Volume 4, Issue 6

Gangs of New York highlights history — poverty and violence dominate political change

Martin Scorcese's Gangs of New York is an epic film, while lamely made, tells the story of how the Irish rose from abject poverty and murderous violence to dominate the political landscape in New York and the rest of the nation in less than a century.

Gangs portrayal of the violence that attended the struggles of the 19th century's Rabbits, Plug Uglies and other New York Irish gangs may insult and gall many Irish-Americans with a more sanitized version of the people's history, it is the most accurate part of the staging of this untold saga of the American underbelly.

Moreover, the dominance of Irish gangs in New York and other major cities' crime histories is a tale often swept under the rug by those who are ashamed of their family's participation in it at various stages including right up into the 1980's when the "Westies" Irish gang chief Jimmy Burke murdered almost all his confederates in the famed Lufthansa heist of $6 million in cash and jewels...

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Volume 4, Issue 6

St. Pat's Day: A global favorite

Inasmuch as there are two sorts of people in the world — those that are Irish and those that wish they were Irish — Hornpipe decided to see how St. Patrick's Day is being celebrated in other far flung corners where the real and wishful Irish gather on that holy day to hoist a libation and remember their roots.

Canada

A good old-fashioned Irish breakfast starts the day in Montreal to help the faithful recover from the previous nights honoring Patrick himself. From nine o'clock onwards, crowds at the parade breakfast in Huley's Pub on Crescent Street, consume heaping plates of rashers, sausages, black and white pudding, eggs, ham and spuds, washing down the lot with Irish coffees and stout. Irish music featuring an impressive repertoire of songs, traditional and modern, waft out from a stage.

A 177th consecutive St. Patrick's Parade at noon started with temperatures well above zero, a 'gorgeous day' as thousands lined St. Catherine Street for three hours of marching bands, Irish dancers, shamrock-bedecked floats and sundry elebrities and politicians! Beer, whiskey shooters, hip flasks and king cans are clinked openly...

(Other areas reviewed in this article include Asia, Moscow, Poland, Australia, and Paris.)

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Volume 4, Issue 6

2002 Midwest Oireachtas results, Rosemont, Illinois

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Volume 4, Issue 6

Catch the rhythm and improve Irish dancing

A developed understanding of rhythm makes a performance more interesting for both the competitor and the audience also. We all can identify poor rhythm. The vital question, however, is do we know how to make rhythm effect in a dance performance?

Rhythm is vital to good performance by every dancer. It is especially important for those who compete in feiseanna on a regular basis. How therefore can the relationship between rhythm within the music of Irish dancing and the execution of dance steps to a high standard be achieved?

APPRECIATION OF DANCE TUNES

We all have our favorite dance tunes. In the reel for, example, you can relate to particular tunes that enable you to dance better. This is the experience of every dancer. In fact we can all recall having a nice feeling and sense of enjoyment with our performance because of the opportunity to dance to a tune we are familiar with and like very much. This is a psychological issue. Our feelings about the tune can enhance performance.

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Volume 4, Issue 5

Derek Bell - a real passion for folk music

Derek Bell, harpist with traditional Irish super group the Chieftains, died suddenly October 17 while touring in the United States. Bell, 67, had been recovering from minor surgery and had been cleared to return home. He had played with the group for some 30 years, in tandem with a successful solo career.

Irish music promoter Dennis Desmond told BBC News Online that Bell's death was a "terrible tragedy". It's particularly sad because everyone thought the man was fine," he said. "He will be terribly missed."

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Volume 4, Issue 5

Irish Yuletide Festivities

If you think the celebration of Christmas is remarkably different from the holiday in the US you're altogether wrong. Most Americans would feel right at home at Christmas in Killarney. The following is a description direct from Dublin of how the holiday season progresses there. You might find some traditions that are set in stone at your Christmas.

Setting the Table

Owing to the religious prominence and family orientation in history, Christmas in Ireland starts early, particularly in preparing special food for the festive season. Puddings and cakes rich with fruit and nuts and moistened with Guinness and or brandy are make and stored to mature. Later the cakes are covered with marzipan and royal icing and decorated.

