Maggie in the Wood

This week we covered the Connemara Set.  It's a set with four figures the last of which is danced to the tune "Maggie in the Wood."  See the videos of the four figures at this link: https://danceminder.com/dance/show/connre

The dance is a fun and easy one, but it's the tune that is played in the fourth Figure that was really resonant to me. As I danced, I was brought back to the times my father played the tune, and many others, on his melodeon in our living room on Long Island. Those times are among my happiest childhood memories. Here's a link to a man (much like my father) playing that tune on the instrument:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k2ffeSGiGY

My parents met at an Irish dance held in Long Island City, in Queens New York in the mid 1930's.  Queens continues to be a vibrant area for Irish newcomers, although Woodside as overtaken the now gentrified, Long Island City as the Irish immigrant beacon.  Many of the houses look and feel like terraced houses, so ubiquitous throughout the bigger cities and towns in Ireland.

My father played the melodeon in an Irish band in pubs and house parties throughout Queens. My mother was a dancer and knew all the good dance bands in the area.  They had a lot in common then. My mother told me that they were the 'hottest' couple in Queens at the time. I believe it. She was a good dancer and, even years later when I came on the scene, and their passion for one another was long gone, he could still entertain on the melodeon.

While here in Ireland, I've often been struck with what seems like deja vu, a strong feeling that I've experienced some turn of phrase, food, accommodation, scent or entertainment before. It's because my parents, and their families, particularly the paternal matriarch, Aunt Lilly, kept to their Irish ways throughout our assimilation as Americans. It is in my DNA to be comfortable here as nowhere else I've lived.

I try hard not to be 'more Irish than the Irish' here, a condition that many Americans project when they visit Ireland. It's so embarrassing when I see it, and it's encountered often. My dance teacher told me that he was told by an American at a dance that he was 'doing it wrong,' he wasn't amused.  This is an evolving, modern country that is long passed the stereotyped brogue and leprechaun but the culture of dance and music endures and I will be sorry to leave it when I return to the USA in December. 

Barrow Walk

No post about set dance this week because both session were a recap of the three dances that we've already covered: the Ballyvourney, Slieve Luchra and Merchant. I expect we will have a new dance to learn in the upcoming week.


This is the midpoint of my visit to Ireland and I just can't believe how the time has flown by.  Last weekend I arranged a walk on the River Barrow with a group of friends that I've walked with many times during my stays here, although my dearest friend, Mary, was unable to make it. 

We set up base at The Clink Hotel in Carlow, https://www.theclinkboutiquehotel.com/ which couldn't have been better.  If you are ever anywhere near County Carlow in Carlowtown, this is the place to stay. The sleeping rooms and the meals were all perfect for the two long walks we did.  The Barrow Way is just a stone's throw from the hotel.  We arrived on Saturday morning and started our walk to Milford, where we were treated to a catered lunch provided by The Clink.  White table cloth, napkins, upholstered chairs and two staff served an amazing lunch for our group of 10.  We returned on the same path in reverse, for a total of 12 miles.

On Sunday we were provided a bag lunch and walked 19 kilometers to Athy, where the drivers in our group dropped their cars earlier that morning.  The whole thing was amazing, fun and very taxing.  I was so happy to have done the arranging and to have everything come off so well.

Merchant Set

This week we learned the Merchant Set a relatively new dance developed in Dublin, a city not otherwise known for sets.  It's a modern set, created in 2011, a testament to the resurgence of set dance in Ireland.  It was named for a pub in the City Center by Pádraig & Róisín McEneany (Patrick and Roseann) who taught at that pub for many years.  Ironically, as my set dance teacher informed us this week, shortly after it was completed, the pub discontinued set dance as a regular feature on Mondays. Here is a link to the written instructions for the dance: https://danceminder.com/dance/show/mercha  .  If you look at the instructions you can see some of the commonalities in all set dance:  'advance/retire' 'house' and 'swing' are found in almost every set.  This is what makes set dance fairly easy to learn.  While it's always fast, the steps endure.

Since this is a Dublin set, I've been musing on why this city so appeals to me. My first trip to Dublin was in 1967 and still remember the feeling of romance and history I felt then. Walking across the Liffey River over the O'Connell bridge when I was 19 is so vivid to me even 50 years later. To top it off, I met an Irish boy who was attracted to my youth and American accent and we spent the day walking around Dublin with him showing me the sights.  It turned out he was a train conductor and was able to tell me how to get to my father's home town (Moate, Co. Westmeath) on the train and the hotel to stay in while I was there. Years later, I'm sorry I didn't note his name, he's probably still living in Dublin and we could have kept in touch.

As I said in my first post of this visit, one of the great things about Ireland is the friendliness and curiosity of the people and, even with the smallest effort, one can make fast friends as I have.  Upcoming tomorrow is a little trip south to Carlow with a group of 10 of them.  We will stay overnight in a hotel and walk in two directions on the River Barrow. http://riverbarrow.net/barrow-way.html

We will walk south to Milford on Saturday and north to Athy on Sunday.  I've arranged the hotel and the meals and I'm hoping all goes OK with it.  My friends are all very excited to do the trip, we hope there will be no rain.  The hotel actually is arranging the lunch and they will bring a table, linens, real silverware and chairs to the mill at the halfway point on both days. If you have seen the movie just out now, Victoria and Abdul, I'm thinking it will be akin to the scene in which Victoria decided to have lunch on the top of a mountain in Scotland, maybe a little less grand, but certainly more than I've ever experienced on any other walk here or elsewhere.  This is the kind of treatment we needed on the halfway point on the Bright Angel trail in The Grand Canyon!