Hornpipe Magazine Features abstracts Vol. 7

The results are in from North American Regional Oireachti. World qualifiers listed and photos.

Crannog site reveals resourceful ancient Celts
by Erin Reilly

The structural changes of society from hunters to agrarians manifested a great interest in livestock. Cattle was a source of wealth. As Celts began to increase their interest in cattle-raising, warfare over cattle was a cause for great concern and need for protection.

The introduction of iron weapons led to more sophisticated defensive structures. Stone forts or cashels (Irish caiséal from Latin castellum) are the obvious surviving monuments of the Iron Age but in the lakes region there abounds another structure of considerable interest - Crannogs. Since they could be reached only by boat or footage, they generally couldn't shelter all the animals but often rescued villages during attack.

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Consider reading this article with parental guidance and discussion, perhaps lighting a candle for peace.

...[The] futile August killing of innocent children created a revolt of a different kind. Outraged parents had enough and the news impelled over one hundred thousand who surged against the violence encasing

Northern Ireland

. Immediately they petitioned and packed chapels. Families of all religions came together to grieve and rally for peace. They wanted unarmed lives and jointly walked in areas where they could have been shot. They faced the fear. In shock and courage, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan inspired a year of marches. Ordinary individuals believing it time to make a difference.

Catholics and Protestants interviewed remained openly akin in their feelings: We recognize violence will not deliver justice; Over 3300 deaths deeply test families here who deserve a new day; In the name of humanity, the people of

Ulster

want a nonviolent community. Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan vowed to launch a movement that would end sectarian fighting between the Roman Catholic minority and the Protestant majority.

Every once in a while, a dancer on stage at a feis has real trouble starting to the music. Someone tries to help by counting off the introduction, but there is still a problem. When I ask the dancer what is wrong, I sometimes hear, “But, that’s not the right song”! Aha! The problem is not just with starting to the music. The problem is more a lack of comfort with a variety of tunes and musical styles. What will help this child to conqueror his or her dependence on a particular tune, or more precisely with a particular musician’s interpretation of that “right” tune?

It should be apparent to most folks that, if a child only practices to one particular tune as played on one track or one particular CD, whether at home or at class, the potential for problems later in performance -- especially in feis competitions - is very great. Let's face it, we are all creatures of habit, and it is too easy to keep using the same music repeatedly. It is vital that dancers have the opportunity to practice to a variety of music, both live and recorded. Dancers these days are fortunate to have many choices in recorded practice music. Any number of CDs by a whole host of talented musicians is available, whether in local music stores, at feis vendors, or even on line. There really is no excuse for a dancer becoming reliant on one tune as interpreted by one musician on one recording.

The ethereal sound of a harp’s haunting melody has marked ages in courts of king and Ireland conqueror with a regal presence. During the golden age of the harp in the 15th - 17th centuries no court in Europe was without a harper. Singularly unique few instruments match the harp’s appeal as an acoustical accompaniment to a bard—keepers of history and tradition.

By tradition it is an indigenous instrument that has been elevated to symphonic status, perhaps not as popular as say the violin but non-the-less a treasured art. The modern definition of a harp is an instrument with a plane of strings running perpendicular to the sound box or resonator. This separates harps from lyres, violins, guitars and hammered dulcimers, all of which have strings parallel to the soundboard.

It is not too late to get that perfect gift for the hard to buy person in your life. Here are a few Hibernian gift ideas. Consider the following sources:

Volume 7, Issue 5

Holiday symbol keeps, 'til you eat it all'
part fact, part legend, part fruitcake

In Virginia they soak within brandy; in Kentucky, they saturate inside bourbon. In other regions the marinade of choice consists of sherry or cognac, or sopping in wine or port. At Christmas in Ireland, Irish whiskey suffices, of course. A full bodied vintage, nearly tannin, like a quality of wine needs time for the tastes to meld and render the product tolerable. The product? Fruitcake.