Mincemeat is made using dried fruit and suet. In the olden days it really contained minced meat. These days it can be bought ready made and used for making mince pies, or larger mince tarts. Traditionally shortcrust pastry is used. The pies get eaten at tea times or after carol singing with brandy butter or cream.

Spiced beef is made too. It was once prepared at home but now butchers have their own recipes and sell meat "ready spiced." In about three weeks the beef absorbs the spices and then it's cooked. Cooked spiced meat is pink in the center with a "crust" of spices and a winning flavor. Served hot or cold, the Irish will eat it over the festive season.

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Volume 4, Issue 5

Irish roots inspire American cousin ... Appalachian Clogging

Irish dance derivatives have dominated the popular dance scene in the US for most of our history. In addition to authentic Irish steps, the art also spawned a long=popular Appalachian dance form known as clogging.

Although clogging is an authentic and distinctive form of American folk dance, its roots reach back to the Scots-Irish immigrants to North America's Appalachian Mountains. It is fairly well accepted among dancers that one of the primary roots of clogging must be the Irish jig.

As long ago as St. Patrick's time Irish pagans were enjoying lively "step dances," primitive versions of what came to be known as the Irish jig. "Step dancing" - a broader classification than clogging - usually means a kind of dance where attention is focused on the legs and feet, the movements of which keep time and accentuate the beat of the music.

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Volume 4, Issue 5

Christmas wish for a dancer

Gift giving doesn't have to be a chore for that finicky teenager that must have the perfect gift that is essential for their social circles. However, traveling and looking fashionable is a necessity for a dancer.

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Volume 4, Issue 4

Irish instruments

True Irish dance music should make one desire to dance, drink, weep or fight. And while this may be the result of music as representative of Irish history, it is more likely that the basic instruments of Irish dance music produced tones that fostered melancholy in many a player.

To understand why Ireland has no long tradition of classical music and symphonic greatness, one must understand the evolution of the instruments of Irish music. The factors governed the development of Irish instruments - portability and poverty. Clearly, Irish dance music developed as a response to the stresses of isolation, poverty and oppression by occupying cultures. And while the ancient nature of some of these instruments has been unchanged for centuries, their adaptation for modern Irish music has not been widespread. Groups such as U2, the Cranberries, the Pogues and other notables have not included much use of these native instruments in their work.

At the same time, traditional Irish dance music has gained a new following the world over as a result of the international interest in Irish dance. Groups such as the legendary Chieftains, the Wolfe Tones, and others have become staples on the European and US concert circuit. This, of course, includes the evolution of the greatest Irish instruments, the voice and a new dimension has been added to Irish music with the advent of New Age vocalists harkening back to real or imagined ancient airs.

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Volume 4, Issue 4

Book of Kells shows heart of Irish art in antiquity

Every nation has its artifacts that reveal the most prominent tradition of that nation's art and artisanship. Almost all these type of artifacts have one aspect in common, they contain clues or statements about the nation's political or religious history. Most of them are products of the immediate past millennium and do not represent truly ancient ideas and technology.

Only a handful of nations, most prominently Egypt and China, offer the world a view into their extremely distant past via these artifacts. And while not a nation featured in the currents and conflicts of the first millennium, Ireland offers up one of the most beautiful, sophisticated memoirs of that time in the artistic creation of the illuminated Book of Kells.

According to tradition, the book is a relic from the time of Columba (d. 597) and even the work of his hands, but judging by the character of the ornamentation, the date of the composition of the book can be placed no earlier than the end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth century. The book's history is almost as ornate as the book itself.

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Volume 4, Issue 4

Irish dancing in Argentina gets first qualified teacher

The traditional tango of Argentina has been getting competition in that nation from a widespread interest in Irish dancing. There were no qualified teachers in Argentina, mainly due to the distance and language barriers. Never-the-less, some of the dancing group leaders have been teaching for many years. Still, they needed professional help.

The groups put together enough money to import noted instructor Kevin McCormach to bring Argentina's enthusiastic Irish dance groups a new level of instruction that would put them in step with the rest of the world.

