Tommy Sands, Mick Moloney, Dana Lyn, Brendan Callaghan, Caitlyn Finley, Emma Hinesly and Sean Earnest

A couple of days before his annual concert to benefit St. Malachy’s School in North Philadelphia, singer and folklorist Mick Moloney was on the phone with his friend, County Down performer Tommy Sands, who was in England on a tour.

When he mentioned the concert to Sands, he said, there was a long pause. Finally, Sands spoke. “If I leave early on Sunday morning,” he said, “I can be in Philadelphia by 2 p.m.”

He arrived on British Airways at 2:10 and bounded into the church before 4 p.m.—one of the friends, albeit an unexpected one, who came this year to help Moloney raise money for the school run by his friend, poet, priest, and soc

What it's all about.

The “Concert by Mick Moloney and Friends” is in its 16th year. Along with Sands, Moloney’s friends included Philadelphia fiddler Brendan Callaghan, founder of the Philadelphia School of Irish Music and a four-time all Ireland fiddler who brought student Caitlyn Finley, part of a new trio making waves on Philadelphia Irish trad scene (with flutist Emma Hinesly of Haddonfield, N.J., and guitarist Sean Earnest of Harrisburg).

Also on the bill, Dana Lyn, a Chinese-American violinist from Los Angeles, who, Moloney said, was classically trained “but who decided she wasn’t having any fun” so turned to jigs and reels. “She’s highly respected in Ireland as a fiddle player,” he said.

Several hundred people filled the expansive church while light still streamed through its soaring stained glass windows and raised some holy thunder with their feet—as well as some much-needed funds for the 215 students at St. Malachy’s School.

Related Links