Fruitcake flavors arise from papaya, pineapple, cherried sweets, citrusy orange peel, raisins and roasted nuts, and heady spices fully fired in liquor. The fruitcake is tarred, stewed and consecrated, brooding before it matures. The flavors can lure one into its dark, intense aroma, though the result resembles a stone pillow of paté. Repositioning solid fruitcake summons the ultimate test for a public relations or advertising agency.

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Volume 7, Issue 4

Make-believe Irish barkeep presaged modern political pundit
Martin Dooley: Political Power Before Cable

Before there was a glut of cable television's political babblers, before there was Foreign Policy magazine, the National Review, the pre-eminence of New York Times editorial page or the power of the Washington Post, there was one journalistic voice that kept the nation's attention. Martin Dooley, an imaginary Irish immigrant and Chicago barkeep held forth, first in a newspaper column in the Windy City and shortly in national syndication.

Dooley, of the 1800's Chicago, spoke in the accented vernacular English of immigrant Irish working class people. He was the creation of Finley Peter Dunne whose genius brought newspaper readers the thoughtful views and insights of a common man who represented the largest group of immigrants in the nation and Dooley spoke from the Irish sanctum of the pub.

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Active Mind, Active Arms:
Pilates a unique approach to exercise
by Karen Sauzo, PT, Pilates Teacher

In past issues of The Hornpipe Magazine, we have looked at core strength, leg flexibility, spinal stability and spinal mobility. The overall theme in these articles is distinguishing, during any exercise, which parts of your body are moving and which parts are staying stable. In Irish Dancing, core strength is very important. The core is responsible for stabilizing the spine during leg movements. Likewise the core is also responsible for acting as a stable base, helping to keep the shoulder girdle and arms from rocking back and forth while dancing. The arms, in turn, need their own strengthening and stretching regimen for optimal alignment and control.

Milwaukee Irish Fest’s gift to Irish President Mary McAleese is a hand-sewn quilt called “Interpretation of Love.” The colorful quilt features many handprints representing the ethnic festival communities of Milwaukee.

Stitched onto the quilt are the of President McAleese “Across the bridge of hope to peace and understanding,” reflecting the theme of her presidency “building bridges..."

At 7:30 on Sunday Morning the lines of cars were beginning to back up the exit ramp to Lakefront Festival Park. It was the final day of the Milwaukee Irish Festival, a three-day event that attracts enthusiasts from all over the country.

The legendary and oldest Irish Festival in the America celebrated its 25th anniversary by convening some of the most popular Irish folk acts of all time with the likes of Liam Clancy of the famed Clancy Brothers, Evans & Doherty, Tommy Makem, Schooner Fare, Paddy Reilly and the Green Fields of America with Jean Butler. The celebration this year is nostalgic and re-captures the past by filling stages with Bing Crosby impersonator, Bob Pasch and a U2 tribute band. Not to be missed is the Chicago’s Standby Productions present Sister Bernie’s Bingo Bash, a participatory music and laughter-filled bingo game.

The beginner in any artistic field is a multifaceted person. This is an important fact for teachers to understand and appreciate. The beginner dancer will have to cope with psychological issues, sociological experiences, learning skills and new knowledge. These connections by a beginner to an artistic endeavour are therefore both a challenge and responsibility for every teacher.

Psychological Issues When children are introduced to any new subject or activity they have a certain reticence and some doubts. Reticence will be influenced by fear, nervousness, and apprehension. The doubts will be influenced by the fear of failure or low self- esteem.

Billy the Kid: Outlaw legend first generation Irish-American
by Dr. Edward T. O'Donnell

On August 17, 1877, young William Henry McCarty became a killer and outlaw. Attached by a barroom bully in Arizona, the seventeen-year-old killed the man with his pistol and fled to nearby New Mexico where he tried to start a new life as a ranch hand. But he would soon find himself embroiled in a bitter and bloody rancher feud, a conflict that propelled him to national infamy as "Billy the Kid", the most notorious outlaw in the west.

