Slive Luchra Set

Last week we learned the Slive Luchra Set which starts about 1:40 in on the video at this link:
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-mozilla-002&hsimp=yhs-002&hspart=mozilla&p=sLIVE+LUCHRA+set+dance#id=5&vid=2fdeb025ee8293cf6cdf0f3d7f8fe9dd&action=view

It looks complicated, but my friend Dorothy did this whole dance when she visited in 2013, and with the right music, anyone who gives it a try can do it.  As a reminder, sets are made up of 'figures' and there are usually 4-5 figures inn each set with a little break between each figure.  Once you get the basic steps, all the figures use pretty much the same ones. This dance lasts a while because you see the people forming, the break between each figure and, for the most part, the four couples in the group dance either in pairs or alone. 

Slive Luchra is a region in the provence of Munster spanning the Blackwater River flowing through Counties Cork, Kerry and Limerick.  It's an inhospitable area of upland bogs but, during the height of the English repression in Ireland became a refuge for native Irish and a place where their culture of dance and music flourished.  In reading the history of the area, I was struck with the similarities between this area and Accompong in Jamaica, an area that the British were unable to control that became home to the Maroons, the only free people in Jamaica during British rule and now a separate state within the country.  If you go there, the headman is proud to stamp your passport because you are no longer in the jurisdiction of the Jamaican government in Kingston. 

I am not a lawless person, but the idea of people being able the throw off the yoke of an unfair government is resonant to me.  I'm particularly inspired by people's efforts to ensure that their freedom and cultural heritage in the face of systematic oppression.