"This was a great opportunity to advance Irish dancing and we just couldn't let it go by," Kevin said.

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Volume 4, Issue 3

Evolution of Irish dance makes it an international force

It is rare that one is able to readily observe the ongoing evolution of any social process during one's lifetime. Seeing the changes in any system, social order or human endeavor is largely a matter of historical hindsight although for those long-lived enough there are marvels to witness that do indeed change the shape of our human landscape permanently.

My mother was a curious, adventuresome girl when those goofy, hapless boys, the Wright brothers, made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk. It inspired her to fly and travel which she has done for a great deal of her nearly 100 years. She would be going on still were it not for the failings of body and mind. Still, she saw so much wonderment in her time and understood its implications.

She sat on the Florida beach and gazed intently up into the breaking dawn as another in a long line of rockets took off - this one to land men on the moon. Mo one asked her but she would have gone. My father had died and she would have given the rest of her time to see that cold, lifeless orb in person.

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Volume 4, Issue 3

The Broken Shoes

by Janine Forester

I was dancing well. My toes were pointed, my trebles were loud and my smile was bright. I had already completed the first two dances in my preliminary competition and had been called back to perform my set dance, Planxty Drury, at speed 69. As the dancer before me finished, I walked excitedly onto the stage, careful to be as graceful as I could. There was one thought on my mind - winning.

I pointed my toe, took a deep breath, and smiled at my friends cheering me on silently in the back of the ballroom. The dance began. Once again, I was moving well. The years of practice were paying dividends and I grew bolder and more confident with each step. I had just finished the right foot of my lead-around when disaster struck. As I went up on my left toe, the hard shoes I had been dancing in for 4 1/2 years, the only hard shoes I ever had, erupted in a blur of leather and shoelace.

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Volume 4, Issue 3

North American National Championships Results

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Volume 4, Issue 3

2002 Nationals charm Boston fans

North American National Championships: the heart beat of Irish dance.

Planning an event of this magnitude one would miss the annual family picnic every 4th of July. Consider the expensive airline flights to hosting cities and the pricy hotels, cabs or rented cars. Is it worth it? Not to mention the bickering, the flight schedule confusion and the costly costumes and bills. So much trouble! And what about the jealousies and conceits, the hurt, the bewilderment over some adjudication and learning how to discount them. Oh, the frustration and acceptance of the adjudication ... and most important learning how to face their truth.

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Volume 4, Issue 3

Hard Shoes: Anonymous Message Boards

Mary Ann McGrath Swaim, TCRG, answers questions regarding dance submitted by readers to hardshoes@hornpipe.net

You have seen them, as I have, in every region of America, and beyond. You know how the intense words always eventually go up, and then they mysteriously come down. Then you see a post from the moderator, who takes credit for the deletions and condemns some anonymous writer for having tried to ruin a nice board. Then comes the proverbial host of me-toos, the Polyanna band-aids agreeing about how we all shouldn't be mean and how everyone should be good and how message boards are great, except for those bad guys who say something and get deleted by the moderator. Are they great, when they still allow "nice" anonymous postings?

I believe the exception proves the rule. I say it clear and loud - anonymous message boards are dangerous per se, even when the subjects addressed are "nice" or "good".

Someone once told me the word "donkey" was originally a curse word, and that society attempted to stop its usage in civilized circles by replacing it with a substitute, non-curse word. The fix failed. In fact, the substituting, non-curse word - "ass" - came to be regarded over time as a curse word itself, because of its association with the curse word "donkey". After all, everybody knew that ass really meant donkey. It was just that nobody could say the word "donkey" without being criticized.

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Volume 4, Issue 3

Scholarly winning essay shows guiding principals of good dancers

by Kris Lambert

For many years, the Marybeth McCartan School wanted to start a college scholarship program. As Mary Beth's own children approached college age, she searched the multitude of scholarship funds in hopes of finding something that might benefit her daughters. She discovered a lack of scholarship money available to individuals of Irish decent or for students of Irish dance. Mary Beth decided to move forward with her dream and create an annual college scholarship.

