Ireland - Comhaltas Archive

TREOIRTHE CULTURLANN:"THIS AMAZING PLACE"Val Hennessy, Daily MailWhen it comes to traditional livemusic, high-steps and nifty footwork,Dublin is where it's at. ThinkRiverdance and how the new-lookIrish dancing took the world by storm.Think of delicious Michael Flatley withoiled pectorals gleaming through hisunbuttoned shirt and the electrifyingthunder of SO pairs of synchronisedtap shoes, and then picture me clipcloppingaway in my trainers at theCulturlann, Dublin's Irish Dancing AndMusic Centre in Monkstown.This amazing place, the ComhaltasCeolt6irf Eireann, isopen to anyone eagerto participate. You pay£ 1.50 and enter a vast,comfortable basementand bar where people ofall ages are playingwhistles, flutes, fiddles,squeeze boxes anddrums.Two men in a corner areplaying the Uillean pipes (a bit likeScottish bagpipes but easier on theear), three women twang banjos,another sings a song in Gaelic.Joey Doyle, a IS-year old flute playertipped as the new James Galway,brings tears to the eyes, while his palsbelt out some pacy bluegrass.I admit, I exaggerated about clipcloppingaway in my trainers - I had ago, but after five minutes, one doubleshuffle, a heel kick and a few step-hoptoe-and-heels,the balls of my feetwere in spasm. The physical andmental effort was immense. I collapsedon to a chair as a group of nimblegirls and one boy learned how toperform steps of astounding intricacy.The pluck of the Irish: Dublin swings to thesound of traditional musicMore up my street was the bodhranclass run by the brilliant HelenMcLoughlin, Ireland's only full-timebodhran teachers. The bodhran(pronounced 'bow-rawn') is a onesideddrum made from goatskin.It began as a tray used forstraining peat in the bogs.Twenty of us sat in a circle, ourbodhrans in position, rattlingour sticks or 'tippers' with awrist-flicking motion to theaccompaniment of Helen'sIrish jig tapes.I was going pretty well until I. lost my grip on my tipperBodhran beat:Val gets gOing which flew up and wallopedme in the nostril. On one side, a tenyearold boy twirled his tipper in theair and caught it between beats, andon the other, a taxi-driver called Ronintroduced himself.'I'm 63 but feel 26; he said. 'Myambition is to be shot through theheart when I am 80 by a jealoushusband.'Helen, hugging me to her ample bosom,said I was a natural and gave me abodhran and tipper to take home. I wasso chuffed I nearly exploded.After the class, everyone congregatedupstairs for tea and scones and atumultuous knees-up ceilidh (like abarn dance) with a great band thatplayed jigs and reels till midnight.