A Cèlildh (Scottish) or Cèili (irish) is a type of barn dance popular at social functions such as weddings. In Cornwall, it's known as a Troyl and in Wales it's a Twmpath, which conveniently also means a hump. But Cèlildh is acceptable everywhere. The American equivalent is probably the hillbilly hoedown.
Some people like them, others are filled with dread at the thought. So have you been to one and how do you feel about them?
They're fun because you get to touch a lot of people
My wife and I went to one in Ireland. It was in a small town with historic Celtic crosses. Every Saturday night, the townsfolk would have a Ceilidh. They didn't do it for the benefit of tourists but all were welcome. The local band that played traditional music was fantastic. I was surprised that the dance style was like a square dance without a caller. Everyone knew the dance moves. It was really lively. What was fun was, at certain points during the dance, everyone would suddenly stomp their feet once in unison and continue dancing. The people were super friendly and we had a great time. I LOVE Ireland.
I've been to many ceilidhs where I live. From about 2015 to 2020, my wife were members of a Unitarian Universalist church. One of the married women, whose name was Shannon Dooley, was really, really into St. Patrick's day. She had more decorations than most people have for Christmas. She was also a member of an Irish dance and clogging troupe.
She started organizing ceilidhs that were held near St. Patrick's day. She would hire local Celtic bands and musicians (we have a lot of them in our town) and bring her dance troupe.
I'm a guitarist and singer. I also love my Irish heritage. I don't typically play Irish music, but I would put together a band for the event with accordion, bass, mandolin, me on guitar and lead vocals, and sometimes an extra guitarist and harmony vocalists.
I developed a list of Irish pub songs and rebel songs, handed out sheets to the audience with the lyrics to the choruses for some of the songs, and encouraged people to sing along to songs like Black Velvet Band, Orange and Green, Come In, and Goodbye Mrs. Durkin. I also played Foggy Dew, Pat of Mullingar, Galway Girl, and a bunch of other stuff. Sometimes I would explain words like Peelers, Fenians, praties, Van Diemen's Land, etc. so that people knew what they were singing.
I encouraged participation. I wanted it to feel like the kind of Irish pub that you hear everyone inside singing when you walk past.
My sets were about a half an hour long and I was the only band that people could sing along to. People loved it.
Those ceilidhs got so big that they moved them to a large public venue. 300 or more people might attend. The Jameson's, Guinness and Smithwicks would flow and there was a corned beef dinner.
Unfortunately, it all ended in 2020 when covid mandates and public hysteria shut everything down.
The only one I've been to was staged and choreographed. There were kilts, and a character did indeed get kilt, followed by a mob of men running full tilt after while singing in full voice. Try it sometime. There is also something called a "hootenanny" which might fill the bill, not to be confused with "takin' up serpents at the Sunday mornin' services"
Used to love doing folk dances in grammar school. We were always square dancing. Dos y dos, going under the bridge... all the stuff you're showing pictured. It's fine if you like to dance! I do.
Been to many and never disappointed. Girls and guys getting physically active in dance that's usually a reflection of social life. there's a story to go along with the dances.
In Australia it is a shearing shed dance but progressive dances are no longer fashionable because not that many shearing sheds in the city anymore. Shame.
My ex-wife and I went with friends (long before the children came along) to one at the Irish Centre (now sadly gone) in Liverpool. It was St Patrick’s Day and they ran out of Guinness; but it was helluva hoolie.
I've been to both the Scottish amd Irish version. My grandparents on my mother's side being all Scottish and my grandparents on my Father's side being all Irish (they ran Irish pubs and sang sea shantys, more my style) but im American, both my parents being born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.
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