By: Shane Bagot, Follow South Jersey Community Journalist
VOORHEES, N.J. – South Jersey’s very own McDermott’s Handy is a husband-and-wife duo, Kathy DeAngelo and Dennis Gormley of Voorhees, who have been performing traditional Irish music for half a century.
Named after fiddler Ed McDermott, who played with DeAngelo in her early college days back in the early 70s, the couple met at a folk music pickin’ party in Monmouth County, New Jersey. From there, DeAngelo became McDermott’s steady accompanist up until he died in 1977. That led to the creation of the band as a one-off tribute to McDermott at the New Jersey Folk Festival in 1977. The band started as a group of 12 but eventually dwindled down to the duo today.
For 50 years, they have been playing Irish music, and the love has always been there.
“We love the music,” DeAngelo said. “We love the culture. We’ve been to Ireland many times, and we have lots of Irish friends. There’s a big Irish community in the Philadelphia area that we’re tied into. It’s a wonderful community. That’s what music is for us. It’s us playing together.”
Over the years they have honed their focus towards the traditional dance music of Ireland and ballads of immigration. They are multi-instrumentalist with DeAngelo playing harp, fiddle, or banjo, while Gormley can be seen with a guitar, flute, tin whistle, buzuki, or sometimes a mandolin, and their performances include weddings, festivals, or even funerals.
While in the beginning, they would reach out and meet people through the performances they did. The duo started hosting music sessions for that. Striving to meet people who played Irish music and others who were interested in getting into it. First, at a location, but due to the pandemic, they have moved it into their home. They found that people who did not even know how to play would come to these sessions. This opened up the door for them to start conducting lessons.
This held to their mantra: “If you see a need and there’s nobody doing something, step in and do it,” said DeAngelo.
They have had a held interest in the youth, which DeAngelo chalks up to the lack of Irish music representation in the community. They have been able to get them interested with lessons and putting on shows. The primary goal is to get them to play the music together and get that social aspect from it.
“During June, we saw a lot of kids getting together saying, ‘can we get together and play during the summer?’ ‘You know, would you like to get together and do that?’ That’s beautiful,” said Gormley. They called it Next Generation Sessions that they said is important to the tradition of Irish music being passed down orally.
Ed McDermott was taught by his father growing up. McDermott moved to the United States in 1915, where he taught music to Americans, including DeAngelo. Now DeAngelo and Gormley are passing it down to the next generations to take it into this century.
“What you want to do is to make sure that the people that you learn music from are acknowledged by the people you’re passing their music on to… By doing that, we’re basically keeping his memory alive again among people who are going to be living deep into the 21st century,” said Gromley.
That is what they seek to do, playing concerts and doing lots of outreach to inform people about the wonders of Irish culture and making people aware of the whole history and lineage of the music.
A success story can be seen in one of DeAngelo’s earliest students, Hailey Richardson, who now plays in the famous “Riverdance” show as a fiddler. She also tours all over the world. It means a lot to the duo to see these kids on the mainstage.
They would love to see the next generation get in on the action even more, hoping they go out more to embrace and support the arts as much as they can. They have played a huge part and are looking to do even more for the community.
To check out more information and keep up to date with the duo, check them out here.
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