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CELEBRATING 90 YEARS OF festival IN LARNE 1928 - 2018 CELEBRATING 90 YEARS OF festival IN LARNE 1928 - 2018
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tHe BirtH Of tHe festivaL traDitiOn Of irisH Dancing
Festival Irish dancing, formally known as Irish folk dancing has the same technical roots as Irish dancing of the feis tradition. Gaelic League feis dancing champion Mr Peadar O’Rafferty from Belfast began teaching Irish dancing to a large audience of Protestant people in 1927. Around that time, there was an international folk dancing revival, and the Girl Guides of Ulster needed to find a national team dance. Mr O’Rafferty taught both the Girl Guides and the folk dancers.
The Lambeg Irish Folk Dancing Society was one of the most active groups in the folk dancing revival. Its dancers were determined to save old Ulster dances from dying out and they worked alongside Mr Peadar O’Rafferty to identify and record them.
tHe tHeatre Of Miss MULHOLLanD
Belfast’s first attempt at a regional folk festival took place in 1929 at the old Empire Theatre in Belfast. It was poorly supported with only 70 solo dancers and 100 spectators. At the same festival in 1930, numbers had not picked up, but fifteen year- old Patricia Mulholland captured the attention of adjudicator, Mr Fagan. He said, “this dancer could hold her own anywhere.”
It was Patricia’s sister, Miss Stella
Mulholland, who set up the dancing school in Belfast in 1929, subsequently opening a class in Larne in 1931.
Stella was taught to dance by Mr Peadar O’Rafferty and she played an important role in the establishment of the festival tradition of Irish dancing. When she married in 1936, Patricia took over her dancing class.
tHe tHeatre Of Miss MULHOLLanD
Miss Patricia Mulholland became known not only for her
tHe first festivaLs
As Irish dancing classes became popular, Mr O’Rafferty turned to one of his best Belfast pupils to address the demand in Larne. In 1931, 21 year-old Miss Stella Mulholland started to run classes on Thursday afternoons in Larne British Legion. At the Larne Musical Festival of 1931, which struggled to get enough stewards to cope with capacity, there were 130 entries for folk dancing, 330 for verse-speaking, 110 choirs and 180 voice solos.
The early festival participants demonstrated their talents across a variety of genres. Miss Betty Lewis, Miss Maisie Gourley and Miss Marjorie Andrews were among those who excelled at dancing, singing and choral speaking in the early 1930s.
After the initial success in Larne, it soon became clear that adding Irish dancing to the syllabus of the musical festivals was a
l a u t c t r r a a c t i t v i n e g p mr o a s n p y e c mt , o t h r e e v s i p s i e t c o t r a s c t l h e a o n f t d h a e n c i n g musical and verse speaking recitals.
The Mulholland sisters, whose Larne dancers were winning
cing
ancient times, but in a land with so many ballads and festivals, it would be hard to imagine dancing not
being part of Irish life.
rincí is the Irish word for dancing. the rinnce Mór (the round dance) and the rinnce fada (the longways dance) both appeared in written records in the 1500s. The Bonfire Dance is a round dance. It was danced on the feast of Saint John’s Eve, also known as ‘Bonfire Night’. The round dance was introduced to Ireland by
the normans.
Elizabeth I was a fan of Irish dances,
in particular the rinnce fada, a social dance that was in vogue in the upper echelons of society throughout England in the 1500s.
Once UPOn a tiMe, tHere Was Dan
There is surprisingly little historical evidence of dancing in Ireland in
sOLDier’s JOy
‘Soldier’s Joy’, like many traditional tunes, is one that is shared by Scotland, Ireland and North America, and it is said to have arrived in Ireland in the 1760s.
The ‘Soldier’s Joy’ dance was popular in Ulster throughout the 1800s. In May Commelin’s 1879 novel, Orange Lily, which is set in County Down, the dance is a little more rustic than it is today. Big John takes to the earthen floor and proclaims: “None of your new slithery-slathery waltzes for me. What I like best is to see a man get up and take the middle of the floor - and foot it there for a good hour! ‘The Soldier’s Joy’ for me, if I may make so bold as to ask that request.”
