Now I know why my name gets such quizzical responses here. Doug means "cow udder" in Irish. I'm told that Mary Doorty can't say my name without laughing.

A year ago I entered Vaughan's Barn for the set dance feeling like I'd stumbled upon an exotic unfathomable representation of an ancient cultural tradition. This weekend I feel well within the mainstream of the experience, and I have to work up much sense of the exotic. Oh yes, I tell myself, I'm in Ireland and this is a deep representation of an old cultural experience, but an another level I'm headed across town to the community dance, across town in this case requiring a trip across the Atlantic.

Mick Mulkerrin has been the instructor for these workshops, and he had some things to say at the close of this morning's set. "If you live somewhere that dances at most 2 or 3 sets, by God you get to know every note, you get to know where to put the emphasis and where to draw back. THe set dance revival, it's been great, but we've lost some of that. West Kerry music suits West Kerry sets. The Clare music has a swing in it that the Connemara doesn't. Be aware of this as you dance."

March 2000