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.

Ballyvourney Jig

All set dances are named for the region or town in Ireland where they developed.  The Ballyvourney Jig set is one of the most beloved dances and is the one that ends the evening in the classes taught by Pat O'Reilly, my teacher in Dublin. This is the set that Pat teaches at the beginning of each season and during our first class last Tuesday (September 12) he covered all five figures of the set. If you want to see the dance in its entirety, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fa0h_ieKeU

Ballyvourney is a small town in County Cork. In Irish, the name means "Town of the Beloved" and it is the home of the medieval monastic site dedicated to St. Gobnait, the patron saint of bee keepers.

You can see the bees in the stained glass image surrounding St. Gobnait's head and neck. 

One of the things that first attracted me to take up set dance is the sense of place that each dance represents and the layers of engagement it provides. The physical challenge of the dance is apparent and needs no explanation but that just scratches the surface of its allure for me.  I, like most people that explore their ethnic dances, get great spiritual and emotional satisfaction in coming closer to my own history. This is something we all share, no matter what the dance heritage. People worldwide can identify with it.

When I first started dancing, early in 2012, I was embarrassed about my lack of cultural awareness. And I was intimidated by the speed and seeming complexity of the patterns and footwork involved in successfully performing the dance. I persevered because, even early on, there were moments when I knew I had it and was able to internalize the rhythm and form.  This kept me going. 

At my first class last week I had the added delight of seeing old friends.  Many of the dancers were people I knew when I was here earlier and it was a pleasure to see them again.  Although Pat doesn't like picture taking in his class, I was able to snap the photo below at the end of the evening. From left, Una and Noel started in our class in 2013 in preparation for the dance they would do at their wedding.  He is from Kerry and wanted to help Una learn their regional dance as a surprise for his friends and family. Now they are regulars and both dance beautifully. Geraldine was my partner that first night and also a member of our walking group.  It was a pleasant surprise for both of us to meet up there.  I can't wait for tomorrow night!

Set dance is not River Dance!

When most Americans hear about my plan to come to Ireland to take Set Dance instruction, they think either of "River Dance" or their childhood experience taking "Irish dance" instruction. That is "Step Dance," characterized by young girls and, less frequently, boys dancing alone on a stage in elaborate costume, hair and, in the soft shoe, high on the toe or in hard shoe tap.  My father called this "jumpin and leapin." Set dance is much more informal.

Set dance is likely a precursor of square dance, although there is no caller and the footwork is more complex. It, like square dance, is influenced by French quadrilles arriving in Ireland in the 17th century.  Like most cultural evolution, the Irish added their own flourishes and regional influences. Early on, dances were taught by an itinerant "dance master" who usually stayed in a town for several weeks, teaching new dances and learning the local steps.  Dances are usually named for a particular town or region, but all involve a combination of swings, advance/retire and dance around movements.  This short video (2 min) shows a "figure" of a dance from the Connemara region.  Dances are made up of 4-7 figures and this is the first one of the Connemara dance, it will give you an idea of how much more informal set is as compared to step:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmkaWZ9ieGU

During the late 19th and early 20th century, this type of dance fell out of favor with the Catholic church in Ireland, which called it "lewd, licentious, immoral and unbecoming to it's flock." Dance was condemned. This attitude contributed to the decline of dancing at crossroads or in country homes throughout Ireland. This gradually changed, along with the Church's decline in influence and set dance has experienced a real resurgence since the 1980's.

My set dance classes start next week.  I am taking from the great teacher, Pat O'Reilly who teaches at The Glenside Pub in Dublin (picture).  I am so looking forward to beginning. See Pat's website at: www.ceili.ie.  

