English

Buck-Pavlick Helen

doi:10.5897/jmd2020.0082

Abstract

This paper is an ethnographic examination and exploration of the power politics of the Ar Rinci Foirne and the subsequent changes in perceived nationalism, stylizations, and memory of Irish dance as it refers to both the practiced repertoire and textual archive of ceili dancing within Ireland and the Diaspora. The researcher examined each iteration of the Ar Rinci Fiorne antecedent and relevant texts the socio-political climate following the Irish Civil War, and the aims of the Gaelic League to determine how the textual archiving through the 2014 edition of “Ar Rinci Foirne'' affected embodied memory of Irish Ceili dancing. Theories of transculturation, ethnography, post-structuralist criticism, archiving with thematic and chronological examination of texts were utilized with a qualitative methodology. Through the intentional inclusion and exclusion of dances, the Ar Rinci Foirne functions as codification and propaganda of Irishness through dance, while systematically altering and erasing embodied memory of ceili dances within Ireland and the Diaspora.   Key words: Irish dance, ceili, ethnography, embodied memory, folk dance.

Highlights

An Coimisiun played a significant role in the preservation of Irish dance repertoire while simultaneously erasing embodied memory through systematic codification and text based archiving
This paper will examine and explore the matrix of power and politics asserted by An Coimisiun through the publication of Ar Rinci Foirne, and the subsequent changes in perceived nationalism, stylizations, and embodied memory of Irish dance as it refers to both the practiced repertoire and textual archive of ceili dancing
The Ar Rinci Foirne is a series of three pamphlets compiled by An Coimisiun in 1939, 1946, and 1969, and contains thirty ceili dances that have been collected from repertoire of oral and physical tradition from all around the country – but mainly from the county Kerry and the south of county Armagh as sourced from earlier documentation (Cullinane 1998)

Summary

Introduction

An Coimisiun played a significant role in the preservation of Irish dance repertoire while simultaneously erasing embodied memory through systematic codification and text based archiving. This paper will examine and explore the matrix of power and politics asserted by An Coimisiun through the publication of Ar Rinci Foirne, and the subsequent changes in perceived nationalism, stylizations, and embodied memory of Irish dance as it refers to both the practiced repertoire and textual archive of ceili dancing. How did the architecture of textual archiving affect the memory of embodied practice? What role do these three publications and continual updates play in the ongoing assertion of power, politics, and the shaping of public perception of Irishness?

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Conclusion