Stepping Back in Time

Founded in 1973 in honor of the uilleann piper Willie Clancy, Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy (Willie Clancy Summer School) sees more than a thousand students from across the world in each July. Classes cover traditional instruments, singing, the Irish language, and Irish dance. Besides the classes, céilíthe, and countless sessions across the town in West Clare, recitals showcase various musicians, singers, and dancers. Irish dancing takes the stage in its various forms: set dancing, step dancing, two hands, sean-nós, old-style step, and more.

The Irish Traditional Music Archive, conducting field recording each year, readies its camera and audio equipment to document the display. One class takes the stage in 2023, ready to perform Dan Furey’s Easy Jig. The steps, passed down for generations, were nearly identical to some of the Beginner Jig taught at Flynn’s School of Irish Dance in West Peoria. Irish dance steps, originally taught by travelling dance masters of the nineteenth century, have been passed from teacher to student for generations – one dancer in Kerry can trace the line of his steps to the mid 1700s! For decades, a dancer’s ‘lineage’ could be guessed by their footwork, especially as regional styles used to be much stronger.

Michael and Céline Tubridy recorded a number of steps and dances, which can be watched back or read out from a book today by people all over the world. Dancers from Omagh, County Tyrone to Osaka, Japan are dancing the same steps taught for generations and are stepping back in time!

Peoria Irish Fest thanks Bridie Flaherty of the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin for this content. A Peoria native, Bridie now serves as the ITMA Cultural Experience Coordinator and encourages everyone to visit the archive when next in Dublin!

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