 

Meeting Mary

One of the best things about Ireland for me was my great luck in meeting good people who have become fast friends, in addition to the family friends already made.  I met Mary during my first week in Dublin in 2012 and it seems I've known her all my life.  We have a lot in common: married the same Summer, fathers born and raised in Westmeath, a midlands county, mothers died in 2007, and a love for walking, We met on the walking tour that is offered weekly by the Dublin City Council starting in Sandymount and ending in Black Rock, all along the sea. Here's a picture of Mary taken just Thursday when we met for the first time since returning here last Wednesday. It's taken in Marlay Park, a beautiful park that was originally the home of the Taylor family of French Huguenots built in 1764.  See the link here:  http://curiousireland.ie/marlay-house-marlay-park-co-dublin-1764/

We've had lots of experiences together, in addition to walking sections of the Camino de Santiago ending in Compostela, Spain twice, we've done many Dublin-based walks along the sea to both Bray and Howth, along the Dodder River and, further out, on the River Barrow to the southwest.  The first time walking the Barrow was in 2015 when we did Sections 5 and 6.  We're planning another walk on October 7 and 8 on Sections 3 and 4: http://riverbarrow.net/barrow-way.html.  This adventure, like the one in 2015 will include a dozen other old and new friends and an overnight stay in Carlow.  Mary and I will take a road trip next Friday, Sept 8, to scope out accommodation for the group.  I have aspirations of organizing walking trips and this is a good exercise in how to do it.

It hasn't been a week yet, but I'm all settled in and eagerly awaiting the start of the set dance season next Tuesday (Sept 12). 

I'll be leaving for Dublin in less than a week!

I will return to blogging weekly from Dublin. My plan now is to organize my posts on set dance as that's the reason I'm going to be in Ireland for three whole months. I'll take a class twice a week Tuesday evenings and Thursday mornings with the great set dance teacher Pat O'Reilly

www.ceili.ie. 

Since I don't have a Facebook account of my own, I will be posting to Alan's account. However you read this I hope you enjoy. If you'd like to follow my blog outside Facebook, just click 'Follow' in the panel to the right.

This is my last post from Ireland. We have just 18 days to go. It's all very sad. We went to a play on Saturday (Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy) and they had a sing song (what Americans call a sing-along) at the end that left me in tears. Who knew that a song about being in prison would move me to tears. I think it was just the sing song, a very common occurrence in Ireland and another of the things I'll miss a lot.

I had a very nice break in County Wexford at Rosslare and Mt. Usher with my friends Mary and Dierdre on Thursday and Friday. Dierdre and I took the train there on Thursday morning and met Mary, who was visiting friends there earlier in the week. We had rooms booked in Kelly's Hotel in Rosslare, a really nice old spa on the sea. In addition to two lovely walks on the sea, we had Irish Peat treatments in the spa and a really great dinner. I would definitely recommend a stay at Kelly's to anyone visiting Ireland.

Next week Alan and I are going to Powerscourt, another place I've wanted to visit before leaving. This is another spa in the Wicklow Mountains. Alan's booked a massage and I'm going to have a facial.We are looking forward to another bus adventure, similar to one we took when we first got to Dublin. Some of the bus routes are very long, and this one goes from Dublin City Center and ends at Powerscourt. Assuming it doesn't make every stop, we can expect a ride of over an hour. If it's busy it will be longer than that. Since April, I've had a free ride card for all busses and trains in Ireland, so this will be another benefit of that card. Another thing to be missed when we leave.

We've had several farewell meals and have several more planned, including one at The Rustic Stone with friends Sarah and David tomorrow night. They are friends we made during our trip to Majorca where we met Sarah on that walking vacation. We've had several very nice outings with them both. Last night, Mary and Leo, friends from my book club, came for dinner, and next Sunday we will see John and Mary, our old family friends and the only people we knew in Dublin before we arrived. (There are a lot of Marys in Ireland.)

We took a quick trip to Donegal earlier this month where we paid our last visit to my mother's grave in Frosses and saw our family, the Flynns for dinner. Again, there were tears on departing. I think that was the hardest because I will so miss visiting my Mom regularly.

We are pretty much packed with 3 of our 4 50-pound case allotment already full. Each one is so close to the maximum weight that I hope we leave on a dry day because if anything takes on any additional moisture we will be pulling things out at the airport. I know that moisture can add weight from my days doing mail surveys. If the mail piece was right on the edge of a second stamp I prayed for a dry day because a wet one would mean double the mailing cost! One of the bags weighs in at 49 pounds on our bathroom scale, so that's cutting it close. They really are sticklers for that maximum weight, and we have to do it twice since we have a connection in Chicago for our final destination of Indianapolis.

