The Celts invade Bethlehem, PA again

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is a city known throughout the country for what it used to be.  Once home to the beating heart of American industrialization, the giant Bethlehem Steel plant went quiet leaving the city in dire financial circumstances.  In fact, Billy Joel’s famous song “Allentown” was supposedly written about Bethlehem, but the name just didn’t fit the tune as well, I guess.

Bethlehem's Celtic Classic

But the impression that some people have of Bethlehem as a big industrial ghost town is simply not the case.  Sure, it may not be one of country’s most important manufacturing areas anymore, but it is a terrific place full of cultural delights and rich in history.  Music is at the core of Bethlehem’s appeal, and once a year the Celts takeover for a festival that brings people from all over the Mid-Atlantic to rediscover this still great city.

Gaelic Storm raise the roof at the Celtic Classic

Bethlehem’s Celtic Classic, known by locals as Celticfest, is a tradition well into its third decade of existence.  It brings together Celtic food, history, culture, and especially music, to create a weekend party that simply must be experienced.  If you are like me, and you are a lover of Celtic music, this free event showcases some of the absolute best nationally renowned acts in the genre. 

This year’s schedule was one of the most exciting in recent memory.  As usual there were dozens of great acts.  The headliners were Gaelic Storm, the band first made famous by their appearance in the film “Titanic”, but they have since gone on to produce some of the most enjoyable and fun releases in the Celtic music genre.  Also in attendance were the Canadian band The Town Pants, a personal favorite of mine, as well as two artists featured on the APHR Jukebox; Charlie Zahm and Gerry Timlin.  Besides a great Irish balladeer, Mr. Timlin also owns a terrific pub called the Shanacie which the American Public House Review featured earlier this year.

the Keogh brothers of the Town Pants

Like it is every year, the 2009 installment of Bethlehem’s Celtic Classic was terrific fun.  There were great vendors selling Celtic gifts and music, wonderful food and drink, and entertainment aplenty.  My thanks go out to all who make this amazing and free event happen every year.

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Posted by: David McBride

 

 

Summertime Submarine Watching

A gentle rain fell on the streets of New London, as Fran and I sipped our pints of Cottrell Old Yankee Ale at the bar of the Bank Street Road House. During breaks in our converstion I would cast my gaze beyond the back deck and across  the channel of the Thames River in hopes of spying a Virginia or Ohio class submarine making its way upstream to the Electric Boat facility at Groton. On this particular  August afternoon the behemoths of “The Silent Service” would not rise from the depths. Though south of my position something was stirring up Atlantic waters.

An interesting photograph found its way onto the internet of a surfer in the waters off  Strathmere, New Jersey. In the background appeared to be what was  possibly a  Russian nuclear submarine. Staff writer, John West, who was on assignment at McMenemy’s Pub in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was summoned back to New Jersey to take  command of naval operations from aboard the “Escape Goat,” -  the flag ship of  American Public House Review’s Atlantic fleet. By chance the boat was docked across from Maynard’s Cafe in Margate, NJ –  in close proximity to the supposed Russian intruder. 

Commander West began his investigation at Maynard’s,  knowing full well that this legendary local hub of hard partying and well respected repository of useless information was the kind of joint foreign agents might target in order to glean military secrets. When he was satisfied that nothing sensitive was compromised, other than the inside line on next week’s Notre Dame game, he moved the “Escape Goat” to the docks adjacent to Twisties Tavern in Strathmere. Once more his inquiries did not turn up anything unusual, other than a report of a group of pale skinned tourists asking how many rubles were needed to purchase a Twisties tee shirt and a bottle of vodka. Commander West concluded that what was being mistaken as a Russian intruder was nothing more than a deep sea dredging operation.    

 After filing his report with the Coast Guard,  John returned to Portsmouth to complete his story about  McMenemy’s Pub. According to his findings, this fine old Irish tavern may be haunted by a number of  the ladies that provided companionship and comfort to the sailors who served on the more than seventy submarines that were built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard during the Second World War. One of which, “The Galloping Ghost of the Japanese Coast” the USS Torsk now keeps a watchful periscope on our favorite pubs in Baltimore: The Wharf Rat, Slainte Irish Pub and the Cat’s Eye.

