers and the Pride of Erin Irish Dancer. There will be vendors and there are plenty of places to enjoy a bite and a beer—Phoenixville is filled with Irish pubs and restaurants, and many others that aren’t Irish. Afterwards, head down to Gwynedd Friends Monthly Meeting for a concert by the Jameson Sisters, Teresa Kane and Ellen Tepper, two fabulous and funny musicians. That starts at 8 PM.

When you’re all festivalled out, go golfing with the girls. Specifically, the Mairead Farrell Senior Ladies footballers who are holding their third annual golf outing on Sunday afternoon at Edgemont Country Club in Newtown Square. It’s a fundraiser for the team, which edged out the competition in Chicago last year to become national ladies Gaelic foot ball champs! This year the championship games are in San Francisco—that’s some serious moola they’re going to be needing if they earn the right to compete.

I’ve seen these women play and a word to wise, ladies—no unnecessary roughness out on the links!

But before that, you can help a vet in need by contributing to the AOH/LAOH Div. 51’s seventh annual Spring Fill-a-Cart-Help-a-Vet-in-Need collection at Port Richamond Village Thriftway in Philly Friday and Saturday. Food, personal items, and gift cards will be gratefully accepted.

Also on Sunday, at Friends Center on Cherry Street, you can meet Roy Bourgeois, a former Maryknoll priest, who founded the human rights group, School of the Americas (SOA) Watch. A former Navy officer who was wounded in action in Vietnam, earning him the Purple Heart, Bourgeois spend many years in Bolivia as a Maryknoll missionary, ministering to the poor. He was excommunicated three years ago for publicly supporting the ordination of women. The event at Friends is co-sponsored by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, the Catholic Peace Fellowship, and American Friends Service Committee.

On Thursday, May 18, the amazing Irish uillean piper Paddy Keenan will be playing in concert at the Shanachie Pub and Restaurant in Ambler. Keenan came from a travelling and musical family and was born in County Meath, though he grew up in Dublin. He was a member of the famous Bothy Band, founded in 1974, whose members over the year included fiddler Paddy Glackin, accordion player Tony McMahon, fiddlers Tommy Peoples and Kevin Burke, and guitarist-singer Micheal O Domhnaill.

This week’s the end of the line for Inis Nua Theatre Company’s brilliant production of “Dublin by Lamplight” at Broad Street Ministries—unless, by some good fortune, they extend the run. It’s also the beginning of the line for the Druid Theater of Galway’s version of Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy (does he do any other kinds of comedies?), “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” at the Anneberg Center for the Performing Arts.

Get yourself to the Phillies website or stubhub.com asap if you want to tickets to Irish Heritage Night at the Phillies on Friday, May 20, to see the Irish dancing, listen to the Irish music, and watch the Phils host the Texas Rangers and hopefully beat the pants off them. You can also meet the 2011 Philadelphia Rose of Tralee, the lovely Beth Keeley.

And get yourself to www.inspirationalirishwomen.com to buy tickets to this gala event on Sunday, May 22, at the Irish Center. Twelve local women of Irish descent whose lives serve as an inspiration to others will be honored. And if you’re a big WXPN Kids Corner fan—or were when you were a kid—you can meet Peabody Award-winning host, Kathy O’Connell, who is one of the winners.

Lots more coming up in the next few weeks, including the Penns Landing Irish Fest on June 5. More on that lineup later.

In the meantime, peruse the calendar at your leisure and pick a few things to do this week that will remind you that you’re Irish.

May 13, 2011 by Denise Foley

Music

Famed Piper Paddy Keenan Comes to the Irish Center

Local piping student Tim Hill with piper Paddy Keenan.

If you were an actor, it would be like taking drama lessons from Robert DeNiro. If you were a cyclist, it would be like getting some pointers from Lance Armstrong. If you’re a piper or whistle player, getting some tips from Paddy Keenan is learning from the best.

Keenan, fresh from a performance on Wednesday night, May 21, at the World Café in Philadelphia, spent several hours Thursday night at the Irish Center, where he taught two workshops to about a dozen—some awestruck—students.

Paddy Keenan, born into a Travelling (Pavee) family from County Meath, comes by his musical talent genetically. Both his father and grandfather were uilleann pipers and Keenan began piping when he was 10. He’s been called “the King of the Pipers,” and “the Jimi Hendrix of pipers.” A founding member of the famed Bothy Band, he plays like most virtuosos: seemingly effortlessly, as though his instrument has always been a natural part of him. When he lifts the flute to his mouth or fixes his long, thin fingers on the chanter of his pipes, he almost seems to be releasing the music rather than making it.

Tall and flute-like in build, the soft-spoken Keenan gently coaxed the neophyte whistle players and pipers at the Irish Center into solo performances of the tunes and techniques he taught them. When, at one point, he admitted that at least some of the vibrato he produces on his flute comes not from his fingers but his breath, one student gasped. “Oh!’ she said. “My flute teacher told me that you never do that!” Then she grinned. In fact, they all grinned, including Keenan. If the best tell you to break the rules, you break them.

May 22, 2008 by Denise Foley