Special Guest Speaker: Rev. Dr. J. Francis Watson
Six weeks later, they were all dead.
For over 170 years, these men, and women, were lost to history. Until in 2002, brothers Frank and William Watson found them.
In a tale that’s unfolded over the past 10 years, the Watsons have uncovered the harrowing truth about what happened to the Irish immigrants who worked on Duffy’s Cut, Mile 59 of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It’s a story that is all the more horrific because it is representative of what happened across the United States in the early years of a country driven to build a new nation. Duffy’s Cut has become a symbol of the injustice and intolerance that was part of the typical treatment of Irish immigrants.
Prejudice, cholera, murder, cover-ups, secret files, ghosts…and ultimately salvation for the victims.
Join us at The Irish Center in Mt. Airy on Saturday, February 25, 2012, at 2PM, to hear Dr. Frank Watson share the details of this incredible true mystery.
J. Francis (Frank) Watson is a graduate of Eastern College, St. Davids, PA. He received his M.Div. and STM from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and his M.Phil and Ph.D. (With Distinction) from Drew University. He has published several dozen articles in books and in journals, and has co-authored the book “The Ghosts of Duffy’s Cut” (Praeger, 2006). Frank is an ordained Lutheran Pastor (Christ Lutheran Church in Whiting, NJ), and serves as the NJ Synod Archivist and President of the Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Duffy’s Cut Project, an archival and archaeological investigation into the lives and deaths of 57 Irish immigrants who died building one of America’s earliest railroads (featured in the Smithsonian Channel television documentary, “The Ghosts of Duffy’s Cut”). Frank has been a competitive level bagpiper for over three decades, and is the father of a son, Ian, who is a sophomore at Rutgers University.
Admission is free, but donations to The Duffy’s Cut Project are encouraged.
RUNA in Concert, Friday, March 2, 2012. 8:00pm at the The Irish Center, 6815 Emlen St. Philadelphia PA 19119. Tickets $15, PCG Members $13.
RUNA draws on the diverse musical backgrounds of its band members and offers a contemporary and refreshing approach to traditional and more recently composed Celtic material. Through their repertoire of both highly energetic and graceful, acoustic melodies, along with their fusion of music from Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the United States, this vocal and instrumental ensemble gives its arrangements of traditional songs and tunes a fresh sound.
Members of RUNA have played with Solas, Riverdance, Slide, Clannad, Fiddlers’ Bid, Moya Brennan, Eileen Ivers, Hazel O’Conner, Full Frontal Folk, Keith & Kristyn Getty, Barcó, and the Guy Mendilow Band.
RUNA consists of vocalist, Shannon Lambert-Ryan of Philadelphia, Dublin-born guitarist, Fionán de Barra, Cheryl Prashker of Canada on percussion, and Tomoko Omura of Japan on the fiddle. The band often performs with world-renowned, guest musicians, including Isaac Alderson on the uilleann pipes, flutes, and whistles.
The band won several awards at the 2010 Montgomery Buck Music Awards, including Best Entertaining Band, Best Folk Artist, Best Female Vocalist, and Best Album – “Jealousy”. Jim Allford of PA Music Scene writes, “The band is going to be reckoned with and I really feel they are Grammy bound within time.”
RUNA recently released their second album, Stretched On Your Grave, in March 2011. Hailed by Irish Philadelphia as “an inspired album from a group that has found its voice, and its place, in the world of Irish music”, journalist Lori Lander Murphy describes it as, “a joyful gem that deserves its own place in the annals of Celtic music.”
"For contemporary Celtic music at its very best - do yourself a favor and check out RUNA.. brilliant!" – Gene Shay, co-founder of the Philadelphia Folk Festival; WXPN-FM