Billy the Kid was born William Henry McCarty to Irish immigrant parents Catherine and Michael McCarty in New York City on September 17, 1859. Like many of their fellow Irish immigrants, the McCartys lived in poverty in a run down tenement on the Lower East Side. When Billy's father died soon after his birth, he and his mother headed west, eventually landing in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

There in 1873 Billy's mother married another Irishman, a miner named William Antrim. Her death the next year from a long bout with tuberculosis hit Billy hard and set him on a downward spiral. He accompanied his step-father to a silver strike in Arizona, near a place called Globe City. His stepfather alternated between abusing and ignoring Billy, leaving him to fall in with a rough crowd in the mining town. By age sixteen, Billy was known as a violent and reckless young man who possessed little regard for authority. Shortly after his arrest for stealing laundry, he set out on his own, supporting himself as a ranch hand, cattle rustler, and gambler.

The Irish Hunger Memorial takes its name from the Irish term for the famine of 1845 - 52, "An Gorta Mor" — The Great Hunger. The creation of artist Brian Tolle stands on a half-acre site at the corner of Vesey Street and North End Avenue in Battery Park City, adjacent to One Financial Center and the Hudson River.

The size of the cultivated area of the Memorial is significant. In 1847, Sir William Gregory proposed an additional clause to the Irish Poor Law stipulating that no person occupying land of more than one-quarter acre was eligible for any relief. This law had a devastating effect. The Memorial is devoted to raising public awareness of the events that led to the "Great Irish Famine and Migration" when a blight destroyed the Irish potato crop, depriving Ireland of its staple food. By 1847 millions were starving and dying.

The elevated limestone plinth memorial contains stones from each of Ireland's 32 counties. Along the base are illuminated frosted glass panels — shadows of text that combine the history of the Great Famine with contemporary reports on world hunger.

Entry to the memorial from the west side river walk is through a tunnel, a formal ceremonial entrance that recalls the court cairn or graves of the Irish Neolithic period that are found in Co. Meath. The passageway ends inside the ruined fieldstone cottage that was brought to New York from the town of Carradoogan near Attymas, County Mayo. Following the path to a sloping landscape visitors rise upward past a ruined fieldstone cottage and stone walls toward a pilgrim's standing stone. At the apex of the Memorial, 25 feet above the pavement, a cantilevered overlook offers views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, emblems of America's welcome to the Irish and to all immigrant people.

"The Celts sometimes engage in single combat during their feasts. Arming themselves, they engage in mock-fights and sparring sessions with each other. Sometimes, however, wounds are inflicted and these mock-battles lead to real killing unless the bystanders restrain the combatants." (thus saith Poseidonios in Athenaeus 4.40)

Ancient Celtic drinking parties were spirited affairs in more ways than one, and bizarre enough to catch the attention of several ancient authors. We have very little in the way of identifiable archaeological remains of feasting, but many if not most grave goods appear to be connected with drinking. We will look here at finds from several mostly female rich tombs dating from the late sixth to the mid fourth centuries BCE in Germany and France. Early Irish and Brittonic tales have been used to flesh out our picture of the banquets of continental Iron-Age Europeans, conveniently dubbed the "Celts" after Herodotus. The use of much later, Christian, biased, and highly exaggerated and fanciful Insular literature to attempt to reconstruct Iron Age practices is of course a questionable enterprise. Yet if one postulates a degree of cultural continuity and a core of ancient truth, it is tempting to give it a try, with caution. A tiny selection of these three types of material, archaeological finds and ancient Mediterranean and Insular texts, is drawn upon here to suggest aspects of the feasting habits of late Hallstatt - early La Tène continental Celtic elites.

Modern scholars have focused primarily on the socio-politics of Celtic feasting: the importance of the ability to throw various types of royal feasts to the establishment and retention of the ruler's legitimacy, and the use of feasts in mobilizing work parties, etc.. We will take these aspects as read and strive for a more differentiated view of the banquet. Honey mead, beer and bragget were drunk by the peoples inhabiting Iron-Age Europe, with wine as an expensive import, beginning before 600 BCE. Both Massaliot and Italian wine amphorae have been found in enormous numbers at sites in France, while sites in Germany contain far fewer amphorae. Beer was the beverage of the working folk, while expensive wine and mead were preferred at the elite feasts. Mead, the more intoxicating and perhaps more numinous, was indulged in on the eve of battle, often to unfortunate excess.

