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A Tasty Journey in “Ireland’s Ancient East”
I recently spend 10 days visiting “Ireland’s Ancient East,” a touring region tapping 5,000 years of history in the south and eastern area of the country. Described as a touring region rather than a specific route, it was designed to offer a “relaxing, compact journey of discovery” stretching from the Boyne Valley through the Midlands and down to East Cork. Launched in 2015 as a follow-up to the popular west coast “Wild Atlantic Way,” a journey here […] Read More
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Next Generation Alumni Join with Current Members to Celebrate 25th Anniversary
Chris Brennan Hagy, Kathy DeAngelo, and Dennis Gormley know how to throw a party. And what better occasion than the 25th anniversary of the youth Irish music project known as Next Generation. Dozens of Next Gen current members, former members—including some from the very beginning—along with parents and friends gathered Sunday in the Commodore John Barry Arts & Cultural Center Sunday to commemorate the very special anniversary. The event began with a veritable potluck feast in […] Read More
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Celebrate Joyce’s “Ulysses” in Mt. Holly, NJ with Music and a Free Lunch Taken from the Novel
Bloomsday is celebrated around the world, usually on June 16, the day James Joyce’s character Leopold Bloom took his storied walk around Dublin in the book, Ulysses. In Philadelphia, The Rosenbach Museum and Library, which houses the original handwritten manuscript of the book that took Joyce seven years to write and most people a lifetime to read, hosts 10 hours of readings by local actors, scholars, and dignitaries at its location in Delancey Place. This year, […] Read More
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2023 Mass at the Irish Memorial – The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Huge thank you to everyone who made our Mass special Special gratitude to our celebrant:Rev. Michael Callaghan, CMChaplain, Camilla Hall, infirmary for Sisters,Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Immaculata University,Malvern PA 19355 Music Ministry: Karen Boyce McCollum and John HoeyLectors: Andrew Maloney and Jim CoyneGift Bearers: John Donovan and Michael Flynn Sincere appreciation to everyone whocontributed to making this Mass possible especially:Norbert McGettigan, VP, Irish MemorialEveryone who help get the word outOur flag […] Read More
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2023 Philadelphia Irish Festival at Penns Landing
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Irish Story Hour Debuts at The Irish Center This Weekend
When Marianne MacDonald first went into teaching, she loved reading books to her students. Today, she does early intervention for kids with disabilities so the only reading to kids she does is to her two youngest grandsons. “As soon as I see them they say, ‘Read to us, Grandma!’ says MacDonald, who hosts the “Come West Along the Road” radio show on WTMR 800AM on Sunday at noon and runs Trad Tours, a travel company that […] Read More
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Memorial Service Set for Nun Who Worked Tirelessly for the Children of Northern Ireland
Sister Frances (Betty Jane) Kirk, SSJ, died on May 9 at the age of 90. She the first woman grand marshal of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade (1990) and a coordinator for Project Children, a program that brought children from war-torn Northern Ireland to the US for the summer. A memorial mass will held for here on Friday, June 9, 2023, at 10:30 AM, and will be livestreamed from the Chapel of St. Joseph’s […] Read More
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Next Generation, Celebrating 25 Years, Influences the Lives of Young Traditional Irish Musicians
Call it a very happy accident. One day 25 years ago, Voorhees, N.J., Irish musician and teacher Kathy DeAngelo received a call from the Garden State Discovery Museum in Cherry Hill, asking if she could arrange a performance of some of her harp students “and stuff.” “I said, yeah, what are you looking for? An hour or something?” DeAngelo recalls. “They said, ‘Yeah, sure. We just want to bill it as part of our multicultural […] Read More
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The 2023 Philly Rose of Tralee Marissa Berry Has a Special Platform to Share
Marissa Berry was pretty sure that becoming the 2023 Philadelphia Rose of Tralee “wasn’t in the cards for me.” The Rose of Tralee Center in Ireland instituted a policy for the 65 Rose Centers around the world that stipulates that each send competitors to the 64-year-old community festival only every other year. It had become unmanageable to have 65 Rose candidates competing in Tralee, a town of about 23,000 people in County Kerry. “I was […] Read More
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Four Irish Dancers Who Share a Love of Dancing–and a Serious Disease
They call themselves the “Diabesties.” They’re four young dancers at McGough Academy of Irish Dance in West Chester who share more than a competitive spirit and a passion for Irish dance. All four, who range in age from 9 to 12 and include a brother and sister, have Type 1 diabetes, a relatively rare disease that’s seen a 30 percent increase in diagnoses since 2002, mainly in children and teens. It’s an odd fluke that […] Read More
