By Bruce Chadwick
originally published: 10/30/2023
Over the last fifteen years or so, Irish music and dancing has become extremely popular in America - beyond the traditional Irish songs our grandparents sang at get togethers. Groups like Celtic Thunder, one of the most popular groups, have found a happy home here.
Celtic Thunder will perform at the Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) in Morristown on November 10, 2023 at 8:00pm and the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank on November 13, 2023 at 7:30pm.
What is the magic about Irish music and dance?
“People forget all the really solid ties between America and the Irish over the years. Million of Irish immigrated here and found productive and rich lives here in that time period. They brought their music with them and it caught on with most Americans. I think that is the root of our popularity but there’s another important reason, too,” said Damian McGinty, one of Celtic Thunder’s performers., who joined the group in 2007 at the tender age of 14.
History.
“You listen to Irish music and listen carefully and you hear marvelous stories sung for you. The singers all tell stories. You go to a concert and its’s like an Irish history class somewhere,” he added.
He shakes his head. “Oh, the history of Ireland. What a collection of fantastic stories.”
His group, Celtic Thunder, sings all the old stories in its production.
“Here in New Jersey and North Jersey area, particularly, there are, what, hundreds of thousands of Irish descendants and they all love the stories,” said McGinty. “Some of these stories go back a hundred years and have layers of chapters to them.”
Celtic Thunder regularly tours the U.S. and McGinty has been with them since 2007.
“The best thing about touring is that you not only get to see a lot of cities, like we do on each tour, but meet a lot of people, all with ties to old Ireland. They just revel in the old music. They remember most of our whole songs, or bits and pieces. It brings back the old days, childhoods listening to stories about Irish immigrants and all the good, and bad, things that happened to them. What we do with our music and dancing is to remind the Irish here now how good their history in Ireland was and how successful they have made their lives in America,’ said McGinty.
He loves his work.
“I never thought back at age 14 that I’d have such a long career with this one group, but I have enjoyed the work immensely,” said McGinty.
“You meet so many people who have stories of their own to tell about their families and their life here in America.”
Celtic Thunder also tours Australia. There are differences in the tours.
“I don’t think most Americans realize how huge Australia is. Here in America, we go from place to place in buses, but in Australia travel is mostly by plane because the cities are so far apart,” he explained. He goes on to point out, that “back in the 1700s and 1800s England sent many of its convicts to Australia – a lot of them Irish – and their descendants today form a huge audience for Irish dance and music,” said the singer/dancer.
He adds that even though the U.S. is large, Australia is, well, LARGE.
“You have hours of flight times in Australia. Their cities are far apart. It takes a lot of time to get to them, but we do get there,” he said. “The continent is jammed with the Irish. They are just all over the place,” said McGinty.
“There are a lot of groups who are succeeding at music from Ireland because, my goodness, there are so many Irish in the world, and thank God for them all!” said McGinty.
Bruce Chadwick worked for 23 years as an entertainment writer/critic for the New York Daily News. Later, he served as the arts and entertainment critic for the History News Network, a national online weekly magazine. Chadwick holds a Ph. D in History and Cultural Studies from Rutgers University. He has written 31 books on U.S. history and has lectured on history and culture around the world. He is a history professor at New Jersey City University.
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