Financial support for this scholarship for students of Irish dance came from Mr. and Mrs. John Clark of Tennessee who were introduced to Irish Dance by their niece and nephew, students at the McCartan School. They spent vacation time coming to feisianna and loved the dance and the children dancing. When Mrs. Clark died of breast cancer two years ago, Mr. Clark wanted to honor his wife's memory by promoting the future of young people. He made a donation to the McCartan School's college fund and Frieda Blazer Clark Memorial College Scholarship was launched.

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Volume 4, Issue 3

Family support creates a confident champion - Leslie Adelman

Into the patchwork of light at the Westin Copley Hotel Ballroom she sat with her parents as streams of dancers with their entourage of family and friends moved in and about like fire ants on a disturbed mound. Oblivious to her surroundings there was a sphere of serenity in her waiting for the competition to begin that only a seasoned competitor develops.

Copley Square, an upscale part of Boston was host to the 2002 North American Irish Dancing National Championships. Registration of dancers were above 2,700, and all to dance in a 4 day marathon that would reveal the champions. Oddly, the Nationals are not exclusive to dancers of the continent. It has earned a prestigious reputation and includes dancers from around the globe.

Idle conversation mingled with random inventory checks and glances in a mirror. Everything was in place. It all must be perfect; hair, last minute make-up prepping, accessories, shoes polished, socks glued and costume within arms reach. She looked for a distraction, anything that would keep her from thinking about dancing and wondering .... What would become of her this day? What would she prove to be?

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Volume 4, Issue 3

Irish dance enhanced by music study and 'mature' dancer

It has long been apparent that great Irish dancers know the music that they dance to intimately. It is often the case that a dancer will play music, too. What are the advantages to such interactive studies? Do they make for well-rounded students? The first two sections here answer those questions clearly and urge Irish dancers to study traditional Irish music, to learn to play and to be at one with the spirit of it all.

The tradition of Irish dancing in the US as a young person's activity has largely stemmed from the fact that in their late teens or early 20's the young people find more of life's maturing moments demanding their attention and dance seems to fade away. Hornpipe has always believed that encouraging older people to take up Irish dancing, or return to it, offers a special dimension to expanding the art that is not being explored. The third section in this piece addresses the joys and demands of a "mature" dancing career.

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Volume 4, Issue 3

Connection of music and dance fulfill her life in many ways.

My name is Sarah Hale. I'm fifteen and will be a sophomore at LaFayette High School this next school year. I am involved with St. Louis Irish Arts.

I became interested in Irish music and dancing at a St. Patrick's Day parade here in St. Louis when I was five years old. When my parents asked where dance or music lessons were offered, they were told that both were learned at St. Louis Irish Arts. I began to dance at that age as well as to play music. Every child who starts with St. Louis Irish Arts is introduced to music with the tin whistle, which some refer to as the penny whistle. Some time shortly before first grade I started to play the flute and took flute lessons. This year I was able to teach some of the children who just started. It is absolutely wonderful to see and hear how well these five-and six- and seven-year-old kids who have had no Irish music experience - and sometimes no music-playing experience at all- can pick it up.

Learning music and dance together helps especially when you begin to connect the types of tunes to the types of dances. If you are dancing and know the music you can avoid the old, "Wait, what is this dance again?" In the past, we've had to start a bit of our steps to identify the type of tune.

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Volume 4, Issue 3

He believes music study with dance is essential

My name is Nial Gannon. I am 34 years old and currently volunteer as the director of St. Louis Irish Arts Grupai Cheol comprised of the most accomplished musicians in the St. Louis Irish Arts School of Music, Song and Dance.

I have played the fiddle since age 5 and taught music since age 14; I wholeheartedly agree that tutelage in traditional Irish music is a tremendous benefit to Irish dancers.

One of the reasons for this is perhaps that music is, at present, a slower evolving art form than the dancing. Hence - the tunes, styles, technique, etc. very closely resemble the way the music might have been played 30, 50, or 100 years ago. This provides a tremendous link of the younger generation of musicians to the older ones. The youth admire and replicate the older styles even when they are developing contemporary styles of playing. When it comes to dancers who also play - this intangible benefit brings them a true link to their Irish heritage in a way that the more contemporary Irish dancing and Celtic rock may not be able to provide.