The ‘Soldier’s Joy’ in this sense is a quadrille. A quadrille is a square dance and it was the mainstay of country dancing throughout the whole of Ireland for most of the 1800s. The Lambeg irish folk Dancing society, a group of wealthy Protestants influenced by the European folk dancing revival, travelled around Ulster alongside Peadar O’rafferty in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and collected and recorded dances that were still alive in the countryside of Ulster. ‘Soldier’s Joy’, was one of those dances. ‘Soldier’s Joy’ remains part of the festival Irish dancing world.
tHe HOrnPiPe
The hornpipe is believed to have been introduced to Ireland by the English at the start
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Dl e a f t n , c O e l r i s v a e t P L a a r r k n e e r F ( B e a s t l i l v y a m l , e 1 n 9 a 3 , ) 4 M F a r o r j mo r i e
Andrews and Annie Mitchell
In 1929, Irish folk dancing festivals were introduced in Portadown, Ballymena and Newry. Coleraine followed in 1933.
I m m o a s g t e p r o o f m J e i s a i n n g F e d r a g n i e c , e r at Larne festival, 1935
Mr PeaDar O’rafferty
If Irish dancers of the festival tradition could trace their dancing lineage back to one person, it would be Belfast man, Mr Peadar O’Rafferty. He competed at the Belfast feis, won the Ulster Championship in 1912 and was already a regular performer in the Ulster Hall before the First World War.
Mr O’Rafferty began to teach Irish and Scottish dancing as a part-time vocation, gaining his Direactas Certificate for Irish dancing in 1915. He initiated the addition of folk dancing
to musical festivals in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In so doing, he took the Gaelic League’s form of Irish dancing to a wide Protestant community.
Mr PeaDar O’rafferty
Among Mr O’Rafferty’s dancing clients were the Stranmillis Training College; St. Mary’s Training College; the Ulster School of Music; the Larne Musical Festival Association; Belfast Girls’ Clubs’ Union; the Ulster Folk Dance and Play Centre; the Ulster Summer School; the Malone Training School; the Dungannon Folk Dance Society; the Aden Girl’s Club; the Belfast Folk Dance Society and the Northern School of Dancing. In 1934, he was described by the Northern Whig as “the leading authority on irish folk dance.”
I t i s t o M r O ’ R a f f e r t y ’ s c r e d i t t h a t m a n y o f t h e o l d dances were documented and retained. In his irish folk Dance Book of 1934, he gave his views on Irish dancing style:
“That spirit of gay abandon which sometimes pervades and enriches the folk dancing in other countries has no place in Irish dancing where the performances are judged by the thoroughness and exactitude of the movements.”
tHe first festivaLs
Mupros nTwtheedsefrvoimcesthoef MLarnPeaMduasricOa’lRFaefsfteirvtayl tcoalsletdup the Larne Irish Folk Dancing Association in 1927, marking the beginnings of the festival tradition of Irish dancing.
The first Irish folk dancing festival in 1928 was adjudicated by Mr Heggarty of Belfast, who was
b L a o r t n h e . s u T r h p e r r i s e e wd a a s n n d o e t n o t e n r l y t a a i n d e e d b b a y t e w a h b a o t u h t e t h f o e u u n s d e o i n f arms in traditional dancing, but there was also some
tHe grOWtH Of tHe festivaL MOveMent
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Miss McConnell pupil. Image of Seven Towers Dancers from Ballymena
tHe grOWtH Of tHe festivaL MOveMent
Bangor’s Irish dancing festival began in 1951 under
tHe Dance Master
Odanneceofmthaestekre.y players in the spread of the new European dances was the continental
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of the eighteenth century, but like the jig, it soon became Irish by adoption.
The hornpipe was often saved for the best dancers. It was selected to entertain audiences at the beginning or end of plays in Dublin in the late 1700s.
The hour of the hornpipe was late in the social setting and male dancers are said to have mounted tables or unhinged doors to demonstrate their fancy steps. Farmers were also willing to pay more money to have their children learn this dance. “Very great and eager was the excitement produced among the spectators by these exhibitions of individual style.”
(Irish Times)
Dancing cUstOMs in ULster
Bibliothéque nationale de France
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“fiMrstr dDaunmcoernst,aDt athneciOngpeMra-sHteoru, sfeorimn eLorlnydone, iosflathtely returned from Paris.”
fancy Dancing
tHe reeL
The first written record of a Scottish reel is a 1598 work entitled News from Scotland. Some believe that the reel is a direct ancestor of the English hey country
dance. Others believe it is native to Scotland. When the dance masters made their way through Ireland in the late 1700s, a standardised variant of the reel became the height of fashion.
The Scottish reel birled not only throughout Scots settlements, but it also promenaded its way south through travelling dance masters and Scottish settlers to the province of Munster.
‘the Wind that shakes the Barley’, ‘Miss McLeod’, ‘soldier’s Joy’, and ‘Miss Johnston’s reel’, are among the popular traditional tunes in the south of Ireland.
