There is a general lack of specific references to dancing in our older literature but it would be remarkable if there was no dancing in ancient Ireland, if a people with a native taste for music had no knowledge of the kindred art of dancing. There are two Irish words for dance, ‘damhsa’ and ‘rince’. The first is derived from the French ‘danse’ and the second from the English ’rink’ as in skating on ice. The Normans are credited with introducing ‘round dances’ to Ireland.
Irish dancing reached the height of its perfection in the solo or step dances at the end of the 18th century. Some of the popular dances of that time were the Rince Fada, the Cake Dance, The Clap Dance, Rince an Chlaidhimh, the Stick Dance, The Frog Dance etc. They owe their existence to dancing masters, the principal steps being the jig, the reel and the hornpipe.
Crossroads dancing became popular social events up to the early part of the last century. Éamonn Ceannt, the patriot and piper, was a great supporter of such dances …. “at the cross roads of a summer’s evening, the boys and girls would assemble for their only amusement, the pipes were tuned, the signal given, and the road resounded to the sound of many toes, while the air trembled with the echoed laughter of the dancing crowd”. The crossroads provided space for movement and among the venues in the city were Nile Lodge, at the top of Taylors Hill, Moneenageisha, Carnmore and Ballindooley. Obviously, the introduction of motorised traffic put an end to this form of entertainment. Many was the parish priest who had attempted to do so before.
The word céilí means an evening gathering of neighbours in one house. To describe an organised dance as a céilí was a misnomer, but one which emphasised the social nature of the gathering. The first céilí was organised in 1897, about the time of the Celtic Revival and it helped popularise many traditional art forms, including Irish dance.
Among the earliest dance teachers in Galway was Tommy Flanagan, a blacksmith from Merchant’s Road, who with Dr McEnrí and Mrs Little, were great encouragers of the art form. Tommy taught pupils in the Bish and our first photograph shows a group of them, probably the first organised group of dancers in Galway. They are, seated in front; Gerry Little and Peter Curran. Seated in the second row; Dick Evans of Fairhill, (a great soccer player ); --- Uppington, Abbeygate Street where his people had a pawnshop later owned by Sohans; Jimmy Grey of the Station house. Standing at the back are Tommy Beatty, Henry Street; Jack Carter, Shantalla; Earnest Ernwall, the Square, later a chef in the Great Southern; Henry Wall, University Road; Jack Little, the Crescent.
Among others Tommy taught was Patrick ‘Mopsey’ Philbin from Bowling Green who in turn taught hundreds of young Galway people figure dancing, step dancing and set dancing. We have been fortunate in this city to have had very fine schools of dancing run by people like Jim Murphy, Bríd Hanley from Eyre Street who also taught ballet, Máire Ní Buachalla (nee Scully ) who taught in An Taidhbhearc, Rita White, Mary Semple, Peggy Carty, Martin King, Mary Rita O’Donnell, Peter Joyce in the Boy’s Club, Fr. Ó Brolcháin who taught in the Jes, Marie Philbin, Miss Simpson, Máiréad Ó Flaherty, Margaret McBride, Celine Hession and many others.
Our second photograph is of members of the Mary Rita O’Donnell School taken at the Fish Market. They are, from the left; Rosaleen White, Margaret Morgan. ----- , Frances Conboy, Deirdre O’Beirne and Cáit Carroll.
Our final image dates from November 1963 and shows some of the prize-winners at Galway Feis. They are Mary Brannick, Anne O’Beirne, Essie McGough and Monica Kenny. These were all pupils of the newly formed Celine Hession School of Dancing. They won 32 medals and Celine won the Teacher’s Prize. It was her first Feis as a teacher, the first of very many while she trained thousands of young Galwegians in the art of Irish dancing. Her school is still thriving, now being run by her daughter Gemma, but Celine still gives occasional classes.