There is one big plus, returning to friends in America. It will be so nice to be closer to people with whom we have a long history. I don't want to minimize that great benefit of coming back. It's the one thing that has sustained me and kept me from utter despair. That's the silver lining.

We are just back from our final trip to Donegal. We left on Saturday the 4th and returned on Monday (yesterday), so it was a quick trip. We did see most of the people we wanted to see, visited my mother's grave every day and had two very nice side trips. I was sorry to miss my cousin Mary Boyle but we saw the extended Flynn (Burke) family during a lovely dinner at Teresa and Seamus Flynn's house. They are such a delight, I'm so happy to have gotten to know them better.

Our two side trips included one to Lissadel in Sligo, a grand house that I'd wanted to visit during our trip to County Clare last month but proved too far a drive then. The second was to the Glenveigh National Park, and castle in Donegal. The former was the home of the Gore-Booth family, a large ruling class family before independence. The most famous member of the family was Constance, the Countess Markevitz, a commander in the Irish Republican Army during the Easter Rebellion of 1916. She was quite an interesting person, uncommon for her class in sympathy with the aims of the Irish struggle for independence. She was also great friends with both Yeats brothers, the poet William and the painter Jack B. and the exhibition at the house covered all those connections, as well as the eccentric Gore-Booth family in detail. The house is just ugly, although situated in a beautiful setting on the Atlantic with a great view of Ben Bulben, a noted tabletop mountain in Sligo. Glenveigh on the other hand, was amazingly beautiful. Situated in the northern part of Donegal, it's the last inhabited place in Ireland. It was purchased after the famine by a rich man from County Laios (pronounced Leash) who apparently evicted everyone and build a castle for himself for the summer. He seemed like a real rat, but after several owners in the early part of the century, the land and castle were given to the Irish government and they made it a national park. Except for the castle, it's just miles and miles of beautiful mountains with not a structure of any sort in sight. Just fabulous.

Our trip to Ballyvaughn and subsequent sightseeing around Dublin with friends Linda and Bob was all we expected. We did several good walking tours in Dublin with them before we left for our weeklong stay in County Clare. I learned some new things about the wonderful city we've adopted during our time here. I really tried hard not to feel sad and note "this is the last time..."at every turn.

Ballyvaughn is just outside the Burren, an area of stone mountains in the west. We toured every day and saw quite a number of ring forts and other antiquities. We also visited the Father Ted house for tea. Father Ted is a television series that was filmed in Ireland from 1997-1999 but still plays regularly in reruns. Alan and I really enjoy it and we showed Linda and Bob several youtube episodes before we went to the tea. It was fun. We had some great meals, including a nice lunch in yet another great house (now hotel) Gregans Castle Hotel. We all enjoyed the meal but were shocked to learn that a glass of wine was 14 euro. Good thing we didn't have two! Still, it was a very nice place to spend a few hours. We had two more days in Dublin before our guests left and I was happy to introduce my good friends here (Mary and Deirdre) to Linda on a very nice walk from Greystones to Bray on a warm Sunday afternoon. On the last evening I took Linda to set dancing (the men didn't go). She dispatched herself really well, I was impressed and hope she's caught the bug and will find a set dance group in Virginia.

The next few weeks will be devoted to tying up loose ends here and saying our goodbyes. I will take an overnight trip with Mary and Deirdre to Rosslare and Mt. Usher next week and will have lunch with another friend Mary this week. We are hoping to see our other friends Sarah and David for dinner sometime next week and have someting in the works planned with John and Mary, friends we've known for many years predating our sojourn here in Ireland. I'm still working on not being depressed about our departure. Although there's not much to do in preparation for the move, since the shipment is gone, we have our return flights booked and a place to stay in Bloomington, I continue to keep busy with dance, bridge and walking.

I'm going to start really thinking about that book now...