It was wonderful to see so many people on the dance floor at Johnsonville Club’s 2023 St Patrick’s Day celebration. More people always makes for more fun, and that’s what St Patrick’s Day is all about.

Every St Patrick’s Day celebration is full of the hilarity and high spirits associated with those tricky Irish dances. Each year Rod tweaks the programme, finding new ‘easy’ dances for us to do, and every year they bring us challenges to overcome. Well done to our new dancers for taking those challenges in their stride so early in the year, and in their dance career.

2019 – A new club tradition

The tradition of celebrating St Patrick’s Day as the club’s first special dance night of the year, began in 2019 at Johnsonville School hall. St Patrick’s Day 2019 was such a success, that we’ve celebrated every year since then.

I can’t entirely remember who come up with the idea or why, but I suspect it was to give our many new dancers a special experience early in the year. 2019 was a bumper year for beginners. 46 attended beginners’ classes, 21 joined the club, and 19 of them were dancing on St Patrick’s Day.

In honour of this celebration, tutor Rod Downey devised his dance The Coleraine Rant, a nod to both the Irish county and the New Zealand wine. The dance was designed as beginner-friendly, and to include a poussette which Rod had been working on at club.

In total, 57 people were there wearing green and dancing Irish that night, and ten of the 2019 beginners still dance with us today. You’ll see some of them in the photo below of 2019 new dancers.

2020 – Lucky to make it

In 2020, St Patrick’s Day celebrations only just squeaked in before dancing was suspended for three months due to covid.

Despite a new venue, and covid in the wings, 20 beginners joined us for beginners’ classes at Johnsonville Bowling Club, and on St Patrick’s day over four sets of dancers took to the floor for a great celebration.

The Goat Fell Jig was replaced by A Trip to Ireland as a first dance, but City of Belfast, Lady Glasgow and Rory O’More were back to enjoy. Of course St Patrick’s Day was again on the programme, as well as Rod’s dance The Coleraine Rant.

Supper co-ordinator Elizabeth Ngan built her reputation for super St Patrick’s Day suppers on the theme of green, with minted green pea dip and corn chips, Easter eggs and Lindt chocolates in green paper, green apple sherbet fizz and Kiwiberry for the health conscious.

2021 – We move again

Covid delayed the start of club nights at our new venue of Khandallah Town Hall, but 2021 St Patrick’s Day celebrations went ahead as planned, perhaps the luck of the Irish was on our side.

This, our first special night at Khandallah Town Hall, was made even more special with live music from Aileen Logie, and another new dance devised for the occasion. This time Rod was inspired to write a strathspey, The Parting Glass, again devised to suit beginners, and danced to Aileen’s lovely set of tunes including The Parting Glass itself.

Just over five sets of dancers once more enjoyed The Coleraine Rant, along with other favourites The Wild Geese, A Trip to Ireland and of course, The Irish Rover to finish the night. A couple of new dances gave variety – Paddy in the Car and The Orchards of Co. Armagh.

Once again there was a wonderful green-themed supper. Elizabeth’s green eggs, popcorn, chuppa chups and feijoas (the healthy choice), were served alongside freshly-baked green cookies with white chocolate from Liz Hands. Just the thing to give tired minds a boost.

2022 – The covid effect

We were very pleased that 2022 St Patrick’s Day celebrations could actually go ahead, with a fun programme from Rod and lively Irish tunes from Aileen. We had a great time as always, and everyone excelled themselves with every shade of green represented, and accessories adding both glam and fun to the occasion.

But covid really was impacting a lot of people’s lives. Beginner numbers and dancing numbers were down, and only 24 people attended St Patrick’s Day celebrations, including four Johnsonville beginners, and four very welcome visitors.

Lower numbers didn’t dampen our spirits. The music, the dances and the company were good, and there was plenty of green tea, homemade apple cake and green sherbet sweeties for all.

Lots of old favourite Irish themed dances like The Wild Geese were back, and a new addition – Dougal of Shandon.

2023 – A sign of rejuvenation

You’ve only to look at the 2023 photo of dancers ‘wearing the green’ below, and compare it with the 2022 photo above to see the difference. The 2023 turnout of 46 dancers is almost twice the attendance at last year’s St Patrick’s Day Celebration.

We’re still not back to the level of attendance of that original 2019 St Patrick’s Day celebration, but it’s enormously satisfying to have a full hall of dancers once again.

It is also another encouraging sign of a return to pre-covid participation levels – together with increased numbers at beginners’ classes (31 this year, vs 14 last year), and new members (10 so far this year vs 5 last year).

As has become traditional, we danced the two dances Rod devised for previous St Patrick’s Day celebrations – The Coleraine Rant and The Parting Glass, and welcomed club musician Aileen Logie.

This year St Patrick’s Jig and St Patrick’s Strathspey replaced the usual St Patrick’s Day; The Wild Geese and A Trip to Ireland returned; and we finished as always with The Irish Rover – not a dance for the faint-hearted.

Elizabeth Ngan’s green supper offered figs, apple sherbet fizz, Lindt chocolate in green wrappers, green crackers with cheese, grapes, and St Paddy’s Irish sandwiches with corned beef and lots of green lettuce. Janet T added to the sweet treats with green gummies.

Club bard, Aline Homes, made her first St Patrick’s Day appearance. She told us her version of the battle between folklore giants the Irish Finn McCool (Fionn mac Cumhaill) and Scottish Benandonner, and how The Giant’s Causeway came to be. Aline only had time for the first half of the story, we can look forward to the rest at our next St Patrick’s Day celebration.

Kristin Downey
23 March 2023

Photos: Loralee Hyde except where noted