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Volume 4, Issue 3

She found support for a "mature" dancer

My name is Lynn Harter. As a more "mature" dancer there was first the physical and mental challenge. The sheer desire to dance this way and the music as motivation helped me to succeed. I watched my son pick up the steps so easily and quickly and I struggled at first.

Then one day it clicked and the feeling I get when I perform or just dance on my own is all that I had hoped it would be. It has given me confidence and grace, focus and determination. I didn't think I had it in me.

As a mom you have it for your children, but this was all for me. I also have enjoyed building friendships with the other "mature" dancers in the school and the people of the Irish community who frequent the pubs and support us by showing up at our performances. It has become a large, extended family. I has been great for my son to learn more about his heritage and customs by the people who have become part of our "family".

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Volume 4, Issue 2

Courage, glory, faith, service personified history of Irish women

For centuries Celtic women were the warriors among their race laying waste to more than one enemy who invaded their lands. The warrior spirit has continued in Irish women through time to today but the most interesting of these smart, tough women from Irish history has to be Grace O'Malley - pirate, seafarer, trader and chieftain.

Grace was born in 1530 in County Mayo, the daughter of a sea captain. Angry that her father wouldn't take her to sea, Grace is reported to have cut her hair and dressed in boy clothes to prove she could live a seafarer's life. Her father laughed and called her "Grimme Mhaol" or "Bald Grace", an appellation that eventually stuck as "Granuaile."

Grace's childhood involved frequent sailings overseas to trade. A childhood legend indicates the course ahead for Grace. On returning from Spain, the O'Malley vessel was attacked by an English ship. Grace had been told to hide below deck if they ever were attacked. But Grace climbed up into the rigging from which she spied an Englishman with a ready dagger closing on her father. Granuaile the child dropped from high in the rigging with a bloodcurdling scream onto the pirate's back. This amazing feat shocked the English long enough for the O'Malley crew to best the pirates.

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Volume 4, Issue 2

'Heaven' grows in pages of gardening magazines

An idea associated with every European war correspondent cliché is to retire to a quiet country garden to putter and plant and loll in the evening light with a glass of good sherry casting a creative eye for what new growing thing might be added to the garden's delight. After all, behind company, conversation, horses, music, dance and theater, the garden offers a life high on the Irish list of favorite past times.

One only need tour a few country castles and stately mansions to understand that the Anglo Irish arboreal imports to Ireland set well with a people whose entire existence has historically been either accommodating nature or wresting a bit of food and beauty from an often hard landscape. And, as in many other areas, the Irish have evolved an art form from the influences of other cultures.

In keeping with the flow of the Hibernian Irony Continuum, one of Ireland's most popular television shows is called "Garden Heaven" which is produced by a veteran overseas correspondent, Tish Barry, and now has a wonderful spin-off in the form of Garden Heaven magazine.

Tish Barry globe-trotted most of young and middle years on behalf of RTE (Irish Telivision) covering people and events ranging from wars in Asia, uprisings in Africa on to outbreaks in the Outback. It was an exciting life but in the end she wanted to be home with her family.

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Volume 4, Issue 2

EXERCISE: To jump higher, leap farther

Physical training is as important as practicing and could mean the difference between first and second place. Assuming that you have been immersed in Irish dance enough to know your steps and dance to the rhythm of live music there are the subtle difference that define a champion.

The most obvious difference between an Irish dancer and a North American dancer is the Irish seem to have faster feet and powerful leaping ability giving more "hang-time" to their leaps. It may well be that your life-style may already dictate vigorous exercise but I suspect that the majority of dancers don't reap the benefits of strength conditioning. Strength can be defined as the force of tension a muscle group can exert against a resistance in one maximal effort.

The question you need to ask yourself is how much weight can you lift? Ariel Bennet, TCRG, of the Bennett Irish Dance School, is a proponent of strength conditioning. She said, "there are things that a dancer who aspires to champion status ought to do outside of dance classes (besides practice, of course). One is to have a strengthening program."

