Toronto - Dance Weekend (with a twist!)

25-27 May 2018, Dance all Weekend!

Our friends in the Irish community in Toronto will be having a whole weekend of dancing, and great craic to be had!

Where: Royal Canadian Legion, Todmorden Branch 10,   1083 Pape Ave, East York, ON M4K 3W7

• The venue has wooden floor, 
• air conditioning, 
• separate bar and lounge, 
• easy parking, 
• TTC accessible.

https://www.opendoorceilitoronto.com/set-dance-teacher

The dance teachers will be Kevin and Carol Monahan ("SetsMad"), who will be in Toronto for the first time. They have been set dancing for more than 20 years.They teach all over Europe, and as on occasion in the US as guest of the Milwaukee Set dancers.

The bands playing at the event are Cabbagetown Ceili Band and North Atlantic Drift with Ena O'Brien. 


Weekend Schedule
Friday 25 May:
8PM - Midnight, Welcome ceili


Saturday 26 May:
Morning workshop, 10AM - 12PM
Afternoon Workshop, 2PM - 4PM
Ceili, 8PM - Midnight


Sunday 27 May:
Workshop, 1PM - 2PM
Farewell Ceili, 2PM - 5PM  
(a Sunday night seisiun at a local pub after the ceili)

Event Costs:
Whole weekend package, Can$110

Individual Events:
Friday welcome ceili, Can$25
Saturday morning workshop, Can$20
Saturday afternoon workshop, Can$20
Saturday ceili, Can$25
Sunday mini package, Can$25
Sunday workshop, Can$15
Sunday farewell ceili, Can$15

Registration available online: https://www.opendoorceilitoronto.com/dancer-reg-form-2017 

Contact Geraldine at 416.573.1205 or Mary 905.330.7972 or at opendoorceilis@gmail.com


This even is made possible in part with a grant for the Irish Cultural Society of Toronto.

Everyone is welcome!!!

St. Patrick's Dinner and Céilí - 15 March 2014 - Family-friendly event

Ottawa Branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann

When: Saturday, March 15th, 2014.

Doors open at 05:30PM

Dinner from 06:00 PM to 08:00PM

Céilí from 08:00PM to 11:30PM 

Where: Blessed Sacrament Church, 194 Fourth Avenue, Ottawa Ontario K1S 2L5.  Additional parking will be available at Corpus Christi Elementary School, 157 Fourth Avenue, Ottawa, ON K1S 2L5

Tickets: $35, purchase them online at https://stpats2014.eventbrite.ca. Please note that NO tickets will be sold at the door!

This is an authentic Irish, family-friendly, no green beer event!

Last year's dinner and dance were a sellout and a HUGE success. In fact, last couple of years, we had to turn people away at the door. It will sell out this year, so you should get your tickets as soon as possible.

We will have the same excellent caterer as last year - Franz Gierer - and the menu promises to please, the 3-course dinner will include a vegetarian, and gluten-free options!

After a first-class, three course complete dinner, with wine available for purchase, there will be an Irish dance (Céilí), with the dances called. No experience or partner is required, and it is loads of fun and helps work the dinner off.

The excellent Comhaltas Céilí Band will provide the music and Sheila Scott will call the dances.

There is a cash bar, a raffle, a 50-50 draw, and a multitude of crafts and items for sale.

At around 11 PM, there will be tea and snacks.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all.


All tickets purchases are $35. By ordering online now, you get your tickets guaranteed. 

Purchase online at: https://stpats2014.eventbrite.ca

For paper tickets and information contact the PRO at: info.ottawacomhaltas@gmail.com

Come and have a good craic! 

Also notice that no classes (dance or Language) will be held on Monday 17 March, all classes resume on 24 March.

Traditional Irish Music - Singing

Ellen MacIsaac at Canada's 2013 Oireachtas

In traditional Irish music there are “music” that is mainly for singing and other that is exclusively for dancing. “Music” for singing, tends to be mostly the unaccompanied vocals of sean nós of the “old style.” Also there is another unaccompanied vocal singing, the lilting or “mouth music;” a similar celtic tradition in Scotland is puirt a beul (or "diddling"). Lilting often accompanies dancing, and features such as rhythm and tone dominate in lilting. The lyrics are often meaningless or nonsensical.


Sean nós: there are three main styles of Sean nós, corresponding to the three areas where Irish is still spoken as a community language, the Gaeltachtai of Munster, Connacht and Ulster. Even though Sean-nós is practiced outside these areas, only those three distinct styles can be recognised. Singers from the Gaeltacht and indeed from outside Ireland may blend them, depending on where they learned. For those familiar with the styles, will notice the differences amongst them.

The Donegal Sean nós has been heavily influenced by Scots Gaelic song, where the melody is much less ornamented (uses of grace notes, and may also contain a steady pulse throughout the song). In all styles, the singers link a text to their interpretation of the melody. All styles will have slow (non-rhythmic songs) and songs that are sung to melodies with a very strong rhythm mostly drawn from the dance music, e.g. Jigs, slip-jigs, reels etc. http://comhaltas.ie/music/treoir/detail/amhranaiocht_ar_an_sean_nos/

As Seamas Mac Mathuna has written, "Sean nós singing is at once the most loved and the most reviled, the least often heard and the least understood part of that body of music which is generally referred to as Irish Traditional Music.” http://www.folkmusic.net/htmfiles/inart378.htm


Here you can hear Scread Ceann Sualtaim, Celtic song of The Headless Horseman.

Next time we will refer to music for dancing.

We hope you enjoy it! 

Next time we will refer to music for dance.

Traditional Irish Music Resources

Ottawa Ceili Band

Now that you might have secured some music lessons from the Instructors list we published last week, we thought that you may be interested in some link to musical resources besides the ones listed on the Traditional Irish Music post. 

The Irish Traditional Music Archive – Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann is a national reference archive and resource centre for the traditional song, instrumental music and dance of Ireland. It is a public not-for-profit facility which is open, free of charge, to anyone with an interest in the contemporary and historical artforms of Irish traditional music. ITMA provides access to:

Digitised materials 

Audio playlists   

Video playlists   

Interactive scores  

On-Line Catalogues and Databases

PDF Downloads 

Discover the music! 

Traditional Irish Music

Wikipedia tells that that the folk music of Ireland (also known as Irish traditional music, Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres in Ireland.

In A History of Irish Music (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there were at least ten instruments in general use. These were the cruit (a small harp) and clairseach (a bigger harp with typically 30 strings), the timpan (a small string instrument played with a bow or plectrum), the feadan (a fife), the buinne (an oboe or flute), the guthbuinne (a bassoon-type horn), the bennbuabhal and corn (hornpipes), the cuislenna (Irish war bagpipes, different from the Uilleann bagpipes, which was developed around the beginning of the 18th century), the stoc and sturgan (clarions or trumpets), and the cnamha (castanets). There is also evidence of the fiddle being used in the 8th century.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Irish_Music

To learn about traditional Irish music, check “A History of Irish Music” (1905) by William H. Grattan Flood.
http://www.libraryireland.com/IrishMusic/Contents.php (Online book, can be downloaded or read in web format).

If you are interested in self-taught programs to learn of some of the traditional instruments, check ComhaltasLive, the weekly internet video programme of Irish traditional music produced by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. These video-programs are organized by instrument, tune (reel, jig, etc.) and venue (competition, concert, etc.). 

Also, another source is the Revised Tunebook from the Kington, Harp of Tara Branch, of Comhaltas.