‘the fairy reel’ is set to a Scottish tune composed by Neil Gow in 1802. It was originally a square dance and was adapted into a progressive long dance in Ireland during the Gaelic revival of the early 1900s.
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S C t h . a M r l a o r t y t e ’ s MP . c E F . S a , u T l e , a P me g i g n y t h M e a f g o e u e r , - h L a u n c y d Mr e c e Ml Ma n a u r y s , M c F a l l ,
The Northern Whig, 17 March 1928
unforeseen entertainment when one of the boys from Glenarm had an accident with a kilt that had “slipped its moorings”. “The Daddy-Long-Legs-team” from Larne, “Time and Talents” team from Belfast and the “Ballymena Team” were among the teams present. Irish dancing was an instant success. On 23 March
1929, the Mr Richard Gowan of Dublin favorably csoumthp.aHreodwtehveedr,atnhcerasrminsLiassrunehwaidthytehtotsoebinethe
completely put to bed. Mr Gowan advised that
“more freedom of movement and better balance” would result if the hands were kept to the side.
Information is provided from “Irish Dancing: The Festival Story”, a book by Angeline King.
Larne Mulholland dancers at Larne festival, 1934
tMhecCtauntenla. gBeanogfoMr uwlhaos lalalsnodthpeuploilc,aMtioisns Mofatuhreefinrst NcomrtphetrintioIrneltahnadt wChaasminpitioanllyshfioprsmined19b5y8t,haorsegwiohnoal were part of the Mulholland family of dancers. B1a9l5ly1calasrea MresuuslitcaolfFtehsetivFeasltaivdadleodf Bforliktadina.ncing in
Betty McCulloch, 1936 Betty McCulloch, who was born in Larne and rOa’iRseadffeinrtyB’asllcylamssenina,Bianliltyiamlleynlae.aLrinkedmsoamnyeosthepers gfriorlms, shheer asilstoerd, awnhcoedatftoerntdhedGMirlr Guides. Betty began to teach in 1946 and she trained hundreds obfedfoanrecehresrinreBtiarellmycelanrte
in 2009. MLarsnHe,ilwdahoMatctkeanydefrdom tMheulAhonldlarnewd scahnodols,
Ashley Irish Dancing Club Adult dancers, 1960s Hilda Mackay, Portstewart Festival asclshoolaltienr Branllyacldaaren.cing
“There is nothing so characteristic of Irish life as the cross-roads dance.”
Peadar O’Rafferty, Belfast,1934 dhThiasentocrerysoohssfa-vdroeaangdcaisninagen.dathsyemvbilloaligcepglarceein the
TdheisscrpiboesmthbeycOrowsse-nroTaodasldoafnTcoeosmaet bridge
Image of cross-roads dance from National Gallery of Ireland.
“An’ we didn’t need much coaxin’, when our merry party danced, at first scrape o’ Joe’s ould fiddle, we were in the reel at wanst, and sure ‘twas fine to watch us, just how we heel’d and toed, when the moon in all her glory, lit the Ballyscullion Road!”
Dances of Ireland by Peadar O’Rafferty, 1934
Information is provided from “Irish Dancing: The Festival Story”, a book by Angeline King.
Ballyscullion in County Londonderry:
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CELEBRATING 90 YEARS OF festival IN LARNE 1928 - 2018
tHe Jig
Written records of Irish jigs can be traced back to the courts of the 1500s.
James O’Keeffe and Art O’Brien penned A handbook of Irish Dances, with an essay on their origin and history in 1902. The jig, they said, was a word derived from the Italian ‘giga’, meaning ‘musical measure’.
“Whatever may have been the origin of the jig and reel dances, we have made them our own by love, and we have given them a character and a colour which are wholly our own.” O’Keeffe & O’Brien
Dance masters to the aristocracy in England had Irish jigs among their offerings throughout the 1700s and 1800s. Ihmttapgs:e//inwcwowpy.irtimgha.ti:e/digital-library/image/irish-jig
CELEBRATING 90 YEARS OF festival IN LARNE 1928 - 2018
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Client: Mid & East Antrim Council
We have been creating various branding, design and advertising campaigns for Mid & East Antrim Council.
For a number of years we have developed creative campaigns for various events across the borough which have included Maritime Festivals, Halloween events, Arts Festivals, exhibitions and Christmas campaigns.
The campaigns have been rolled out across leaflets, flyers, posters, booklets and outdoor advertising for print and online.