An outline of the Group's history by Margaret & Bill Winnett

About 1958 in the Ulster Room, upstairs in the Irish National Association's Cultural Centre in Sydney, Peter McKenna taught Ceili dancing to a group of adults each Wednesday night. This was the beginning of the present day Sydney Irish Ceili Dancers, but the group was not named until a number of years later. 

Peter Paul McKenna came to Australia from Ardee, Co. Louth and spent time cutting sugar cane in Queensland prior to settling in Sydney. He remained leader of the group until his untimely death on 6"' February 1992.

The repertoire of dances in those days was quite small with dances such as the Four-Hand Reel, Stack of Barley and what was casually known as "The Sets". "The Sets" consisted of six figures and we now realise that they were part of the Irish Set Dancing which has become so popular over the last couple of decades. Its true origins we do not know, but in recent years (for us) it has been renamed "The Australian Half Set".

Since joining the group we took a keen interest in expanding the repertoire of dances and began learning new dances from the only books we had available - Book 1 and Book 2, " The Irish Folk Dance Book"  written and edited by Peadar O'Rafferty. It was quite a trial attempting to understand these dances from the written word. However, over the following number of years the group was able to dance the Eight Hand Reel, Sweets of May, Humours of Bandon, Glencar Reel, Lannigan's Ball, High Cauled Cap, O'Rafferty's Eight Hand Jig, Fairy Reel, Six Hand Reel and Petticoat Swish. Of course, dances such as Walls of Limerick, Siege of Ennis, Waves of Tory and Haymakers Jig had been danced in the social scene for many years.

It was only in more recent years that the book of " Thirty Popular Figure Dances" has come into our possession. From that book more dances have been added to our repertoire, including St Patrick's Day, Three Tunes, Sixteen Hand Reel, Siege of Carrick, Gates of Derry, Duke Reel, Trip to the Cottage and the Cross Reel.

Tom Quinn of Dundalk has provided instructions for other Ceili dances such as the Garryowen Jig, Cuchulainn Jig, King's Head and Cros Ard Bo - some of these appear in his recently published book on Irish Dancing; we also refer to Pat Murphy's " Toss the Feathers"and "The Flowing Tide".

In 1989, in the company of Peter McKenna, we took our first trip to Ireland where we were introduced to set dancing. We met Billy Donoghue in Ennis and he took us to a number of venues in and around Ennis to begin our education. We also attended the Willie Clancy Summer School that year and on nine occasions since.

Gradually we introduced set dancing to our group back here in Sydney. It took about two years for it to become really popular and now set dancing makes up the majority of our repertoire! We do keep the ceili dancing going as well,but by far the set dancing is more popular.
We attend a number of festivals around the country each year and give set dancing workshops wherever possible. The traditional old style step dancing is also popular, and we devote an hour each Thursday to teaching interested adults prior to the set dancing classes.

Even though almost all of our ceili dancing has come from books we decided that we would teach only those set dances we have learned whilst on visits to Ireland.

This is in the interest of keeping each set in its own tradition; to this end we have made great use of the video camera to record workshops. Most people have no objection to the camera being used when they are made aware of the use to which it will be put.

The set dances in our repertoire include - Sliabh Luachra, Ballyvourney Reel, Ballyvourney Jig, Jenny Lind, Clare Orange & Green, North Kerry, Monaghan, Clare Lancers, Caledonian, Mazurka, Plain, Cashel, Labasheeda Reel, West Kerry, Waltz Cotillon, Derradda, Borlin Polka, Paris, Ballycommon, Connemara Reel, Televara, Caragh Lake Jig, Ballinascarty Half Set, Corofin Plain, Fermanagh Set, Newport, Freres Nantais, Melleray Lancers, South Kerry, Kenmare Polka, South Galway Reel, Fermanagh Quadrilles, Down Lancers, Glencree, South Sligo Lancers, Kildownet Half Set, Armagh Lancers, Borlin Jenny, Mayo Lancers, Shramore, Tournafella Set, Williamstown Set, Inis Oir, Mayo Lancers, Kildownet Half Set, and of course, the Australian Half Set.

Apart from our classes, we occasionally hold ceilithe so that people have the opportunity to dance socially.

Couples dances are included as well, and since 1990 we have been collecting them on our visits to Ireland. Our sources have been Pat Moroney, Donncha O'Muineachain and Tom Quinn. The dances include - The Highland, Peeler and the Goat, Shoo the Donkey, Stack of Barley, Port Chuluainin, Irish Barn Dance, Cornrigs, Schottische, Fermanagh Hornpipe. We have also collected an eight bar Stack of Barley, Irish Pride of Erin, Siamsa Beirte, Two Hand Reel, Two Hand Jig and another Schottische from other sources.

In July 1996 we led a group of about twenty of our dancers on a month long tour of Ireland, landing in Belfast and spending the first couple of days in the Nth . From there we embarked on a wonderful month of touring and dancing, including special nights put on around the country for our group, plus attending both the Willie Clancy Summer School and part of the South Sligo Summer School.

Our Group moves through 2004, its 46th year, still embracing the objective of promoting and keeping alive the traditional dances of Ireland.