By Frank Dougherty The Philadelphia theater that did for Irish-American wakes what Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding did for Italian-American connubial bliss this month is marking 50 years of presenting preeminent American and European stage productions. “The works of Irish playwrights and Irish-themed productions like Lafferty’s Wake have been an integral part of our repertory...
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By Sabina Clarke Siobhan Lyons, the new executive director of the Irish Immigration and Pastoral Center in Upper Darby, is young, enthusiastic, accomplished, and bursting with new ideas. The well-traveled daughter of a career diplomat for the Irish Government, Siobhan spent five years of her childhood in Nairobi, Kenya. Before coming to the Immigration...
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Breakfast with the Champ… By Sabina Clarke I’m sitting before Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion of the world while he finishes a bowl of cereal. He is casual, warm and welcoming and greets me like an old friend. We’ve met before but I doubt if he remembers. It was in 1992 at the...
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by Ronnie Norpel Hope springs eternally green, and here we are kicking off another Phillies season—having lifted a curse? In early March, I stopped by a snowy Citizens Bank Park to congratulate my new old friend, the Phillie Phanatic. New, because Tom Burgoyne and I had never met in all those years, yet old,...
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By Sabina Clarke Several weeks ago, Denny Gaw, Pennsylvania president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, AOH, was alerted to the fact that Spencer Gifts was selling tee shirts that depicted the Irish in a negative and shocking manner, “I got an email from our members in Pittsburgh that Spencer Gifts had these tee...
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Where to begin with this remarkable story. It’s heroic fantasy that movies are made of. It is about Jim McCans, Director of Paramedics for Haverford Township—a brave man who is all heart and Stache, his equally courageous black Labrador retriever ‘cadaver’ dog. This past October, Stache was honored by the ASPCA (American Society for...
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By Sabina Clarke When I first called Father Daniel Berrigan, the Jesuit priest, anti-war activist, teacher, poet and scholar to schedule an interview, he had company and asked me to call him the following morning adding, “If you don’t get me , keep calling because I am worth it.” I squeezed in a question about...
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By Sabina Clarke Tommy Gibbons has vivid memories of riding with his Dad, Philadelphia’s First Police Commissioner and the City’s Top Cop in Car One, a big unmarked car with a blaring siren and flashing red spotlight. He remembers the time his father and namesake, Thomas J. Gibbons, Sr., suddenly turned a corner at...
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By Frank Dougherty A former movie house that began screening Hollywood silent films 93 years ago for Port Richmond residents is now headquarters for one of the largest and, from an Irish viewpoint, most interesting used bookstores in...
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