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Volume 4, Issue 2

"Special" feis competitions add to event's excitement

by Thomas Miner

As the feis is to the Irish, festivals are universal to every culture with the first early records indicating that they were celebrations surrounding religious belief. Tribes being of nomadic nature annually convened, often in a sacred place like Tara in county Meath. There the clans gathered and would exhibit their skills, compete and provide useful activities to occupy their time.

The feiseanna today owe their origin to this initiative not only in the form of the dance but in the special competitions of song, poetry, painting and music. Developing interests in the fine arts are often overlooked but a necessary and intricate part of the Irish Feis.

Some teachers like Helen Gannon, TCRG in St. Louis, Missouri require students to take lessons in music to strengthen their feel for the dance. Further still, and in a smaller sense the vendors do their parts by providing new products for cancers.

Most recently at the Lone Star Feis in Austin, Texas I had the opportunity to spend most of my time away from the dancing arena. The special competitions usually take place concurrently with the dance competitions and unless you have wandered astray you will miss a vital constituent of the feis. The special events preserve and educate us about other aspects of Irish culture.

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Volume 4, Issue 1

2002 World Championships

Spring is the premiere time in the world of Irish dance with All-Ireland competition and the World Championships held within a few weeks of one another. As you read the results of those two events listed in the following pages a few things will become apparent.

First, while the natural dominance of Irish competitors in both the All-Ireland and World championships holds fairly steady, there is a growing group of world class dancers emerging from other parts of the world including North America, England and Scotland. One cannot help but grasp that the enthusiasm for Irish dance has drawn thousands of new students to schools around the world but has also prompted the relocation of some of the most talented teachers from Ireland to far flung points of the compass.

If you are a competitor, look further down our list of top 10 winners in each category. Those are the up-and-comers like you. They are the people you will learn from in years to come and who will become your friends and rivals. 'Tis a good thing.

2002 World Championship and All-Ireland results:

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Volume 4, Issue 1

Matchmaking

In the fall of any year they drove into the village of Lisdoonvarna for a few weekends. A tsunami of single people fill the streets, the pubs and any other public place where those seeking to find romance or a brief tryst or a lifetime companion can gather.

This is the biggest annual singles event in Europe and the party goes on until all hours as the matchmaking season turns this quiet County Clare village to the place to be for anyone free to be caught.

Matchmaking was one of the oldest traditions of Ireland when the country had two classes - the rich landowners and the poor peasants. The rich organized matchmaking so that their sons and daughters would meet and marry other people who were also well-to-do.

The spa town of Lisdoonvarna was picked and traditionally the people from Ireland went there in their thousands to drink the healthy spa waters and bathe in the three different mineral cure waters that the spa wells had, and still offer. The month of September was picked as it is the month when the hay and crops are saved and the livestock do not need extra feeding until later in the autumn.

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Volume 4, Issue 1

Hurling: An ancient "extreme" Celtic sport

Is this 1,000-year-old Irish favorite just too tough for international play?

With the contentious Winter Olympics behind us and Summer Games to look forward to, it is interesting to note that many newer sports have arrived on the international scene and been dubbed "extreme" sports. These events are ostensibly named "extreme" because of the physical rigors involved and the high risk of injury.

Many an Irish sports fan of Irish football or hurling may smile when hearing these late-coming games termed "extreme." Hurling, a game that traces its roots to before the birth of Christ, has for centuries past made tougher men out of Irish farm lads than all the playing fields of Eton and American football programs. It is likely that the sedate sport of curling took the spotlight at the past Winter Olympics because hurling, centered largely in Ireland, does not have a large enough audience for its extreme action to get a spot among the international rings.

Most likely the game of hurling moved with the nomadic Celts to Ireland around 600 BC. Hurling is an ancient game that is the model for most Celtic sports, including camogie, a female version, Gaelic football and modern hurling.

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Hornpipe Magazine

Irish Dance, Music, Film, and Culture

Guaranteed to make you more Irish!

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