By Stephanie Lennon It seems like just yesterday that I was standing on Irish Center stage as Vince Gallagher serenaded me with the Mary from Dungloe song. Exactly one year later, I was just as excited for the annual Philadelphia Mary from Dungloe contest and Donegal Ball. Philadelphia Mary from Dungloe chairperson, Coleen McCrea...
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FROM COUNTY ROSCOMMON IN IRELAND TO NORTHPHILADELPHIA By Joanne Ennis and Eileen Troxell Saint Malachy Parish in North Philadelphia is celebrating its 160th jubilee. The first parishioners of Saint Malachy were part of the great migration from Ireland in the 1850s. They fled famine and tyranny to find a new life in America. They labored...
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By Sabina Clarke Peace activist and outspoken and embattled Maryknoll priest, Father Roy Bourgeois, the founder of the School of the Americas Watch, addressed a crowd of more than 200 friends and supporters at the Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street in Philadelphia on Sunday, May 15th at 3 p.m. His powerful talk was...
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By Msgr. Francis A. Carbine “ONE IN SIX AMERICANS STRUGGLES WITH HUNGER!” This fact is announced on a billboard on Lehigh Avenue, a few blocks west of St. Francis Inn. This message is an apt introduction to the neighborhood served by the Inn, located at Kensington Avenue and Hagert Street, Philadelphia. In 2007, the...
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By Sabina Clarke Since she was six years old and the nun took her to see the Tabernacle in church, Judy Heffernan, a good Catholic schoolgirl, a product of Catholic education and a graduate of Presentation Blessed Virgin Mary grammar school, St. Mary’s Academy and Chestnut Hill College – proclaimed to all who would...
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By Monsignor Francis A. Carbine On April 13, 2011, Robert F. McGovern entered eternal life. Alleluia! On this date, Bob encountered the “great cloud of witnesses”—servants of God “approved because of their faith.” In an interview a few years ago, Bob stated : “Every place you go, you are visited by a...
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Full Speed Ahead… By John E. McInerney and Russell W. Wylie Commodore John Barry, the founder of the U.S. Navy under the Constitution, will soon be a person of prominence at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. In January it was announced that the Academy’s Memorials Oversight Committee approved the Commodore John...
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Reviewed by Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew So, who needs a closet when skeletons are part of your cast of characters? No matter if they’re somewhat, errm, not exactly disembodied, but let’s say, disarticulated. Isn’t that a sign of our times anyway? As part of the Philadelphia Irish Theater Festival, the Lantern Theater has dished up a...
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By Charles McMahon You have clearly been following instructions that have come from the Vatican in the past three decades regarding the divulging of priestly crimes to civil authorities. The letter from the Sacred Congregation for Clergy, dated January 31, 1984, stated that “The files of a Bishop concerning his priests are altogether private;...
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By Kerry O’Connor You probably know it well. Tir na Nog, a 6,500 square-foot Irish bar right across the street from Love Park in Philadelphia has been around since 2002. With seating for 320, the popular watering hole can handle large crowds and still be divided up to accommodate smaller parties. It’s named after the Irish mythical...
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