Jack McKinney – Philly Sports And Opera Writer – 1929/2002 // Keltic Cowboys – Kiss My Irish Ass

Some interesting links and reading on legendary Philly Communicator / Writer Jack McKinney. And of course an Irish Drinking Song too. 

http://www.phillytalkradioonline.com/archive/jack-mckinney.html

http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/2013/02/13/the-banter-gold-standard-dexter-remembers-jack-mckinney/

http://mauryzlevy.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/jack-mckinney-and-the-revolting-irish/

KISS MY IRISH ASS LYRICS

by Frank Mackey and The Keltic Cowboys

Oh the churchbells are ringin' in the schoolyard, 
And we all went out those days
The bully said "Mick would you fancy a rumble?"
I said "Yes, it's time to play!"

Oh the nuns and the priests they grabbed their Rosaries
As they pulled our bodies apart
The bully said "Mick you lost the fight, but you've gained my respect! 
You fight with so much heart!"

We're as stubborn as mules
With our blood on fire
When we ain't at Sunday mass
We'll look any man straight in his eyes and say
Kiss my Irish ass! 
You better kiss my Irish ass! 

Oh the husbands and wives, they had a neighborhood pack
They called the Mackeys white trash behind our backs (White Trash! )
I was way too young to understand that
But if I did, I'd given it right back

Oh me dad, he'd be drunk on the lawn, 
Yelling and screaming like he do
But sometimes my old man felt what he was feeling, 
Sometimes Mr. Mackey spoke the truth

We're as stubborn as mules
With our blood on fire
When we ain't at Sunday mass
We'll look any man straight in his eyes and say
Kiss my Irish ass! 
You better kiss my Irish ass! 

Oh me grandpa passed through Ellis Island, 
From the greatest of the Motherlands
For he worked, provided for his family
He was a dedicated welding man
And he knew right from wrong like day and night, 
He could whip any fool in a bareknuckle fight
He talked of country like he preached of God, 
One hell of an Irishman! 

We're as stubborn as mules
With our blood on fire
When we ain't at Sunday mass
We'll look any man straight in his eyes and say
Kiss my Irish ass! 
You better kiss my Irish ass! 

Oooohh, I'm of a distant relation to John Redman, 
He was one of the greatest Irish Rebels of his day
One bastard to another, on down the line
And this is what my son will say:

We're as stubborn as mules
With our blood on fire
When we ain't at Sunday mass
We'll look any man straight in his eyes and say
Kiss my Irish ass! 
We're as stubborn as mules
With our blood on fire
When we ain't at Sunday mass
We'll look any man straight in his eyes and say
Kiss my Irish ass! 
You better kiss my Irish ass!

Wanamaker Thanksgiving Menu - 1901

.

Frankford Milk Wagon - 1912

http://www.scribd.com/doc/106409142/For-a-Greater-Frankford-1912

.

Number 3 Trolley - Kensington Frankford - 1912 - 1921

1912

.

Lafayette in Frankford and Philadelphia - 1824

http://books.google.com/books?id=EgU7AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

.

.

Lafayette Arch - Frankford Pa.-1824

photo - 1912

Tablet Inscription - Public Ledger 1 Apr 1919

There used to be an old Bronze Plaque on the red wall below, near the street and maybe 8-10 feet above the ground, and near the ghost of the old Worrell House outlined on the same wall. Wonder where it went and how much the price of scrap was that day?

         Present    google maps

.

Frankford Post Office - 4421-23 Frankford Avenue - 1912

4423-21 Frankford Ave - Google Map

.

Frankford Avenue and Paul St. - Philadelphia 1912

Kinkerter and Sheppard Co. - 1912

Present

.

.

Seven Stars Hotel - Frankford and Oxford Avenues - 1912

1919

http://www.scribd.com/doc/106409142/For-a-Greater-Frankford-1912

Present - Bing Maps

.

Dummy Street Car - Frankford

http://www.scribd.com/doc/106409142/For-a-Greater-Frankford-1912

.

Iris Theater - Philadelphia - K n A - Part II

Public Ledger - February 26, 1915

Photoplay Theater – had not invented the word movie yet?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0001871/

Joseph Graybill:

http://earlysilentfilm.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-actor-who-wore-mustache-joseph.html

.

Iris Theater - K and A, Philly, 1916

,

28th Pennsylvania - Review of Returning Troops - Philadelphia Parkway - 1919

Source: Google Books



/

Map of Harrowgate (Greater Kensington) Philadelphia

Harrowgate Park lies in the very center of Harrowgate, an area named for the Harrowgate spa and Harrowgate Hotel that existed approximately from the 1780s to the 1840s.

The name Harrowgate was borrowed from the English spa town in England Harrogate, and the spelling somewhere along the timeline has a “w” added to the American spelling.

In colonial times, the main road from Philly to Trenton was the King’s Highway that over time and after the revolution dropped the royal inference.  At various times and at different spots on the map, the old King’s Highway becomes the road to the Town of Frankford and passed Frankford, the road to Bristol or Bristol Road.

The Harrowgate Spa and Hotel was accessible by a road from Frankford Road and was labeled Harrowgate Lane all the way up until the early twentieth century on Philadelphia city maps.

Harrowgate Lane went to the Hotel at the approximate location of the Present Kensington Avenue and E. Atlantic Street.  Harrowgate Lane used to run passed the future Kensington Avenue (not there in 18^th century) to the land and Quaker home site of the Cedar Grove Mansion, moved to Fairmount Park in the 1920s with the intense industrialization of the area at the time.  

Cedar Grove had been a summer home to escape the heat of the city of Philadelphia, now downtown, from the late eighteenth century to the 1880’s when the railroad was built so close as to make the summer home a noisy and dirty place with the constant nearby railroad traffic.

So, the traditional historic Harrowgate centers around the present Harrowgate Park.  The Frankford Elevated stop is “Tioga” Street which meant something once upon a time because a railroad once was located on Tioga Street and went to the Delaware and I imagine it had more to do with freight than people traffic.  

In a way, the Frankford El stop should in present day be labeled “Harrowgate Park” or simply “Harrowgate”.

For boundaries, I have drawn a yellow line to include the area where Cedar Grove used to be at the western extension of E. Sedgley Street passed “K” Street on the top of the map.  This is traditional in area.  The yellow line goes to the Harrowgate Shopping Center once the Bellevue Cemetery in Harrowgate on the map in plates 13 and 8 of the 25^th ward map 1886 link below.

http://www.philageohistory.org/rdic-images/view-image.cfm/GMH1886.PhilaWard25.014.Plate13

I follow “H” Street down from the Harrowgate Shopping Center which leads to Allegheny at Kensington which I would not think a totally traditional Harrowgate area but to be quite frank, without a major road to define the boundaries, Harrowgate disappears off the map and people label the area variably as Kensington or Frankford etc.

I follow Allegheny down to a physical barrier, the railroad, the old Trenton Avenue above Sepviva Street and follow to another feeder railroad on Butler Street by the old Frankford Junction Station on Frankford Avenue.

So in drawing what is close to being what Harrowgate was is and should be, I am defining this from historic traditional and practical lines. 

.

Can't Get To Heaven on the Frankford El

 .

.

Lewis Elkin School Philadelphia - East Wing West Wing Additions - 1907 - Lloyd Titus Architect

http://www.phillyhistory.org/PhotoArchive/Detail.aspx?assetId=50594

.