Aug20Sun

Board Member highlighted in Irish Edition

IABCN Board Member & Wawa’s Cultural Ambassador, Harry McHugh, Addresses the Donegal Society

Above: Harry McHugh with Frank McDonnell, President of the Donegal Society, in the Library of the Commodore John Barry Arts and Cultural Center

By Marita Krivda Poxon, Irish Edition

Harry McHugh, 73, Galway-born retired executive at Wawa Inc., spoke to members of the Donegal Association of Philadelphia who crowded the dining room of the Irish Center on Sunday, April 23. He was introduced by the association’s president, Frank McDonnell, who knew the speaker’s life story would be riveting after having met McHugh at an Irish Studies event given at Villanova University.

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Aug16Wed

The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia

Irish (The) and Ireland
By William E. Watson

Contacts between the Philadelphia region and Ireland began in the late seventeenth century, shortly after the creation of Penn’s colony. Long a part of the urban fabric of Philadelphia, Irish Catholics endured nativist assaults of the Bible Riots of 1844 and did not see one of their own become mayor until  James H. J. Tate, who served from 1962 to 1972. By the twenty-first century, the Irish continued to exert significant cultural and political influence in the region, especially in South and Northeast Philadelphia and in surrounding suburban counties.

See reference below to the Irish Chamber.

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Aug14Mon

Irish Philadelphia Farewell

On Thursday, August 10th, the Irish Community in Philadelphia partnered to celebrate our Consul General, Barbara Jones, and wish her well in her next post as Ireland’s Ambassador to Mexico.

Many thanks to our members, Free Library of Philadelphia, PA Department of Community & Economic Development, and Villanova University Center for Irish Studies, who were generous event sponsors. It was our pleasure to join the Irish Community in presenting this very special event.

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