Dancing Feet
Early references to Irish dancing are extremely rare. In the 1300s a Kildare poem written in English ends with the sentence, "Come and dance with me in Ireland".
On Christmas Eve in 1413 the O'Driscolls of Baltimore performed a dance in the company of the Mayor of Waterford. By the 16th and 17th Century references are made to Irish Dances in Anglo Irish and English Literature. The Rinnce Fada (Long Dance) was said to have been performed for King James on his arrival on the seashore in Kinsale in 1689.
It may have been the Normans who brought the Round Dances to Ireland. French dances such as the Quadrille had influenced both English and Irish Dances
Children Dancing at the Crossroads (1835)
Trevor Thomas Fowler © National Gallery of Ireland
Fast and lively Irish music and the less restrictive peasant-like dress of the Irish gradually changed the slower and more formal dance movements of the English and French courts into dances which were truly 'Irish' in nature.
Children Dancing at the Crossroads (1835)
Trevor Thomas Fowler © N.U.I Galway
The origins of the Set Dances go back to Napoleonic times. These were revived during the 1970s and gained great popularity.
