Women put feet forward for Great British Championships

Women put feet forward for Great British Championships

10 October 2018

EIGHT local women will prove that it’s never too late to enjoy Irish dancing when they compete for the first time this weekend.

The women, mostly mums with busy lives and lapsed or novice dancers, will be taking part as a ceili team in the Great British Championship in Brighton on Saturday.

They are members of the Scoil Rince an Chroí  — meaning ‘To dance from the heart’ — Irish Dancing School which holds classes in Loughinisland, Saul and Carryduff.

The team showed off their aptly named St Patrick’s Day ceili dance at a recital held on Monday evening at Loughinisland GAC.

Teacher Chris Owens commended the women for joining the dance classes in May.

He said: “Some of the women have never danced before. Some have danced competitively before and wanted to come back for the fun. It’s a great achievement for them now to compete at a major event.

“But they have all enjoyed the dancing so much that we enticed them to take part in the competition. 

“These ladies are mums, wives, sisters and they will be dancing in the adult ceili competition against teams from all other the UK.”

The team includes sisters Mairead McGreevy and Angela McGreevy from Teconnaught, Patricia Farnan from Carryduff, Aimee O’Hare from Downpatrick, Maria Rogan and Danielle McGreevy from Anacloy, Lisa Casey from Loughinisland;, Riona Keating from Saul. Also in the party is Niamh Gorman, who will be dancing in place of Maria, who is unfortunately injured.

Chris and teacher Bríd McKinney teaches all dance school’s classes in Loughinisland, Saul and Carryduff.

The school has even established a club in Gainesville, Florida under the instruction of teacher Bridget Madden.

Scoil Rince an Chroí holds dance classes in Loughinisland GAC every Monday night at 8pm, at Saul GAC every Wednesday at 8.30pm and at the Lough Moss Centre in Carryduff, also on Wednesdays at 7.45pm.