As Riverdance arrives at its 10th year of international success, the question remains of how long the show, fashioned initially from a dance number of just several minutes, will be able to maintain its drawing power for North American audiences. The current version of Riverdance indicates that the imagination and drive behind the production will probably only allow it to survive as a wildly popular show for a dozen more generations.

The latest edition of Riverdance treading US boards has changed immensely from the original and yet has stayed much the same as the production that wowed worldwide audiences in its initial international introduction. That means at its heart it is a show about dance — Irish dance.

Granted the flash costumes and amazing aerial feats of Americans Michael Flatley and Fean Butler's creation have given way to accentuation of the muted colors of true Irish dance costuming and focused more closely on Irish dance as a group performance, yet the spirit, power and spectacle of Irish dance and music is no less a moving experience than at any time in the previous decade.

There are several areas in which the 2005 Riverdance has changed and to fans of the show the foremost of these is a special spotlight on the music and musicians heretofore celebrated but not brought front and center stage. With five musicians stacked and lit dramatically at one side of the stage, one gets a hint that music and musicians will play a greater role in this show than previous productions.

VATICAN CITY, April 2 - Pope John Paul II, who led the Roman Catholic church for twenty-six years, died in his Vatican apartment after a debilitating illness. He was eighty-four. Beloved, brave, humble, evangelist, priest, poet, protector of the poor and defender of the faith are a few fitting descriptions for a most visible icon of the twentieth century. Unlike popes throughout history, he did not seclude himself in revered, head of state fashion. John Paul II ushered in a refreshing approach, leading one of the world's largest religions by visiting kings and queens, presidents and dictators, prime ministers, mingling with all peoples no matter their religion - no one escaped his call to moral conscience and universal truths.

With diplomatic ease he addressed controversial social and political issues that will affect the globe for years to come, often taking stands that differed from world leaders. His legacy spanned the terms of five US presidents. John Paul was the first pope to visit the White House, invited by Jimmy Carter in 1979.

"In times of great need, God does send someone," Ronald Reagan said of John Paul. Reagan met with the pope four times and established formal ambassadorial relations with the Vatican, a contentious move. Both had an emotional tie - wounded in assassination attempts in 1981. President Clinton had four visits with John Paul as well. "He obviously disputed the American law on abortion," Mr. Clinton says, "though that did not affect our dealings. He was big in what he believed, yet he would not demean other people."

Quite different from step dancing is set dancing, which is the type of traditional social dancing done strictly for pleasure in rural communities in Ireland for a couple hundred years or more. ‘Sets’ came from quadrilles, the eighteenth and nineteenth century court dances of France which spread across Europe. Irish peasants learned the quadrilles from British landlords and soldiers and took them home to their cottages where they became the uniquely Irish sets when traditional music and steps were applied to them.

Four couples arrange themselves in a square to dance—the term ‘set’ refers both to the eight people in formation and to the dance itself. When the music begins they dance a variety of intricate moves and steps. One set can last from ten minutes to half an hour. The dancing is divided into separate sections called figures—when a figure is finished the music stops and the dancers remain in place waiting for it to resume. A set usually has from three to six figures, each one different but always danced in the same sequence. After the last figure the dancers thank one another and leave the floor.

Traditionally the sets weren’t formally taught—children were brought to the floor at house dances by their parents or siblings and learned by repetition. Usually people knew and danced only one set, which might be different from what their neighbours danced just a few miles away. There was no need for a caller as the set was always the same and everyone knew it.