For those of you that are still not convinced that our shores are safe from an incursion by the Soviet Navy, our own intelligence gathering unit, operating out of the Trinity Brewhouse in Providence, Rhode Island, has confirmed that the only Russian sub operating in U.S. waters this summer was the Juliette class K-77. She was commissioned on October 31st, 1965 and assigned to the Soviet Northern Fleet. The submarine remained on active duty until 1988, and was decommissioned in the early 1990s. In 1994 the boat was sold to a Finnish businessman, and it was operated as a rather unique restaurant and watering hole, (this writer’s idea of a great “Dive Bar.”)

In 2000 the K-77 was moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia where it was used in the film K-19: The Widow Maker, the fact based film starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. In 2002 the boat began its final assignment as a museum ship operating with the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2007 the K-77 sunk after a combination of high tides, heavy winds and a storm surge flooded the submarine . The boat was raised in 2008, but the extensive damage made restoration and repair economically unfeasible. Sadly, the Juliett Class K-77 made her final voyage on August 11th, 2009 down the Providence River to a site owned by RI Recycled Metals to be dismanteled for scrap.

   

The staff and writers of American Public House Review salute all those intrepid souls that have served in “The Silent Service” and we raise a glass to those that are still on patrol!

Thanks to stevehdc for his photo of the Torsk.

Posted by: Chris Poh

The Lion In Summer

For the second time now I’ve watched an American flag fly at half-mast over the waters of Newport, Rhode Island marking the passing of yet  another member of the Kennedy family. On a July afternoon ten years earlier, my wife and I looked on from the deck of the Rum Runner as Hugh D. Auchincloss III, the stepbrother of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, lowered the flag at his property at Hammersmith Farm. It had been confirmed earlier that day that all souls on board the Piper Saratoga piloted by John Kennedy Jr. had gone down in the Atlantic off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Now on this perfect August morning as I stood near the lowered colors at Newport’s Easton’s Beach, my thoughts turned to the life and legacy of the last lion of the U.S. Senate.

Even in this New England community that continues to celebrate its strong ties to the Camelot era of the political dynasty, the Kennedy name evokes strong emotions.  From bootleggers to the beatified, the family is either vilified or venerated. And Ted, as much as any one of his bloodline, fulfilled our need to imbue our public figures with those qualities that allow us to imagine them as devils or angels - depending upon one’s particular political persuasion.

By my take, based upon the hours of conversations and comments overheard at the bar at Flo’s Clam Shack in Middletown, RI on the day after his death, Senator Edward Moore Kennedy will be remembered as the greatest legislator and statesman of the last fifty years, or just another fortunate son of privledge that was not held accountable for his sins of the past. The immutable forces that apply to human nature dictate that the truth, as always, is somewhere close to the middle of our perception and observations.

It is interesting to note though, that his  longevity in the senate may have come about as a result of his greatest failing. The tradgedy at Chappaquiddick rendered him impotent as his brother’s  heir apparent to the White House; but the citizens of Massachusetts entrusted him with a reign that would allow him to develop his legislative prowess.

Even as I write this piece I find myself at great odds about my own  feelings toward the late senator. Anytime one truly makes an effort to consider and delve into the lives of those that we’ve elevated beyond the status of  being human, we leave ourselves open to the probability of internal conflict  and disappointment. With the possible exception of  “His Excellency” George Washington, all those that were worth their salt as leaders seemed to have been equally proportioned with the potential to be a saint or a scoundrel on any given day.

So it is probably best that we continue to honor, commerorate and give thanks to those that have dedicated their lives to serving this nation, and allow providence to sort out those flaws that are inherent  in all of us.

 

Give praise to the regal lion – just remember that he is still  a lion!

 

Thanks to Susan Sipprelle for her photo of Hammersmith Farm.

 

 

Posted by: Chris Poh