irishphiladelphia.com

Eat, drink, dance, sing! Have a festival this weekend! There are four of them, so that should keep you busy.

As the sun slowly sinks over Northeast Philly, a hard-working band of dedicated American athletes turn their minds and skills toward the ancient Irish sport of hurling.

Big honors this weekend for the father of the US Navy, Commodore John Barry, an Irishman who lived in Philadelphia. And if it’s Memorial Day weekend–and it is–Blackthorn must be playing in the Northeast (they are). Also coming: Finbar Furey, John Byrne, Martin Hayes, John Doyle, and Kevin Crawford, as well as the three-day AOH Montgomery County Irish Festival. What a week!

Every year the Mairead Farrells championship ladies Gaelic football club hosts a golf fundraiser to cover their yearly expenses. This year, they combined the team fundraiser with a benefit for a former footballer with cancer.

The legendary Finbar Furey gets downright plucky on his new CD “Colours.” Furey tells the story behind the recording.

Timlin & Kane, Celtic festivals in Newtown, Scranton, Bensalem, and Lansdale, Celtic Thunder performers, a London Irish band making its first US visit, and a vigil for the nuns–that’s what’s on the eclectic agenda for you Irish types this week.

The Rainbow Irish Dancers, all of them developmentally disabled, did something few other groups have done–won an award for their first performance in the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This week, they got their plaque–and taught a few steps (and some other things) to all who attended the special ceremony.

Inis Nua presents Enda Walsh’s “The Walworth Farce,” a play within a play focusing on the stories we tell ourselves to keep going on.