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Éamon de Valera: Man of influence
Erratic De Valera's vision inexorably moved Ireland to her ultimate destiny

During his lifetime and posthumously, Éamon de Valera is generally regarded as the most influential person in the history of 20th century Ireland. That said, it is important to note that while deV, as he liked to be called, was revered above all others, aside from the fiery Michael Collins, his blunt exercise of power, his insistence on enforcing the laws of the Roman Catholic church in Irish society and his suspected role in the assassination of Collins, his chief rival, have left deV's legacy shadowed in history at best.

At various times a mathematician, teacher and a politician he served as Irish head of government on three occasions, as second president of the executive council (original name for the prime minister) and the first Taoiseach (prime ministerial title after 1937). He ended his political career as president of Ireland, serving two terms from 1959 until 1973. Éamon de Valera was also the chancellor of the National University of Ireland from 1922 until 1975.

Born in New York City in 1882 to an Irish mother, he claimed his parents, Kate Coll and Juan Vivion de Valera were married in 1881 in New York. However exhaustive searches of church and state records have failed to find either a church or civil record of the marriage. It is now widely believed by academicians that deV was illegitimate. One result of illegitimacy in the late 19th - early 20th century was that one was barred from a career in the Roman Catholic church. Éamon de Valera was a deeply religious man, who in death asked to be buried in a religious habit. There are a number of occasions where de Valera seriously contemplated entering the religious life like his half-brother, Thomas Wheelright. Yet he did not do so, and apparently received little encouragement from the priests whose advice he sought.

Volume 7, Issue 1

Ancient Churches: The history of Ireland's upheavals and architecture

While the history of many nations is contained in its public buildings or castles, the larger history of Ireland is captured in its churches, monasteries and friaries. From ancient times through modern day the church, first the Roman Catholic and later the Protestant Anglican Church of England have been part of a preserved the history of Ireland in their records, building and leaders.

Many historians credit the monks of Ireland with preserving Western civilization during the Dark Ages through their transcription of many important documents and tracts into illuminated texts. These holy men worked at their task in solitude and anonymity while much of the known world was transformed into a world of ignorance and superstition that served the purposes of many leaders of the time.

Let's look at a small sampling of churches that are rife with local, regional and national history in Ireland's story. They range in age from ancient to relatively modern but they, and many others, are all worth a look to anyone touring Ireland with a historical tack to their travels.

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Volume 7, Issue 1

Fenians invade Canada
Irish Americans carried fight for Ireland's freedom to British colonies in Canada

On June 1, 1866 Irish Americans representing the Fenian movement in Ireland, commanded by General John O'Neill, invaded Canada and captured Fort Erie. Two days later the American Fenian forces defeated English colonial forces at Ridgeway, Ontario, by breaking the legendary "British Square" infantry formation developed by the English Army.

The "British Square" was an iron-disciplined infantry formation that had withstood the charge of Napoleon's cavalry at Waterloo in 1815 and which went on to develop a legend of being an unbreakable formation. Military texts still repeat the legend of the "unbroken" British Square, ignoring the Battle of Ridgeway. The Battle of Ridgeway was the last confrontation between European military forces in North America, and it came about as part of a revolutionary effort to liberate Ireland.

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Volume 7, Issue 1

Are our girls growing up too fast?
What if J-Lo suddenly took up Irish dancing?
by Robin Ross

If J-Lo traded her onstage bumping and grinding for good posture, pointed toes, and her flesh-colored spangles for a knee length costume patterned with Celtic knots, the preteen girls in her fan base would rush to follow. Enrollments in Irish dancing classes would soar across the country and parents would be battered with constant requests for spiral perms, if not a wig. During elementary and middle school recess, boys would tire watching female classmates practice the latest treble jig from J-Lo's video - versus suggestive shakes and thrusts. Interesting thought.

This serves to illustrate the enormous influence that J-Lo and her fellow pop culture stars have over young audiences, especially female. Through MTV, the Top 40, prime-time TV, teen magazines, and the advertisements that permeate them all, girls have plenty of chances to find a heroine who seems attractive, exciting, and whose style can be imitated. Is that style a healthy one for a girl of thirteen to adopt?

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